This is a Second round team if they keep playing McCormick
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Starting line up needs to be: pg Harris, sg braun, sf ochi, 4 spot garret, 5 spot wilson… mix in Thompson, lightfoot, tristian. McCormick only for specific situations
Playing 5 guards gets garret off the ball and back into what he played last year. He’s better offensively when he can catch around free throw line and start driving. 5 guards Stops McCormick killing offensive drives and being a defensive liability on pick and roll… Any decrease in rebounding or inside scoring would be greatly outweighed by improved pick and roll defense, increased steals, and improved offense… McCormick is not a good rebounder, not a shot blocking presence, and not a great offensive threat. Plus he doesn’t realize he’s more landen Lucas level and needs to do the little things well. He takes way too many shots and bad looks.
Becoming a high energy 5 guard team makes this team more dangerous long term!
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This is a 2nd round team regardless imo. S16 would be an accomplishment…
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@BShark I’m not convinced. I think we can make noise
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I will be ecstatic with a sweet 16 from this bunch.
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Sweet 16 i’ll celebrate like we won the thing
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@approxinfinity said in This is a Second round team if they keep playing McCormick:
@BShark I’m not convinced. I think we can make noise
There’s a lot of relatively inexperienced players on this team. Self’s less experienced teams don’t have a great track record of making deep runs.
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I think I’ve been perhaps one of the most critical people commenting on Big Mac. And I really love this guy! He totally brings the right attitude.
But his limitations are well known by everyone we play. His lateral dexterity is awful. He’s a guy that can be taken off the drive by another big guy from the top of the key. So that means… any big can drive or shoot on him facing the basket as well as nail him down low on back to the basket moves. He is part of what keeps us from being a fast team.
I think the spots at the 4 and 5 are still hard to decide and should be made based on upcoming opponent for now.
So if we do go without a real 5 we need to adjust offense and defense to best take advantage of it. We still need ball screens and other tactics used with a real big man. Most of that is an attempt to get the ball handler an advantage by being defended by a big anyways.
The real key to our offense is keeping the ball moving, proper spacing, and plenty of motion (off-ball and driving). This isn’t rocket science.
If we don’t bring energy to a game we will probably lose. Texas proved that.
Having said that… we still need to have a valid big man this season. How do you keep him able to contribute if he rides the bench most of the game. It’s a real dilemma… one that I know Self thinks about.
I think the biggest structural issue with this team is keeping Marcus at point. After he recoups from this injury he needs to be rewarded by putting him back at the 2. Tell him to mentally flush most of the crap he has had to deal with all year at point. Bring back the old Marcus! And though he can play at bigger positions… his natural position is the 2, and he has already proven he can be National Defensive Player Of The Year at the 2.
Braun and Ochi have been good, but a bit inconsistent. See how it works to rotate them in, maybe also in the three-man rotation with Marcus, so he gets well-rested.
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A team like OU that’s going to stretch the floor at the big position on Saturday, my suggestion is we zone a team like that. Get Dave off guarding a big on the perimeter that way. I still think you can play M2M against Oklahoma because he won’t play all 40 but the big matchup tomorrow is how you disguise Dave on defense. Just my two cents
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5 guards, man it up, Harris and Marcus. Guard maniac and WSU smart guy
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@drgnslayr said in This is a Second round team if they keep playing McCormick:
I think I’ve been perhaps one of the most critical people commenting on Big Mac. And I really love this guy! He totally brings the right attitude.
But his limitations are well known by everyone we play. His lateral dexterity is awful. He’s a guy that can be taken off the drive by another big guy from the top of the key. So that means… any big can drive or shoot on him facing the basket as well as nail him down low on back to the basket moves. He is part of what keeps us from being a fast team.
I think the spots at the 4 and 5 are still hard to decide and should be made based on upcoming opponent for now.
So if we do go without a real 5 we need to adjust offense and defense to best take advantage of it. We still need ball screens and other tactics used with a real big man. Most of that is an attempt to get the ball handler an advantage by being defended by a big anyways.
The real key to our offense is keeping the ball moving, proper spacing, and plenty of motion (off-ball and driving). This isn’t rocket science.
If we don’t bring energy to a game we will probably lose. Texas proved that.
Having said that… we still need to have a valid big man this season. How do you keep him able to contribute if he rides the bench most of the game. It’s a real dilemma… one that I know Self thinks about.
I think the biggest structural issue with this team is keeping Marcus at point. After he recoups from this injury he needs to be rewarded by putting him back at the 2. Tell him to mentally flush most of the crap he has had to deal with all year at point. Bring back the old Marcus! And though he can play at bigger positions… his natural position is the 2, and he has already proven he can be National Defensive Player Of The Year at the 2.
Braun and Ochi have been good, but a bit inconsistent. See how it works to rotate them in, maybe also in the three-man rotation with Marcus, so he gets well-rested.
I honestly like Big Dave. I think he’s a good player. Unfortunately, he needs to play in a more traditional lineup to be most effective and this team cannot play a traditional lineup and still have their best 7 players playing consistently.
Big Dave was the guy that was hurt the most with Silvio being out this year. If Silvio is still on this roster, we can play him and Big Dave together with a more traditional look, with Mitch backing them up. That team looks a lot different and can play a completely different style than this one can.
Big Dave just isn’t the type of player that is a 4 out center. He’s not a big time shotblocker or power post presence. He’s an effective passer, but he’s more of a face and shoot big than a power on the block player. That’s what makes him effective with another big on the floor. But that’s not this roster.
Trying to force the rest of the roster around him is a bad fit when you have a roster full of guys (Garrett, Agbaji, Braun, Wilson, Thompson, Harris, TGF, Enaruna) that actually do fit together well as cohesive units. It’s not that Mitch and Big Dave are bad players. They just don’t fit with what this roster can potentially do best. The eight man rotation I noted above is effective together in any mix of units. Trying to replace any of those guys with Big Dave or Mitch just doesn’t work.
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Idk I just don’t see it with Dave. Not sure how he would have been able to play next to Silvio who has shown no ability past 5 feet himself.
Dave is a mediocre big man. He’s played poorly next to an All-American C. He’s playing next to an All-Conference stretch 4 at the moment. Neither scenario he has played particularly well in despite the other post drawing attention away from him. Reality is he just isn’t that good. He was always a four year guys who we knew was coming in raw and we hoped that he’d be able to develop into a Wayne Simien or T-Rob or Nick Collins type of a guy. He never did and that is okay. But, we shouldn’t be hanging our season on a guy who hasn’t developed much in three years like he is all of a sudden going to turn his season around these last two months.
Dave tries hard. You can see that when he plays. And he seems like a good guy. But this is Kansas Basketball and the standard is the standard.
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I like what Enaruna showed us against TCU. His defense isn’t great, but I think @drgnslayr bigs will have a harder time taking him off the bounce than Dave. And his face up game is better than Dave’s. He can score from 3, midrange and transition so he’s a much better fit. I’d much rather Self focus on letting Enaruna play through his mistakes which legit feel like mistakes whereas with Dave it feels like hitting the limitation of his skills.
Start by getting him to set some high screens, something Dave was never very effective at anyway bc he is always slipping to the basket early.
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@BeddieKU23 said in This is a Second round team if they keep playing McCormick:
@drgnslayr A team like OU that’s going to stretch the floor at the big position on Saturday, my suggestion is we zone a team like that. Get Dave off guarding a big on the perimeter that way. I still think you can play M2M against Oklahoma because he won’t play all 40 but the big matchup tomorrow is how you disguise Dave on defense. Just my two cents
I’m totally with Self on this… keep with M2M and sometimes use a zone to change the game dynamics. We don’t want to run a zone for 40 minutes. Eventually, they learn how to exploit the seams.
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I’m critical about David… but I’m also totally behind him and hope he can figure a way to better fit into the lineup. No matter what, we will need his help. He tries hard and that is a big part in this. Who knows… maybe he is our “spark off the bench!” Ha… I’m doubtful we see him many games not starting.
Self is right… we do need to have a threat in the paint. We need to be a scoring threat over the entire offensive area. I wish all our guards were better at finishing at the rim. I would feel better about going all guards. And I do support going all guards. I just see Self’s point, too. We need our guards to know how to finish at the rim. That is a huge part of our success moving forward.
