Not including the Ray years, this was a bottom 3 roster in the last 25 years. What an incredible job by Jans. The future is looking great.
We just need better players
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Couldn’t agree more. He got a little blood from a turnip. If he can level up our talent, we might be in for a real treat. Anyone who isn’t encouraged is just being butthurt for the sake of being butthurt.
What he got out of these guys is really amazing. They bought in to what he was doing.
Tolu is the only guy on our roster who would start on any of the other 7 SEC teams that made the tournament. And even sorry teams like Ole Miss and South Carolina had guys who probably could’ve started for us.
I am not sure we even had an NIT roster. Jans got everything he could’ve out of this group. Give this guy some real talent and we can have this thing like the mid 90’s or early 2000’s again.
I am not sure we even had an NIT roster. Jans got everything he could’ve out of this group. Give this guy some real talent and we can have this thing like the mid 90’s or early 2000’s again.
That last sequence of events was a microcosm of our entire season. We are a terrible 3-point shooting team, but the play we drew up was a 3 because we are just as bad at making routine layups (see DJ’s career defining point blank miss that would have won it).
Howland was here way too long. Jans has been incredibly impressive overall.
I hoped we'd have a player or two finally dial in as the season went on and become a reliable 3-pt shooter.
Outside of a couple of games, if we'd been able to make 2-3 more 3-pt shots per game (or been better at free throws), this team would have been a shoo-in for the NCAA and a pretty good seed.
This team reminded me of Stansbury's earliest teams - tough defense, limited offense. But Jans had them playing good offensive sets, they just couldn't finish too many of the outside shots.
Outside of a couple of games, if we'd been able to make 2-3 more 3-pt shots per game (or been better at free throws), this team would have been a shoo-in for the NCAA and a pretty good seed.
This team reminded me of Stansbury's earliest teams - tough defense, limited offense. But Jans had them playing good offensive sets, they just couldn't finish too many of the outside shots.
Hold up. Coming into this season we had...
Tolu Smith- a known force in the post from last season and a preseason SEC 1st team pick.
DJ Jeffries- a 4* top50 recruit with 3 seasons of extensive experience and play.
Cam Matthews- 3* with 2 seasons of extensive experience.
Shakeel Moore- 4* top 150 recruit with 2 seasons of extensive experience.
DaShawn Davis- a 3* top10 JUCO ranked transfer with extensive experience and led a major conference in assists per game.
Eric Reed Jr- a grad transfer who averaged 13.7ppg over 2 seasons of D1 and shot 40% from behind the arc.
Tyler Stevenson- a grad transfer who averaged 12.2pph over 4 seasons of D1, scoring over 1200 points before coming to MSU and shot 52.5% from the field in the 4 prior seasons.
And all those were known established players. That isnt even having to consider the incoming freshmen/1st year players like Jones and Murphy. Its also not including McNair.
And on paper, thats no worse than a lot of years at MSU over the last quarter century.
I know its popular to claim the cupboard was bare of talent this season, and I sure have lamented over our terrible shooting, but this roster was hardly untalented. That is 7 known capable players based on extensive play at the D1 level.
Why did Davis shoot 45.7% last year at Oregon State and only 38.1% this season?
Why did Davis average 5.5 assists last season and 3.5 this season?
Why did Reed Jr average 40% from deep over 2 seasons before coming to MSU and shooting 23.5%?
Why did Reed Jr go from 16.1ppg last season to 3.7 this season?
Why did Stevenson go from averaging 52.1% shooting over 4 years to just 42.9% this season?
Why did Stevenson go from averaging 14.3ppg over the prior 2 years to just 3.9ppg this season?
Why did Moore shot 34.4% from deep as a freshman at NC State and just 26.5% this season while averaging more than twice as many attempts?
The cupboard wasnt bare, a handful of players didnt play up to the level they have shown they are capable of playing. And that isnt entirely blaming the players since they may be needed differently on a different team. Im also not blaming Jans for not getting everything out of the players that they have to offer. But at some point, for whatever reasons, clearly some ability wasnt fully utilized within the roster.
Tolu Smith- a known force in the post from last season and a preseason SEC 1st team pick.
DJ Jeffries- a 4* top50 recruit with 3 seasons of extensive experience and play.
Cam Matthews- 3* with 2 seasons of extensive experience.
Shakeel Moore- 4* top 150 recruit with 2 seasons of extensive experience.
DaShawn Davis- a 3* top10 JUCO ranked transfer with extensive experience and led a major conference in assists per game.
Eric Reed Jr- a grad transfer who averaged 13.7ppg over 2 seasons of D1 and shot 40% from behind the arc.
Tyler Stevenson- a grad transfer who averaged 12.2pph over 4 seasons of D1, scoring over 1200 points before coming to MSU and shot 52.5% from the field in the 4 prior seasons.
And all those were known established players. That isnt even having to consider the incoming freshmen/1st year players like Jones and Murphy. Its also not including McNair.
And on paper, thats no worse than a lot of years at MSU over the last quarter century.
I know its popular to claim the cupboard was bare of talent this season, and I sure have lamented over our terrible shooting, but this roster was hardly untalented. That is 7 known capable players based on extensive play at the D1 level.
Why did Davis shoot 45.7% last year at Oregon State and only 38.1% this season?
Why did Davis average 5.5 assists last season and 3.5 this season?
Why did Reed Jr average 40% from deep over 2 seasons before coming to MSU and shooting 23.5%?
Why did Reed Jr go from 16.1ppg last season to 3.7 this season?
Why did Stevenson go from averaging 52.1% shooting over 4 years to just 42.9% this season?
Why did Stevenson go from averaging 14.3ppg over the prior 2 years to just 3.9ppg this season?
Why did Moore shot 34.4% from deep as a freshman at NC State and just 26.5% this season while averaging more than twice as many attempts?
The cupboard wasnt bare, a handful of players didnt play up to the level they have shown they are capable of playing. And that isnt entirely blaming the players since they may be needed differently on a different team. Im also not blaming Jans for not getting everything out of the players that they have to offer. But at some point, for whatever reasons, clearly some ability wasnt fully utilized within the roster.
He has always run a 4 out 1 in motion offense and that’s never going to change. If he had better consistent outside shooting it wouldn’t be a complaint at all.
Davis stats changed bc his role changed. He was a true point at OSU. He took twice as many threes this year and shot 34%. That’s why his overall FG perc went down. But he shot jusy 18% from 3 at OSU. So I think he was just distributing and taking easy twos at OSU. Plus you aren’t going to have as many assists when your team has trouble scoring. Rams is a damn good player and almost carried us into the field of 64.
I hate when people say “Reed was 41% over two years”. No. He was 45% then dropped to 35% which is key to the discussion. He had already taken a step back. He played a really soft schedule and his long release just isn’t built for success against much tougher competition. His PPG thus dropped bc he was brought here to make 3s so he sat when he showed he couldn’t do that.
Stevenson played at USM. Of course his points are going to drop. The on thing Stevenson can do is shoot a 16 footer that takes a long time to get off
Moore is the biggest question to me. What happened to him. Clearly talented but just cant find consistency from the field.
as a note- NMSU shot 33% from 3 as a team last year. We shot 29.5% from 3 and 27.2% this year.
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Now there’s something I bet nobody ever thought of: get better players.
Brilliant.
Yeah this roster was probably worse from top to bottom than any Howland roster minus his first season.
And tbh, I never believed lack of talent was an issue during the Stans or Howland years. It was our biggest issue this year.
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