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If Semi leaves and no immediate bigs emerge, you'd think we would have to go with a lot of full court press on D, rotating through the guards and trying to create some havoc. While I agree we wouldn't be as good as this year, that would definitely be fun to watch and if you can sneak into the tourney, that style typically does pretty well there.

LA_Mustang you asked "Why in the world would Douglas and Landrum start ahead of Whitt, McMurray and/or Gu?"

My Answer
Talent. You put your best 5 on the floor. Especailly in college. Even more, if you have a true PG in college then you put him in the starting lineup. This is College Basketball. What Coach Jank did this season without a true PG was unbelievable. More times than not in college, the team that has the best floor general wins the game. Image Landrum and Shake in the lineup at the same time. That looks good. Go Mustangs!

Gu. He was not a starter this year. And by no means should be a starter next season. Gu is an ok sixth man. Credit to him for winning 6th Man of the year in AAC, but let's be honest... just because Gu is a Senior is not enough to put Gu in the starting lineup. Gu plays well in limited minutes. He is way too hot and cold. See the game against USC. We need more consistency from any of our starters. Compare Gu to Sterling Brown. Sterling showed up every game.

McMurray
He is sitting out the first semester so even discussing starting McMurray is really not up for discussion until the second semester. Maybe he plays his way into the starting lineup. I am confident that he can fill it up, but am really not sure what position he plays on our team, let alone how he fits in with the chemistry of this team. My guess is 2G.

Whitt
Well I do not know much about Whitt other than he transferred from Arkansas. That alone does not impress me. Hope that Whitt is a surprise. I think that I heard that Whitt is showing well in practice, but honestly I have not seen him play. Cannot imagine starting Whitt over a touted Freshman like Douglas.

Landrum
Hopefully gets the opportunity to run the point. Jank is familar with running the offense with an undersized PG. A PG that can run the offense, get others involved and can take the ball to the basket. Nice. An undersized PG that can dunk. Yes.

Shake
No doubt that Shake is a great player. I love Shake's game. Definitely one of our most consistent and talented players on our team this past season. By no means do I think that Shake should be our PG. Shake played PG this season out of necessity. See 2 years ago when Nic Moore was our PG. Can Shake play PG? Sure he can. He did this past season. But the times where we really needed a PG to make decisions and "create" Shake came up short. See the end of the USC game. I was rooting for Shake to make a play or get someone involved, but unfortunately that last play looked like a cluster mess. I would like to think that if we had a PG handling the ball the PG would have taken control earlier in the clock, would have driven to the bucket earlier, or could have passed the ball to a cutting Ben Moore or kicked the ball back to Sterling Brown for 3. Instead Shake waited to get the ball from Sterling and then drove the ball at the last possible moment and threw up a prayer. PG Mentality and PG Execution was missing.

Douglas
Touted Freshman. Hope he gets the opportunity to start. Sure looks like he could eventually fill the shoes of Sterling Brown (and that is a big ask).

So you really don't know anything about Whitt or Douglas and yet you pick the freshman over the sophomore/junior?

Wild Mustang- "Cannot imagine starting Whitt over a touted Freshman like Douglas"

Whitt was more highly rated than all those kids Wild Mustang listed above--and he played pretty well in the SEC as a true freshman-yet he seems to just dismiss the thought that he might start-I don't get it. Whitt was a 4 star on Rivals, Scout, 247 and ESPN and considered around a Top 50 or so player

I don't get it either. There were some interesting points in your post, WM, up until you got to Whitt. From there on, you lost me. Not trying to be a jerk, just don't agree with your comments on Whitt, Landrum, Shake, and Douglas.

I wonder if McMurry could come off the bench and be our Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson?

We can definitely respectfully disagree...

Whitt
I just have not seen Whitt play. I hope that Whitt is "All-World". I hope that you guys are right about Whitt. What was the reason behind why Whitt transferred to SMU?

Douglas
I have read and seen enough videos of Douglas to be really impressed. Douglas reminds me a little of Sterling Brown. Hope he has the determination, drive, tenacity, and confidence that Sterling brought to SMU.

McMurray
I hope McMurray produces same way that he did earlier in his college career. My fear is that his scoring mentality might mess with the SMU unselfish chemistry that is taught at SMU. Hope that the reason that McMurray was scoring so much earlier in his career was really just a factor of playing for a lesser team.

Landrum
Inserting Landrum into the Starting Lineup seems like a no-brainer. A True PG. Remember Jank's success coaching Nic Moore.

Regardless
It is definitely fun being able to discuss what lineups the Mustangs can put on the floor next season. We have the potential to be a deep position at multiple positions. This could be the first time in three years where we can have somewhat of a rotation. We could play a variety of lineups. And we have not really even started to discuss the Freshman BIGS and their potential. Throw in the Freshman BIGS and our team looks really, really good.

Whitt transferred due to lack of playing time. Anthony Beard was the hot player in front of him. Of course UA did not anticipate losing Beard for a while due to being arrested for counterfeiting. They definitely wished they still had Whitt. That said, although he was a prolific shooter in high school, with limited floor time he did not perform to their early expectations. I am certainly hoping he will show his abilities with us.

Thank you for the background info on Whitt

I would rank the guards/wings in this order - Shake, Whitt, McMurray, Gu, McDowell, Douglas, Landrum. Freshmen are freshmen until they earn PT, especially when they have talented upperclassmen ahead of them. Douglas and Landrum have a lot of talent but they are going to be making a huge jump in competition. I hope they adjust quickly but there will be a learning curve as with most freshmsn.

Wild Mustang wrote:Thank you for the background info on Whitt

A good way to review recruits is google the recruit's name and 247 recruiting.

http://247sports.com/Player/Jimmy-Whitt ... tion=14330

Wild Mustang wrote:We can definitely respectfully disagree...

Whitt
I just have not seen Whitt play. I hope that Whitt is "All-World". I hope that you guys are right about Whitt. What was the reason behind why Whitt transferred to SMU?

Douglas
I have read and seen enough videos of Douglas to be really impressed. Douglas reminds me a little of Sterling Brown. Hope he has the determination, drive, tenacity, and confidence that Sterling brought to SMU.

McMurray
I hope McMurray produces same way that he did earlier in his college career. My fear is that his scoring mentality might mess with the SMU unselfish chemistry that is taught at SMU. Hope that the reason that McMurray was scoring so much earlier in his career was really just a factor of playing for a lesser team.

Landrum
Inserting Landrum into the Starting Lineup seems like a no-brainer. A True PG. Remember Jank's success coaching Nic Moore.

Regardless
It is definitely fun being able to discuss what lineups the Mustangs can put on the floor next season. We have the potential to be a deep position at multiple positions. This could be the first time in three years where we can have somewhat of a rotation. We could play a variety of lineups. And we have not really even started to discuss the Freshman BIGS and their potential. Throw in the Freshman BIGS and our team looks really, really good.

I don't have a huge problem with most of your analysis. Jank likes small PG's and I am sure he would love Landrum to be the PG of the future, but Shake WILL BE the PG next year. You can argue he isn't a true fit there, that Jank likes small PG's that your prerogative, I am just telling you Shake will be the PG, there isn't a discussion among the staff. Shake wants to play PG, was recruited here as a PG, and did a good job for most of the season as a PG. Someone might get some solid minutes at the PG w/ Shake, but won't be the starting PG.

Landrum is a true change of pace PG, who is explosive and can finish above the rim, but from knowing OK basketball decently well and having a friend who covers OK basketball, Landrum was a volume scorer in HS and needs work as a true distributing PG. Only averaged 3.5 APG. I think Hoop said it before, Landrum needs some work, but has a real nice upside if his shot becomes more consistent and he learns to play more disciplined.

I am a HUGE Will Douglas fan. He is a great fit for our system and a huge talent. I think he has a game like Sterling too, but with a better shot at this stage of his career. Has the personality of Shake.

On Jimmy Whitt he will be an interesting player. You should go watch his HS film. He will be a good contributor for us because he is a good athlete, solid defender, can attack the rim, and has a good pull up. He underachieved at Arky, because he was too thin and had trouble finishing through contact in the SEC and had a very inconsistent outside shot, but still averaged 6PPG. He is extremely talented and a redshirt year sometimes does guys like him ALOT of good. If he has improved his shot and ability to finish around or through contact (which often comes with adding muscle and exp in college) he could be a STUD.

Whitt HS Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpwfY1TFhfU&t=142s
Whitt: SMU Practice (has hops): https://twitter.com/charliew2525/status ... 3220912129

We have tons of guard talent. Will be interesting to see what happens with Semi and a potential grad-transfer.

For perspective, Whitt (6.1 ppg) as a true freshman averaged more than Sterling Brown, Jarrey Foster and just about exactly the same as Ben Moore (6.2 ppg) did as true freshman-and those guys all played substantial minutes.

What I think bewildered everyone about suggesting that 2 freshman guards should start was a confluence of the following immutable facts about college basketball:

1. We are a Top 20 program at this point. Top 20 programs with our level of talent do not start off inserting freshmen into the starting lineup (see point 2 for exceptions).
2. Even the most talented freshmen are still freshmen. You don't get starters' minutes if you're a freshman on top teams unless your name is Malik Monk, De'Aaron Fox, etc. Love Douglas and Landrum but lets dial back the expectations a little.
3. We are stacked at guard. Nic is not a good comparison to Landrum, as Illinois State didn't have quite the team or guard depth we have.
4. 5 most talented players do not automatically play. Players who know the system, who do the little things well (off-ball/help defense, defensive positioning, placement and spacing on offense) are important. Those things matter as it relates to your minutes. And it is the rare freshman whose raw talent overcomes shortcomings in his system knowledge.

At the end of the day, we all know Shake and Jarrey will start (unless injured). Even assuming Semi doesn't return, one of the other spots would have to be Chargois, Ray or grad transfer big just so we are able to match up against other forwards.

That leaves 2 open starting spots. There is absolutely no way both of those go to freshmen over Whitt. Whitt is more highly rated, plus has 2 years in college (including 1 in our system). It would be criminally negligent for Jank to put 2 freshmen in his starting lineup over Whitt. I could see 1 in the starting lineup if either Douglas or Landrum impresses right off the bat in the fall, but not 2.

I hope Douglas and Landrum are so over the top impressive that they earn major minutes by conference play. But I'm not holding my breath. And fortunately I don't have to.

We should start Landrum bc Jank had success w Nic. OTOH, he's never had more success as a head coach than he had this year w shake starting and he returns. Decisions decisions. we have a top 15 returning, as of now, let's change the whole effin line up.

I will say this, if Semi returns, I move him down to the 3, especially if our grad transfer is ready for sizable burn