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BASKETBALL MT adds Elias King from Miss. State/C.J. Jones leaves to play professionally

since he sat out a year and just completed his junior season, is he graduating and just wants to move with his life? Or was there something else going on?
 
Best thing that could happen to this upcoming season would be it being cancelled due to the pandemic.
 
If he is able to graduate, either May or August, would look like he has 3 options:
1. Return here for his last season of eligibility. Take a few classes.
2. As a grad transfer, move to his 3rd school, for only one year. While enrolled in grad school.
3. With degree in hand, get on with your life & try and make a living hoopin’ overseas.
Given our prospects for post-season next year don’t look promising, makes a lot of sense for him to see what he can do overseas.
 
Would love to hear RaiderDawg78's thoughts on this as I know he follows Miss St. closely too
 
Best thing that could happen to this upcoming season would be it being cancelled due to the pandemic.

No because all players would get another year of eligibility and we would have essentially no movement within our roster.

We need development and turnover with better players to replace the previous.
 
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No because all players would get another year of eligibility and we would have essentially no movement within our roster.

We need development and turnover with better players to replace the previous.

I feel like this is arguing which song the mariachi band should be playing as the ship sinks.
 
Head-scratching decision.

Agreed; of all the returning players Jones is way down on the list of those I thought would not be on the roster next year. At least this opens up a spot for another signing but we just lost out on all the guards I am aware we were "in on" for next year (one possible exception with a very non-impressive offer list). Perhaps someone will fall our way.
 
Losing what would arguably be your best player on the team is yet another real lowlight. A rising senior to boot. He sits a year to play a year and doesn't even bother with his final year. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Ultimately only he could say why he is making this decision. Given the circumstances, one could probably hit in the ballpark with some semi-informed guesses.

The one most would understand fairly easy is if he were leaving early for the NBA. I don't think the evidence would support that theory. He's good, but he ain't that good.

Sometimes a player might depart early if some hotshot phenom is coming on board the team that just might take the upperclassmen's starting slot. There has been no hint of that especially with him likely being the star of the team in the upcoming season.

It could be some personal life situation that us folks on here have no idea about. While that certainly could remain as a possibility, the theory I'm leaning towards is just a lack of motivation, expectation, or hope for next year's team. If your team is coming together for a bright future, usually a senior leader would want to be there for that. That would especially be the case if the team had contending for a championship type of aspirations and hope for the upcoming season.

Perhaps it's my bias, but it sure seems to speak of a coming year of low expectations. I guess we now know which guard they were likely trying to replace by recruiting the JUCO ranks.
 
Losing the so-called 'best' player on a team that did not beat three D1 opponents (outside southern miss) is not something I'm not going dress in sack cloth and ashes and sit in a corner and cry about. His performances were uneven. Our guard play was supposed to be a strength and Jones' uneven play just highlighted how badly our two returning guards had regressed.
 
Jones could shoot thees and short jumpers if he was open. That's about it. He scored alot of points because our offense consisted of basically just chucking threes. He couldn't really penetrate to the basket, play defense, or rebound exceptionally well. Losing him is the least of our problems. Im not worried about it.
 
Losing the so-called 'best' player on a team that did not beat three D1 opponents (outside southern miss) is not something I'm not going dress in sack cloth and ashes and sit in a corner and cry about. His performances were uneven. Our guard play was supposed to be a strength and Jones' uneven play just highlighted how badly our two returning guards had regressed.

Both Jones and Green looked like world beaters in the (weak) early pre-season. Weren't they among the leading scoring duos in the country early? And Sims was not up to last year's standard either. I just don't know why those of us who thought the guard play would help us show improvement got it so wrong.
 
Both Jones and Green looked like world beaters in the (weak) early pre-season. Weren't they among the leading scoring duos in the country early? And Sims was not up to last year's standard either. I just don't know why those of us who thought the guard play would help us show improvement got it so wrong.

Another reason it's hard to gauge any team until you get into conference play...

From my observations Green and Jones were essentially the same player- Jones just happened to be taller and had a better mid-range game.. the 3 guards didn't compliment each other in any way.. they were all offensive players & they all had similar weaknesses on defense (poor lateral movement, terrible weak-side positioning, low defensive IQ in help/recover situations- especially in man-man defense).. Jones' addition bumped Green to the secondary scorer and he never seemed to mentally recover.. you can get away with one guy in your lineup at any given time with those low basketball IQ, noted defensive deficiencies but not when you have 3 guards that all have similar weaknesses- on offense none of those guys could consistently make a play for themselves or beat the defense off the bounce... they were all shooters that need a setup guy- a bunch of Robin's with no Batman and thus you get bad results as we saw as the season played out..
 
Another reason it's hard to gauge any team until you get into conference play...

From my observations Green and Jones were essentially the same player- Jones just happened to be taller and had a better mid-range game.. the 3 guards didn't compliment each other in any way.. they were all offensive players & they all had similar weaknesses on defense (poor lateral movement, terrible weak-side positioning, low defensive IQ in help/recover situations- especially in man-man defense).. Jones' addition bumped Green to the secondary scorer and he never seemed to mentally recover.. you can get away with one guy in your lineup at any given time with those low basketball IQ, noted defensive deficiencies but not when you have 3 guards that all have similar weaknesses- on offense none of those guys could consistently make a play for themselves or beat the defense off the bounce... they were all shooters that need a setup guy- a bunch of Robin's with no Batman and thus you get bad results as we saw as the season played out..

Good astute appraisal which does much to explain why those 3 guards should not have been expected to lead the team to show improvement over the previous year. I agree with it all except that I've never seen Sims as an offensive player. IMHO the fact that he was called on to score in his soph. year hurt his PG play last year. Just my 2 cents.
 
The collapse of Green and spotty play of Jones negatively affected Sims.

IIRC, Sims was initially a walk-on who was known as a prototypical PG - a distributor of the ball. And I don't think anyone expected him to be a future starter.

That said, I think if he can ease back into that role a bit (distribute instead of score) maybe even come off the bench, he will be a better player.
 
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Good astute appraisal which does much to explain why those 3 guards should not have been expected to lead the team to show improvement over the previous year. I agree with it all except that I've never seen Sims as an offensive player. IMHO the fact that he was called on to score in his soph. year hurt his PG play last year. Just my 2 cents.

Don't disagree with your input whatsoever.. since he's better on the scoring side of the ball (overall)- I associated him there- he had some notable scoring outbursts in CNMs first year... and he's a terrible on-ball defender.. he does much better on D in zone schemes.. I'm not going to berate the kid here by being specific but his ability to run the offense last year was very poor and for those actually watching games there are a ton of examples that illustrate the point..

I think Sims needs to figure out what type of player he wants to be his last year.. as it stands I wonder how much PT he'll get if there's any guard depth.. ideally he turns the corner and puts his game together, if he repeats this year he'll be a 6-8 minute/game guy...
 
The collapse of Green and spotty play of Jones negatively affected Sims.

IIRC, Sims was initially a walk-on who was known as a prototypical PG - a distributor of the ball. And I don't think anyone expected him to be a future starter.

That said, I think if he can ease back into that role a bit (distribute instead of score) maybe even come off the bench, he will be a better player.

Kermit may have been blowing smoke when he signed Sims but in interviews he was very high on Sim's ability to become a good PG.
IIRC the only reason that Sims was a walk-on his freshman year was that his parents assumed his support (in addition to Hope Scholarship funds) and he accepted walk-on status to enable an additional signing (King?) for that one season with the stipulation that he would be on scholarship in subsequent years. That was my understanding at the time.
 
What I noticed most about Sims his freshman year was how much better the offense flowed than when Dixon was in at PG. Of course he had a lot of talent around him. Maybe next year with the additions of Dishman, Davis, and hopefully King he can go back to facilitating more.

As it stands right now who do you all see starting to begin the year? I got:
Jackson
Dishman
King (Jayce or Jalen Jordan if King not eligible)
Davis
Sims (Only because he seems to be the only true PG on the team other than Coffey a walk-on)
 
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IIRC the only reason that Sims was a walk-on his freshman year was that his parents assumed his support (in addition to Hope Scholarship funds) and he accepted walk-on status to enable an additional signing (King?) for that one season with the stipulation that he would be on scholarship in subsequent years.
I think you are right.
 
Do we expect King to make it official today, the first day of the regular signing period?

Additionally, anything on whether or not there will be additional signings during this signing period since we now know there is at least one slot open?
 
Do we expect King to make it official today, the first day of the regular signing period?

Additionally, anything on whether or not there will be additional signings during this signing period since we now know there is at least one slot open?

 
Now that King is officially in the fold could someone, without "cutting my head off", explain why it is thought by some that King may be eligible next season without having to sit out the normal transfer year.
 
Now that King is officially in the fold could someone, without "cutting my head off", explain why it is thought by some that King may be eligible next season without having to sit out the normal transfer year.

You have the rule that is most likely going to pass for the 1 time transfer without setting out. There may be something else that i'm not aware of.
 
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If guys like Justin Fields and Tate Martell can get a transfer waiver than every single transfer regardless of sport should get one as well.
 
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