Did they address last years struggles? Any predictions for this year?
Last years struggles came up in a lot of questions and discussions.... Lack of good guard play, inexperience, too much fouling, not enough toughness, lack of scoring and firepower from the backcourt, and not being able to close out games.
Having a walk on like StevieJ, clearly beat out 3 of our recruited guards was reflective of some of those problems. And a few of the players just did not work hard enough.
Changes for this year ---------------------------- Recruiting JUCOs will add immediate experience and are counted on right away. Basketball IQ should be a lot better with the new recruits We added toughness, shooting and ballhandling We should be able to play more guards this year..... Last year we sometimes played with only 1 guard we feel we have a player with scorers mentality at the 2G (Threatt) Frosh don't have to play but they will challenge for PT
Segura challenges Rose Nelson challenges all guards Degnan challenges for PT in all frontcourt positions..... He brings skills that none of our current frontcourt players have.
Last Edit: Jun 23, 2014 11:59:42 GMT -5 by JoeStag
While no one explicitly asked about taking ownership, it was clear in everything SJ said. No sugar coating, an honest accounting of last season and the steps the staff has taken in response.
No mention of Lakoju. Our bigs are going to be Amadou, Kirkland, Malcolm, Coleman and Degnan. Coleman's PT could really suffer if Degnan can contribute.
It would seem that Smith and Chappel will be fighting for minutes. Both backing up Marcus and Chappel behind Threatt along with Nelson and maybe even Rose if Segura starts. Either way, both sophomores have their work cut out for them.
It would seem that Smith and Chappel will be fighting for minutes. Both backing up Marcus and Chappel behind Threatt along with Nelson and maybe even Rose if Segura starts. Either way, both sophomores have their work cut out for them.
I think the backup to Threatt will initially be StevieJ. Nelson and Chappell will have an opportunity to beat both of them out.
I agree that Smith will be Marcus's backup. He will be challenged by Chappell and Nelson.
I did not ask Sydney if he thought Nelson could also compete at PG. However he did say that Nelson is a High IQ player. IMO, he might be able to learn that very quickly. I also did not ask about Jared Harper as being part of the PG competition, but his name was not mentioned. He is a "recruited walk-on" according to NERR. I don't know if StevieJ was a "Recruited Walk-on"
Last Edit: Jun 23, 2014 18:52:59 GMT -5 by JoeStag
It would seem that Smith and Chappel will be fighting for minutes. Both backing up Marcus and Chappel behind Threatt along with Nelson and maybe even Rose if Segura starts. Either way, both sophomores have their work cut out for them.
I think the backup to Threatt will initially be StevieJ. Nelson and Chappell will have an opportunity to beat both of them out.
I agree that Smith will be Marcus's backup. He will be challenged by Chappell and Nelson.
I did not ask Sydney if he thought Nelson could also compete at PG. However he did say that Nelson is a High IQ player. IMO, he might be able to learn that very quickly. I also did not ask about Jared Harper as being part of the PG competition, but his name was not mentioned. He is a re"recruited walk-on" according to NERR. I don't know if StevieJ was a "Recruited Walk-on"
I agree that Stevie J. might start out being the backup to Threatt based on being the best returning 2G on the team. However I've got to think that Nelson will successfully compete for major minutes in that position very quickly once he gets a little experience on the collegiate level. And I could even see him getting some minutes as a backup to Marcus in a 3G lineup if the opposition isn't huge in size in their frontline. As far as PG I think it will be either Rose or Segura as the main competitors. I don't think it will be Nelson. However that doesn't mean Tyler might not have the ball in his hands in certain in game situations as he starts to gain confidence as an important player. He does have the ability to play more than one guard position IMO. But it may take time, and OBTW hopefully Chappell has improved his game enough in the offseason to also become a real competitor at either the 2G or 3G. As far as Smith, if he wants to be #1 behind Marcus he is going to have to have improved parts of his game in the summer that he was weak in such as ballhandling, moving without the ball, etc. He can shoot, we know that. Only problem in his first year was that he didn't do enough things besides that to justify being on the floor long enough to get off the volume of shots that a marksman needs to be of value.