Seawolves Fans

The Ohio Bobcats bowed out of the MAC tournament in the quarters and finished slightly below .500 on the year. The "Fire Jeff Boals" thread is getting a lot of traction on the Ohio fan forum as a result. Many of the comments would feel right at home here in the SBU forum.

https://www.bobcatattack.com/messageboard/topic.asp?FromPage=1&PID=399293&ForumPID=1&page=1

I would move on from Geno tomorrow if I could....

As I'm sure we all know, it's a lot easier to not do something than to do something. The university has a long history of kicking the same can down the road.

Pat on the back for making it close, but another letdown. Tough to win when you give up 96. Yikes. I didn't watch the game, but the box score tells the story.

Difficult not to think of this season as yet another big disappointment the way it ended. Were we really recently thinking the team had the inside track for a 4 seed with even a 3 or 2 possible? Just a few days later and they’ve looked every bit a lower half conference team these final four games.

But maybe you take a step back, put things in a broader context, and as Checkmate said recently perhaps we’re left with a “Eh, I guess it was an okay season for Stony Brook.”

Without a doubt, the CAA appeared to be a stronger conference this season, so to go from 4 (in a weaker year) to 9 (in a stronger year) conference wins is an upgrade.

Thoughts on players:

Pratt: Did not imagine SBU had the capability of landing a player like Pratt in the current landscape. He had a legit shot at 30 every time he stepped on the floor. Too bad things ended the way they did, and I hope the road is a good one for him from here. It was a fun one season to watch.

Shosh: As much fun to watch, perhaps even more so, than Pratt. Of course, he had some struggles, but you really saw him develop with confidence as the season progressed. Just flat out carried and won some games for SBU as a first-year. Consensus here is that he’ll go on to bigger money and arenas, and yeah I can’t imagine that not happening. Curious to see where he might land and what he might do. How much extra did he earn from his performance in this game alone?

Brown: A steady backcourt presence all year. A bit up and down with his scoring, but anchored the defense and handled the ball well. Overall a solid get and good guy to have in the guard rotation.

Goods: Well, thank goodness for Goods because without him, for the bulk of the season, things would have been pretty ugly along the front line. Very up and down with his performances, and seemed to fall out of favor and effort near the end for I’m sure some reason we’ll never know. Again, consensus seems to be he’s gone, and I hope things work out better for him elsewhere.

Simmon: Intriguing, and clearly developed into a player with potential. Feels like he could be a solid CAA guard contributor. I like his size for a guard in the CAA. Hope we see him back.

Gorman/Valentiny/Butler: Fair or not, lumping these guys together as kind of the same player along the front line. Hope at least one comes back, ideally two. I’d say in all 3 cases they need to get bigger to have an impact in the CAA. All play hard, but always felt like they were giving up an inch and maybe 20 pounds to the competition.

And, of course, O’Connor. Assuming Shosh gone, I would think it will be his team to lead next season.

More broadly:

Ford and coaches will have some big work to do to somehow climb into the top half of the CAA next season and beyond. A lot of points and experience will be gone.

It seems to me Ford is pretty good at landing quality guards, which is maybe characteristic of mid-majors as a whole, but for SBU to be better in the CAA I’d say they need a bigger front line. As Chairman said, get more Goods type players.

Easier said than done, I’m sure. A player 6’7” and above with size and talent is probably beyond what SBU can realistically target, maybe beyond the CAA as a whole, let alone getting a front line of them.

And then, of course and probably most important these days, is the money. Although I don’t know any numbers, I’m sure comparatively speaking SBU ain’t got much. Unless that changes, they probably stay about where they were this season.

That opening CAA loss to Hampton continues to fester and may have made a significant difference at the end had it gone the other way...

So much at stake in the conference these last couple of weeks, and it feels like any one of those top teams will be a solid conference rep in the NCAA tournament.

Far be it from me to know how this might work, but it sure seems to me that some type of true mid-major post-season tournament would be both valuable and exciting for the teams that don't make the big one. I know, there is the NIT and those pay-for others, but they just all get so little coverage and feel so minor and still unfair (NIT) for true mid-majors.

The CAA being a perfect illustration this season, one team will play really well or get hot and make the NCAA. Maybe there will be an auto-bid to the NIT if things shake out, but then there will likely be a solid 5 or more quality teams that will have nothing after the conference tournament.

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A win is a win is a win, but I think we only played well in the 2nd part of 1st half and 1st part of 2nd half.  Lots of sloppiness, IMO. 
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Yes, my thought sitting there early on was another poor start for the team. Disappointing. Could have easily been down something like 20-5 mirroring the previous game, just that this time NE simply was not that good.

Credit to Ford for a very honest and spot-on presser after the game. He acknowledged all those points Oakes mentioned and I'm sure everyone thought who saw the game.

Wow, McClain for Monmouth. First game back? What a difference maker, esp in the first half. Felt like that guy was EVERYwhere on defense, tipping/knocking down passes, and then just driving the offense like a rocket.

Such a surprise SBU clawed back and had a chance to tie or win at the end. Sort of a, "What, we're only down 5 with a few minutes left? How did that happen?" Exciting energy in the arena that last minute or so, but what a brutal series of misfortunes for SBU to end the game. If you believe in the Basketball Gods you have to think they stepped in and said, "Nah, SBU, you don't get to win this one."

I've been out of the loop for about a month, but I seem to recall O'Connor was sort of limping around last time I saw him but now wheeling around with an enormous foot. Assume he's officially done for the year, yes? Sort of begs the question if he wasn't, Would you want him to come back this season, take minutes, and readjust what had been going relatively well?

My gosh, those standings this morning. Two at the top, two at the bottom, and everyone else bunched together about .500. Great opportunity to lean back towards the top if SBU can do well on Saturday.