Seawolves Fans

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.

Quote from: sbu1991 on March 03, 2026, 09:28:10 pm

Agree 100% on Soshkikj. it’s hard to see him staying tho, and I could picture him getting poached by one of the bigger schools in our conference or maybe going back to Europe.

As always, a good effort but the team has no inside scoring presence and not very many guards can get to the basket. Hoping for a first round win to salvage the season and everything after that is a bonus.

I strongly suspect Goods and Shosh are one-and-done here. I heard big money for the former, big big money for the latter. It's hard to stand in the way of them, and it's unfortunate that we aren't likely able to keep up with the joneses. BUT ... Geno and Co. did find some great talent themselves, namely those two, Pratt and Brown. Just gotta keep on doing it.

I was going to write something about UNCW, but let's please just find a way to get by Campbell. Their backcourt is awesome, and the Butka's been terrific too. We handled them on the glass without him last time. He averaged 9 a game in conference, second behind only Wessler.