Does KU Actually Have a Guard on the Roster that Can Stay on His Lines?
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Self used a memorable phrase recently, when he said some had some doubts whether Svi could stay on his lines in D1.
Self immediately raised the counter argument: Svi was the only one of our guards that had been playing against 28-30 year olds and maybe staying on his lines.
A few days after the novelty of the comment wore off, something occurred to me.
Can any of our guards stay on their lines?
Devonte is 6-2 and 175. Self compared him favorably with Aaron Miles, but Miles was built like a brick outhouse for a point guard as a freshman even. Let’s put Devonte in perspective: Evan Manning is about the same size and weight as Devonte. Maybe Self was just saying that Devonte had the intangibles of mind that Aaron had. But staying on lines requires more than mental toughness. It takes serious strength in today’s D1. Brady Morningstar was about Devonte’s size and no one ever said Brady was the Incredible Hulk, when it came to staying on lines. He had to finesse his lines, and even then, everyone said it was just a matter of time until he ran into someone he could not finesse, even when he was filling at 2 and 1.
We all think Frank Mason is a tough cookie and somewhat similar to Sherron Collins, but Frank is 5-11 and 185, and Sherron was 5-11 and 210 or so, if I recall correctly. Sherron could stay on a line. Sherron could run through walls. Frank is faster than greased lightening when he accelerates, so when he can out accelerate someone he can stay on his line, but what about when one of Ratso Izzo’s big guards steps in front of him, or shoves him going by? Can Frank really stay on his line?
Conner Frankamp is 6-0 and 165. I am not sure Conner can stay on his lines against Devonte and Frank, much less one of Ratso Izzo’s big guards.
Svi is 6-8 and 175. This is string bean territory. And I don’t have to raise a question about him, because Self already has.
Honestly, Christian Garrett, at 6-3 and 185 pounds of Hudy weight appears to be the line running stud of this bunch.
Even Tyler Self at 6-2 and 165 tucks in somewhere in this bunch.
All I can say about these haricot verts (i.e., XTRemely skinny French horticultural bean varieties) is that they better go meet with Kevin Young, who wrote the book on what kind of fury and intensity it takes to play light in D1.
And meet regularly with Andrea and her movable iron.
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“Can Frank really stay on his line?”
Sure he can. He just has to lower his center of gravity.
Frank has to be the “mole” and he needs to squat down and run through players’ ankles. Guys that can do that are unstoppable. If he plays right he’ll be able to stay on a better line than Sherron did.
If he tries to play “big” then he’ll be swallowed up by big guards.
It is almost impossible to foul a guy’s ankles… think about it.
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I just ready your other post on Brannen first.
Hell, yes, Frank can do it!
So can Devonte.
So can Connor.
Hell, so can Christian, Evan and Tyler!!!
This is flipping Basketball Tibet.
The beauty of an X-Axis game walketh the razor’s edge of low CG.
“The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard.” –Katha-Upanishad
And under a five foot ceiling!
