2022-2023 Lineup

[Mjl]

McCullar was the defacto PG the last couple of years at Tech, right? Why not let him be the primary ballhandler a little more often to take some stress off Dejuan?

That was discussed in the offseason and pretty much everyone agreed that we hoped it wouldn't get to that point. Welp . . .

I have not been impressed with McCullar's ability to initiate offense. He turns it over way too much when he tries to.
He also can't penetrate, even when being guarded by the other teams' bigs

[pdub]

I don't think Dejuan's conditioning is at an all an issue.
He is flying up and down the court so load management, if we're worried about his getting worse from exhaustion, isn't something I see as a concern.

If it's, well, he's not playing well, let's find someone who can play better - that's different than load management to me...and sure, maybe you try something out, I just don't think it'll be better considering what i've seen from our other guys.

[CrimsonNBlue]

McCullar was the defacto PG the last couple of years at Tech, right? Why not let him be the primary ballhandler a little more often to take some stress off Dejuan?

That was discussed in the offseason and pretty much everyone agreed that we hoped it wouldn't get to that point. Welp . . .

I have not been impressed with McCullar's ability to initiate offense. He turns it over way too much when he tries to.
He also can't penetrate, even when being guarded by the other teams' bigs

I don't have all the answers, nor did I say we were ncessarily at that point.

I just know that your son has 5 points and 13 turnovers in his last 157+ minutes.

[ousdahl]

do we have ANYONE who can penetrate?

it's not like our small guards are beating their guy and getting in the paint whenever they want, are we?

Dajuan can get a lot of assists, but it mostly comes from within the rhythm of the offensive sets as a whole, for better or worse, rather than from Dajuan being such a natural talent that he can just go make something happen.

that's sort of a paradox: for all the fluff about what a good PG we got, how do we also still struggle to score in the half court so much?

I suppose we're better on the break, but it seems like the legit conference phos have slowed us down there too.

[pdub]

Yesufu can.
He just flails around and doesn't finish when he gets there.

We struggle in the half court because we don't have a post presence ( Jalen is our post presence ) and only two guys who can shoot.

Bill shoulda paid up to keep DMac.
We'd be elite right now.

[ousdahl]

yes, Yes might be the physically best equipped.

Have we even run sets for him like that though? Let's get him looks where we get him the ball with an angle to take a bounce or two hard at the rim. Have we done that?

It almost seems more like the only time he tries to drive is when the play already seems broken anyway.

Generally speaking, it seems like we're running a lot of back door cuts? I guess that's Self trying to play to our strengths, since it's not like our primary handlers are getting past the D, so we gotta run stuff to try and get behind the D instead.

[Mjl]

That was discussed in the offseason and pretty much everyone agreed that we hoped it wouldn't get to that point. Welp . . .

I have not been impressed with McCullar's ability to initiate offense. He turns it over way too much when he tries to.
He also can't penetrate, even when being guarded by the other teams' bigs

I don't have all the answers, nor did I say we were ncessarily at that point.

I just know that your son has 5 points and 13 turnovers in his last 157+ minutes.

As stated earlier, Harris has been awful. But so has McCullar. And the backup guards too. Harris is still the best option at the 1.

[pdub]

I think the fear with Yes is that he thinks he's a capable scorer and he's not.
Of our rotation, he's 3rd on the team in shots per minute ( behind Jalen and Dick ), but is shooting 37% and 30% in conference ( that's Naadir Tharpe bad ).
Those aren't very good percentages ( some of the worst ever under Self ) -- so the question is, would you rather Harris try and get the ball to Wilson or Dick in good spots, or Yesufu to jack up ill timed shots?

[ousdahl]

at least this weekend is a noncon matchup.

then, home game against the kitties, I think will be our best chance at a little positive momentum. We'll be hungry, Self teams hardly ever get swept in the regular season, and I don't think they're gonna come out red hot again like they did in the octagon, with the weight of AFH against them this time too.

or heck, that's even roiboi. Our soonest chance at positive momentum is to come out and best the kitties in Lexington, which we're totally capable of.

[CrimsonNBlue]

I have not been impressed with McCullar's ability to initiate offense. He turns it over way too much when he tries to.
He also can't penetrate, even when being guarded by the other teams' bigs

I don't have all the answers, nor did I say we were ncessarily at that point.

I just know that your son has 5 points and 13 turnovers in his last 157+ minutes.

As stated earlier, Harris has been awful. But so has McCullar. And the backup guards too. Harris is still the best option at the 1.

My only points are the position is in bad shape and I don't think the status quo is going to cut it. If the other guys suck there, then they suck there, but I'm not opposed to trying new shit out to try and see what we have. I'm not sure why anyone would be after what we've seen over the last month.

[pdub]

Kentucky is a throw away game to me.
Play Yesufu, Udeh and MJ for 40 minutes for all I care.

[CrimsonNBlue]

do we have ANYONE who can penetrate?

it's not like our small guards are beating their guy and getting in the paint whenever they want, are we?

Dajuan can get a lot of assists, but it mostly comes from within the rhythm of the offensive sets as a whole, for better or worse, rather than from Dajuan being such a natural talent that he can just go make something happen.

that's sort of a paradox: for all the fluff about what a good PG we got, how do we also still struggle to score in the half court so much?

I suppose we're better on the break, but it seems like the legit conference phos have slowed us down there too.

As stated in the game thread, there's a reason why we have 3 guards coming in next season, all ranked higher than what's on our roster.

As for the bad half court offense, there's a general rule now that you can't have 3 non shooters on the court at the same time. To make things even better for us, we have zero guys that can score on the block. You might be able to get away with one of those holes, but not both.

[KUTradition]

I think the fear with Yes is that he thinks he's a capable scorer and he's not.
Of our rotation, he's 3rd on the team in shots per minute ( behind Jalen and Dick ), but is shooting 37% and 30% in conference ( that's Naadir Tharpe bad ).
Those aren't very good percentages ( some of the worst ever under Self ) -- so the question is, would you rather Harris try and get the ball to Wilson or Dick in good spots, or Yesufu to jack up ill timed shots?

i’ve thought this since i first saw him play…he thinks he’s more capable than he is. he has talent, just not top-shelf Big12-type talent

if DH does a better job taking care of the ball, and we get some semblance of production out of a backup big, we’ll be fine…but imo we’ve gotta have both and i’m just not so sure that’ll happen

[CrimsonNBlue]

if DH does a better job taking care of the ball, and we get some semblance of production out of a backup big, we’ll be fine…but imo we’ve gotta have both and i’m just not so sure that’ll happen

The most likely scenario of getting better is rolling the same guys out and hoping Gradey plays like he did last night for the rest of the season. McCullar also needs to play to his potential. Dajuan, obviously, we've talked plenty about that.

It's a tiny margin for error, but the 2018 team got better in late January/early February in large part because Newman and Vick basically just pulled their heads out of their asses and finally helped out the All-American. That's pretty similar to this season.

The other major part for that team in late January was the arrival of De Sousa. We're not going to add anyone new at this point, but maybe Udeh just comes out of hibernation.

[KUTradition]

if DH does a better job taking care of the ball, and we get some semblance of production out of a backup big, we’ll be fine…but imo we’ve gotta have both and i’m just not so sure that’ll happen

The most likely scenario of getting better is rolling the same guys out and hoping Gradey plays like he did last night for the rest of the season. McCullar also needs to play to his potential. Dajuan, obviously, we've talked plenty about that.

It's a tiny margin for error, but the 2018 team got better in late January/early February in large part because Newman and Vick basically just pulled their heads out of their asses and finally helped out the All-American. That's pretty similar to this season.

The other major part for that team in late January was the arrival of De Sousa. We're not going to add anyone new at this point, but maybe Udeh just comes out of hibernation.

i said this last night, but we’ve become waaaay too predictable with just the starting 5

part of that, as you say, can be resolved by Gradey playing more balanced, but there has to be another piece come into play

[CrimsonNBlue]

Welp, I’ve been texting with Bill again.

[randylahey]

Welp, I’ve been texting with Bill again.

I've been saying that shit all season. And last season. The problem is Bill neutered yesefu. He lost his aggressiveness and confidence trying to fit into the offense and move the ball so he gets minutes

[randylahey]

This teams biggest problem is no playmaker. No guard that can get past their man and get the defense out of position. Yesefu has those tools. Pettiford and dajuan do not

Dajuan fooled yall by being a good role player. Thats great and all. But we need a guard that can go make a play on their own

[randylahey]

Pettiford gives us absolutely nothing. Is anyone high on him? I absolutely hate the combination of him and dajuan. Hes ok to back up dajuan. Ok at best.

Little guards that cant shoot are a bad fit for big 12 conference games. How many little guards that can't shoot are other teams putting out there?

[CrimsonNBlue]

I'd like it if this means that Yesufu eats into Dajuan's minutes.

Stop playing Bobby next to Dajuan and keep Dajuan in the high 20's for minutes. Bobby is his spell, so similar minutes to now. Dajuan's more effective when he's not being used as a 40 minute player.

I don't know if it will work, but more minutes and a longer leash are coming for Yes.