Interesting....Jank Mad Scientist?!?

[shadowman]

Mike, Chag, Foster, Whitt, Mac,

Like this lineup, give them time to gel. Could give many teams problems.

[Charleston Pony]

Problem is not with our starting 5. Need more than 2 guys contributing off the bench.

[PonyTime]

The interchangeable parts offense that led to this moniker works quite well when you have a bunch of future NBA talent on the floor. Not so sure it will work with some of the recruits that we have landed more recently - I hope I am wrong.

[The Falcon]

I think this team is on the verge of being very good. In addition to the
starters named above - Hunt is playing very well, Dixon is playing well and is a very
good athlete, and White has been poised and has not hurt us. I haven't seen enough of
Young to know if he will contribute. I keep pulling for Douglas but so far he has not
shown that he will help this team on offense. He does appear to be a good defender and
does go after rebounds.

Does anyone know if Ray is out for the year or will he be back at some point?

[blackoutpony]

I think this team is on the verge of being very good. In addition to the
starters named above - Hunt is playing very well, Dixon is playing well and is a very
good athlete, and White has been poised and has not hurt us. I haven't seen enough of
Young to know if he will contribute. I keep pulling for Douglas but so far he has not
shown that he will help this team on offense. He does appear to be a good defender and
does go after rebounds.

Does anyone know if Wray is out for the year or will he be back at some point?

We have literally played teams that would get wrecked by some AAU teams out there. We haven't played anyone and trying to infer we'll be good after we've somehow lost to 3 of those garbage teams is laughable at best and irresponsible at worst.

[JasonB]

I don't think I would "expect" that transition, but things are at least headed in the right direction. The offense is better, and the defense played one good half of basketball last game for the first time all season.

Defensively, McMurray and Chargois are below average, but Whitt and Foster are above very good defenders and Mike has the athleticism to be above average. So we should be able to put together a solid defensive effort as a whole. Potential to get a lot better defensively, just like we are seeing now on the offensive end.

Another interesting thing to look at is the player rotation last year with a full squad compared to this year. Last season before injuries, you had Whitt, Shake, McMurray, Foster, Chagois with Gu, Landrum, Douglas at guard and Ray/Akoy as bigs.

This year: Whitt, McMurray, Foster, Mike, Chagois. Dixon, White, Douglas at guard and Hunt/Young as bigs.

Starting 5 we lose Shake for Mike. Obviously a big drop there regardless of how much Mike improves. That said, it allows Foster to play more of a 3 than a 4, and I think he is a better fit at a wing position. And McMurray last year shot 45% from 2 and 40% from three. This year he is at 54% and 45% respectively. So a significant jump in performance. Whitt and Chagois are both playing significantly better than last year as well. Don't look now, but all of a sudden after the last couple of games Mike's stats are actually looking better than his Frosh stats. Does an improved Whitt, McMurray, and Chagois plus Mike make up for the loss of Shake? Maybe not quite, but at least it is relatively close.

The bench is really interesting. Dixon isn't bad, but GU was great until the team got beat up. White fits the system better than Landrum, so I think we are better there. And Hunt/Young are much, much better than Ray./Akoy, so that is a huge jump. Remember, at Akoy was super out of shape for most of the year and even young has been better than he was at this point last season.

I don't think last year's team was going to be great even before all of the injuries. It was probably an NIT team or squeaked into the tourney. We had a couple of big wins, but a lot of inconsistencies. I think this team "could" be at around the same level as last year's healthy team once we get to conference. But we have to improve massively on defense to get there.

The whole point of all this is that we can all speculate on what next year's recruiting class looks like and all of that. Coaches don't get judged until the team on the court struggles. This team we have right now has talent on it, especially with Foster back. This team, as currently constructed, has enough talent to compete for an NCAA bid. That SHOULD be our expectations for this season. We should all be disappointed if it doesn't come to fruition. Keep your expectations high and continue to be frustrated if we don't get there, because that is the only thing that will push back against settling for mediocracy.

[ojaipony]

Starting 5 are solid when they play hard and stick to the LB principles (sharing/rebounding/defense!).

I think we have a pretty good 2 more deep with Hunt and Dixon. I'd like to see more of another true point guard (Dixon is a great backup, could see him as a '6 man of the year' award type winner) and big (Hunt is more of a hybrid, high flier type and needs to crash boards and play tough interior defense ...and he's just a freshman so not a knock at him at all).

[sadderbudweiser]

Starting 5 are solid when they play hard and stick to the LB principles (sharing/rebounding/defense!).

I think we have a pretty good 2 more deep with Hunt and Dixon. I'd like to see more of another true point guard (Dixon is a great backup, could see him as a '6 man of the year' award type winner) and big (Hunt is more of a hybrid, high flier type and needs to crash boards and play tough interior defense ...and he's just a freshman so not a knock at him at all).

I’m not sure how much Young will be able to contribute this season but I do think he’s got great potential in the future. By season’s end I think both Hunt and White are important pieces.

Hunt’s skills are obvious. White’s may not be as evident right now but he is showing some really interesting things. As good as Gu was at the end, I think White gives us more than Gu over time.

So my question becomes: why McBride?

[dalpony]

Concerning White - I hope you are right but GU was pretty good

[Charleston Pony]

Yes, watching 5 guys on the perimeter waiting for someone to take it one on one is really fun to watch...and should take us all the way to about a 15-15 season, thanks to a soft non-conference schedule. I'm afraid this TCU loss is REALLY going to test the loyalty of even the 1500. I'm ready to jump on board with those calling for a coaching change.

[sadderbudweiser]

Ray Charles could see it.

He could probably also shoot better than our team did in the second half.

[SMU_Alum11]

Yes, watching 5 guys on the perimeter waiting for someone to take it one on one is really fun to watch...and should take us all the way to about a 15-15 season, thanks to a soft non-conference schedule. I'm afraid this TCU loss is REALLY going to test the loyalty of even the 1500. I'm ready to jump on board with those calling for a coaching change.

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