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AAC News- Previews

the Blades

the Blades

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Jan 20, 2003
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CBS Sports- 2019-20 AAC predictions, preview:
Connecticut
"The loss of Jalen Adams in the back and Tarin Smith on the wing will hurt, but Christian Vital and Alterique Gilbert are back and make a dynamic backcourt to lead Dan Hurley's second season as coach before the Huskies make a beeline for the Big East. After finishing at .500 overall (6-12 in the league) last season, UConn is hoping to go out with a bit more of a bang than a bust. A strong incoming recruiting class that includes a trio of four-star newcomers should help, but without Adams and his heroics, it'll be hard for the Huskies to make any sort of considerable move above the middle of the pack."
 
Picking UConn 5th is fair and reasonable given how UConn performed last year and considering what they have coming back and coming in. I think UConn could be better than 5th and is unlikely to be worse than that.

The year Calhoun and UConn won its first Big East championship, 1989-90, UConn was picked last by Big East coaches and by media. That prediction was looking good when they went down to St. John’s and lost by 32 in their first Big East game. That would prove to be an aberration. That team did not have great size but was absolutely hellacious on defense. Best pressing team UConn has ever had. I am really thinking that this year’s team is built to play a lot like the 1989-90 team.
 
KhalidShockedTheWorld said:
Picking UConn 5th is fair and reasonable given how UConn performed last year and considering what they have coming back
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FWIW, here's a rough draft at what AAC teams have coming back for scoring , the Huskies are 2nd with over 70% back............... now if they can do something about those FT #'s: :D

return-scoring-AAC-2019-20.jpg
 
USF has over 92% of its scoring back......they have that freshmen Yetna coming back who is a stud big........they could be a sleeper team in the AAC. On the other hand, conference favorite Memphis has the lowest % of returning scorer and is relying heavily on newcomers, which is not always a recipe for success, even when they are highly touted.
 
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KhalidShockedTheWorld said:
USF has over 92% of its scoring back......they have that freshmen Yetna coming back who is a stud big........they could be a sleeper team in the AAC. On the other hand, conference favorite Memphis has the lowest % of returning scorer and is relying heavily on newcomers, which is not always a recipe for success, even when they are highly touted.
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True..... I think USF with 24 wins on the season and almost everyone back, could be a surprise team. It's to bad like alot of these " mickey mouse" fan bases in the AAC, they get no home fan support ( 3,365) even with a 20 win plus season.

That's the one thing that I'm sure Uconn won't miss about alot of these AAC schools like UCF( 4,884) for an NCAA team, ECU, Tulsa none of em' that ave. 5,000 pg .... And who will ever forget those trips to Tulane and their HS gym who pulled in 1,457. Memphis on the other hand ( who Uconn is supposed to keep playing in hoops) has one of the 2 or 3 AAC fan bases that shows up for a winner. They went from 6,225 in 2017-18 to over 14K with Penny in charge....When Hurley was asked in a recent podcast about the hostile crowds Uconn will face on the road this season because they're leaving....DH kind of cracked at it with something like " maybe a little bit at the places who actually have fans that show up... (OUCH !) but then also said he relishes the bad guy role...
 
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I guess after he went into the NBA Draft, Kansas gave his scholarship to someone else. He had a solid freshman season for Kansas. He will be a good player for Houston.
 
Here's another team the NCAA is stringing along......I guess Uconn's Westbrook isn't the only one.....

"Tim Jankovich is trying to do whatever he can — which is tangibly very little — to have the NCAA approve waivers for TCU transfer Kendric Davis and Cal transfer Darius McNeill. The expectation is the team will receive word before the season opener on Nov. 5......Just in the last week alone, a couple of AAC schools have had waivers approved, including Houston on Tuesday. According to a count conducted by Stadium, the NCAA has approved 36 waivers, denied four and is still waiting to rule on 74 players’ eligibility.........All that being said, SMU is very confident the waivers will come back with a yes."

The wait on transfer waivers for two potentially key SMU BB players
 
To me the Evie Westbrook waiver request should be open and shut. She was recruited by and had promises made to her by a coach that the school fired. It's an implied contract for Evie to play basketball for Tennessee in exchange for the coach who made those promises to continue to be employed by the school. Tennessee chose to relieve the coach of her duties which was a breach of the implied contract with Evie so Evie chose to move on to another school. I can't see this any other way as Evie had no say in the decision to relieve the coach. It's no different than Frontier inducing me to buy a cable TV package based on the inclusion of SNY (and UConn basketball) in that package, and then later dropping SNY actually without any notice to me until one day I noticed I did not have it any more. Breach of contract. Bye Bye Frontier cable.

As I recall James Akingo was let out of his commitment to UConn after UConn fired Kevin Ollie based on the exact same reasoning.
 
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KhalidShockedTheWorld said:
As I recall James Akingo was let out of his commitment to UConn after UConn fired Kevin Ollie based on the exact same reasoning.
Click to expand...
Totally different. Akinjo never made it to UConn and didn't register for classes. UConn just had to let him out of his LOI, which they did. The NCAA didn't have to get involved. Once a student athlete registers for classes at a school, then a transfer needs the NCAA's blessing.
 
Texas did not fire their coach, they still have the same coach as last year. Not applicable to Evie. Evie has a better case
 
KhalidShockedTheWorld said:
Texas did not fire their coach, they still have the same coach as last year. Not applicable to Evie. Evie has a better case
Click to expand...
Yeah who knows with the NCAA, that big Sheppard girl from Nebraska just decided to leave for no reason... but it seems like the NCAA caters to certain schools like Notre Dame in that case.
 
Blades actually Nebraska had also fired their coach when Sheppard transferred. The year Nebraska girls played UConn in Hartford (2015 I think), Sheppard was on the team and so was a niece-in-law of one of my colleagues. After that season Nebraska fired their coach and I recall hearing about some other problems in their program at that time. I think the Sheppard transfer came after that. The coach who recruited her was fired. It was a woman and I do not recall her name. There were some other issues (apart from the fact that they had a disappointing season) within the program.
 
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Here is the article, coach's name was Yori and the article says she resigned (I think she was asked to do so) and there were allegations that she mistreated her players. She was the one who brought in Sheppard. There is actually more to the story than what is in this article but I would rather not say on a public board:

https://journalstar.com/sports/husk...cle_3266e814-fb41-11e5-a21f-affa8006eb5c.html

Shepard actually did play one season at Nebraska under the coach they brought in after that.....tried to fit in I guess with a new system but it did not work out. Anyway her situation would tend to strengthen the Evie request as Evie did not try to soldier on under the new coach, instead transferring immediately after recognizing the breach of the implied contract.
 
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What you posted proves my point regarding the NCAA, Sheppard never left after the coaching change and played after it for Nebraska, but still got an immediate waiver to Notre Dame a year later . Even though she decided to stick with Nebraska ( basically got recruited again and played an entire season, "soldier on") with the new coach:
" Three weeks later, Yori resigned amid a lengthy investigation into her treatment of players and staff members. Romeo transferred out, citing the “immaturity” of her teammates. Two recruits backed out after signing. Shepard chose to stay after Nebraska hired Williams, a former NU player who was coaching at South Dakota. "
Sid Wilson on the other hand never played a minute for St. John's spent a minute on their campus but they made him sit a year....it's all the apples and oranges of the NCAA and to call them fair and consistent is a mockery. Sheppard's case seems very different than Westbrook because like you say, Evie left TN right after the coaching change. ... so according to you she has a better case than Sheppard so it's seems like an NCAA waiver is a no brainer for Evie.... but let us see.
 
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KhalidShockedTheWorld said:
USF has over 92% of its scoring back......they have that freshmen Yetna coming back who is a stud big........they could be a sleeper team in the AAC. .
Click to expand...
Huge loss for USF- ave. almost a double-double.....though looking at their roster they do have alot of frontcourt depth.
 
Losing him could enable UConn to leapfrog USF. Yetna was a beast - their main man inside player. It’s hard to lose/replace main man players.
 
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the Blades said:
Here's another team the NCAA is stringing along......I guess Uconn's Westbrook isn't the only one.....

"Tim Jankovich is trying to do whatever he can — which is tangibly very little — to have the NCAA approve waivers for and Cal transfer Darius McNeill. The expectation is the team will receive word before the season opener on Nov. 5......Just in the last week alone, a couple of AAC schools have had waivers approved, including Houston on Tuesday. According to a count conducted by Stadium, the NCAA has approved 36 waivers, denied four and is still waiting to rule on 74 players’ eligibility.........All that being said, SMU is very confident the waivers will come back with a yes."

The wait on transfer waivers for two potentially key SMU BB players
Click to expand...
Talk about frustration, SMU has the 2 guards above, one that transferred in the spring, and the NCAA has still not ruled on either of them with opening day today in the AAC.......( I guess SMU, like Uconn, won't get any favors from the NCAA after their past issues)
.
FWIW.......Tulsa had the AAC's first W this afternoon ...with 6 other teams playing tonight
 
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So the 1st and 2nd picks in the AAC both have losses already. Memphis no shock by 8pts at #14 Oregon, but last night Houston (11.5 pt favorite) loses at home:

 
Bowling Green is being picked to win the MAC by some prognosticators. They lost a tough MAC championship game to Buffalo last year.
 
CINCY looses game as Cumberland has his Roscoe Smith moment. First he doesn't even realize there is 8.8 secs left when the ball is passed in to him, then he throws up the more than half court shot with 5 secs(not 4). Worse thing is Colgate rebounds his wild miss and gets fouled. They don't make the game winning FT's ( said below) ...The Colgate player makes the 1st FT, misses the 2nd FT on purpose and Colgate gets the rebound to run out the clock for 67-66 win.
 
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That's unbelievable. Something was not right in his body language because the halfcourt shot initially did not at all look rushed, instead, he took a few unrushed dribbles, sped up and suddenly unleashed. I have to wonder if (1) someone in the crowd or the Colgate bench yelled at him to shoot, or (2) was he possibly concussed earlier in the game? Myles Powell was concussed in the Seton Hall-Rutgers game yesterday and asked Kevin Willard why they were practicing at Rutgers. Something was really off with Cumberland if you watch that replay. What an awful way to lose a game. The Cincy fans have to be sick about that one.
 
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Totally had no clue regarding time, if he did 8.8 secs is an eternity. His coach looks disgusted with him ( even the color commentator , when he yells " what was he doing") .and coach said after in the presser he didn't know the score 3 different times. The worse thing is if you look in the corner of the screen Cincy still had a time out and if the coach knew he was going to have a brain fart, he would have used it to set up a good shot. Coach also said he assumed he knew ( "I know I've never experienced anything like that before." ) and figured he would get a better shot without the TO if he rushed it up with the Colgate D scrambling. Cincy now is now 6-4 and Cumberland has been one of their worse players: Cincinnati guard Jarron Cumberland has struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness



 
It still does not make sense to me why he takes two relaxed looking dribbles.........like there is plenty of time, then he suddenly speeds up and unleashes the half court shot. His first few dribbles should have been more urgent, so as to get the ball down court, but all of a sudden he speeds up and suddenly unleashes the wild halfcourt shot. The whole play does not compute. He probably did not know the score or the time left.
 
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