What's up with Sheppard?

[steveystuds06]

I feel like I keep seeing Ryan Preston being brought up while taking about Devele Johnson. This guys are different players. Ryan Preston was very athletic, but he did not have the range this kid has. He also looked lost on D. Johnson averaged 14 and 9 while shooting the ball extremely well from the field. An athletic wing that can hit the three, defend, and hit free throws is something this team needs.

[theblueram]

I'm not going to bash a kid for playing 13+ minutes in an exhibition game against a DIII team and only scoring 1 point. But we are going to need a lot more than that if we are an NCAAT team.

[Rhody83]

I feel like I keep seeing Ryan Preston being brought up while taking about Devele Johnson. This guys are different players. Ryan Preston was very athletic, but he did not have the range this kid has. He also looked lost on D. Johnson averaged 14 and 9 while shooting the ball extremely well from the field. An athletic wing that can hit the three, defend, and hit free throws is something this team needs.

How do you know Johnson can defend at the D1 level? He has a nice shooting touch. Let’s see how it transitions to D1.
Ryan Preston played the 4. DJ will play the 3. Ryan Preston struggled with the defensive concepts and that is why he only averaged 8 mins/game (even with Harris only playing 18 mins/game).

I like DJ and hope he provides an offensive spark plug off the bench.
I am confident that Tate and Long will get more minutes than him to start the season.

[Ram96]

So basically we have the same team as last year.

Exactly. With one or two of the freshman stepping into CT's spot, and more minutes for Tate.

.......so, the more things change, the more the remain the same......?

Hopefully the 3 point shooting percentage doesn’t remain the same

[rambone 78]

With Sheppard's "academics" what does the staff think that will do to the team's APR, if he was eligible?

Nothing good I would imagine.

[wgracie99]

I wonder if Shepard will stay. For a kid, who doesn't seem to like academics much, to hang around a whole year without playing (just practicing) and only have 1 year of eligibility next year...???

[DeanDome88]

Do players have a chance to become academically eligible after each semester?

[Billyboy78]

Jeff and Fatts played 36 and 35 minutes respectively last night. This is against LIU. How many minutes are they going to have to play in the tough OOC games and the conference games? They can't play those types of minutes all season long. That's where the loss of Sheppard is really going to hurt.

[DC_Rams]

Jeff and Fatts played 36 and 35 minutes respectively last night. This is against LIU. How many minutes are they going to have to play in the tough OOC games and the conference games? They can't play those types of minutes all season long. That's where the loss of Sheppard is really going to hurt.

The reality is...they will have too, unless Hammond can step UP.

[PeterRamTime]

What if he does really well academically this semester? Can ge be approved for next semester?

[SmartyBarrett]

Former Fordham Ram gets denied.

[adam914]

What if he does really well academically this semester? Can ge be approved for next semester?

I don't think so. The school basically announced he was out for the year.

[Roz]

I thought we have an appeal in

[reef]

I don’t mind a Jeff and a Fatts average 35 minutes a game these are well conditioned guys who we want on the floor most of the game especially Jeff who is a senior

[RhodyRam86]

I don’t mind a Jeff and a Fatts average 35 minutes a game these are well conditioned guys who we want on the floor most of the game especially Jeff who is a senior

Probably not a huge problem in most games, but lack of depth will catch up against teams that play like VCU. Will also hurt in the A10 tourney when they have to play 3 or 4 days in a row.

[rambone 78]

That's why we need the double bye...play 3 days in a row, no more.

[RIFan]

I thought Sheppard was going to be a major key to this teams success, and I think his absence will cost us games. I viewed him in a similar role that Preston played, where he could spell the 1 or the 2 and end up with about 20 min a game and not a huge drop off in production.

[Rhody83]

Dan had a process where he rotated players out after 7 minutes. He would move the subs thru the starters so every player rested twice every half.
In 2016-17 Terrell, EC and Hassan were the best players on the team. They averaged 31, 29 & 26 minutes. There was a reason for that. These conditioned athletes play better with adequate rest. The shoot better and perform almost every basketball skill better.
The 4th player to start every games was KI - he also averaged 26 mins. Jarvis and Jeff split the starts as the PG. They had ten players average 10 minutes or more.

[reef]

I noticed cox likes to take JD out before a TV timeout to try and get him a little extra rest