Skinn and Stokes Reunion

I'm sorry but I can't over look this. It's true, Tony Skinn and Loren Stokes are both going to be playing on the Orlando Magic summer league team. Their reunion represents a dark day in college basketball and the CAA when Skinn's below the belt punch to Stokes made national headlines thanks to a North Carolina news channel. Good thing Mason's historic run through the NCAA tournament occurred right after this so most people quickly forgot about that incident. But you can't tell me this isn't going to be awkward, even if Skinn apologized I doubt there isn't still some bad blood. But now they are professionals fighting for a chance to maybe get on an NBA roster for next season. According to the Magic's website they will be broadcasting the summer league games on the internet and will have players blogging about the games and their experiences. Hmmm, this could be interesting.

Read more »

Offers on the table

Another busy summer of hitting the recruiting trails continues for Coach L and his assistants. They have been heavily perusing four players from the DC Assault U16 AAU team which has garnered a lot of attention at local and nationwide tournaments. Larranaga is doing what he does best and trying to get after these kids before they start to get more attention from big conference schools. Mason has offered to 2009 prospects Javorn Farrell (Ireton), Rashad Whack (McNamara), and Rodney McGruder (Carroll), as well as 2010 PG Daryl Traynham. McGruder is a my kind of prospect as he is described as the kind of player that is very athletic and known to " punish rims and get up and down the floor". Meanwhile Traynham is a 5'9" floor general and has been talked about as the "best transition guard this area has had in awhile”. It has been very rare to see a rising junior sign with the Patriots this early on but I feel like these days it's a possibility that is starting to look realistic.

Read more »

Lamar takes it to the streets

Lamar Butler, probably the most recognizable Mason basketball alumni, is spending his summer days playing in the Goodman League which is known as "Washington's Premier Streetball League". The games are played at the Barry Farms Dwelling basketball courts located at Firth Sterling Avenue in Southeast Washington, D.C. The league, which has been around since 1975, features current and former NBA players, college players, and participants from various communities. Gilbert Arenas played last summer and you can find a video of it here. To me it seems streetball leagues like this would be more of Tony Skinn's style instead Lamar's, considering I have never seen anyone on the And 1 mixtape tour shot a three-pointer.

Read more »

Just watch them play!

The days of evaluating college players by actually watching them play might be numbered. Everywhere you look these days some "analyst" is making a case for some formula or equation they created that can more accurately evaluate talent. It's getting closer to the day when scouts won't even have to step away from their computers to evaluate talent. Soon NBA teams will hire guys like the ones from that show "Numb3rs" on CBS to tell them which players to draft. I think there is a reason guys like John Hollinger works for ESPN.com and not the front office of an NBA franchise; he has no idea what he's talking about. Take a look at his new system for evaluating college talent here. This article is free on ESPN insider this week, my god people pay to see this stuff? He goes on to explain the method to his madness and from reading it I can suffice it to say that I still have no idea how he is calculating this. One thing I noticed is that strength of schedule it not factored in. So basically he's basing some of his evaluation on situations like when Greg Oden grabbed 16 boards against Cleveland State or when Glen Davis scored 26 against Louisiana-Monroe.

It's a long math equation most likely that could probably only be understood by him and maybe Matt Damon's character in "Good Will Hunting". Not a bad idea if you trying to make some waves at ESPN. Make a long, difficult math equation to explain your rankings, its genius, not like anyone would actually go and check your work. No sports fan likes math, so why not use it as backup to justify why you think Mike Conley Jr. is the third best player in this year's draft.

Hollinger isn't the only stat guru out there with too much time on his hands. The Win Score model is something I came across on draftexpress.com and I like how it adjusts to the level of competition but I don't see how that can be explained with numbers. The guys over at kenpom.com are even more nuts. At least their website actually has useful information and analysts but trying to understand how they calculate tempo, pace, and efficiency is mind boggling. And they factor in "luck" to their equations, yeah and thats not a typo. Here is Mason's statistic page, you could literally spend hours trying to figure out what some of this means. One stat I do like is the free throw rate. I said all season long that the Patriots needed to get to the line more and heres proof, their free throw rate was ranked #328 in nation, pretty close to dead last.

I know most of these crazy calculations have their purpose but I think some of these guys are taking it to the extreme. Watch the boys play, that is the best way to evaluate talent. Greg Oden can shoot free throws with either hand, wheres the stat that tells you about that? There are just too many other factors besides numbers that tells me what makes a quality basketball player.

Read more »

Let the smack talk begin

Is it ever really too early to start making preseason rankings for college basketball? Collegehoopsnet.com never seems to think so and although I constantly write how much preseason rankings are total bullshit I can't help but join in on the hype. I mean what else are preseason rankings good for in college basketball other than to be the source of smack talk? And maybe this website looks like a jumbled myspace page but they have some great analysis and reviews. The website's creator Shawn Siegel (who claims to be the hardest working man on the internet) has put out an updated Top 50 preseason ranking list and he has Mason listed at #44. I can't say that I disagree with this ranking and I'm not afraid to say it could even be higher considering we return almost our entire starting lineup. Also, every summer this site ranks the Top 144 teams in the nation and they do an analysis on each of the teams. Last summer they had Mason at #80 which turned out to be quite generous and they definitely pointed out some flaws that came true for us last season.

Read more »

Thick Skinn

Last season I would have to say the player I missed watching the most was Tony Skinn. Seemed like no one could slash and drive to basket, get to the foul line and make plays. It was an element the Patriots were missing last year that led to some of their struggles. But at least Skinn's skills are continuing to be showcased as the once France baller has now been given a shot on the Orlando Magic summer league team. Starting next month Skinn will get his chance to showcase his skills in front of NBA GMs and play his way into a full contract with a team. Although the league is mostly of NBA rookies and bench players, Skinn will still be going up against some good talent. I'm sure he'd love to show up Joakim Noah or Corey Brewer, but he might have to settle for Lee Humphrey. Former CAA POY Jose Juan Barea used a solid summer league showing to earn a spot on the Dallas Mavericks bench and was also on their playoff roster. Tony doesn't quite have Barea's superb passing skills but he can flat out score and knock down outside shots. We already know from the UConn game that he can talk trash pretty well but his flashy game can also speak for himself; that's already half of what being an NBA player is all about. But truth be told things never came easy for Tony and this article from i95ballerz.com gives some interesting insight about his past.

I am hoping they broadcast some of the games on NBA TV, which I think my overpriced Cox cable plan carries. If not I will have to rely on YouTubes of Tony such as this one that can found on the website for his camp. Keep the highlights coming Tony.

Read more »

Recruit the Babies

USC head coach Tim Floyd recently received a verbal commitment from an eighth-grader, and you might think that is weird but its actually the second straight year he has done this. With all the strange recruiting rules the NCAA has its amazing to me how they don't seem to care about college coaches hanging around middle school gyms scouting 13 and 14 year old boys. There's limitations on text messaging and phone calls but not an age limit to when you can start stalking these kids? Has the PAC-10 really got that competitive that coaches have now resorted to signing kids to scholarships that have never played in a high school game?

Frankly I don't see how watching any phenom prospect dominate eighth grade level competition can give you any insight as to what kind of player he will be like 5 years down the road; especially before he is even out of puberty. I for one would never want to commit to a college at age 14, how do you even know what to look for in a college when your 14? That would tell me that your parents are pulling all the strings and I don't know about you but I would not be happy with that. Especially at the ripe old age of 14 when disobeying your parents is more fun than Xbox. And who wants the pressure before you even enter high school of knowing that a university has already invested that much in you. Every other kid out there would literally be gunning for you game after game; who wouldn't want to show up the kid who got a scholarship offer in eighth grade? Recruiting moves like this will make Floyd either a genius or one of those guys from Dateline's "Catch a Predator". But I guess when your coaching at USC you can take more risks when guys like OJ Mayo recruit themselves to your school.

Read more »