I believe to be a finalist you have to be your particular district player of the year or co-player of year. Last year George Washington was clearly one of the top players in the state but Cupps was his district POY and he didn’t make the cut (not fair IMO)–Mr Basketball should be the best players period, not limited by district status.
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Young Skywalker!
Luke is playing in the Ohio Kentucky All-star game today at 7pm. If you’re interested, you can stream the game for $9 here: https://www.859sportsradio.com/
Good luck to him!
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What’s the point of this?
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You are right. It was a poor way of expressing my opposition to the transfer portal overall. My apologies.
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But I heard he doesn’t drive to the basket?
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I would say whomever told you that either has never seen him play or has no clue about basketball–or likely both. Seen him play many times and he relentlessly attacks the defense from all three levels all game.
Decide for yourself: Luke Skaljac #3 Sr Szn Highlights
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Oh, I know he does. I was teasing another poster who thought the two incoming freshmen are just shooters that don’t drive or rebound much.
The biggest void for this team has been someone who can create their own shot, maybe since Dae Dae. I think Luke has the potential to fill that void.
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I always had high hopes for Dave. Just never achieved his full potential.
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Good ole autocorrect strikes again
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Look will be a stud. Can’t wait for him to get to MU.
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This is what Digitalhawk posted a month ago.
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This is what I posted a month ago in response to Digitalhawks post, agreeing with him.
I like Luke and expect him to eventually start next season. His step back jumper and his passing ability are really good and should transfer to D1 next year. The fact that any high school player can drive and score often does not transfer immediately to Division 1 basketball, as our two Freshmen guards found out last season.
Our coach came to Miami and started pointing everything to year three. Well, after two years we have turned no corners so far. We are playing at the same level as Coach Owens teams did. The two transfer portal guys are a step in the right direction for trying to get this team turned around as they both have two years at power conference schools and are stronger and more physically mature. We need more of that. That NAIA guy who averaged 21 ppg is actually what we really need for next year to elevate us to the top MAC group. Last year BG’s first year coach was able to get Marcus Hill who averaged over 20ppg ( he just signed with Final Four team NC State). That is the type of player we need to get to the top of the league next year.
We have won more games (last year) than coach Owen’s did. I feel like he would get to 12-13 and that was the top every year. In fact the Covid season was the only one coach Owen’s had a winning record at 12-10. Suffice to say we are better. Also, given the recruiting that happened the last two years on his watch compared to Steele, it’s not even close. Owens had one promising year and in retrospect, it was year one.
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Here are the actual W-L records for the last 4 years, comparing Owens and Steele:
2023-2024. 15-17. (9-9)
2022-2023. 12-20. (6-12)
2021-2022. 14-18. (8-12)
2020-2021. 12-11. (9-8)
So after 2 years Coach Steele is 27-37 (15-21).
Coach Owens was 26-29 (17-20)
I just said that we have not yet turned the corner under Coach Steele. You seem to be seeing bigger jumps in performance than the numbers actually show. Coach Steele has bought time by preaching about being in the top 4 of the league in year 3. So now is when we should see a big jump. How we finish off this roster will be crucial to achieving that. Comments by RedSea and Digitalhawk are also making similar points.
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You got me curious, so I went back and looked at the records and who we played. This is really important as I personally don’t count wins against D3 schools as they are not reality. Only D1. So with that in mind, here’s how things look:
OWENS
2017-2018 (16-18) but…we have a wins over Midway & Rio Grande so he gets 14 wins. Not a bad first year at all.
2018-2019 (15-17) but…Midway and Wilberforce, so he has regressed to 13 wins. Our schedule was not great this year either.
2019-2020 (13-19) this trend is going in the wrong direction…of the 13 wins, two were against Central State and Wilberforce so now we’re at 11 D1 wins. Another weak schedule save for the Louisville game. We are going the wrong direction fast.
2020-2021 (Covid Year) 12-11, I will give him a pass this year, but again, one of those wins was against Mount St. Joe. so he’s 11-11. Same as the year before.
2021-2022 (14-18) but we beat three D3 teams (Heidelberg, Defiance, and SPAULDING!!! so now again, our record is 11 wins over D1 teams. We actually likely had our best team ever under Owens this year as we beat GA Tech, almost beat UC and lost a close game to Clemson that ended up being a 12 point loss. 11 wins three years in a row is gonna get him fired though…and he was.
Steele:
2022-2023: (12-20) but three of those were d3 wins so first year, he’s only got 9 D1 wins.
2023-2024: (15-17) we beat SPAULDING!!! and Wilberforce so 13 wins against D1.
What have we learned here:
-Owens averaged 12 D1 wins a season (14, 13, 11, 11, 11). It is frankly remarkable he kept his job 5 years.
-Steele is currently averaging 11 between his two seasons. But, but, but…he jumped up 4 D1 wins in his second year. Owens went down every single year. Also, the schedule we played this year was much much stronger than any Owens schedule.
I don’t honestly see how this is a debate…
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