Mail time!

Hey guys, sorry I didn't check in with an update that the first off-season story was going to be posted. To be honest, I was watching the games all day yesterday and forgot to hop on here.

There's always more questions after a story, but I wanted to add that there will be more stuff this off-season, hopefully answering more of them. Particularly about recruiting. Got a lot from Howie on the general process, and things like that, but I'm going to save a bunch of it for what I hope is an interesting longer recruiting feature sometime this offseason.

With that, let's hit the bag. And as always, send me more questions on things I didn't cover to mstraubblog@Hotmail.com

Got a couple of questions from another Matt (still a great name).
Since his email (while very good) was long, I'll just put the answers in;
From what I've been able to gather about Alexander, I'd guess his offense next year comes mostly on offensive rebounds and layups. Basically I think he can put up Dave-like numbers right away if he can understand the offense well enough to play and can play defense without fouling. Those last 2 are huge ifs, however.
As for Allen's style, I'll let Howie answer: "Runner, jumper, athlete who can make a 17-foot shot. He’s more inside than outside.”
He went on to say he might use him more of an outside player next year as CCSU can use shooters.
Also this from Howie about him: "I'm not sure where he’s going to play, but you need competition in practice. And if he wants to beat out some of the veterans, fine. It’s only going to make us better to have players working even harder for playing time.”
As for Efese... I didn't mean to "push him aside." I've written a lot about his improvement of late, thought we'd kind of covered that topic... at least until the start of next year when we see how he fits in. This is the most underrated part of what a coach does. He must figure out, in this case, how to keep developing Efese while playing Kenny. Like I said before, CCSU will be VERY deep next year up front. Someone is going to get a big cut in time.

My early thoughts on a rotation: Devan and Shemik in back, Robby, Ken and Dave up front to start. Markeys, Joe E, Justin and Chris off the bench along with Vince. Tull and the other two freshmen that come in might be the odd men out. But we didn't see much of Tull this year because of injury, and he is athletic. Could be useful in an Aaron Hall way sometime.
Again, that's just me talking.
Positionally, it might fit better with two guards and Ken and Joe E both up front, but Devan became a solid ball-control guy and I can't imagine sitting Shemik, so I think Robby plays the 3.

One other thing I saw mentioned today that was wrong (according to Howie), and it's a mistaken belief I held as well. He said he doesn't do much scheduling based on team strength, so the idea that a bigger schedule mean he thinks the team is better isn't necessarily true.
While I did get a more upbeat vibe from him than I have in a couple of years about next year, he said the schedule is based more on money and who will play you than anything else. Still, I think it's fair to say they're more likely to take an extra guarantee game in a year when they expect to be good like next year.

That's all I can think of to add at the moment, feel free to ask more questions if I missed something.

Oh, as for RMU: 2 thoughts. 1) While I don't believe in conspiracy theories involving refs, I will say I've seen better officiating in the WWE than I saw in that game. 2) Mike Rice earned himself a better job next year, but I'm not sure the openings are there for a big jump. The only Big East job open is St. John's. While it's not out of the realm of possibility, I'm not sure that's where they go.
I could see Fordham since he's from there, but he might want a better situation. My guess is he ends up in the MAAC, especially if the Iona or Siena coaches move up. The St. John's job will flick all the dominoes in the Northeast this year.