One other thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet this season that shouldn’t go unnoticed…Hicks has really improved at both ends of the court. In addition to shooting well, he’s expanded his game and is putting it on the floor some more when guys close out hard on him. He’s also become a “plus” defender…he’s not getting a bunch of steals and overplaying passing lanes, but he’s staying in front of his man, and getting some blocks.
2024-25 PSU MBB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Hicks reminds me of Myles Dread. Both are/were very good 3 pt shooters when they could spot up. Neither one shoots well when shooting on the move and neither one takes/took many shots in the paint.
I'm ok with Hicks reminds me of Dread, but he's better player at almost every level. He's bigger and longer, Dread would struggle to play defense for Rhodes. He was never that quick. Hicks can go inside to score some twos, he did it last night once just going one on one. I don't know that Dread did that more than a couple times in his entire career.
Really if you compare this team to basically any team PSU has ever had player for player down to about 8 or 9. This is the best team PSU has ever had without question. 96 and 2020, were as good 1 to 5, but neither one had anything close to this depth. Keep in mind, both of those teams sniffed the top 10 during the season. I'm not saying this is a top ten team (though I wouldn't discount it ), but this team will see, at minimum, votes in the top 25 before the season gets too far along.
I guess I don't really know all about the other teams in the B10, but anyone thinking this team is 16th or 17th in conference has to follow with the B10 has half of the top 35 teams in the country. This team is really good.
Question for anyone that watched. Do you really think PSU played all that well last night, because I really don't think we did. We played well in spurts, but the ceiling of this team is a lot higher than what we saw last night. At least I think so.
We played extremely well defensively last night…we forced VT out of rhythm all night defensively, turning them over and not letting them get into their offense until 15-16 on the shot clock.
I think the 95-96 team was the gold standard of our depth…hopefully we’ll surpass it, but Damien McKnight, Donovan Williams, Stephens, Big House, and Metzger could all give us something off the bench (especially defensively).
The Big Ten is really deep this year. Purdue at 12 in Pomeroy, no one else until UCLA at 23, but then 11 of the top 39, and all 18 teams in the top 81.
Good observation. He started playing that way the last few games of last season. Rhoades mentioned last year that they challenged him to be a better defensive player and he responded well.
Agree that Hicks is more athletic than Dread and that Dread wouldn't be as good of a fit for Rhodes' fast pace game. I won't dis Dread's defense. For goodness sake they had him guarding Edey in the BiG tournament. My point was that both players shot/shoot well when squared up to the basket but neither was/is a real good shooter when on the move (like curling around a screen). I disagree that Hicks can do much in the paint much less take his man off the dribble.
Best PSU teams? I won't go back to Jessee Arnelle but:
- 95-96 team was 21-7 and finished ranked #18
- 00-01 team was 21-12
- 08-09 team was 27-11 and won NIT
- 10-11 team was 19-15 and lost in 2nd round of NCAAs
- 17-18 team was 26-13 and won NIT
- 19-20 team was 21-10
- 22-23 team was 23-14 and lost in 2nd round of NCAAs
I think the best team PSU has had in the modern ere is 95-96. If you take a good look at it. Booth was an NBA center, Lisicky and Sekunda played high level ball in Europe for over 10 years. Lisicky actually played on the on the Slovakian national team (who knew he was part Slovakian)
Earl and Gaudio were the best players on the team, and without bad backs, both probably would have been NBA players. I still remember listening on the radio as Earl just undressed Steve Nash in a christmas tournament game in California.
Now, that team had zero depth. Williams and Williams were both guys that played defense and gave nothing on offense (they didn't combine for 10 points a game). Jarrett Stephens was a freshman that just wasn't ready, he got about 8 minutes. After that they had nothing. someone mentioned Jeremy Metzger. Ten minutes, two points two rebounds.
Actually, a lot of people think Dunn wore that team out, because he didn't play any depth. They were a lot better at mid season than they were at the end of the year.
Earl and Gaudio were the best players on the team, and without bad backs, both probably would have been NBA players. I still remember listening on the radio as Earl just undressed Steve Nash in a christmas tournament game in California.
Now, that team had zero depth. Williams and Williams were both guys that played defense and gave nothing on offense (they didn't combine for 10 points a game). Jarrett Stephens was a freshman that just wasn't ready, he got about 8 minutes. After that they had nothing. someone mentioned Jeremy Metzger. Ten minutes, two points two rebounds.
Actually, a lot of people think Dunn wore that team out, because he didn't play any depth. They were a lot better at mid season than they were at the end of the year.
The 00-01 team made the sweet sixteen, knocking the 2 seed UNC to get there. Joe Crispin made the games fun to watch. The 08-09 team with Talor Battle was also fun to watch. I remember reading the MSU board after Battle scored about 30 points, mostly on 3's, and many from the logo, and one fan wrote, "well, Talor Battle just stepped off the plane in State College and drained a 3 at the Bres". Funny stuff.
Pretty good explanation there. I played pick up in rec Hall with a lot of guys on the team. I played in high school in the same general area as Gaudio and played against him once in summer league when I was a sophomore so I got a little bit of an advantage to getting on the court.
You’re right about the depth piece, though I don’t think there was much Coach Dunn could do as after Donovan Williams, Damien McKnight was their next best guard and frankly, myself and another guy who played pick up were better players than him. He was quicker than we were, but he was not a good shooter or decision-maker with the ball.
Donovan was not really an offensive threat but man could he play defense and could knock down a 15 foot jumper but anything beyond that was iffy. Phil was similar, excellent rebounder and defender and as you mentioned, Stevens wasn’t quite ready yet so Coach really didn’t have too many options off the bench after the first two.
4 votes in the AP Poll this week! None in the Coaches poll.
Only game this week is IPFW. It won't move the needle for us in any polls (or with an fans), but it's one that we better be taking seriously. They are the team to beat in the Horizon League this season, and Pomeroy projects them to go 22-8...will most likely end up being a Quad 3 game.
Only game this week is IPFW. It won't move the needle for us in any polls (or with an fans), but it's one that we better be taking seriously. They are the team to beat in the Horizon League this season, and Pomeroy projects them to go 22-8...will most likely end up being a Quad 3 game.
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