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WSU Basketball, 2014-2015

I'm looking at Braxton's stats and I don't think he'll have a problem with rebounding. I also looked at Patric Young from Florida and Randle from Kentucky. They are exactly the same height and weight as Braxton. I think he's going to be fine.

They will get him in the weight room and add some muscle. I think he's going to make the next 4 years very interesting in the post. You also might want to learn more about his wing span! I'm hearing his offensive skills are polished!
 
The toughest issue IMO Rahe has is the preseason and postseason WSU typically plays up against teams that have good bigs but the Big Sky is extremely guard oriented so you might see 4 guards and 1 post player every conference game. So WSU has to be able to compete and win against both types of play.
 
@Midamajor- Braxton already has a pretty good build physically. Looks like you have warmed up to the idea of him getting some good minutes.

I was wondering if we were going to see Royce's name on the transferring list. I am just not too sure what happened with his minutes toward the end of the season. I know that Gittens played well, but I think Royce has a place on this team, especially with all the small ball played in the Big Sky.
 
It was the play of Gittens that eroded his minutes. However, I don't think he will be going anywhere. I don't think he has a red shirt year left. I think he will graduate and go on to bigger and better things. He is a good young man who has a lot going for him outside of basketball. :thumb: :thumb:
 
wsucatfan said:
The toughest issue IMO Rahe has is the preseason and postseason WSU typically plays up against teams that have good bigs but the Big Sky is extremely guard oriented so you might see 4 guards and 1 post player every conference game. So WSU has to be able to compete and win against both types of play.
Click to expand...

I think you hit the nail on the head for the reason why the sky is so "weak". The sky really does have some pretty good guards. Nothing spectacular but some not too bad. We have had some decent post players in years past, but the sky in general nothing too great. In losses pre and postseason im sure most sky teams get out rebounded and have a tough time getting an inside presence to help set up the outside.
 
There are ways to mitigate the effectiveness of teams that play big against us. Ron A used to call it a MONSTER defense. Really, it was just a zone designed to keep the ball out of the low post and provide a lot of help when the other teams MONSTER happened to get the ball. It was much like what Arizona did to Tresnak. The reason that Randy doesn't like to zone is that good teams learn to exploit it. There are usually holes in a zone.

Don't get me wrong, I love our man D. I just think that we are, often, too one dimensional, too predictable on D. McCarthy had a variety of zones that fit the big, slow lineup we had back then. He would alternate defenses on made or missed shots, in a pre determined manor. Other teams had to slow down each possession to figure out what we were in. It really disrupted their flow. When he went to NMS, he recruited smaller, more athletic players and he changed his D to match his players. He developed a zone that was referred to as the ameba zone. It was a matchup zone designed to take the other teams guards out of the game. It got some of his teams, comprised of smaller athletic players, ranked in the top 10 nationally.

I believe that we need to mix it up on defense a little bit more. We have the athletes to do about anything we want, defensively. Instead of having 60 offensive sets and 1 defensive set, maybe 40 offensive sets and 5 defensive sets. Just a thought. :coffee:
 
I like what bball had to say about Weber's depth in the middle next season. Sure James didn't play a lot this season. Having him healthy and available all season would have been a far better option, but he wasn't able to go. Even if he didn't play, his toughness in practice is huge for our bigs development. Hopefully, he is injury free this season, and is able to enjoy his senior year. Having James will help toughen up our young bigs and help them make the transition from the high school game to the college game.

Ryan Van Pelt already has some solid experience and knows the system. It is a matter of how quickly he will be able to get his legs back and get into game shape. What is Ryan's wing span? Same thing with Braxton. He is definitely a steal for the Cats. Doesn't he have some freaky crazy wingspan? I just like knowing that Braxton is a big who can pass, rebound, score in a variety of ways, and most importantly isn't afraid to play defense. Ryan, as I remember right, really could spread the floor. He is a great outside shooter.
 
Really, the only thing Ryan lacked, when he was here right out of HS, was strength. He is quick enough and has a nice shooting touch. If he can hit the weights and toughen up, he can be a very effective player for us. He is long and runs the floor well.

I also feel that James, if he can stay injury free, will be huge for us. Having three true centers on the team is great. We know that we can get a lot out of our PFs. To me, the question is if we play big at the 3 spot at any time this year and what will be the rotation at the point?
 
So we are strong at the 5, 4, and 1/2...the area I feel we are in greatest is at the 3. Yes, we have four guys who can play the 3, but it would be best if the Cats were to sign another wing.
 
The 3 spot will likely be manned by Gittens, Williams, and Richardson(if he plays). However, I would really like to see them start to develop Hill or Fuller at that position in situations where we want to play big there. :coffee:
 
Should be an interesting June ... we certainly lost some key leadership with Berry and Tres. I am wondering who will step up and fill that role next year. Joel should be large here but I am just not sure yet. Would love to hear some other views.

I like what Tal said about James. One thing that might be difficult for Braxton and Van Pelt could be knowing exactly what it takes to excel at the D1 level without someone to show the ropes. As good as either can potentially be, it just doesn't come that easy without a growth process. If James can have a big year it could really help. Also, they will need to all bang together in practice to push one another.

3 years ago I don't think anyone could foresee all the injuries James has endured. Really pulling for him to have a great senior year.
 
oldrunner said:
I believe that we need to mix it up on defense a little bit more. We have the athletes to do about anything we want, defensively. Instead of having 60 offensive sets and 1 defensive set, maybe 40 offensive sets and 5 defensive sets. Just a thought. :coffee:
Click to expand...

And a really good thought Oldrunner. There are times we just need to switch things up a bit on defense to confuse our opponent. I didn't copy your whole post, but I really agree with everything you've written.

We do play man defense really well, and it is obvious that the team works hard at it, but I have a really tough time watching teams with really good centers abuse us because we won't double-down on them with some kind of zone that can cover the inside with double-teams. Two seasons ago and the Y game and Wesley crushing us is like a personal nightmare for me. And USU and Shaw this last season was the same thing. In conference we don't struggle too much with great bigs, because they are hard to find in the Sky. Out of conference we do...
 
First Team
Name School Year Pos.
Zach Braxton Highlands Ranch Senior C
Dominique Collier Denver East Senior G
Ronnie Harrell Denver East Senior SG/F
Jeremiah Paige Rangeview Senior SG
Jake Pemberton Mountain Vista Senior G

Braxton selected as 1st team 5A all State and 1st team All Colorado . POY of the year Continental Conference.
 
It's starting to look more and more that we may be starting two freshmen, two sophs., and one junior. I'm thinking that we might play everyone. If we red shirt anyone, we would probably red shirt two.

The wildcard is who ever they bring in this spring. I'm pulling for a D1 transfer who would sit out a year before having two or three years left. :twocents:
 
Midmajor?? said:
First Team
Name School Year Pos.
Zach Braxton Highlands Ranch Senior C
Dominique Collier Denver East Senior G
Ronnie Harrell Denver East Senior SG/F
Jeremiah Paige Rangeview Senior SG
Jake Pemberton Mountain Vista Senior G

Braxton selected as 1st team 5A all State and 1st team All Colorado . POY of the year Continental Conference.
Click to expand...
Just to show the company Braxton is in, Collier is the top recruit in Colorado and has signed with Colorado, Harrell has signed with Creighton, Paige has signed with Colorado St, and Pemberton has committed to Denver.
 
With nearly half the team being new to the program, it's a good year to have a preseason tournament off in the boonies. It should be a chemistry building experience. With that and all of the tough instate games, it might be a good idea to have a couple of patsies lined up to help build confidence. I'm guessing that the BSC will be just as difficult as it was last year. Some BSC teams will be on the rise and some will be dropping, but overall, I think it will be slightly improved.

I feel that next year will be a really fun year to be a Wildcat fan and a fan of the BSC. Idaho will be a good addition and will change the dynamic of some road trips. NAU, Sac, and EWU look to be on the rise. Montana and UNC should be the same or better. The question marks are SUU, ISU, MSU, and UND.

We should be at or near the top... as it should be. :nod: :nod:
 
I say put the pasties before we head to the Paradise Jam. I think we will be just fine. Lets take on Arizona again and maybe go to Stanford. This will be our best chance at beating USU in Logan that we have had in a longtime. Beating BYU at home isn't a stretch this year, I don't think they will be better. Most of the youngsters played good minutes against Arizona. They know they can hang with the best. Sure we will need some time to gel and there will be growing pains associated with the loss of 40 ppg. I am just not sure what a UTE like preseason really gains you. We know that we can't count on the Big Sky for any quality wins.

I think Eastern, NAU and Sac State will be tough next year. Montana will be around the top of the league. Not too sure how good Idaho is as of yet. SUU and UND will likely be the bottom dwellers. I believe we are still the favorite.

BOOTOM LINE: We need more pre-season games than last year.
 
I'm sure Rahe will assemble an extremely difficult and challenging preseason schedule, with a couple of WTF opponents thrown in there. The Paradise Jam will be an immediate gut check for our program. I really like the schedule. It is definitely going to challenge Rahe's kids, but there is potential for the Cats to pull off some big upsets. Most importantly to build team chemistry and unity.

As for instate, I'm not so sure USU is going to be a cake walk, but 02 is right, next year might be our best chance to beat USU in Logan, then again we all thought that two seasons ago. The Aggies are going to have a lot of JC players such as Darius Perkins (amazingly USU fans aren't getting overly hyped about this guy, but they are saying that Marcel is transferring because Perkins is coming to Logan to be the starting PG), and did just get a verbal commit for a pretty athletic and talented big man (Elston Jones 3 Star Big from Goodyear AZ). Stew had a plan in place. Next year could also be our best chance to beat BYU; lets hope the drought ends. Mika is leaving on a mission, Carlino is gone, and Collingsworth shouldn't be ready yet, depending on when the Cats and Cougs play. ACL's take about 6 - 9 months, usually a full year just to be safe, but the Cougs have some pretty stellar recruits joining the program. UVU is kinda losing a bit, but not too much, and should give the Cats a good game. They love playing us. I think it is because the coaches don't really like each other. Utah...I really wouldn't be surprised to see the Utes on our schedule again. They will be the best team in the state, on paper, next season. I would love to see the Cats playing every team in the state again, even our beats...I'd like to see Dixie State and Westminster over St. Katherine's College and the College of the Southwest.

As for the Sky. I think it will improve. It can only improve. UND won't be nearly as good, SUU will be better, PSU not as good, Idaho is a whatever, ISU will be about the same, Montana will be better and should vie for the conference title, MSU will be better under their new coach. Sac, EWU, NAU will all be good again, and better. UNCO is the wildcard they are losing some excellent players. Who knows...I think Hill will have a good team.

Final thought...Weber will have at least three more preseason games next season than they did last season. We know they can have two because of the conference schedule changes, and also, the tournament only counts as 1 game and the Cats will get 3 out of the arrangement.
 
I'm expecting us to be a little inconsistent in the preseason. I think we will see some good wins and some bad loss'. By the time BSC play begins, I think we are going to be very good. Senglin, Gittens, Bolomboy and Hill are poised to have great years. Add the returning vets and newcomers into the mix, and we are looking good. :thumb: :thumb:
 
With the two commitments figured into the mix, we have addressed two of the concerns that have been expressed about next years team. Our team should be a better rebounding team with the additions of Zack and Jae, and we now have more depth at the point with Jeremy, Hayden, Chris, and possibly Jeremiah. Although, Jeremiah is more likely a wing type player. The remaining concern now is to find depth at the 3 spot, hopefully a 6'5''+ guy. Although, Jae or Kyndahl may see some action there, when needed. It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, we bring in to fill the remaining scholarship. :coffee:
 
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