Off season goals

Princeton Tigers
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Since this season is effectively over for us, I have begun a mental wish list for the team:

I hope everyone gets a well-paying summer internship. It seems to be the least that our alumni network can do for our guys.

I hope no one transfers; we can’t afford to lose any talent.

Hicke: just work on getting better in all phases. I don’t really see a weakness, but he could do better feeling the double team coming. That requires full team practice, not summer projects per se.

Davis: as above, please stay. Become a better spot up shooter from 3, rather than dribbling in to take a midrange jumper. Next season, work on turnovers, and also defense in the paint, where he seems confused at times. On ball he does well.

Huggins: spend the summer working with Howard Levy as an intern, and also post moves after work is over.

Peyton Seals: no specific projects. Just get better at what you already do well.

CJ Happy: I had forgotten he had a couple of 20+ point games early in the season, then lost his shooting touch. For the summer, work on a fluid release with more backspin, from 3 and at the foul line. No more aiming/pushing the ball. Get stronger.

Malik Abdullahi: I don’t think he needs to do much except get better at what he does, including getting even stronger. Sure, he could use a 3 point shot, but I can live without it.

Jack Stanton: let the foot heal completely. Foot injuries in athletes scare me, as they can become recurrent, as with Bill Walton.

Landon Clark: just get better at what you do, as well as stronger. Maybe dunk the ball occasionally :slight_smile:

Sussberg and McSweeney: didn’t see enough to have an opinion about them, but I expect them to progress.

Whitfield and Hammond: both had excellent freshman campaigns. Just get better at what you do.

So that’s it for me.

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Fired up!! Some hard work and we’ll be ready to roll! All gas no brakes!!

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I love the spirit! There is one more game to play this season, though and I would love to see the Tigers get after the Yalies next weekend with the same tenacity they played with in the first game.

Go Tigers!

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Having the youngest roster in the country almost by definition suggests a natural improvement going forward. I fear, however, that Huggins is a prisoner oh his limitations, on full display when he was matched up against Hinton at the end of the Harvard loss. His inability to finish is just awful. We need better big men than we have. I doubt that Hicke and Davis can get much better. Each is terrific now. But this group has nowhere to go but up!

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I am hoping all of the freshmen take a big step up, which frequently happens (See Abdualahi).
Clark has a world of potential, and just needs to assert himself more. Hammond and Whitfield both flashed athleticism, but need consistency, which may come with more playing time.

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I suspect there may be another half-level or full level to Abdulahi’s game. For example, his on-ball guarding of Hinton from Harvard was surprising and impressive and a new ability I hadn’t seen before. If he can work on the outside shooting, some inside offensive moves, and perhaps his court vision both with and without the ball, I think he could really be a problem for people next year as a two-way force.

Happy is tantalizing in the flashes he has shown, but either role instability or some individual thing is inhibiting his improvement (and confidence). He really needs to improve on the defensive end, of course, but his potential as a high-post offensive hub still intrigues me. If he could get his three-point shot working better, that would make it much harder to keep him off the court.

DD needs to think and work on the point-guard aspects of being a combo guard. He is fully capable of doing that, I’m sure, but the burden he has faced as a last-second and/or last-resort shotmaker has made that hard for him. (I had no problem with him driving and pulling up at the elbow or the FT line for shots when things are getting late because he is pretty darn accurate doing that, and it’s way better than dribbling into traffic and getting stripped or throwing a pass away.) But I agree that a pickup in his catch-and-shoot trey game would be a help.

I find Hicke hard to project. He’s really good right now–is he at a ceiling? He played long minutes and played hard on almost all possessions and sometimes looked a little tired down the stretches of games; maybe that kind of conditioning would be a project for the summer. Maybe add a floater to the arsenal?

Speaking of floaters, Huggins could be lethal if he learned how to flip the ball in from close in the lane. Find out what drills the OKC Thunder’s Hartenstein used to develop that easy toss-the-crumpled-paper-into-the-wastebasket motion.

My big off-season wish would be 1) for the coaches to develop some varied defensive schemes that can disrupt opposing offenses and 2) to consider ways to reinvigorate the half-court offense to cut down on the amount of dribbling one player does at a time and the resultant predictability (and often crowding) that leads to blocks, steals, and forced shots.

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Yes indeed. I saw a future defensive POY.

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I don’t watch much NBA, but I found a clip of his left-handed flip shot. Haven’t seen anything like it. Yes, please for Huggins!

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…ah, Hartenstein…if only the Knicks had been able to afford to keep him…

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The price of Bridges. Far too high–max salary and 5 first round picks!

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The single most biggest area for improvement isn’t physical. It’s mental. We need players to step up and become vocal leaders on the court.

Mitch has said that the team hasn’t had “talkers” since Allocco graduated and he doesn’t think that kind of motivation is a coach’s job. So we need someone to emerge as an on-court leader - a cheerleader, a disciplinarian, an energy guy.

As seniors next year, it should be Davis and Hicke but I don’t know if either has it in him. Davis is a very quiet guy who leads with his play, not his words. Hicke seems to have a little more fire and I liked his comments after the Harvard loss. Mitch talked like the loss was inevitable due to injuries, but Jackson was adamant they could have and should have won just by taking care of the ball or getting 1-2 more stops.

Stanton’s feisty defense reminds me of Mush. I can see him possibly becoming a leader. And according to the latest Make Shots video, Landon is vocal during practice. I want to see him carry that over to the games - even as a mere sophomore. Malik’s energy is infectious, so I want him to be more vocal too, especially on defense.

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Landon was clapping his hands requesting a quick pass during today’s game (to no avail).

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Yeah, it’s hard for underclassmen to command that respect, especially if they’re not putting up big stats. After this season, Hicke has both the seniority and stats to be a respected leader, if he wants to be.

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Hard Cuts episode 8 focused on Clark; he is quite vocal in practice.

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I forgot the #2 priority this offseason: LEARN HOW TO PLAY CORNELL.

1-5 with 4 blowout losses over the last 3 seasons is not acceptable. Figure it out, Mitch. Study Yale. Study every other Ivy team’s approach. What you’re doing isn’t working at all. Mitch tries to slow them down and all that does it leave them springtime fresh all game.

Instead, play at their speed, attack the rim 1-on-1 and keep it close until the Big Red run out of gas in the 2nd half. Let the players have fun out there - Stanton said that the offense picks up when the pace picks up and there’s “energy behind the ball.”

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I watched the ILT tournament games with a growing appreciation of how difficult is the road ahead.

Yale, Harvard and now Penn start next year with a great deal of returning or blooming (Yale) talent.

Incoming freshmen, no matter how talented, will not change the calculus.

Once again we will struggle to make 4th seed in the ILT.

Oh well…

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Is Austin officially off the table?

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Mitch will have more than enough talent and experience to compete for the title and/or ILT: Davis, Stanton, Hicke, Abdullahi, Huggins, Clark - all a year older and wiser. Penn just won the ILT at 9-5 without Roberts! Top 4 finish should be a given barring really bad injury luck.

Like you said, I’m not counting on any impact freshmen (though it great to finally have a true center on the roster with Will Higgs), but Whitfield and Seals could both make a leap. I think Happy is who he is - a nice rotation big - but Huggins really showed his potential during Ivy play. He should be even better with more confidence and experience.

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Verbal Commits says: “Team Exit” (as opposed to another redshirt year) so I’m assuming he’s done.

Seems like basketball players these days always bounce back from their first ACL tear. You get surgery, take a year off, rehab and you’re back to normal. But everyone’s body is different and I guess Deven just didn’t have that athleticism anymore. Feel awful for him.