Aces Europe road trip

[BEARZ77]

No doubt with the addition of Williams and Cunliffe and a couple others, Coach Mac has more of the type of athletes he's wanting to play his style. I think Evansville can match up pretty well with their first string with many of the Valley teams, but as is the case when building a program , things drop off pretty quickly depth wise. Also UE just lost both of their top assistants who brought a lot of D-1 coaching experience, so that could set things back a bit. The Valley as witnessed last year, has a lot of parity from top to bottom which means a team can always move up quickly, but also means a lot depends on the guy on the bench because no one is head and shoulders above everyone else talent wise. Mac had a tough transition year last year and now lost much of his brain-trust; have to see how that translates to progress this year.

Note I have some of the same concerns for Ford at MSU. We are very talented and probably much deeper with talent than most Valley teams, but Ford has to show as the veteran coaches adapt to what he's doing, can he then counter that in a league where you play round robin and there are no secrets about what you're trying to do.

[ACECARD]

No doubt with the addition of Williams and Cunliffe and a couple others, Coach Mac has more of the type of athletes he's wanting to play his style. I think Evansville can match up pretty well with their first string with many of the Valley teams, but as is the case when building a program , things drop off pretty quickly depth wise. Also UE just lost both of their top assistants who brought a lot of D-1 coaching experience, so that could set things back a bit. The Valley as witnessed last year, has a lot of parity from top to bottom which means a team can always move up quickly, but also means a lot depends on the guy on the bench because no one is head and shoulders above everyone else talent wise. Mac had a tough transition year last year and now lost much of his brain-trust; have to see how that translates to progress this year.

Note I have some of the same concerns for Ford at MSU. We are very talented and probably much deeper with talent than most Valley teams, but Ford has to show as the veteran coaches adapt to what he's doing, can he then counter that in a league where you play round robin and there are no secrets about what you're trying to do.

BEARZ77 For what it's worth I very much enjoy reading your posts. They are well thought out, and very much reflect the way things are without downgrading other fan bases. Wish there were more like you.

[BuBrave2006]

DeAndre Williams is a "dude." I can't wait to watch him play. That being said, if Noah Frederking is still getting minutes, I can't give Evansville that much of a ceiling. That being said, I still have them 5th over SIU, Valpo, Drake, and both ISUs.

Right on brother. I take it you have seen DeAndre play, and are not just posting out of ignorance. Noah won't be All-Conference, but he will be improved this year. He had 19 points in the game against the Belgium team.

Haven't seen him yet, but I've heard all about him. I heard from another player on the Evansville team that he was "by far the best player" and "could legit play in the league one day."

And this was coming from a player who didn't like to admit that anyone was better than he was.

[Blers]

No doubt with the addition of Williams and Cunliffe and a couple others, Coach Mac has more of the type of athletes he's wanting to play his style. I think Evansville can match up pretty well with their first string with many of the Valley teams, but as is the case when building a program , things drop off pretty quickly depth wise. Also UE just lost both of their top assistants who brought a lot of D-1 coaching experience, so that could set things back a bit. The Valley as witnessed last year, has a lot of parity from top to bottom which means a team can always move up quickly, but also means a lot depends on the guy on the bench because no one is head and shoulders above everyone else talent wise. Mac had a tough transition year last year and now lost much of his brain-trust; have to see how that translates to progress this year.

Note I have some of the same concerns for Ford at MSU. We are very talented and probably much deeper with talent than most Valley teams, but Ford has to show as the veteran coaches adapt to what he's doing, can he then counter that in a league where you play round robin and there are no secrets about what you're trying to do.

BEARZ77 For what it's worth I very much enjoy reading your posts. They are well thought out, and very much reflect the way things are without downgrading other fan bases. Wish there were more like you.

I'd like to second this, your posts always make for good reads!

Also, what's the story with Williams exactly? What year is he/how old is he? Just curious, definitely seems like he's taken the long road to UE.

[BEARZ77]

Blers and ACECARD, I appreciate the kind words and would say the same for both of you. I think there's a lot more civil yet candid discussion on the board the last couple years and I think we all know why. We can all have differing views and reflect our school pride w/o having to slam another valley institution. I love the Valley and did a long time before MSU was in it as I'm from just outside the St Louis area originally and grew up watching SLU and the Valley in the 60's. I personally like the mix of private and public and the fact a number of institutions had to work their way up thru NAIA and D-2 to get to where they are now. The history of many of those programs is worth knowing.Being a retired person, I now have ample time to stay pretty informed about most of the teams and try to bring info to the board as well as obviously giving my slant on things. Disagreement is fine but I'll be the first to admit if someone slams MSU I'm usually pretty quick to go on the counter offensive, sometimes regrettably later, but hey it's my school and I bleed maroon.

[BigMacAttack]

Also, what's the story with Williams exactly? What year is he/how old is he? Just curious, definitely seems like he's taken the long road to UE.

From the UE roster page: Prior to UE: In 2017-18, Williams played for the Nation Wide Academy in Oklahoma City and averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds...a 2016 graduate of Klein Forest HS in Houston and was chosen to play in the NBA Top 100 Camp in the summer of 2015 before his senior year of high school...ESPN and Scout.com rated Williams as a 3-star recruit and he drew interest from multiple Power 5 schools before choosing UE.
He sat out last year to get his grades up. He is classified a sophomore this season and will have 3 years of eligibility. On the recent European trip he score 24, 32, & 17 points. No other stats were made available.

[tribecalledquest]

Also, what's the story with Williams exactly? What year is he/how old is he? Just curious, definitely seems like he's taken the long road to UE.

From the UE roster page: Prior to UE: In 2017-18, Williams played for the Nation Wide Academy in Oklahoma City and averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds...a 2016 graduate of Klein Forest HS in Houston and was chosen to play in the NBA Top 100 Camp in the summer of 2015 before his senior year of high school...ESPN and Scout.com rated Williams as a 3-star recruit and he drew interest from multiple Power 5 schools before choosing UE.
He sat out last year to get his grades up. He is classified a sophomore this season and will have 3 years of eligibility. On the recent European trip he score 24, 32, & 17 points. No other stats were made available.

How did he end up at Evansville? I understand he signed an LOI, but what's the real story?

[Tom Servo]

Also, what's the story with Williams exactly? What year is he/how old is he? Just curious, definitely seems like he's taken the long road to UE.

From the UE roster page: Prior to UE: In 2017-18, Williams played for the Nation Wide Academy in Oklahoma City and averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds...a 2016 graduate of Klein Forest HS in Houston and was chosen to play in the NBA Top 100 Camp in the summer of 2015 before his senior year of high school...ESPN and Scout.com rated Williams as a 3-star recruit and he drew interest from multiple Power 5 schools before choosing UE.
He sat out last year to get his grades up. He is classified a sophomore this season and will have 3 years of eligibility. On the recent European trip he score 24, 32, & 17 points. No other stats were made available.

How did he end up at Evansville? I understand he signed an LOI, but what's the real story?

The way I understand it McCarty had some connections with the Nation Wide Academy Coach and that's how it happened. Reading between the lines...I imagine other schools knew there was an eligibility issue and passed on him because of the Home schooling (some other player at A&M had this same problem). However, McCarty probably said we'll risk it and make an appeal and hope he can play right away because he's going to make a huge impact if he can play. Didn't work and he lost a year but he can play now. That's all just my guess on what happened, but I think it's logical.

[BuBrave2006]

From the UE roster page: Prior to UE: In 2017-18, Williams played for the Nation Wide Academy in Oklahoma City and averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds...a 2016 graduate of Klein Forest HS in Houston and was chosen to play in the NBA Top 100 Camp in the summer of 2015 before his senior year of high school...ESPN and Scout.com rated Williams as a 3-star recruit and he drew interest from multiple Power 5 schools before choosing UE.
He sat out last year to get his grades up. He is classified a sophomore this season and will have 3 years of eligibility. On the recent European trip he score 24, 32, & 17 points. No other stats were made available.

How did he end up at Evansville? I understand he signed an LOI, but what's the real story?

The way I understand it McCarty had some connections with the Nation Wide Academy Coach and that's how it happened. Reading between the lines...I imagine other schools knew there was an eligibility issue and passed on him because of the Home schooling (some other player at A&M had this same problem). However, McCarty probably said we'll risk it and make an appeal and hope he can play right away because he's going to make a huge impact if he can play. Didn't work and he lost a year but he can play now. That's all just my guess on what happened, but I think it's logical.

I heard (from the same player I mentioned earlier) last summer that Williams was celebrating his 21st birthday. That would obviously make him 22 now if that is accurate.

[Blers]

Thanks! That's what i was wondering in regards to age... I know it's a LOT of projecting, but given his advanced age, if he shows pro potential this year it'll be interesting to see his next steps.

Your body only allows for so many years to make money playing ball, and his whole journey seems unorthodox (not that that's a bad thing!).

Will be an interesting thing to monitor going forward.