MBB: USA South Conference

[ballgame]

  capt, lot's of excellent points.  One note, Lamont Strothers is an assistant for the women's team this year.  Also, would see him frequently helping out with Warwick H.S. during the summer tournaments.  It definitely helps to have a "go to" guy on the team.  But there are so many intangibles that go into a good basketball team....and I think a couple of others that will be key to CNU's season are team chemistry and upper class leadership.  Obviously CJ has a pretty doggone successful formula....and his staff, Waters and Ross have been together a long time.  They have my utmost admiration....it has to be tough recruiting at the D-3 level....no letter of intent, just a handshake and a kid's word that he's coming to your school.....sounds like a lot of coaches don't really know what they'll have until the first day of school.   Talk about a formula for gray hair!!

Looking forward to the start of the Captains season....you never know what will happen from start-to-finish...that's truly what makes it exciting.... it will be fun to watch this team mature and grow together and hopefully find that winning formula.
   

[captj]

game –

You're absolutely right about the formula for gray hair.  I too have a lot of respect for our entire coaching staff, and think that it's another demonstration of CJ's ability as a head coach that he's been able to keep his team of assistant coaches intact for so long. 

Sure, we need more than just a go-to superstar to make the team successful, but having that superstar on the team makes everyone around him better, and I have to think that having a couple of great players already on the team also helps with recruiting. 

I did know that Strothers is an assistant on the Lady Captains team.  He was with them last year as well.  It's great seeing him in the gym in any capacity.  Not many D3 fans get to see a former NBA player among their alumni, and talk about a recruiting tool!  When Coach Ross brings in a high school kid to see a game it would have to impress the kid to see (or meet) someone that has achieved what Strothers has via the D3/CNU route. 

[narch]

Don't underestimate how difficult it is for true student/athletes to get through college. 

i agree wholeheartedly...but why is it any different at cnu than it is at mc?  you don't REALLY believe that cnu is that much more difficult than mc, do you? (if you do, read some of the banter on the football board from cnu "student"-athletes) and with your "higher academic standards" your student-athletes should be better prepared for the rigors, right?

seriously, though, you make some great points - still, if i were a capt fan, i would want to know why 6 of the 12 underclassmen on the roster last year did not return to play...

i'm totally with you on all those frosh...they are unknown right now, and one or two could be very special for the capts - i NEVER doubt cj's ability to bring top-flight talent with the facilities and reputation cnu has AND i fully expect a transfer or 2 to find his way to newport news in the 2nd semester

[captj]

narch –

What did I say to disparage the academic standards of Methodist or ANY other school?  Why would I do that?  I don't even know what the academic standards are at the other conference schools because I never for a second considered attending any of them.  I assume that since they are private schools they have very lofty standards.  I was merely talking about the difference between the standards at CNU ONLY, and specifically between the Tribble era and the pre-Tribble era.  That, and talking about student/athletes as a whole.  Don't be so sensitive, Dude.  And by the way, I don't read the football board much because I don't attend many of the games, even though that as an athletic sponsor I have tickets between the forty yard lines (that go unused most games).  I'm also a W&M alum and have been going to their football games religiously since well before CNU even had a football team.

[narch]

captj - i inserted the smiley face AND said "seriously, though" specifically to let you know that i was joking around...i took no offense to your previous post...sorry that you missed the folly of mine

if one WANTED, they could mis-read your post, however, as implying that student-athletes at other schools are not "true" student athletes

[captj]

That's cool, narch.  I guess that I just don't understand forum lingo that well.  That's one subject that wasn't taught at CNU.  Probably dropped that program before I attended . 

Wow, Methodist didn't even make the top 50 in the D3Hoops preseason poll.  Not much love for the USASAC.

[captj]

narch -

I just read the last paragraph of your post.  We'll just have to agree to disagree on my implications about student/athletes at other schools.  I never made a single reference to other schools or compared CNU to them in any way.  Go back and read it again.  I don't see how anyone could read it the way you obviously are no matter how much they WANTED to .

[captj]

Those smiley face things are pretty cool!!!  I'm going to start using them a lot more. 8)

[captj]

I just read something from one of my posts and feel that I should clarify it before narch is offended.

Instead of saying "Wow, Methodist didn't even make the top 50 in the D3Hoops preseason poll", I SHOULD have said "Wow, THE BEST TEAM IN OUR CONFERENCE didn't even make the top 50 in the D3Hoops preseason poll." 

[narch]

captj - just make sure you use them correctly - one of these   when you mean this   can really confuse someone...i guess

i'm just happy the monarchs are an orv team...the way they played in the ncaa's last year didn't exactly endear them to voters, i'm sure - they'll have a chance to move quickly if they were to beat teams like wooster (#3) or vwc (#11) or m'ville (orv) - the reason cnu started seasons like mc had last year in the top 15 is they had some tournament success the previous year...i'm hoping this is the year the monarchs take the next step

[captj]

Wow, narch.  You must have taken the advanced course.  Maybe I should curb my use of them after all.

[narch]

i did notice that catholic, a team that mc beat on their home floor last year and that did not MAKE the ncaa tournament, is ranked #25 - i'm sure they are returning all 5 starters and 9 of their top 10 players since the monarchs are only returning 4 starters and 8 of their top 10 players, right

[captj]

narch –

I don't understand what you mean by "the reason cnu started seasons like mc had last year in the top 15 is they had some tournament success the previous year".  There are so many –'s an ...'s in that post that I can't understand it.  For us laymen that don't understand online forum-speak, please use more basic sentence structure.

[narch]

in the past, cnu has been ranked in the top 25 consistently after a season like the monarchs had (20-8) because they had some tournament success the previous year - it's not webspeak...just a bad run-on sentence...sorry  - a few words, properly placed would have taken care of the problem - "the reason cnu FOLLOWED seasons like mc had last year in the PRE-SEASON top 15 is THAT they had some tournament success the previous year"

and for the record - cua IS returning all 5 starters and all but one of their top 10 players...no wonder they're a top 25 team 

[captj]

I see what you're saying narch, but I don't think there's much shame in losing a NCAA tournament game on the road.  I think that the reason your guys didn't get more votes is because of two words; SAM and PORTER.