mountainred
Masters Student
Posts: 514
Age: 57
Loc: Charleston, WV
Reg: 04-11-10
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03-13-23 10:48 AM - Post#354039
In response to scoop85
Yeah, I needed some time to recover from closing the season 3-7. 17 wins really is a lot for this program. I can only count 10 or season past seasons with that many and I'm pretty sure the last time Cornell won 17 and did not win the league was.....1967. Which also means it has only happened 5 times in half a century. That has to be a good season.
Plus, I think the KenPom rating peaked at 102 and will finish in the 140s -- the best final rating except for the title run.
My rough estimate is that 75% of the minutes return, so next year should be good. Donlan is a loss, and his late slump correlated with our the team's (which caused which, I don't know) and Filien was in many ways the one guy who liked playing defense in the low post. We'll miss him.
I think we know, largely, what to expect from the rising seniors. Boothby shot 47% from behind the arc in league play, so I'm optimistic we'll see him on form next year.
Of the rising juniors, Williams is a stud, Ragland is skilled but frustrating (took the most three pointers on the team, hit barely a quarter of them). We'll need Cain and Kiachian need to step up; both showed flashes, but nothing consistent.
This year's freshmen remain a mystery to me. Baldwin got the most minutes and he will likely be fine, but there was nothing about his game that flashed to me.
That said, he was arguably the best player for us in the season-ender. Nix continues to intrigue me, his list of offers was the best of any recruit from the Earl era, but his lack of PT was concerning. Noard strikes me as a hard-worker who will be a good rotation guy (you need those). Hinton was 5 for 5 from behind the arc.
I trust Earl on the X's and O's, but so far his recruiting is, at best, fair. Most years he can pull one really good player (Dolan, Manon, Williams) and some guys who fit the system. Not sure I see the really good player in this year's recruiting class (maybe Ike?). That's probably good enough to compete for the ILT, but not a title.
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