Tribune Star Valley Preview

[henrytheshock]

Hard to argue with it...

http://www.tribstar.com/sports/local_story_261234207.html?keyword=topstory

[rockthechuck]

Good read. I like how he doesn't try to predict an order of finish.

[Snapshot9]

Yeah, it was pretty good, but I feel he stayed on the safe side of his analysis.

All of them have a tendency to mention CGM and his track record, but they fail to mention the quality recruits that we have this year. Orukpe is a question mark, but Clemente, Griskanis, and Ellis are 3 guys that should make an immediate impact on the team. Hatch is a question mark also, but could turn out very well.

They always fail to mention that Thomasson is returning, and never mention Durley.

I guess any recruit that is not at least a 4* is not worth mentioning.

[lemuel777]

Yeah, it was pretty good, but I feel he stayed on the safe side of his analysis.

All of them have a tendency to mention CGM and his track record, but they fail to mention the quality recruits that we have this year. Orukpe is a question mark, but Clemente, Griskanis, and Ellis are 3 guys that should make an immediate impact on the team. Hatch is a question mark also, but could turn out very well.

They always fail to mention that Thomasson is returning, and never mention Durley.

I guess any recruit that is not at least a 4* is not worth mentioning.

I agree, he failed to mention any new players from any of the teams that should have immediate impact.

[JVShocker_old]

I don't think anyone in their right mind would add Durley to that mix, would they?

Turgeon led (me, us, whatever) that Durley was close to being healthy, and that really only lacked conditioning which was coming along. Weeks later, he was repeating himself. I've seen some amazing things written about Durley and Butler, but have yet to see either of them really do anything. And Phil...would you have (honestly) mentioned Phil? Hopefully last year has been forgotten by all parties.

Last year was just such a strange year. Everything started out so well, we continued to roll through Christmas, at least one former starter had some off-court issues and created some serious chemistry issues with the team (which weren't revealed in any public way) and the team never recovered.

I thought I read that Coach Marshall is a little more accessible than Turgeon was (for his player's sake) and I'm really hopeful that ends up being the case.

I don't think I've ever been so ready for a change in personnel and coaching philosophy - this year should be very interesting. :D :goshocks: :goshocks:

[im4wsu]

Don't you think Matt is a returning contributor? If the senior starting PG isn't significant, then what is?

[The Mad Hatter]

I don't think anyone in their right mind would add Durley to that mix, would they?

Turgeon led (me, us, whatever) that Durley was close to being healthy, and that really only lacked conditioning which was coming along. Weeks later, he was repeating himself. I've seen some amazing things written about Durley and Butler, but have yet to see either of them really do anything. And Phil...would you have (honestly) mentioned Phil? Hopefully last year has been forgotten by all parties.

Last year was just such a strange year. Everything started out so well, we continued to roll through Christmas, at least one former starter had some off-court issues and created some serious chemistry issues with the team (which weren't revealed in any public way) and the team never recovered.

I thought I read that Coach Marshall is a little more accessible than Turgeon was (for his player's sake) and I'm really hopeful that ends up being the case.

I don't think I've ever been so ready for a change in personnel and coaching philosophy - this year should be very interesting. :D :goshocks: :goshocks:

I certainly wouldn't expect to see anything in an article about JT or Phil, but there is a case for mentioning each of them here.

JT - As you noted, the problem for JT according to Turg was conditioning. This was confirmed by the fact that coming in, Marshall said the same thing about JT. The reason to be encouraged is that Marshall later said that over the summer JT had worked himself into great shape. This is the first time that has been said about JT since he's been here, so there is hope he can contribute now.

Phil - Phil was two different players last year. He was dominate during the non-conference and awful during MVC play. The main reason is that he was on the bench with foul trouble early whenever he had MVC refs calling the game. If you recall, in his first year as a transfer from another league playing in the post, Kyle Wilson had major foul problems. It wasn't until his second year in the league that he adjusted to the way things are officiated here. There is reason to hope that Phil will be like Kyle and will play like he did against Syracuse all year long. The other reason to be hopeful is that Phil looked good in the fast break last year, but we were usually in the half court. I expect to see more fast break under Marshall, which should help Phil.

It would obviously be foolish to pin your hopes on guys dominating who haven't seen the floor or been inconsistent, but I don't think that it has been completely without reason that their names have been thrown about.

[xazshox]

JT Durley

Having observed JT Durley in an unsupervised practice last week, I'd say that some of you folks may be pleasantly surprised by what he may be able to contribute during the forthcoming basketball season! I surely didn't see him huffing and puffing to keep up with everyone. He looks like he's been in the weight room, & he has several good attributes, not the least of which is an ability to shoot the basketball.

[DoubleJayAlum]

I think you guys are expecting a little two much from this column. Remember, its a newspaper column, not a full magazine article. Most columns are limited to a certain number of words and he can't possibly discuss every single player from every MVC team in the allotted space.

[The Mad Hatter]

I think you guys are reading a little two much into this column. Remember, its a newspaper column, not a full magazine article. Most columns are limited to a certain number of words and he can't possibly discuss every single player from every MVC team in the allotted space.

I, for one, think that the article was very good. He is right about how hard it is to predict the Valley this year with all the player and coach turnover. For a brief overview, he summed up the state of the league pretty well.

[vbird53]

I wonder if the Valley was a lot better last year than we were given credit for. We had two teams in the dance, but it is my belief that we deserved more. In my opinion, the Valley was better last year than it was 2 years ago, when we had more teams in the dance.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons we finished so poorly, we had to play good, quality Valley teams every night, without much room for error.

[Snapshot9]

Well, you could certainly make a case for MSU the last 2 years, and even I feel like they got 'shafted'.