UMassHoops.com

[PJ2015]

Spent quite a bit of time throwing this together over the past week or so, as it's almost 20 minutes long. It's a highlight video of almost every game this season (couldn't find footage for four games--if anyone has some or knows of any on YouTube let me know and I can add it) with music in the background.

Might be a good thing to show some people who are on the edge about buying season tickets for next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6ph4p8Z5Yg&feature=youtu.be

The future is bright! Enjoy!

[Swampy]

Thank you for putting that together and posting it here for everyone to see.

[Winslow05]

PJ do you mind if i post this to my twitter? I want to try and draw up interest for season tickets.

[Jackman]

Watched all 20 minutes and loved it.
Didn't need to see that Dayton score twice though. Forgot about that game.

[PJ2015]

[NilesGold]

Very nice. This reminded me of a few things I had forgotten since the end of the season.

- Why does Putney take so many shots from 5+ ft behind the 3pt line?
- Putney and Esho are two very athletic forwards
- It all depends on how much work they put in during the off season, but Putney, Esho and Morgan have big upsides. They all had good seasons and showed glimpses of what they could do, but they were inconsistent.
- The next two seasons could be special for this team. When you look at how good they already were this past year (in particular Chaz) how good some of the players could become (Put, Esho and Morgan in particular) and add in the freshman, the guys who were injured and Gordon, and in the next two years this team has the potential to have one of the best UMass seasons of all time (top 2 is unlikely, but 3rd best is a real possibility).

[Floyd]

Nice video PJ. Can't wait for the season to start

Looking forward to seeing TV, Javorn, & Freddie have big senior seasons so that all the hard work they've put in during a tough first few seasons will payoff and they'll have a season to remember

This team has so many weapons. It's gonna be a big year
_________________
Buccaneer: Too much to pay for corn

[Puffton 280]

PJ, nice work! Thanks for sharing this great video.

[Marty Peretz]

Great work on the video. I've been spreading it to friends and people just can't stop talking about how excited they are for next year.

A few things that I was reminded of/thought of as a result of the video.
-Vinson's dominance down the stretch against Drexel was so thrilling to watch. One of my favorite moments of the season.
-Freddie could have a breakout year. He has so so so much upside offensively and I think it all might click in his senior year.
-Maxie has so much upside and could become a real force, rendering me less freaked out about the possibility of Cady not being there.
-Sampson is going to be a great addition this year. We forget how much of an all-everything, team-first guy he is. Will provide invaluable minutes at a host of positions and also has ability to be a lockdown defender.
-Chaz improved so much over the final 10-15 games of the season. I'm estimating here, but it seemed like from about game 10-22, he struggled more than we're now recalling. Boy did he turn it on down the stretch. I'd love to look at his game-by-game stats to see if my intuition is actually correct, but it seemed like his shot selection and control of the game was just taken to a new level over the stretch run.
-Call me crazy, but there's a realistic shot that any one of SIX guys could lead us in scoring next year, depending on how things shake out. While Chaz is the favorite, he'll have more and improved offensive options and may just up his assist numbers instead. Cady, Put, TV, Jesse could all lead the team in points and even Freddie has a dark horse chance if he gets hot and gains confidence early.
-As much as losing JL sucks, the only good that might come from it is that DK won't have as quick a switch on Freddie. Freddie needs time to get into the flow of a game, but if both JL and Jesse were here, there'd be no reason to keep him in after even so much as one or two minor mistakes/bad shot selections. I'm hoping Freddie gets comfortable in a role and plays a big part in the team's success.
-I love that Bergantino, Trey and Freeman are not expected to be major contributors right away. I think that clear delineation of roles will allow them to learn the game, without contributing to potentially worrisome chemistry issues with our older guys (though conversely, you could make the argument that with all the talent we have, some guys won't feel the need to shoulder as much responsibility...but I'll leave that for another day).
-I think Sampson is such a good team guy that he'll be able to fit right in without being resentful that his minutes might have been reduced.
-I'll be very curious to see how DK divides the minutes, provided everyone stays healthy.
-If for some reason Cady isn't healthy, it will be interesting to see how TV adapts. I say that because if Cady is healthy, you can play a fairly traditional offense with Cady and TV as back-to-the-hoop bigs and Chaz leading any number of talented wings in the backcourt. If Cady is hurt, I think you can still be remarkably successful, but you'll have to do so by pushing tempo and playing up and down. That lends itself to Maxie and Putney getting more minutes down low, since they're more athletic/less traditional big men.
-If everyone stays healthy, we're going to blow a lot of teams out. Very few teams in the country will have the kind of depth we do and we'll be able to play the way we did in the non-conference last year all year long. Remember, we were dominating teams early on and though the start of conference play was part of the reason we stopped blowing teams out, a lot of it was due to the loss of Cady. Once he and Samp were gone, we were down to 8 and had to play at a slower speed to preserve energy. With 9 or 10 guys healthy, the sky is the limit.
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Muck Fax Page

[NilesGold]

^ I don't want to get this thread too off topic and take away from the great work that PJ did, but I do want to respond to a couple of your points Marty.

I find myself baffled as to where this expectation (Marty isn't the first person to express this) of great things from Riley (for next season) is coming from. He's already played three seasons at UMass and averaged over 17 minutes a game in each season and his production and minutes have actually declined every year.

I think you are right to mention the possibility of others challenging Chaz for the scoring lead on the team, I'm actually going to go so far as to say I think Chaz's PPG will decline next year, due to fewer mpg and the continued improvement of others. I don't think TV or Riley have anything close to a realistic chance of leading the team in points. After their good (but unremarkable) freshmen years, their last 2 seasons haven't given any indication that they have what it takes to lead this team in scoring. Putney and Morgan do have a very realistic chance of leading the team in scoring. Cady is just really hard to project because we really have no idea how he's going to come back from surgery. I think the ranking for team scoring is going to be 1-Chaz, 2-Put, 3-Morgan, with all of them in the 12-16 ppg range.

[Floyd]

I think TV will have a big year. He really showed that he can be very effective when healthy and his post moves coupled with his shooting ability make him a tough cover when he's on.
_________________
Buccaneer: Too much to pay for corn

[Umass90]

Great work on the video! I can't wait for the highlights to continue next year. Man, are we a fun team to watch!

If we're not in the top 25 at some point next season, I'll be surprised.

[ktabz16]

[xlgman]

Nicely done!

[UMassFan99]

Awesome job...someone should tweet this to the guys...we have some serious talent on this team. To me, Put could be a future NBA'er...his range and athleticism is crazy. That said, my favorite play may have been the Javorn drive against URI.