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Anyone else noticing all the rebounds where Emelogu skies and grabs it with one hand? If he rebounds like this all year on both ends it is going to go a long way for us. Not to mention if he's knocking down 3s like last night

My son and I were discussing how high he is getting up this year. We certainly need him to hit the boards hard.

I thought you were referencing Ben's persona on this message board.

He's a beast among guards. I've actually never seen him get out "muscled" for a rebound against another guard. He's "country strong" as we used to say. Strong hands, etc. If he gets that 3 to go consistently (like last night), watch out boys and girls. And, I know Shake is our best player, but the more I think about it I really think we go as far as his play takes us. Not that he's the point leader or anything. But if he plays inconsistently, I think we will have an inconsistent year and may be looking at the NIT. If he plays at a high level consistently, especially against the 'good teams' we're 'supposed to beat like UCF, Temple, etc, then we have a good chance to make the tourney. Don't take any 'bad losses' and actually beat one of the top teams like USC, Cincy, WSU, then we are definitely in. And he'll have to play some of his best games against them to win.

The more I think about it, and I know this isn't specific to the OP, but I really think this year is much more about avoiding the 'bad losses' and stealing one good win somewhere (we will have opportunities). Do that and we're in. A bad loss will really hurt with no good wins. Just go undefeated at Moody and don't have any 'bad losses' on the road and we're in!

I've seen numerous occasions where I thought he escaped an over the back call on rebounds, but there's no question he is an exceptional rebounder for his position. Which is one reason why he is perennially underrated when he's not the smooth shooter that Shake is or that Sterling or Semi or Nic were for us.

I go back and forth between Gu and Whitt as to who is our X-factor this year. I think Whitt is going to have to be a little more of a scoring threat to keep good teams honest so that he can continue to dribble drive through the middle.

ojaipony wrote:Just go undefeated at Moody and don't have any 'bad losses' on the road and we're in!

If we go undefeated at Moody we would be in the tourney - that would mean at least 3 wins against top 10 teams and guarantee at least a .500 record vs Top 25.

PonyFan32 wrote:I've seen numerous occasions where I thought he escaped an over the back call on rebounds, but there's no question he is an exceptional rebounder for his position. Which is one reason why he is perennially underrated when he's not the smooth shooter that Shake is or that Sterling or Semi or Nic were for us.

I go back and forth between Gu and Whitt as to who is our X-factor this year. I think Whitt is going to have to be a little more of a scoring threat to keep good teams honest so that he can continue to dribble drive through the middle.

I have had the same thought. I think Whitt is the X-factor. We need Gu to keep doing what he is doing (rebounding, playing good D, no TO’s and hitting 3’s). Asking him to do more than that is a little much, but if he can do that it would be huge.

Whitt needs to become more of a threat offensively otherwise in Conference it will hurt. He needs to be more aggressive attacking the bucket and shooting mid-range. He doesn’t have to score 12PPG, but we need a consistent 8-10PPG out of him. If he can effectively score around the bucket and get in the paint it will take us to another level.

I love what Gu is giving us right now though. If he can be a consistent spot up 3 shooter with everything else he already does that would be huge.