Rokas Gustys

[HofstraMathew]

he is looking like first team all caa in his sophomore year. 5th in points and 1st in rebounding (CAA games only)

[Wags]

Just a guess here, but Bill Thieben the last Hofstra player to record back-to-back 20/20 games?

[stuball888]

The rock has solidified the post.he is only a soph . If he develops and type of 12 ft jump shot he will be unstoppable. He has surprised me as to how athletic he is. Is it me or have his hands magically gotten softer over the last 4 games. he catches everything thrown to him in the post.

[HofstraMathew]

The rock has solidified the post.he is only a soph . If he develops and type of 12 ft jump shot he will be unstoppable. He has surprised me as to how athletic he is. Is it me or have his hands magically gotten softer over the last 4 games. he catches everything thrown to him in the post.

How about that crazy reach for a rebound in the jmu game (it's on the highlight video of that game; he reached about three feet to his side and grabbed a one handed rebound.

[daHUPride]

The rock has solidified the post.he is only a soph . If he develops and type of 12 ft jump shot he will be unstoppable. He has surprised me as to how athletic he is. Is it me or have his hands magically gotten softer over the last 4 games. he catches everything thrown to him in the post.

and as dooku25 says along with Green they are "running pick and roll to profession" - I think they will be able to do the same with Buie next year
he has developed improved right in front of our eyes this season - literally game by game
his passing - he makes 1-2 really nice passes per game

[ProudofPride]

It's not every day a Hofstra player gets a shoutout from Ken Pomery
https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy/status/6 ... 4094938112

[Pride97]

The rock has solidified the post.he is only a soph . If he develops and type of 12 ft jump shot he will be unstoppable. He has surprised me as to how athletic he is. Is it me or have his hands magically gotten softer over the last 4 games. he catches everything thrown to him in the post.

It's amazing how much better his hands are now. The ball was bouncing off him consistently at the start of the season and now he can catch and move fluidly (Maybe he was thinking about his move to the basket before he had the ball earlier in the year). He has also greatly improved his finishing. You have to feel confident every time he goes to the hoop and his FG% clearly backs that up.

So impressed with him. Seems to always be in the right place. He's also learning how to pass now that defenses have to watch him. As mentioned in another thread, his pass to Bernardi to set up the and one was a thing of beauty.


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[Cards]

We all watched Eatherton the last few years. Didn't you wonder how a 6'8" guy without a ton of physical abilities always seemed to play a great game. He always seemed to have a knack to be in the right spot to receive a pass or grab a rebound or stop a shot on D. He was not a physically gifted player, although he had good skills and high basketball IQ. He just seemed to have that knack to being in the right place or doing the right thing at the right time.

I contend that Rok has that same basketball "knack". We've been seeing it all year with his rebounding, and now I think we are beginning to see it on offense. It's showing up in movement, his passing instincts, his PnRs. Best part is, I think he is more physically gifted, especially as a post player, than Eatherton ever was. When Eatherton played, he was one of the best in the CAA. I think Rok is showing how good he really can be in this conference, an absolute dominating player. Considering hes a sophomore.....the skies the limit. GO ROK!!!

[ProudofPride]

Quickly looking at stats, from what I can tell, Eatherton's career high rebounds was 16. He averaged the most rebounds his junior year with 10.2. Rokas is averaging 10.6 as a sophomore. Has any CAA player ever registered consecutive 20/20 games before?

[stuball888]

I think the only one off the top of my head would be the "Admiral" David Robinson.

[Wags]

Quickly looking at stats, from what I can tell, Eatherton's career high rebounds was 16. He averaged the most rebounds his junior year with 10.2. Rokas is averaging 10.6 as a sophomore. Has any CAA player ever registered consecutive 20/20 games before?

That's a good question too. And as Stu says, David Robinson would be the likely one, if it was done.

Still waiting for confirmation on my Bill Thieben guess, too. Anyone? Stu? Jojo? EvanJ?

[CyberSam2]

Wags - I can't absolutely confirm Bill Thieben comment but as a classmate of his six of us drove to Princeton, NJ and we saw Bill break the Dillon Gym
rebounding record that day as Hofstra manhandled Princeton. He and Joe Mackey also scored 53 points combined and that record stood for many years
and still may be true today. It was a tremendous Hofstra victory!
Bill was a kid from Rocky Point, NY and actually was offered a scholarship by Duke (yes,Duke) but as a 18 year kid he opted to stay local and Hofstra was
the beneficiary. I believe Reilly was his coach and subsequent to his pro career with the Fort Wayne Pistons he returned to Long Island and became a High
School Principal. Only an 81 year old classmate and Hofstra Basketball fan today would have that info. We loved Hofstra!! ...and even more so today.

[ProudofPride]

Patrick Stevens @D1scourse
Related, Hofstra's Rokas Gustys is the only D-I player in the last 6years with B2B 20-20 games (h/t @collegebb_ref).
https://twitter.com/D1scourse/status/690667139578118145

[Jojogunne]

Wags - I can't absolutely confirm Bill Thieben comment but as a classmate of his six of us drove to Princeton, NJ and we saw Bill break the Dillon Gym
rebounding record that day as Hofstra manhandled Princeton. He and Joe Mackey also scored 53 points combined and that record stood for many years
and still may be true today. It was a tremendous Hofstra victory!
Bill was a kid from Rocky Point, NY and actually was offered a scholarship by Duke (yes,Duke) but as a 18 year kid he opted to stay local and Hofstra was
the beneficiary. I believe Reilly was his coach and subsequent to his pro career with the Fort Wayne Pistons he returned to Long Island and became a High
School Principal. Only an 81 year old classmate and Hofstra Basketball fan today would have that info. We loved Hofstra!! ...and even more so today.

I understand Thieben threw a mean elbow, Sam.

[EvanJ]

Quickly looking at stats, from what I can tell, Eatherton's career high rebounds was 16. He averaged the most rebounds his junior year with 10.2. Rokas is averaging 10.6 as a sophomore. Has any CAA player ever registered consecutive 20/20 games before?

That's a good question too. And as Stu says, David Robinson would be the likely one, if it was done.

Still waiting for confirmation on my Bill Thieben guess, too. Anyone? Stu? Jojo? EvanJ?

I don't have a way of looking up details from games back when Thieben played, and I'm not even sure if Hofstra would have box scores from back then. Thieben has Hofstra's three highest rebounding games ever (Hofstra's Media Guide lists all the times a player had at least 22 rebounds), but they were in three different seasons. Hofstra has all of their results, and none of those three games were the first or last game of a season, so I can say that Thieben never had consecutive games with 22 or more rebounds. I don't know if he had consecutive games with 20 or more rebounds. John Irving, who played after Thieben, had 22 rebounds each in consecutive games against American and Siena in the last two games of 1976-1977 before the ECC Tournament. That means that even if Thieben did it he wasn't the most recent Hofstra player to do it. I don't know if any Hofstra player has done it since Irving.

Wags - I can't absolutely confirm Bill Thieben comment but as a classmate of his six of us drove to Princeton, NJ and we saw Bill break the Dillon Gym
rebounding record that day as Hofstra manhandled Princeton. He and Joe Mackey also scored 53 points combined and that record stood for many years
and still may be true today.

53 points from two Hofstra teammates certainly isn't the school record anymore. On December 8, 2010 at Binghamton, Jenkins scored 40 and Moore scored 28.

[Dooku25]

I don't have a way of looking up details from games back when Thieben played, and I'm not even sure if Hofstra would have box scores from back then. Thieben has Hofstra's three highest rebounding games ever (Hofstra's Media Guide lists all the times a player had at least 22 rebounds), but they were in three different seasons. Hofstra has all of their results, and none of those three games were the first or last game of a season, so I can say that Thieben never had consecutive games with 22 or more rebounds. I don't know if he had consecutive games with 20 or more rebounds.

Thieben's career averages in 3 seasons at Hofstra were 26.9 pts per game and 24.2 rebs per game. So I'm not sure he had many games where he did NOT have 20 and 20.. Those are some gaudy numbers.

http://www.thedraftreview.com/index.php ... ew&id=5663

[Wags]

I don't have a way of looking up details from games back when Thieben played, and I'm not even sure if Hofstra would have box scores from back then. Thieben has Hofstra's three highest rebounding games ever (Hofstra's Media Guide lists all the times a player had at least 22 rebounds), but they were in three different seasons. Hofstra has all of their results, and none of those three games were the first or last game of a season, so I can say that Thieben never had consecutive games with 22 or more rebounds. I don't know if he had consecutive games with 20 or more rebounds.

Thieben's career averages in 3 seasons at Hofstra were 26.9 pts per game and 24.2 rebs per game. So I'm not sure he had many games where he did NOT have 20 and 20.. Those are some gaudy numbers.

http://www.thedraftreview.com/index.php ... ew&id=5663

Yeah that's exactly why I thought he'd probably be the last one before Rok to have had consecutive 20/20 games for Hofstra.

Thought he was taller than 6-6 though! Enough to make him a big-time rebounder back then. Today, just a wing. lol

[EvanJ]

I don't have a way of looking up details from games back when Thieben played, and I'm not even sure if Hofstra would have box scores from back then. Thieben has Hofstra's three highest rebounding games ever (Hofstra's Media Guide lists all the times a player had at least 22 rebounds), but they were in three different seasons. Hofstra has all of their results, and none of those three games were the first or last game of a season, so I can say that Thieben never had consecutive games with 22 or more rebounds. I don't know if he had consecutive games with 20 or more rebounds.

Thieben's career averages in 3 seasons at Hofstra were 26.9 pts per game and 24.2 rebs per game. So I'm not sure he had many games where he did NOT have 20 and 20.. Those are some gaudy numbers.

http://www.thedraftreview.com/index.php ... ew&id=5663

Maybe the 2013-2014 Media Guide I have downloaded is wrong. I agree that Thieben must have had many games with at least 20 rebounds given his career total of 1,837. Regardless of what Thieben did, John Irving had consecutive 20 rebound games more recently.

[Cards]

Looks like the rest of the CAA is coming to realize the impact that Rok is having on games. Today, W&M tried hard to limit the PnR opportunities, and to and extent they did. They also tried to double team Rok every time he got the ball down low......but to no avail! I don't think other teams will be able to adjust to handle all that Rok brings to the floor (not when they also have to concentrate on Green and others). Given the numbers he is putting up, and the reports that must be circulating between teams/scouts, I think the other head coaches are now saying "What da heck do we do to contain this guy?"

In a guard dominated CAA conference, there have not been too many dominating big men, and now they are coming to realize that HU has a big time dominating PF/C. This is such a benefit to HU to finally have a low post option and dominating rebounder. Most other CAA teams only wish they had this luxury. I think the emergence of Rok has really opened up the flood gates for HU and will play havoc with other teams trying to figure out not only how to defend against him, but how to defend against the rest of the team when they have to spend so much time focusing on Rok. Roks play has really opened up floor and will continue to give other teams nightmares!! W&M's Mr Man bun got schooled today! I love it!!

[ProudofPride]

I think he's looked like the best big man in the conference, so far. W&M's best big guy, Sean Sheldon AKA Man Bun was virtually non-existent because Rok dominated him. As unstoppable as he is now, imagine his junior and senior years.