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Much respect to hoopman, and he's forgotten more basketball than I'll ever know. Seriously. However, I'm just not as rosy quite yet. We will agree to disagree on Markus. Hope he's right, and I'm wrong. I think we'll be good, but not tourney good.

If we roll out a lineup featuring Shake, GU, Sterling, Semi and Ben, we can switch EVERY SINGLE BALL SCREEN, which should pose problems for the majority of our opponents. IF we can protect the rim and gang rebound, hoo boy look out.

Exactly Harry. We can switch at will and never have a mismatch, in theory

ojaipony wrote:Much respect to hoopman, and he's forgotten more basketball than I'll ever know. Seriously. However, I'm just not as rosy quite yet. We will agree to disagree on Markus. Hope he's right, and I'm wrong. I think we'll be good, but not tourney good.

Markus was given the opportunity to come back and finish - he declined. What a wasted opportunity on his part

hoopmanx wrote:Exactly Harry. We can switch at will and never have a mismatch, in theory

And matchup hell for the teams with slow bigs and/or small guards.

Again, exactly. Beyond that, 5 guys who can drive and get in the lane from their position. That puts so much pressure on the D, and opens up tons of kick opportunities, to guys who can actually shoot.

hoopmanx wrote:Again, exactly. Beyond that, 5 guys who can drive and get in the lane from their position. That puts so much pressure on the D, and opens up tons of kick opportunities, to guys who can actually shoot.

and now, under Jank, with a green light to shoot open threes

hoopmanx wrote:Again, exactly. Beyond that, 5 guys who can drive and get in the lane from their position. That puts so much pressure on the D, and opens up tons of kick opportunities, to guys who can actually shoot.

I agree. This is what he did at Illinois State and it improved their team well enough to get to the NIT.

My biggest concern is lack of height. Fooling is dirk ish - not a banger, which leaves basically nobody to bang against the other teams beast. There are teams that will exploit that - we are going to have to play about as fast as anyone can play and just wear the big guys out, cause there isn't anyone to push them around inside.

MK was liked and was a positive emotionally at times on the court, but from what I heard not what you would call a leader.

Can't wait to shake unleash his threes.

gostangs wrote:My biggest concern is lack of height. Fooling is dirk ish - not a banger, which leaves basically nobody to bang against the other teams beast. There are teams that will exploit that - we are going to have to play about as fast as anyone can play and just wear the big guys out, cause there isn't anyone to push them around inside.

MK was liked and was a positive emotionally at times on the court, but from what I heard not what you would call a leader.

Can't wait to shake unleash his threes.

Don't assume Froling can't bang, he grew up skinny, and has played a lot on the perimeter in international ball, but he's gained more than 30 pounds in the last year, and has made a lot of progress on his play in the paint. I think he wants to be a physical presence inside, and now he has a body that can take up space defensively, and bang to create space on offense.

i think Tolbert is a bigger loss than MK. Tolbert was a true banger and rim defender for us. I'd like to think that Ben or Semi can fill that void, but they are more close to 4's.

nic was a liability on defense, but shake is also. Hope he can improve his defensive intensity - it's the only knock on his NBA game at the moment.

ive looked at our schedule time and again. What 5s are gonna make us pay over their shoulders?

Not a 5 but Gary Clark worries me. That guy is a load. Averaged 9 boards a game last season. Didn't realize he was the AAC defensive POY last season.

hoopmanx wrote:ive looked at our schedule time and again. What 5s are gonna make us pay over their shoulders?

The one we draw in the first round of the tourney.

And yeah...... Clark is for real. Not sure there is an answer for him.