Tracking the PL Freshmen

Almost every single HC team for the past 9 years would struggle against that team, even Milan's powerhouse 20 wins team.

At the end of the day, there is whole hell of a lot of nitpicking on a team that is relying primarily on freshmen play. Could our sophomore class be stronger, sure, but that is not why we are losing, nor is it Carmody's coaching. We need senior leaders and we do not have them. That is what the current state of afairs boils down to.

You all can keep being petty. Your choice.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Cheers.

Tough draw.
www.thefreelibrary.com/Salukis+sap+HC%27s+strengths.-a0160705183
Byline: Jennifer Toland

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Holy Cross' season ended here early yesterday morning - just after midnight - and for HC's players, coaches and fans, the 61-51 loss to Southern Illinois was a disappointing finish to a very fine year.

Playing some of its best basketball over the final weeks of the season, Holy Cross came to Nationwide Arena with strong and legitimate hopes of pulling off a first-round NCAA tournament upset against the Salukis.

SIU's relentless man-to-man defense prevented HC from finding any kind of offensive rhythm. Fouls and missed free throws (nine of them) also hurt the Crusaders as they suffered the program's ninth straight NCAA loss.

"We were really excited to be here, but this is very disappointing for us," senior Keith Simmons said. "We didn't want to just show up and have fun, we wanted to win this game, and this loss does hurt."

The game marked the end of the season and also the end of an era, as Simmons and Torey Thomas played their final games. Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard has called Simmons and Thomas two of the finest young men he's ever coached.

"I think the biggest thing is not only have they been great players in the program, but they've also been great leaders on campus, very selfless people," Willard said. "You couldn't ask for better role models, representatives of our school. I'm very proud of them."

The Salukis succeeded in shutting down Simmons (0 for 5 from the field, 4 points), while Thomas - trying to take the Crusaders on his back - scored a team-high 15 points, but was just 3 of 16 from the floor and turned the ball over seven times.



Simmons, who came in averaging 17.3 points, was held to his least number of attempts in a game this season. He hadn't been held without a field goal since going 0 for 1 in 12 minutes against Marist in the 12th game of his freshman year. Simmons had scored in double figures in 44 straight games.

"We just went out there and tried to pressure the ball the best we could," said SIU guard Tony Young, who did a good job on Simmons until getting in foul trouble. "We knew they had the strength and what they try to do, but that's always part of the game plan - try to take people out of the game."

Simmons, who battled cramping issues last season, had no problems in that regard until Friday night. He had to go to the bench twice in the second half.

Nonsense.

Would “senior leadership” help? Sure.

Would seniors make us into a good defensive and rebounding team in the current system? No.

If the 4 juniors are not bringing enough in the leadership department now (your implication, but I also don’t disagree with it), why should we expect them to magically change next year?

We are struggling now because we have a poorly put together basketball team that has not been coached effectively, and is not put into a position where the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts. Any other excuse is just putting lipstick on the pig.

I'd expect the team this year and next year to be substantially down from last year's team (in terms of wins)...and last year's team was below .500. I think that is realistic.

(The team's Patriot League tournament win three years ago - on the heels of a very poor regular season - doesn't obscure the struggles under Coach Carmody)

The freshmen have played 48% of our minutes and scored 49% of our points

Rising seniors or juniors rarely transfer, even if it looks as if they will play little. Where would they go for free for two or three years at a comparable school ?

Not the worst plan to keep your ear to the ground in case a scholarship becomes available. Just due diligence.





That being said, although it happens on rare occasions, I think it is unlikely that any members of the classes of 2019 or 2020 will transfer out after spending 2-3 years here. Statistically freshmen are more likely to transfer than the older kids - and with six in the class of 2021, there are more opportunities so the chances increase. Obviously transferring to any other college on the planet will result in a downgrade in the overall college experience for anyone silly enough to consider leaving HC. Although losing a member of 2021 is more likely than the older kids, I think it is still unlikely.



It's hard to imagine a 19 or 20 year old kid getting Criswell'ed, but sadly it can happen.Once again even with no scholarships available for next year, the staff should have some awareness of high school seniors, or PG's should the unthinkable happen. When we talk about a "rising senior remaining injured", my thoughts go to Perkins. For what it's worth, during the Sienna pre-game, Dick Lutsk said Perkins was recovering from shoulder surgery. With no inside information and wild speculation, I am assuming Perkins will be in uniform as a senior

that southern illinois team was one of my favorite non-hc teams over the last 20 years. their defense was absolutely suffocating.

despite the fact that the salukis were/are a "no name" program, that was the worst possible matchup we could have faced in the tournament of any 4 seed that year (and arguably, any 3 or 2 seed for that matter) and my heart absolutely sunk when i saw the draw. despite having a 13 seed, that was the least optimistic i had been of all of our ncaa tournament appearances (including kansas when we were a 16 seed) as it was hard (for me at least) to envision how we could beat them.

i'll never forget traveling on the day of the game as nhteamer and i eventually succumbed to a winter storm - actually deboarding a plane in bwi, iirc? - and i attempted to then fly to the game from dc, eventually getting stuck there, as well. i heard that simmons was indeed cramping, but i think much of that can be attributed to the absolute bulldog defense he faced from siu and tony young (one of the top pound-for-pound defenders) and the effort he needed to exert just to touch the ball. when he did, he seemed exhausted. we hadn't faced defense like that and it was impossible (even for a great coach like rw) to prepare.

siu did everything we did under rw, only they did it better and with superior athletes. after a slow start to #1 seed kansas (which eventually doomed them), siu held kansas to the low 60s. much like our rw teams, they were too offensively challenged to get the big bucket they needed on the final possession of the game.

O My !

I got snowed out of JFK
watched in a NYC pub designated for HC alums, most were more interested in the beer than the ball.

Nothing to do with the Saluki's, but through the OOC part of the schedule,  Green, Butler, Grandison, and Niego have all been named HC player of the game. Only Butler's came in a winning effort.

Nice spread to have 4 different freshmen get that honor.  It's a fairly recent promotion so you can't go back and say when we had multiple freshmen win it.  Thompson and Alexander both had games as freshmen that might have been considered worthy of player of the game.   Same can be said for Brown and Evans.  That's about it for the last decade.  Granted they've been forced to grow up faster than normal freshmen and they've been expectedly inconsistent, but this is one random metric saying the group has decent depth