Sentinel-Tribune Men's Basketball Look Ahead, with Comments

So, we've done a bunch of look-backs at the Falcon's basketball season, and now Jack Carle sat down with Coach Orr to look forward.

You know my feelings.  What I said was that it is hard to see us being better next year than we were this year, and if it is going to happen, it will need to be because some guys produce in ways that we haven't seen them produce yet.  Doesn't mean they can't or they won't, but it means they haven't.

Because of Brown and Thomas leaving, that pressure is going to fall mostly on the guards--people playing the 2 and the 3.  Sealey, Clarke, Orr and Henderson will have to be the guys.  Other teams are going to do just what CMU did....pack in on Calhoun and make BG win from the outside, and those will need to be the guys.  (Luke Kraus will also be back from his broken foot).

And, if I had a concern about the Falcon program during the Orr years, it would be that the players don't seem to get that much better from year to year.  They get a little better--I'm going to look at our departing seniors and they did get better every year--but not quantum leap better.

I would say that Falcons fans who are making decisions on these younger players based on what they saw this year should probably keep an open mind.  I'm not saying how it is going to end up, but I'm saying that a Fr. playing 5 minutes a game is not necessarily going to be a great indicator.

In my opinion, Sealey is a huge key.  He showed bursts of production and then sometimes he didn't.  I was always surprised he didn't get more minutes and I figure there had to be a reason we didn't see.  Maybe it was as explained...that he was behind Thomas, who rarely came off the floor.  Anyway, he's a guy who we have seen show some ability.  If this team is going to be even as good next year, he can go a lot from that 3 slot.

On the inside, we lose Oglesby.  His replacement as the 3rd inside guy will be one of two guys we know nothing about at all...Desmond Rorie, who red-shirted, and Richaun Holmes, who is coming from a JUCO and will be a sophomore.  Here's what the Sentinel article said about him....

Holmes was a National Junior College Athletic Association Division II first-team All-American. Holmes was the top shot blocker in the country and ranked fourth in field goal percentage at .623.

"In his conference ... he was the most valuable player," coach Orr said about Holmes. "He almost averaged a double-double. He definitely had more double-doubles than any player, and he had triple-doubles between scoring, rebounding, blocks.

"He's 6-8, 6-9 with long arms and is athletic and a shot-blocker.

Yes, that's Division II of JUCO.  Still, that's something to be excited about.

The other thing about the inside is Cam Black.  He did seem to improve over the course of the season.  Coach says that he has really developed his inside game:

"Cam, especially on the defensive end made big strides and was probably one of the better defensive post men. I thought Cam was a big presence for us," Orr said.

In the 2-3 zone, that middle spot is really important.  Look at Syracuse without Melo in the tourney.  One of the issues is that while you can measure blocked shots, you don't measure altered shots or the number of outside jumpers an opponent might take because they can't get inside and you don't measure the ability of guys to guard the perimeter knowing that they have the big guy guarding the rim.  All that is to say that Black might not generate the numbers or the stats and he might be making a bigger contribution than the boxscore shows.

Coach also thinks that incoming FR. Spencer Parker, who he says can make an immediate impact.  He had a year of prep school, so he will be a year older than a typical FR.  He's 6'7" and can play "multiple positions" according to Coach.  Obviously (this is me now), a 6'7" guy who can play a legit 3 in the MAC is a match up issue in a lot of games.

Finally, the article says that BG has one slot open and they are working it hard.  However, they might not use it.  Orr said, "we want to use it wisely if we do use it."