re: 2024-25 Basketball Thread - now we wait

Schedule news: Apparently we will be playing Monmouth on December 30 at Neville Arena. I imagine they will be our last nonconference game before conference play starts.

I imagine we will get the full schedule by early September, so in the next 2-3 weeks. We will see the Maui Invitational bracket and the SEC schedule with dates this Tuesday, so I imagine soon after that we will get the rest of our nonconference schedule. It will be just 5 more games that need to announced now, since we are already scheduled with Duke, Houston, Maui (3 games), Purdue, Monmouth and Georgia State.

As for buying tickets, I honestly have no idea who’s the best to buy them through, I apologize.

Wow, that’s surprising honestly. I thought for sure they would have us play Dayton or Memphis. Of course, we got the toughest matchup for the first round. We really need to win that game, because if we don’t, we will be placed in the losers’ bracket and most likely have to play Memphis/Dayton/Colorado. Ugh, I’m hoping Bruce goes all out against Iowa State, that’s the most important game of the tournament.

Height does matter at the point guard position. It’s why Sharife and Jared Harper aren’t in the NBA. Sharife has elite vision and handles but won’t make it on an NBA roster because of his size, just like Jared. Height matters at the guard position. Most guards are on average around 6’2-6’5. Neither one of those players, as Pettiford as well, are close to that. You become a defensive liability if you aren’t at least 6’0 and it makes it more difficult to run the offense if you are around 5’10 rather than if you are 6’1.

Just saw some cliff notes about Pearl talking tonight about the team. To sum up:

Miles Kelly might be the best shooter Pearl has ever had.
He really likes this team, like ALOT.
Stated that Jakhi Howard will be a pro.
One interesting or could be concerning, depending on how you perceive it: he stated the one issue is at point guard. Stated JP should be the starter, and Denver will be the backup. Doesn’t like the idea of that though because he likes Denver as a pure shooter. Same with Pettiford. Don’t know if he thinks highly of our guard situation or not.

PG biting us in the arse again?

I honestly can’t tell. I don’t know if he’s being coy about the situation or if the guards or not living up to their potential. I mean, JP is a fifth year senior, can’t imagine him being any worse than any of our guards from last year. So, at worst, he’s at their level. Also, if I’m going glass half full, I don’t think Pearl schedules this tough of a nonconference without thinking he knows the potential of this team, including point guard.

Yea, I definitely think he wants Steven to be his successor in a couple of years (I really believe Pearl retires in the next 2-3 years). I also think he is downplaying our potential at guard. It just seems like it’s been an ongoing theme with our guard play during these summer workouts. I can’t wait in the next month or so when we scrimmage and see how well we play.