2021-2022 Season

[capezona]

Wake me up when the season starts.

[NilesGold]

Excellent point Niles. It's a fan message board, a place for sharing opinions and discussion. It's great when folks disagree, it gets conversation going. The problem is that your response didn't just disagree, it provided no additional discussion. Nothing. You just criticized him for not letting it go. You're not being criticized for having a differing opinion. I'm sure many others on here share your opinion. You're being criticized for being a bit of a twat.

During the discussion of what appears to be the roster going into next season, the poster said "not enough depth at the 5". To which you responded "I can see people aren't letting this go". You didn't state disagreement, and you didn't state why you disagree. The original poster never mentioned you or any conversation you previously had with him. You could have said something like "I'm glad we didn't get a big. You can never have too many scorers, and this team is going to play fast and shoot the lights out". But you didn't, you just belched that garbage out. It was a totally valid opinion and you spat all over it without further adding to the discussion. We get it, you wanted a guard/wing, and some other people wanted a big with that last scholarship.

I don't know, I guess I didn't think "not enough depth at the 5" was hard-hitting analysis worthy of a detailed rebuttal. Not sure why it's relevant whether the OP mentioned me or not.

I've seen several people assert that we now don't have enough depth at C, without clearly explaining the rationale for how having more depth at C would help the team. Looking back, you've probably come the closest, although I think your argument was muddled and not entirely logical.

Rebounding was, and still is, a concern of mine, but having Mathews, or even a 4th center wouldn't really put my concerns to rest. Unless you can play multiple big men on the floor without killing your spacing or defense, you're only going to have 1 center (max) on the floor at a time. The rebounding ability of the other 4 guys on the court is really important... I get the sense that rebounding wasn't a huge priority of McCall.

Concerns about injury are valid, but I think at the end of the day most teams are going to be better off playing small than going to whoever their 3rd center is, because it's tough to attract a decent center who's 3rd on the depth chart and might only play 5 minutes a game.

I thought UMass would benefit from adding another guard, which they did with Rich Kelly, but after that I was more concerned about adding the best player possible regardless of position.

[Juice Stand]

Thank you for the detailed response. That is advancing the conversation.

I think rebounding is extremely important in McCall's game plan because he wants to play fast. If you can't rebound on the defensive end, you give up offensive put backs and end up taking the ball out on the baseline too often to run a fast break. The team needs to rebound and swing the ball up the court to play fast the way he wants to.

I don't know if we need a center, but more size and strength for rebounding. That could be center or at the forward spot. Steadman adds this but there are questions marks regarding his ability to stay on the floor, and in my opinion Buttrick is more of an 8 minute role player type of guy. Even though he was limited in his offensive ability, I thought Djery Baptiste was a good model for the type of backup center McCall would like to have. Extremely disruptive on the defensive end, cleaned the glass, and was pretty mobile given his size. That's the kind of guy that can grab a missed shot and feed a guard to push the ball quickly. Maybe Buttrick can be that, I don't know.

[DanaDingle3]

We'll certainly try to speed things up, I think, but if a team is going to try and Daddy Ball us, I suppose we could have DeGray, Buttrick, and Steadman in at at the same time, and still have some offensive spacing. Foul trouble is the big concern, but I guess not as much of a concern for some. We have A LOT of guards/wings, with less options down low. I can see why it would be good to have another big guy on the roster.

I'm curious whether the press is gone, along w TB, and just how fast we'll look to play.

[UMassfan_19]

Home and home scheduled vs penn state starting next season

[UMassfan_19]

We'll certainly try to speed things up, I think, but if a team is going to try and Daddy Ball us, I suppose we could have DeGray, Buttrick, and Steadman in at at the same, and still have some offensive spacing. Foul trouble is the big concern, but I guess not as much of a concern for some. We have A LOT of guards/wings, with less options down low. I can see why it would be good to have another big guy on the roster.

I'm curious whether the press is gone, along w TB, and just how fast we'll look to play.

Could play a lineup of steadman buttrick Dibaji Preston Garcia if you wanted a bigger lineup

[DoctorJ]

We definitely need another big. Buttrick is a backup 4 not a 5.

[DanaDingle3]

He'll want to play more 4, and we'll use him there, but Buttrick played 5 in the Big Ten. I think he'll manage just fine in the A10. Again, the issue is foul trouble. Maybe not an issue for some.

The big thing for me is whether this team will play hard and play together for every possession of every game.

[DoctorJ]

Ok, sure. But we still need another option. If buttrick is hurt or in foul trouble, we have a problem. The Matthews scholarship needs to bring a big. Hopefully one better than Brian. No offense to him. We need a solid backup.

[UMassfan_19]

Ok, sure. But we still need another option. If buttrick is hurt or in foul trouble, we have a problem. The Matthews scholarship needs to bring a big. Hopefully one better than Brian. No offense to him. We need a solid backup.

That scholarship was filled with another wing

[DoctorJ]

Oh, right. Well, we still need another big and I expect one more spot to open before the season. Always does.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

One more spot is likely, but still not 100% as of yet.

[69MG]

One more spot is likely, but still not 100% as of yet.

I'm not going to make any predictions as to whom, but with all these guards and wings somebody will realize that their playing time is going to be scarce and may look for another place to play. I also consider Dibaji and DD as wings because they tend to play more outside than inside. Steadman, Ronnie and Buttrick are the only true interior players we have.

[Upstate10]

One more spot is likely, but still not 100% as of yet.

Cairo or Kolton?

[DoctorJ]

My guess is Kelton can transfer down to the Lowell level and get big minutes.