RGV's Work

[SchnitzelBoy]

RGV did not overcome a talent deficiency for a few of these guys, hence the 2025-26 season. That doesn't mean you throw it out the window, because the caliber of recruits Shaka has pulled in the past 2 seasons has gone WAY up.

Freshmen tend to take huge jumps, and this class (I'm including Phillips and even the redshirts) could all hit their stride to provide an exceptional foundation. Sheek could be an Oso-type player pretty quickly and I'm expecting one of the sharpshooters to be able to give us much-needed looks from beyond the arc. That's not even considering IMPROVED versions of Nigel and Adrien.

Royce could be definitely find himself on an all Big East team next season. Owens, with a healthy offseason, should be much more consistent next year.

Fill in the hole at center with a 3rd or 4th year player, and this squad is a tournament team. Adding a guys who can play PG behind Nigel would also help greatly.

[jfp61]

The funniest/ ironic thing about RGV is nothing in the mantra is wrong.

Shaka's team just had objectively bad relationships, until some juniors left/got injured/stopped playing real minutes.

[MUbiz]

The funniest/ ironic thing about RGV is nothing in the mantra is wrong.

Shaka's team just had objectively bad relationships, until some juniors left/got injured/stopped playing real minutes.

#thealtercation

[NCMUFan]

No need for the portal, period. Today is proof, played better than 4th team in the nation.

What was proof of the previous 19 losses?

[WhiteTrash]

The funniest/ ironic thing about RGV is nothing in the mantra is wrong.

Shaka's team just had objectively bad relationships, until some juniors left/got injured/stopped playing real minutes.

100% there is nothing wrong with RGV, except the total exclusion of transfers. It has simply been the "name" given to the no transfer policy.

Unfortunately there are a handful of dolts who like to paint Shaka as an unsophisticated HC who can't blend transfers with the homegrown players, or that MU players are so fragile emotionally that they can't deal with transfers.

MU can, should and will recruit and develop HS players.

[PJDunn]

Totally agree, and also, the world will not end if Caedin is getting minutes next year. The development of bigs is not linear, I hold out hope that he will be a contributor. That being said, it would be wonderful to get an experienced 5 in the portal.

[CountryRoads]

Totally agree, and also, the world will not end if Caedin is getting minutes next year. The development of bigs is not linear, I hold out hope that he will be a contributor. That being said, it would be wonderful to get an experienced 5 in the portal.

I've warmed up some to Caedin being back. He doesn't try to do too much offensively and is unselfish. He needs to get better at altering shots at the rim and he's not as much of a physical presence currently as Shaka makes it seem like. Sheek is roughly 215lbs now I believe. Wonder how far along he will be next season and what his role will be. Nigel and Royce's emerging NIL valuation may make us look at more of a budget option at the 5. Besides, MU doesn't have a history of landing coveted bigs. At least in my lifetime.

[panda]

I've warmed up some to Caedin being back. He doesn't try to do too much offensively and is unselfish. He needs to get better at altering shots at the rim and he's not as much of a physical presence currently as Shaka makes it seem like. Sheek is roughly 215lbs now I believe. Wonder how far along he will be next season and what his role will be. Nigel and Royce's emerging NIL valuation may make us look at more of a budget option at the 5. Besides, MU doesn't have a history of landing coveted bigs. At least in my lifetime.

I cannot believe this is being discussed. Of players playing at least 30% of minutes, he is the 15th worst high major player in the country according to PRPG! and the 10th worst BPM player.

If Shaka is serious about competing next season, he should come nowhere near the rotation.

[WhiteTrash]

I cannot believe this is being discussed. Of players playing at least 30% of minutes, he is the 15th worst high major player in the country according to PRPG! and the 10th worst BPM player.

If Shaka is serious about competing next season, he should come nowhere near the rotation.

Shaka is not some fan boy who evaluates a player on one or a couple of games. Hamilton earned his very limited role. Hamilton's very modest improvement has at best earned him one of 15 roster spots, which he should be very grateful for. If not, the portal is always there for him.

[panda]

Shaka is not some fan boy who evaluates a player on one or a couple of games. Hamilton earned his very limited role. Hamilton's very modest improvement has at best earned him one of 15 roster spots, which he should be very grateful for. If not, the portal is always there for him.

Aside from taking 10,000 meaningless hook shots, Hamilton did nothing to earn his minutes. The only actual justification for Hamilton's minutes throughout the season could only be explained as Shaka "fan boying" for his teachers pet. You can point to the exact time we turned into a bubble team and it is when Hamilton departed the starting lineup/significant minutes and Parham started playing more.

He's done nothing to earn his spot on this roster other than his superb ability to collect EGB's.

[brewcity77]

James/Stevens/Owens/Parham/Hamilton

Who says no to that starting lineup opening day next year?

I say no. Is this a serious question? No. Clearly no.

[hawk]

I like Hamilton. He has a great body and if anybody was paying attention, after Gold picked up #4 Hamilton came in and scored twice on nice plays got an assist and a rebound.  Later missed a nice move to the hoop but the fould wasm't called. Players, escpecially big guys take time to develope.  He's only a sophamore.  YOu guys kicked Joplin around for a couple of years too.  If Hamilton finds himself this off season he could be a real plus next season.  Regardless Smart will get a starting center for next season.  The 4/5 slots would look like this:  portal guy, Parham to start. Hamilton/Clark  back up 5 and Pearson backup 4.  That's pretty big in the post.  Owens starts at the 3 backed up by Egbouno. That's bigger and stronger than Ross.  Looks like a promising baseline to me.  It strikes me that Ross played out of position his whole career and was very good.  Kudos to him but both Owens and Egbouno are 6'7" and Egbouno is a big kid at 220lbs.. 

[WhiteTrash]

Aside from taking 10,000 meaningless hook shots, Hamilton did nothing to earn his minutes. The only actual justification for Hamilton's minutes throughout the season could only be explained as Shaka "fan boying" for his teachers pet. You can point to the exact time we turned into a bubble team and it is when Hamilton departed the starting lineup/significant minutes and Parham started playing more.

He's done nothing to earn his spot on this roster other than his superb ability to collect EGB's.

I can't really argue against what you wrote. I guess it just seems to me that an end of the bench guy is not a major issue.

I am in the same camp as you with his beginning of the season playing time. I can understand Shaka's RGV branding and attempt to be different with zero transfers, but I still can't wrap my head around his total blind spot with Hamilton's ability to play major college hoops.

[CountryRoads]

I say no. Is this a serious question? No. Clearly no.

No it was not serious lol

[MU82]

I say no. Is this a serious question? No. Clearly no.

Given CountryRoads' posting history - including frequent criticism of Hamilton and calls to cut several players - I was giving him credit for being non-teal facetious.

[WhiteTrash]

I like Hamilton. He has a great body and if anybody was paying attention, after Gold picked up #4 Hamilton came in and scored twice on nice plays got an assist and a rebound.  Later missed a nice move to the hoop but the fould wasm't called. Players, escpecially big guys take time to develope.  He's only a sophamore.  YOu guys kicked Joplin around for a couple of years too.  If Hamilton finds himself this off season he could be a real plus next season.  Regardless Smart will get a starting center for next season.  The 4/5 slots would look like this:  portal guy, Parham to start. Hamilton/Clark  back up 5 and Pearson backup 4.  That's pretty big in the post.  Owens starts at the 3 backed up by Egbouno. That's bigger and stronger than Ross.  Looks like a promising baseline to me.  It strikes me that Ross played out of position his whole career and was very good.  Kudos to him but both Owens and Egbouno are 6'7" and Egbouno is a big kid at 220lbs.. 

Granted, this is just everyone's opinion, but the vast majority of fans have a hard time dismissing Hamilton's previous 30 games in favor of one game. IMO, Shaka, and every other D1 HC, would look at a larger body of work in a player evaluation.

But I think Hamilton could be a 4-6 mpg guy on a NCAA tourney team.

[Galway Eagle]

I like Hamilton. He has a great body and if anybody was paying attention, after Gold picked up #4 Hamilton came in and scored twice on nice plays got an assist and a rebound.  Later missed a nice move to the hoop but the fould wasm't called. Players, escpecially big guys take time to develope.  He's only a sophamore.  YOu guys kicked Joplin around for a couple of years too. If Hamilton finds himself this off season he could be a real plus next season.  Regardless Smart will get a starting center for next season.  The 4/5 slots would look like this:  portal guy, Parham to start. Hamilton/Clark  back up 5 and Pearson backup 4.  That's pretty big in the post.  Owens starts at the 3 backed up by Egbouno. That's bigger and stronger than Ross.  Looks like a promising baseline to me.  It strikes me that Ross played out of position his whole career and was very good.  Kudos to him but both Owens and Egbouno are 6'7" and Egbouno is a big kid at 220lbs.. 

He's a redshirt sophomore, he was the same class as Norman.

As far as Jop goes he was 6th man of the year his second year. People were frustrated that the top ranked recruit of Kam/Stevie/Jop was essentially a spot shooter with no defense but he was a strong player off the bench when OMax came off or slid to the 5 and put up numbers that were good enough to justify not going to the portal after OMax declared for the draft. That's wayyy different than Hamilton spending three years in the program and being one of the worst high major players according to the metrics posted by Panda.

But I think Hamilton could be a 4-6 mpg guy on a NCAA tourney team.

I agree with this (because he literally was a 6mpg guy on an NCAA tournament team) but my concern is if Shaka actually has a tiered NIL structure that incrementally increases with time in the program, as some have alluded to. Then a guy in his 4th year being a small bit player is making way more than his worth when we could get those same 6mpg from a guy who's eating less of the NIL budget.

[CountryRoads]

Given CountryRoads' posting history - including frequent criticism of Hamilton and calls to cut several players - I was giving him credit for being non-teal facetious.

Very little criticism of any MU player outside of venting in a game thread, but have tried to be better since the new year.

[MU82]

Here's Matt Heldt's game log for 2018-19:

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/max-heldt-1/gamelog/2019

He was an out-of-rotation backup big who served as an experienced insurance policy if a couple of guys got in foul trouble. That's an example of how Caedin could be used next season (and how he largely was used the second half of this season); if so, simply having him on the roster wouldn't doom Marquette to failure.

The trouble would be if Shaka thinks Caedin is more than that. But based on how he used Caedin since late December, Shaka knows exactly what Caedin is.

[panda]

I can't really argue against what you wrote. I guess it just seems to me that an end of the bench guy is not a major issue.

I am in the same camp as you with his beginning of the season playing time. I can understand Shaka's RGV branding and attempt to be different with zero transfers, but I still can't wrap my head around his total blind spot with Hamilton's ability to play major college hoops.

A player that bad shouldn't play at this level. Given Shaka makes the necessary additions this offseason, could theoretically play several different lineups before ever getting to a guy who is a negative offensively and is maybe the worst defender I've ever seen.

[wadesworld]

There should be a transfer starting at the 5 for us next year, and Sheek backing up the 5.  If we're able to use roster spots that open up from other players leaving (Sean, Tre, Josh seem like the most likely candidates) in order to get a starting wing and a good combo guard, then Caedin sticking around isn't a big deal.  He currently only plays because of Shaka's failure to bring in anything worth playing at the 5 behind Gold, and even then Royce sliding to the 5 is typically the move, and Caedin comes in only when foul trouble comes into play.

[GoldenEagles03]

There should be a transfer starting at the 5 for us next year, and Sheek backing up the 5.  If we're able to use roster spots that open up from other players leaving (Sean, Tre, Josh seem like the most likely candidates) in order to get a starting wing and a good combo guard, then Caedin sticking around isn't a big deal.  He currently only plays because of Shaka's failure to bring in anything worth playing at the 5 behind Gold, and even then Royce sliding to the 5 is typically the move, and Caedin comes in only when foul trouble comes into play.

Right on.

[nyg]

I like Hamilton. He has a great body and if anybody was paying attention, after Gold picked up #4 Hamilton came in and scored twice on nice plays got an assist and a rebound.  Later missed a nice move to the hoop but the fould wasm't called. Players, escpecially big guys take time to develope.  He's only a sophamore.  YOu guys kicked Joplin around for a couple of years too.  If Hamilton finds himself this off season he could be a real plus next season.  Regardless Smart will get a starting center for next season.  The 4/5 slots would look like this:  portal guy, Parham to start. Hamilton/Clark  back up 5 and Pearson backup 4.  That's pretty big in the post.  Owens starts at the 3 backed up by Egbouno. That's bigger and stronger than Ross.  Looks like a promising baseline to me.  It strikes me that Ross played out of position his whole career and was very good.  Kudos to him but both Owens and Egbouno are 6'7" and Egbouno is a big kid at 220lbs.. 

Like Galway stated, he is classified as a sophomore, Hamilton has been in the program for three full years, including practicing during the summer months.

Just because a player has size, it doesn't mean his basketball skills are commensurate with his height.  Joplin by the way, was 100% better player than Hamilton will ever be

What does "If Hamilton finds himself" mean? Is it improving his basketball skills, which he has tried for the past three seasons?

Another is just because Owens and Egbouno are bigger and stronger than Ross, doesn't guarantee improvement at the three slot.  Owens has not developed as Shaka's main recruit two years ago, but he has promise and see what happens at the end of this year. Do like Egbouno's bulk, maybe help on boards, but the three slot will be interesting.

I have stated in the past, Hamiltons story is great.  A zero star recruit who became a starter on a Big East basketball team, something he can reflect upon with his kids down the road.  But, that's on Shaka for putting him in that role for not recruiting a viable bigman and the criticism of his play as a result. If he stays, I agree with various others, that he is a three minute a half player, giving a break for the starter.

This team needs a starting center, a backup PG to spell James and let's see what happens with Owens and the three spot. Few weeks for the fun to start.