If lethal weapon 3 Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott and Brian Oliver played today game with nil how much money would it take in your opinion to keep all three to stay at Georgia Tech?
KQ- Huh, interesting question. I would guess Kenny would be a million dollar player or close to it. I would guess 3-D and Oliver would be $500k a piece depending on which season you are talking about, so probably $1.5-2 million on the trio.
@dtm1997 could probably weigh in on this as well since he follows NIL a little more closely than I do.
With the CFP seemingly going to 14 teams and ND apparently getting paid, what value does ND bring to the table at this point to the conference? It seems that ND needs the ACC more than the ACC needs ND, especially in the case of all other non-football sports. ND appears now more than to have ever zero interest in ever joining the conference.
KQ- Well they are contracted into the ACC so the league can't just dump them either. Blame Swofford for that. I do think ND will end up having to blink at some point. Everyone is getting way too worked up about something like the CFB Playoff discussions right now. This stuff is ever-evolving and changing and I think getting worked up about what happens with ND is not really worth the energy as so many other things are left to play out. ND needs to worry about scheduling moving ahead. That will be a bigger driver of their move than the playoffs IMO.
With basketball season officially over for us, when is the portal open date/when will our first player departure be announced?
Going off the list of expected returners (Baye, Nait, Reeves, Lance, Gapare, and let’s throw Sacko and Kelly in for this), what should each work on most to improve their game for next year?
Dark horse player for the 2024/25 season? (My gut says Lance, a freshmen or player not yet know via the portal)
KQ- So I answered a lot of this already over the weekend.
Going to what guys need to improve upon.
Baye- mid-range shooting and basketball IQ are his two big things. He needs a 17-footer to make it to the NBA. He can hit it at times and even some threes, but he needs to add more of that element to his game and he needs to improve his feel for the game and where his teammates are and the defenders are on offense and defensively he lacks a lot of instincts on what players driving to the hoop are going to do and how they attack and that again comes with game reps.
Nait- consistency with his shooting and I think that comes from both reps but also his stamina which was a problem when he hit the freshman wall. Defensively he wanders too much and if you go look he was responsible for a lot of the open threes on defense during switches and trying to double guys when he wasn't reading the situation correctly. That will come with time and experience as well.
Reeves- he needs to learn how to be more engaged on the offensive end of the floor. He would disappear for long stretches or get too passive with the ball. His shot is always going to be hit and miss and a little funky, but he is a good driver and finisher and he should work on that more. His pump-fake is solid enough and a lot of times he was too quick to give up the ball. I thought he was pretty solid on D.
Lance- His handle is a big thing because he is capable of beating someone off the dribble and getting to the rim. I thought that was a big missing element from the off-guard position. They've been teaching him PG in hopes of helping with that.
Gapare- It is all about his hands and handle with the ball. He was a turnover machine at times driving to the hoop. He has to learn to go up with two-hands and finish better. He missed so many layups and dunks by fumbling the ball out of bounds this season. He would have another 40-50 points this past year with just cleaner finishes. Also he has to figure out his corner three. He was shooting all of them flat as hell late in the year. He is actually capable of shooting threes despite what we saw on the court. He was 3-3 in the secret scrimmage from outside for example.
Sacko- Sacko has to work on his outside shot and being consistent there. He is very solid as a finisher and a tough body though undersized, if he can shoot it a little better outside that will get him on the court more. Assuming he sticks around.
Kelly- He has to stick his threes. I thought he made tremendous strides on defense and with his rebounding, but he is WAY too emotional on the court. I think that fuels a lot of his problems. He plays with too much emotion at times and gets frustrated IMO.
How long do you think Amir stays at USF? Hypothetically if Damon were to get a NBA job in the next few years, do you think Amir might be in the mix or do you think he will have been poached to a higher level by that point?
KQ- I think he will be picky about his next gig. He likes the set up in Tampa and they've embraced him. He is a good dude and I think he may stay there for a little bit so anything is possible. I think coming back to Atlanta would be very attractive as well. I think he wants to set up somewhere to raise his family right now as they've moved four times in less than 8 years.
Other than a few home and homes or MTE tournaments like the Diamond Head, most of the next season’s basketball schedule gets put together in the summer, right? The Big 12 notably gamed the NET the best they could and got rewarded for it. On the other side of it Pitt had one of the worst OOC schedules in the country. Couple of questions:
- Do you think the ACC should take a more active approach in helping teams put together schedules? For example, your projected bottom teams need to pile easy wins, middle teams need help gaming the metrics, top teams playing other top teams?
- Do you think they should have gone back to 18 games (like the ACC women play) and added two extra non-conf opportunities? With 18 teams starting next season, it would actually have worked out easily - play one designated rival twice, play everybody else once. 20 games seems to be hurting the ACC bubble teams a lot more than it is helping.
KQ- The 20 games thing was all about TV making more money off the ACC and them trying to squeeze every penny out of ESPN. I agree that it is hurting them in NET a little and they should have 18 games and then add maybe two marquee non-conference games as a requirement against one of the top 6 leagues, but with the ACC expanding that is now off the table and they are stuck at 20. I think it will help though with three new teams jumping in because you won't have as many repeats.
The schedules are put together now and over the summer other than things like the Diamond Head. I think GT is due for a trip to Europe so maybe Damon will do that this August. It would dovetail well into a trip to Ireland for me so I'm all for that.
- Over/under on the number of Rivals250 guys in the 2025 football class?
KQ- @Russell Johnson
- The defense will get into the top half of CFB in yards, points, and/or 3rd down% against because of what key factors?
KQ- So if that happens it will be because of solid tackling and improved pass rush. I think those two areas are the things that Santucci and his staff are going to push the hardest on. I have noticed how much attention he puts on run fits for example and steps with the LBs in practice. You can see the attention to detail that was missing IMO in the past.
