Posts made by Texas Hawk 10

@stoptheflop Not really, Indiana State went 7-4 last season so they aren’t some scrub FCS team.

I think the line against Coastal Carolina will be a little bit bigger, probably a 7 point spread or so.

David Beaty did a fantastic job of getting the program pointed in the right direction and made significant progress in upgrading the talent in the roster.

Miles has said the team is further along than he expected which is a positive sign. I think with some positive breaks, this team could go bowling this year. They were only a handful of plays away last year from getting to a bowl game. I would say it’s more likely this team makes a bowl game than regresses this year.

@stoptheflop All it shows is that KU still doesn’t have the answer at QB. MacVittie doesn’t have a lot of accuracy and Stanley doesn’t have good field awareness.

The running game is the strength of the offense, but neither of the potential starting QB’s has much of a reputation as a passer so teams are going to stack the box against KU a lot.

The advantage MacVittie has is that he is a good runner, but we don’t know how well he can read defenses to execute the zone read which has always been a staple of Les Koenning’s offenses. I’m suspecting MacVittie isn’t great at reading defenses otherwise I think he would have already been named the starter.

I will also say that it’s pretty common to not name a starter, publicly at least, when there isn’t a returning QB in place.

That’s a huge blow for the basketball program.

@FarmerJayhawk The NCAA doesn’t say I’m wrong because you are misrepresenting what I said.

If McKinstry wants to play both football and basketball in college, he can. Because his primary sport is football, that’s what he would be on scholarship for. If he truly wants to play both sports, he’s going to have to get permission from his football coach to play basketball as well. Programs like Alabama and Auburn which are recruiting him the hardest probably won’t let him play both sports.

I’ll go ahead and give you two specific examples. The first is Kyler Murray. The reason he transferred to Oklahoma from Texas A&M was because OU would also allow him to play baseball while in school. Other schools weren’t going to do that. So again, if McKinstry wants to play both football and basketball in college, his decision on where he goes will largely be influenced by schools where the football and basketball will allow him to walk on the basketball team after football season is over with.

Another high profile example is former Texas Longhorn and current San Francisco 49er Marquise Goodwin. Goodwin went to Texas on a football scholarship, but also won two NCAA long jump national championships and went to the 2012 London Olympics while still at UT.

@FarmerJayhawk A player counts for whatever sport he accepted the scholarship in. it’s actually not that rare of an occurrence. It’s fairly common to see a football player also run track. You also see football players play baseball as well on a fairly regular basis.

You said you would eat a basketball scholarship with him to have him play football. What you implied is that he would come to KU on basketball scholarship and be a walk on for football which is what my response was based on.

If the kid wants to play both sports at the collegiate level, then having Miles allow him to walk on with basketball the way Sosinski did awhile back could give KU a leg up in possibly landing the kid if Auburn, Bama, or any other program recruiting him wouldn’t allow him to play both.

@FarmerJayhawk That would be a waste of a scholarship if he’s only a walk on caliber basketball player. 2021 is already shaping up to be a high volume recruiting class for Self and that would do nothing but hurt that recruiting class.

If he wants to play both sports, that’s fine, but football is where his future is at so he needs to be on a football scholarship, then come over to basketball when the football season is over with.

Putting the kid on a basketball scholarship means he would be done with football in October when basketball practice starts up which would be a waste of his talents since he’s a top DB in that class.

HighEliteMajor said:

Texas Hawk 10 said:

If Christian Braun is as productive as Tyrell Reed or Brady Morningstar over the course of his KU career, I’ll take that right now.

That’s a pretty low bar. VCU says thank you.

Ignoring that KU also missed 13 FT’s in that VCU game and collectively shot 35% from the field, but clearly losing that game was the fault of one player and not the other 5 who played big minutes that game also shitting the bed as well.

Is a 3 star recruit at KU that earns 1st team all-defense as a senior, honorable mention all-Big 12 as a senior, shoots 42% from 3 for his career, and is a multi-year starter really a low bar for Braun by the time he leaves KU? The only reason KU recruited this kid is because he’s a local kid. If he’s from anywhere else but KC, KU isn’t even looking at him.

You also need to stop blaming Brady for that VCU loss because the entire team, including Self, had a bad night that night, not just Brady.

If Christian Braun is as productive as Tyrell Reed or Brady Morningstar over the course of his KU career, I’ll take that right now.

@dylans Astros don’t have the funds to compete with top spending clubs. The Grienke deal means now that the Astros won’t be able to keep Gerritt Cole this off-season when he hits the market. The Astros have always been a medium market franchise. Houston is the 7th biggest TV market (not 4th like you claim) behind 3 markets with multiple franchises.

Based on your criteria of defining team success related to the size of the media market, the Astros have achieved about where they should be historically.

@dylans Astros have consistently had winning records for most of their history. I’m not calling their history great, but just good. If we’re talking best franchises since 1962, Astros are probably around tenth or so. There’s also not a lot of franchises with 11 playoff appearances in the past 40 years.

dylans said:

@KUSTEVE Houston is the 4th largest TV market. The Astros should do better than they historically have, but man are they good now.

The Astros have historically been a pretty good franchise. They’ve ready only had two era’s of consistently being a bad franchise. 1962-1968 before divisional play existed and 2009-2014 when the current core was being drafted, signed, and developed. Other than those two windows, the Astros have never had more than 2 consecutive losing seasons.

The Astros just have never been an elite franchise, but they have historically been a good franchise.

Outside of my 2 years at KU, I’ve lived in Houston since 1991.

Pro football in Houston has always been far more disappointing than baseball has been here. Soccer has been a huge disappointment the past few years as well because the Dynamo owner refuses to spend any money on good players or refuses to re-sign the good players we have.

There’s some HS programs that follow the analytics and do this stuff. We’re probably 10 or so years away from this making it’s way to FBS football. The way it’ll happen is that one of these HS coaches will get hired at a lower level program as HC (D2 or below), then get hired at a bad FCS program that can take that risk, and then a bad G5 program that can afford to be patient and allow that type system to develop at the FBS level.

This system does exist and is currently working its way up the ladder, it’s just going to be awhile before it reaches the FBS level barring significant rules changes.

Kcmatt7 said:

I just don’t see how you can keep an athlete like that on the bench…

Enaruna can’t make a shot at this point, that’s why he’s rated as low as he was. He’s a development guy. He appears to have good form on his shot so it appears like it’s something that can be developed, it’s just not developed yet

BeddieKU23 said:

Slater recently put a CB into Okie Lite for Bryce Thompson… Shenanigans going on in Stillwater to land Cunningham and Thompson??

OSU does have the occasional class like that, probably about once a decade or so. Probably just Nike spreading the wealth to their second tier programs. LSU is another example and so was Washington before this year. Teams that about once a decade or so land a monster class courtesy of the Nike machine.

@FarmerJayhawk Sorry, but post secondary education is a scam because there’s no reason attending a 4 year public university should cost what it does. It’s also a scam in that it’s total BS that society says you have to go to a university in order to be successful in life.

College/university isn’t for everyone and that’s okay, but the message corporate America and the government put out there is that you can’t be successful in life without going to college. That mentality is why there are so many unfilled skilled labor positions out there. Too many people fail to tell students that aren’t academically fit for college there are alternatives to college. There needs to be more technical and trade schools promoted to kids who either can’t afford college or don’t have the grades for college so they can get trained and certified in a trade and make really good money that way without going so deep into debt that they’re paying for it decades later.

I will also say definitively that the quality of teaching for gen. ed. classes at universities and community colleges is negligible.

So I will say that universities are a scam and a racket because there’s no good reason they should cost what they cost other than greed.

There’s plenty of studies out there that pretty strongly indicate specialization in sports and playing year round is pretty detrimental to the long term development of an athlete.

@BShark Washington is no longer a Nike program. They signed a $12 million per year deal with Adidas last year that goes into effect this year.

Title IX depends on shoe money. Women’s sports would not exist without shoe money.

RIP Voice of the Jayhawks!

Here’s what the minutes break down for that projections looks like as minutes per game.

Devon Dotson projects out to 33-34 mpg

Marcus Garrett projects out to 30-31 mpg

Ochai Agbaji projects out to 28-29 mpg

Isaiah Moss projects out to 28 mpg

Udoka Azubuike projects out 26-27 mpg

Silvio DeSousa projects out to 22-23 mpg

David McCormack projects out to 12 mpg

Jalen Wilson projects out to 9-10 mpg

Tristan Enaruna projects out to 5-6 mpg

Christian Braun projects out to 3-4 mpg

Not listed are Mitch Lightfoot, Issac McBride, and DaJuan Harris since it only projects out a top 10. McBride is the most surprising of those 3 being left off to me because of the redshirt talk around Lightfoot and Harris not being eligible yet.

The one player who I think the mpg is off on is David McCormack. I think 12 mpg is quite low for him as I would expect him to be in the 17-18 mpg range mainly at the expense of Tristan Enaruna on this list. I think Enaruna averages under 5 mpg probably in the 3-4 mpg range.

I agree with others about Marcus Garrett being the second leading scorer this season. I don’t see that happening. I can see him increasing his scoring over last season, but I don’t see him bumping it up 6 ppg this season. In order to have any chance at that, there would have to be significant improvements to his shooting. I don’t think 4 double digit scorers is a bad prediction, I just don’t see Garrett being one of those 4. I would have Doke as the second leading scorer, Agbaji third, Moss fourth, and then Garrett fifth.

@kjayhawks Doke averaged 7 rebounds in 20 mpg last season, why wouldn’t he be able to average at least 8 rpg with the increased minutes this projection has for him this season? I could easily see him at 8 or 9 rpg if he plays the 26-27 mpg this projection has for him.

Sideline Cancer has been in the tournament several years now, those guys know how to play well with each other at this point.

Some of the better options the KU group could get to play are over in the Big3 league, so not available for the TBT. KU guys in the Big3 league are Drew Gooden, Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, and Julian Wright. That’s why there were some players who would’ve been a great fit on Self Made that weren’t there.

@BShark For Self and the program at least. I don’t think Perry would choose that path at this point in his life voluntarily.

With Perry having a torn patellar tendon, it sounds like there’s a possibility his basketball career is over.

While Perry is recovering, I wouldn’t be surprised if Self gives him some kind of support role within the program this year to get a head start on on a coaching career in case his playing career is over.

I’m wondering how much Perry’s injury played into this. These guys have pro contracts outside of this tournament and I’m wondering if they backed off after Perry’s injury to preserve themselves for the professional teams.

I gotta stop watching, Self Made can’t make anything while I’m watching.

@BeddieKU23 Barnes is one of the few coaches with a win in AFH though. Barnes was also one of 3 teams to beat KU in their title season. While this game shouldn’t be too close, Rick Barnes is a good coach capable of stealing a game.

@FarmerJayhawk They’re are definitive in anyway, but those numbers are useful for gauging progress. Agbaji at 27% is concerning because he was only at 30% last year. That’s an indicator that his 3 point shooting may still be in Marcus Garrett territory.

Dotson being at 45%, but with low attempt numbers, is a sign that he needs to create more opportunities for himself from 3 because he has the abilities to be a dead eye shooter from deep.

Silvio and McCormack having 4 attempts between them is a sign the neither has the range to take that shot yet. That is a sign that KU is going to have to get much better at ball movement than they were last season to create good shots for players.

With Wilson and McBride, Wilson looks like he won’t be a great shooter right away, could be the one big capable of spacing the floor and opening driving lanes for the guards. McBride looks like he won’t have much issue adjusting to the deeper line and could potentially be the most consistent shooter on the team.

While I agree nothing is definitive with these numbers, there is definitely some usefulness to them to give some insight into where the players are at.

The ceiling for this team is a national title contender. That’s assuming everything goes well. That said, there’s legitimate issues this team will have to overcome to reach their ceiling. Some of those issues are within the players control and some are not.

Team chemistry absolutely should be better this year without Vick in the mix. The counterpoint is we don’t know yet how well Isaiah Moss will fit in on the court with this group yet because he’s still finishing up academic stuff at Iowa. This is a question because Moss is the one newcomer who will be playing big time minutes this year and potentially be a starter for this team.

The next issue is shooting. Bill Self did a great job of bringing in players who can develop into great shooters. That’s great for the future, but doesn’t necessarily help with the upcoming season though. @BShark posted some stats from the scrimmages this summer and while not definitive in any way, can give some insight into progress being made. Dotson appears to have some gains, Silvio and Dave don’t have three point range (I’ll touch more on that later), Agbaji looks like he’s still struggling from deep, McBride could earn some quality minutes with his shooting. Overall, with the three point line being scooted back, it looks like this team may be slightly better from deep than last year, but still nothing to brag about.

I mentioned Dave and Silvio’s lack of shooting from outside, this is critical because it means neither really needs to be guarded closely outside of about 10’. That means opposing post defenders will be able clog driving lanes more effectively which will significantly hurt Devon, Ochai, and Garrett. Their effectiveness on offense is predicated by their abilities to drive into the paint. With those driving lanes clogged, the offense could actually take a step back this year because last year, Lawson was at least good enough from 3 that teams had to respect him out there. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Silvio or McCormack at this point. I’ve said it before but, I’ll say it again, this is a team that’s going to play a lot of games in the 60’s this season because of their offense.

The next area is defense. On paper, this appears to be the area where KU will make the biggest gains from last season. The combination of Doke, Silvio, and McCormack anchoring the paint is going to make life in the paint very difficult for a lot of teams. The concern with those 3 defensively is rebounding. Silvio is an above average rebounder so there shouldn’t be an issues there, but Doke and Dave are not. Doke is a below average rebounder for his size and McCormack is just bad at rebounding for his size. Each are still doing a lot work on their bodies, so there is hope in that regard, but I wouldn’t expect dramatic changes out of either of them though.

On the perimeter, the 4 guys who should get most of the minutes are all above average to elite defenders. Marcus Garrett is the best defender in the Big 12, end of discussion. Devon Dotson has the abilities to be an all-Big 12 defender. Moss and Agbaji are also both above average defenders. On paper, this is the best defensive team Self has had since the 2012 runner up team.

Those are all the things this team can control, the one thing they can’t control and is the most concerning to me is health. Health is the one thing that can quickly derail everything this team has worked for (as we saw last season) and there legitimate reasons to worry about the health of this team.

Doke has never played a full season. We can say the wrist injuries were flukes and they sort of were, but Doke is definitely not the only person to get his hand caught in something and most people come away unscathed. Doke hasn’t twice now. Doke also missed the B12 tournament in 2018 because of knee issues. Doke is a very large human being and for being as young as he is, his muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments don’t seem strong enough yet to support his frame. Doke making it through the season healthy is probably the single biggest individual factor in determining how far this Kansas team can go in the NCAA tournament.

That said, Doke isn’t the only player whose health is a concern going forward. Marcus Garrett said in the middle of the Summer that he still wasn’t a 100% from his high ankle sprain last year. Being brutally honest, if Garrett lost some quickness because of this and loses some of his defensive abilities, he very quickly becomes a pretty useless player to Kansas.

The other player with injury concerns is Ochai Agbaji. Are his shin issues chronic or a one time deal? If they are chronic and he loses his athleticism, he essentially falls into the same category as Garrett because Agbaji’s game is based on his athleticism. Without his athleticism, he’s not anything special.

Again, this ceiling of this team is national championship contender, but there are hurdles this team will have to clear to reach that ceiling and some of those hurdles are ones KU cannot control.

Looks like Agbaji hasn’t made much progress on his outside shooting this offseason.

@FarmerJayhawk He’s not young for his class though. He’s the normal age for his class. Young for his class would be a Svi or a Doke who were so young, neither were eligible to be a OAD. Each had to be a KU two years before being eligible to even declare for the NBA draft. Tristan doesn’t face that hurdle, he’s eligible to declare for the NBA draft if he chose to do so.

It’s not semantics because Tristan isn’t young for the class he’s in. He’s young within his class. There’s a big difference there. The kids that enter college at 19 are doing so because almost all of them had some issue that forced them to be held back a year at some point. That’s not normal.

@FarmerJayhawk Where your wrong is saying Tristan won’t 19 until his sophomore year. That is a false statement. Tristan’s sophomore year will not begin until the fall 2020 semester and he will be 19 by that point.

Your initial comments on the matter were putting Tristan in the same category as Svi or Doke who each entered college and played their freshmen seasons as 17 year olds.

@FarmerJayhawk Oak Hill is a is prep school unless their own website’s description of the school is false. So Dave did go to a prep school. The reason Oak Hill grew into a basketball factory is because they don’t have to worry about their students meeting NCAA eligibility requirements because their academics far surpass a lot of prep school’s out there.

“Since 1878, Oak Hill Academy has transformed the lives of hundreds of unmotivated students. In the heart of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, our small, co-ed, college preparatory boarding school combines structure with self-reliance, discipline with discovery, and a firm hand with a warm heart. Our curriculum challenges the brightest students and encourages those who are unmotivated or experiencing difficulty in their current school setting. Our structured and relational environment is the opportunity for students to redefine themselves in very positive ways. Attending Oak Hill is a turning point.”

Very simply, let’s pretend Tristan isn’t an athlete a d is just a regular student like 99% of the people at KU are. KU’s academic year begins with the fall semester around Labor Day and ends with the second summer session in July. A traditional freshman student will turn 19 some time between those start and end dates. Since Tristan Enaruna will be 19 before the fall 2020 semester begins, he is in the correct academic class for his age group. He is among the youngest in his age group, but he is still in the correct academic year for his age group.

@FarmerJayhawk Tristan is not entering college a year early. This is a case where you have to know what the rules and laws are when it comes to enrolling kids in school and that varies from state to state. Everywhere has a specific date that’s used to determine when kids start school. It is typically one of two dates, either August 1 or September 1. Academic years typically begin in August or September and run through the conclusion of summer sessions. Tristan Enaruna will turn 19 before the start of his sophomore year which would be next August/September depending on when classes start at KU. Tristan Enaruna is one of the youngest players in the class, he’s not young for the class. Tristan is not in the same category as Svi who did skip a grade and enrolled at KU a year earlier than normal.

In the case of Josh Jackson’s age, he did begin college at 19. Jackson was 1 year and 4 months older than Tristan Enaruna when Jackson started college. Josh Jackson failed 8th grade, that’s why he began college at 19 despite not going to prep school. Had John Jackson not failed 8th grade and graduated on time, he would’ve been 4 months older than Enaruna is when he started college.

Devon Dotson is a year older than most because of Illinois and how their education system worked at the time. I know Dotson graduated school in North Carolina, but he lived in Illinois when he started school and that’s the relevant part to why he’s older. Prior to 2014, the mandatory enrollment age for children in Illinois was when the child turned 7 between September 1 and August 31.

In the case of David McCormack, he did go to prep school (Oak Hill) so that’s simple enough to explain his age.

All 3 of those players were one academic year older than most entering college for 3 different reasons. One failed, one lived in a state with a later enrollment age than most states, and one was a prep school kid.

So no, Tristan Enaruna is not entering college a year early like Svi did.

Two years from now, KU’s starting line up is probably Issac McBride, DaJuan Harris, Tristan Enaruna, Jalen Wislon, and David McCormack.

@FarmerJayhawk Tristan isn’t younger than most freshmen. Most freshmen, including athletes, enter college at 18. The only freshmen he’s a year young than are the players who went the prep school route to boost their grades or exposure. He’s young for the grade level, but not for being a freshman.

Looking at his videos, I also call BS on him having a 7-1 wingspan. He’s at most a +2" in wingspan from his height. Only way he has a 7-1 wing span would be if he had short legs and he definitely doesn’t have short legs, he’s got long legs. Every HS scouting report on Tristan lists length as being average. That means there’s no way he’s +4" or +5" in wingspan from his height.

With a different roster composition, Tristan could be a stretch 4, but with Jalen Wilson in the mix, Self won’t play both of them at the same position. Jalen Wilson is nowhere near good enough with the ball in his hands to play on the perimeter. Jalen is also going to fill out much larger than Tristan will. Jalen is going to fill out at 235 lbs. or so. Those two factors are why Jalen will be the stretch 4 for the future and Tristan Enaruna will be the 3 of the future.

@FarmerJayhawk KU has Enaruna listed at 6-8, when has KU ever listed someone as being shorter than they really are?

@KUSTEVE Enaruna is probably the 5th big if Self puts him at the 4. There’s no minutes in that situation either. Wherever Tristan plans this year, he’s the last man in rotation anyway so he’ll have probably 3-4 mpg along with several DNP’s once conference play starts.

His defense is a work in progress regardless of position. He’s a stereotypical Euro player in that regard

@drgnslayr There could be up to 3 redshirts this year. Christian Braun seems the most likely, we all know the talk about Mitch possibly taking one as well. I think there could be third one now that KU has signed Harris. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the loser of the McBride/Harris battle take a redshirt as well this year to stagger those two so KU isn’t looking to sign two PG’s in class out of necessity again.

@KUSTEVE Kevin Young came into a very different situation though. KU’s depth those 2 years were nonexistent in the front court so Young played the 4 out of necessity more than anything. Young had two things going for him that helped him not be totally overwhelmed when he was in. The first was that he was older when he got to KU, I think he was 22 when he got here so his body was more mature. Second, Young had very long arms that helped him on defense and getting rebounds. Had KU had more depth those two years, I think we would’ve seen Young at the three because there definitely times when he was physically overmatched on defense.

With Tristan, he doesn’t look like he has the length KY did, longer than Svi, but not freakishly long like KY. Also, given Enaruna’s background as a Euro player, his fundamentals are pretty advanced. Tristan’s game is also much more suited to the three spot than any other position on the floor. Like a lot of Euro players, defense is probably going to be a weakness for Tristan early on. It was for Svi and for a lot of other Euro players even when they reach the NBA.

@jayballer73 This year and it’s Villanova since that game was already scheduled.

@KUSTEVE Enaruna has a very similar frame to Svi and Svi primarily played the 3.

@Kcmatt7 Self or some other coach said he was only 6-8. He also doesn’t have a frame like Wilson to put on much more weight, he’ll probably top out at about 220 lbs whereas Wilson will probably top out at 235-240. Enaruna is an above average ball handler like Svi and slashing is the most advanced part of his game at this point.
Jalen Wilson is an average at best ball handler for his size. Every recruiting service also has Enaruna listed as a 3.

@Crimsonorblue22 Only surprised in that Dedric didn’t play with the Spurs. At this point, I don’t ever see him making an NBA roster again because his lack of offensive ability is widely known.

Dedric is a very fundamentally sound player and with Tim Duncan as an assistant coach now, that should help Dedric whenever he’s with San Antonio and in the G-League.

@Kcmatt7 Wilson and Enaruna play different positions. Wilson is a stretch 4 and Enaruna is a 3. Wilson or McBride/Harris (whichever gets the back up PG job) will be the freshman with the most minutes this year.

If that ends up being true and KU doesn’t play Kentucky, it would only be the second time KU and Kentucky haven’t played in the B12/SEC Challenge in a year when they didn’t meet in the Champions Classic.

Ty Berry may be a local-ish kid, but KU doesn’t want to keep stockpiling players with his profile. KU already has McBride, Harris, and Braun on the roster so I’m guessing Ty Berry is a low priority recruit because there are other positions that KU has greater need. As low as Berry is ranked, the staff also likely view Berry as a fall back option in case they miss on other higher profile players they are targeting.

@Marco You’ll notice if you look at those players who average less than 10 mpg typically don’t play every game. They will typically have some DNP’s throughout the season. Even if a player averages 7-8 mpg, if they don’t play every game, they aren’t a rotation player. They’re a player whose minutes are dictated by stuff like foul trouble or giving someone a breather before a TV timeout to get that rotation player a couple extra minutes of a break in real time.

Playing 3 minutes in a game because someone picked up their second foul before halftime doesn’t make that player a rotation player.

@FarmerJayhawk I’m not comparing the athleticism of Dave and T-Rob because T-Rob is the better athlete. That doesn’t mean you can’t look at a year when someone with T-Rob’s size was used as a 4 because of having the less athletic and mobile Jeff Withey playing along side him and use some of those sets on offense with Dave and Doke. It doesn’t mean you run the entire 2012 playbook because Doke can’t do a lot of things that Withey could do.

Based on the camp scrimmage footage out there, Dave looked more athletic than last season. Those scouting reports on Dave’s athleticism are mostly from his HS time when he was still out of shape and pushing 300 lbs. The difference in Dave between the McDonald’s game and when the season started was significant and he looked much better in November than he did in April. Dave said during those summer camps in June that he was down to 260 lbs., I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s down to 250-255 lbs. when this season starts.

Again, I don’t think Dave and Doke play more than about 5 minutes or so together so it’s not like I’m advocating extended minutes from those two together and Self doesn’t do a lot of switching outside the end of the shot clock anyway so I don’t see that being a big issue with those two playing limited minutes together. With Dave and Silvio together, they should each be able to spread the floor and be interchangeable in offensive sets when together. Because Silvio is the better rebounder, that’s why I think Dave would play more away from the basket than Silvio will because it will mask Dave’s weaknesses on the glass while allowing Silvio to clean up the boards.

As for Wilson as a stretch 4, Ellis is the comparison. Wilson is an average at best athlete like Ellis, he’s a below average rebounder like Ellis for his size, he’s not a great shooter (sub 40% from 3 every year), so probably won’t be anything more than about 30% from 3 this season and not giving defenders a reason to guard him close on the perimeter. He so doesn’t have great handles so when he drives, he’ll probably get the ball poked away quite a bit. The one area I think Wilson is better out of the gate than Ellis is his vertical. Ellis was always a below the rim player and Wilson has enough hops to be able to eventually finish through contact.

@FarmerJayhawk A 0.9% difference at those levels is negligible. It essentially amounts to one more play run through Doke every 2-3 games. This year, I wouldn’t be shocked if Doke’s usage rate goes up to the 35% range.

The biggest reason I think Dave can play some 4 on offense this year is because of his continued weight loss and reshaping of his body. We know that’s something he’s dedicated to and has the work ethic off the court to do what he needs to do. The next step in the process is increasing his flexible which will increase his athleticism to the point that he won’t be overmatched against most 4’s.

I don’t think he’ll play extended minutes with Doke, maybe 5 or so per game and probably 15 or so alongside Silvio. I really don’t think matters which one of Doke or Silvio he’s out there with, I think he’ll be the 4 on the offensive end of the floor doing what T-Rob did when he played next to Withey. 2011-12 T-Rob is the offensive blueprint for McCormack this year. The benefit of that is his mid range can pull a defender away from the paint which opens up driving lanes for the guards and slows down the time to double Doke. If he can hit a top of the key 3, that also opens up the paint. This is why it’s also important for Silvio to develop that shot as well.

On defense, because I don’t think Dave will spend much time alongside Doke, I don’t think Dave guarding a 4 for a few minutes a game is going to be an issue. If Dave progresses enough to where he can consistently guard opposing 4’s while he’s playing with Silvio, that hides his rebounding weaknesses and would allow Silvio to clean up on the glass.