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I wasn't buying the Yanick hype after this Summer when he scored 38 points on fast breaks in an international game the Aussies were trying to lose, didn't buy it after an open practice where people said he looked improved (he didn't, same old coordination issues catching the ball on freaking rebounds and post entries), and didn't buy it after season game number 1 when he went 9-9 against a high school team who's tallest starter was 6'6".

Last night validated my thoughts on Yanick. He took the most shots of anyone on the team and went 1-11 in only 22 minutes. It was even tougher to watch than that statline suggests. He got pushed around, looked uncoordinated, and couldn't do anything productive with the ball on offense.

I can understand why some people on this board love his upside because he's 6-11, athletic, and a good shot-blocking defensive presence, but at a certain point you can't afford to have him out on the court because of his offensive and rebounding issues. I can't wait for Markus to come back.

On a side note, Keith hasn't looked much better this season. Still not getting anything going towards the basket and making the same mental errors as last year. It hurts because nobody loves rooting for Keith more than me.

If I had my way, our starting lineup going forward would be:

Nic Moore
Ben Emelogu
Justin Martin
Ben Moore
Cannen Cunningham

Agreed- we need Markus back ASAP. Yanick was a disaster offensively last night and didn't give us much on the defensive end either

You're going to use one game against the best front line that we will play all year to validate your thoughts? Come on man. I think people are overreacting wayyyyyyyyyyy too much.

He looked just like he did last year. How many shots did he have blocked? 5?

Predictable reaction. Save this thread for later in the year.

He can't finish at the rim, he's still probably 215 pounds and he's going to get pushed around by any halfway formidable front court we face. Someone PDF Markus' assignments and send them to me so we can get him eligible ASAP

Harry0569 wrote:You're going to use one game against the best front line that we will play all year to validate your thoughts? Come on man. I think people are overreacting wayyyyyyyyyyy too much.

I'm really using all of last year and this one game against the best front line that we will play all year to validate my thoughts. I came into this season (like most of us) hoping he would have improved but really I saw the same old Yanick. I will agree with you that this is probably an overreaction and I'm not calling for him to be cut or anything, I just think that offensively he gives us next to nothing and last night was sooooooo grossssss to watch him repeatedly get stuffed or throw up garbage in traffic. At this level, he'll have nights where he will look impressive against weaker teams without frontcourt talent (i.e. Houston Lamar), but when we play the big programs this year I expect more of the same from last night.

I think we can use him situationally when we need length on defense and hope he can improve in other areas, but I don't think he should get more than about 20 minutes per game and certainly not start when Markus gets back.

Yanick had an awful game, there is no denying that. I appreciate that he was aggressive on the offensive end, and to be fair of his 11 shots I would say only 2-3 were "bad shots". He mostly had good looks that he didn't finish or didn't drop. One game might just be a one off on those shots not falling (and to be fair everyone was terrible finishing and shooting last night). If it continues then he might have a problem. Defensively he was OK except he needs to do a much better job of boxing out.

Keith had a rough game but I can actually see some improvement. He is much better at his defensive rotations than he was a year ago. This doesn't mean he's great at his rotations but he is improved which is a good sign. He is still a bit slow but at least his awareness is up and he is going to where he is supposed to as opposed to last year when he would get caught in the wash all the time.

Offensively, KF needs to make better decisions and not be so frantic in possession. KF will continue to grow as a player. He will make some good contributions this year but He is still not to the pint where he will be a consistent and deadly offensive threat. By the time he is a senior I'm sure he will be a very good player who hits 2-3 big shots a game and occasional goes off when he is hot for 6-7 shots and like 20 points.

I agree on Yanick. He looked like a high school kid getting shoved around. Obviously Gonzaga is a great team, but it was laughable how out matched he was all game.

If you take away the OOC games against bad teams last year, he hasn't done anything that I've really been impressed with. I know hoopmanx has a [deleted] for the guy, but I've just never understood it.

Maybe a fire will get lit under his [deleted], just like what happened to Markus last year, but I just don't' see it unfortunately....

Yanick had a bad game, but I think we were going to lose this one regardless (ie. even with MK). Gonzaga looked terrific, and we didn't play well. Looked out of sync all night. Plus that guard Pangos really ate our lunch. So from that perspective maybe a bigger loss for us last night was Mudiay, not MK.

I'm not worried about it though. This is game 2 and the Ponies will improve. We lost to a great team in a gym where they almost never lose. Remember, we blasted UConn, Cincy, and Memphis out of Moody last year. . .but they all made the tourney in the end. Losing big on the road to a top-15 team is not horrible.

I think what could have happened is that we inadvertently ended up scheduling a final four contender just like we did in Football with TCU and Baylor, and even though we are good, we weren't ready for that level of play YET and the extremely hostile environment. I still think that we are way better than how we looked yesterday and I think the outcome would have been different had we played in Moody with our home field advantage.

They did have 3 seven footers on that paint and I think many teams will struggle with that. Nic did not do anything offensively and I think some of the guys made stupid decisions. Hopefully we see corrections before Indiana...but please take a chill pill. The loss sucks but it was probably the toughest game we will play all year on one of the toughest places to play.

Big12Mustang wrote:I think what could have happened is that we inadvertently ended up scheduling a final four contender just like we did in Football with TCU and Baylor, and even though we are good, we weren't ready for that level of play YET and the extremely hostile environment.

Please note that when we scheduled them we had no idea that Kennedy would be out or that Mudiay would be going pro. We also had to upgrade our schedule to look better in order to have a better chance with the NCAA selection committee. Scheduling the 13th ranked team in the country is not a bad scheduling move. We just didn't have the players we thought we would have nor did we know that the Zags would reload like they did. There is also a chance that we made them look better than they really are by playing like we did.

He had an awful game and was pushed around, but he was very close on a slew of those shots. In a game where people couldn't find a look, at least Yanick put a few up. Unless the game is uptempo, he's always going to have problems. It is what it is

I will be interested to see how he matches up with Bobby Portis

Yanick is a "runner". He's more of a SF than a true center IMHO if he can consistently knock down a 10-15 footer. He's not a "banger" center which is definitely what the Zags had. Hell, they had TWO AND some really smooth SFs like Sabonis and the KY dude (Wiltjer or however the [deleted] you spell it).

I think Yanick and MK team up together nicely. kind of a "thunder and lightning" duo.

I still think we should start JMart and Sterling along with Nic, BenM, and Yanick for now.