2024/2025 Lineup

[DeletedUser]

Dok and Hunter are about as far apart skillset wise as you can get.

I don't expect whatever "Dok like senior improvement" means.

[ousdahl]

it's largely just fanboy optimism.

but remember when senior Dok showed up in the best condition of his life, and moved his feet so much better all of a sudden, and could actually switch on a guard defensively without looking like such a big slow awkward old school center?

Realistically, I don't expect Hunter to do it. Don't get me wrong!

But the thing is, none of us expected Dok to do it, either.

[DeletedUser]

No. I don't think it's fanboy optimism.

I think it's making ridiculous statements, and then when DH isn’t "raining step back 3s in crunch time" or HD isn't showing "Dok like senior improvement", you'll come here and shit on them.


This isn't our first rodeo.




Here are some realistic goals I'd like to see:

1. KJ be able to attempt maybe 20-30 3s on the year and make 25% of them.

2. DH to finish better in traffic and take a little better care of the ball than last year.

3. HD to look a little more comfortable scoring in crunch time of close games, and for us to have a better concept as a team for how to defend the pick and roll.

4. Elmarko to look like he knows how to dribble the ball up against pressure, and for him to understand our offensive motions so that he isn't so lost he is messing up the other players who do know the plays.

5. Jamari to improve his shooting/scoring. We probably won't need him much next year, but the following year we need him ready to step up.

[ousdahl]

The Dajuan raining 3s was a Remy reference in jest. But fwiw I guess I’m still wondering if that aggressive small guard is the missing piece in this thread.

And yea, glad you said it first, but Dajuan could take more care of the ball. Iirc his turnovers went up last season, even if slightly. And for the archetypal player he is, a non-scoring non-slashing defensive take-care-of-the-ball coach on the floor smart PG, he’s still prone to some brain dead moments anyway.

I do think Hunter’s conditioning could improve. Maybe. And yes he could score better in crunch time. It’d be nice to be able to feed him the post and expect a bucket out of it on the reg. I think having a better supporting cast to space the floor for him might help. Did he get doubled a lot last year? I think he might have. KJ also operating close to the bucket kinda clogged shit up sometimes too.

Back to the aggressive small guard - last year I thought the team’s ceiling was Elmarko. In a sense, I might have been right. I think the same thing next year. We need a dood who can put pressure on opposing Ds and just make shit happen when things get tight. Elmarko seems best suited for that role.

Or can any of the newcomers do that? Dunno if this role has to literally be small, but it prob has to be someone who can break down the d and get in the paint and create shots (for themselves and/or others) with the ball in their hands and such

[DeletedUser]

Back to the aggressive small guard - last year I thought the team’s ceiling was Elmarko. In a sense, I might have been right.

JFC.

We were the best team in the country for a while when we were healthy.

With Elmarko sucking.

Yup, you must have been right. We didn't win it all. Needed more Elmarko and less DH.


I give up. This is dumb. You have said all of this nonsense before. Have a productive Friday.

[twocoach]

No. I don't think it's fanboy optimism.

I think it's making ridiculous statements, and then when DH isn’t "raining step back 3s in crunch time" or HD isn't showing "Dok like senior improvement", you'll come here and shit on them.


This isn't our first rodeo.




Here are some realistic goals I'd like to see:

1. KJ be able to attempt maybe 20-30 3s on the year and make 25% of them.

2. DH to finish better in traffic and take a little better care of the ball than last year.

3. HD to look a little more comfortable scoring in crunch time of close games, and for us to have a better concept as a team for how to defend the pick and roll.

4. Elmarko to look like he knows how to dribble the ball up against pressure, and for him to understand our offensive motions so that he isn't so lost he is messing up the other players who do know the plays.

5. Jamari to improve his shooting/scoring. We probably won't need him much next year, but the following year we need him ready to step up.

I think all of those are very realistic except the first one. I'd be stunned if KJ Adams shoots more than a handful of threes that aren't chucks to beat the buzzer at the end of a half.

[pdub]

Back to the aggressive small guard - last year I thought the team’s ceiling was Elmarko. In a sense, I might have been right.

JFC.

We were the best team in the country for a while when we were healthy.
With Elmarko sucking.

I don't think so but definitely top 5.

[Back2Lawrence]

As college basketball fans, we should all be ecstatic to see Romario possibly make leaps forward on the court.

Not necessarily because we’d be ‘so much better’ or anything, but because such progression is why most of us like college sports over pro in many instances.

[DeletedUser]

Back to the aggressive small guard - last year I thought the team’s ceiling was Elmarko. In a sense, I might have been right.

JFC.

We were the best team in the country for a while when we were healthy.
With Elmarko sucking.

I don't think so but definitely top 5.

In hindsight, probably not.

You'd have a hard time convincing me that after we beat UConn, plus who we had beaten before, that a lot of people didn't think we were #1.

Also "for a while".

[randylahey]

The top team in America? An illusion

The Kentucky win wasn't nearly as good as we thought, young team and all 3 7 footers didn't play in it

The uconn win was at home and castle was out

Tennessee win was probably the best, but their pg was still getting back into shape coming off a major injury

Think we just had a few older players that helped us squeak out wins in the young season

[ousdahl]

Either way, we peaked in December.

By January, we were looking much more mortal in conference play, even without factoring in injuries yet

By March, we were getting absolutely slaughtered. Like all time bad Self team performances.

[randylahey]

It's called getting exposed. Teams watched film on what worked against us, and continued to exploit in more and more

[DeletedUser]

It's also called having injury issues.

KM was out.

HD was playing hurt.

DH and Kj were nicked up.


And everyone else was lost the vast majority of the time, regardless of health.

[pdub]

The uconn win was at home and castle was out

And Clingan was still recovering ( before his next injury ).

[DeletedUser]

Either way. We were ranked #1 and vegas favorites to win it all for a bit iirc.

[pdub]

No doubt a top 5 team.
Not the best.

[DeletedUser]

No doubt a top 5 team.
Not the best.

Fair.

Either way, Elmarko wasn't "our ceiling".

Whatever the hell that means.

KM and HD were our "ceiling".

It'd have been great for Elmarko to be better. Or Timberlake. 1 of them at least. But neither were the key to our team. Or were going to put us completely over the top compared to UConn.

Just not a well constructed team. Maybe design. More likely just bad timing that Elmarko and NT both weren't quite ready.

[Back2Lawrence]

The uconn win was at home and castle was out

And Clingan was still recovering ( before his next injury ).

So they had injuries and still won the championship.

[DeletedUser]

I also think our lack of depth impacted our ability to be aggressive on defense. It was clearly emphasized to our main guys that they couldn't foul because we couldn't take them out. So we couldn't gamble much and then if our key guys got a foul or 2 they had to stop even attempting to play tough defense for long stretches of games.

[pdub]

No doubt a top 5 team.
Not the best.

Fair.

Either way, Elmarko wasn't "our ceiling".

Whatever the hell that means.

Yea, not sure what that means.
Maybe if Elmarko came out and was Mario Chalmers 06 and that was our ceiling ( so we were way better )?