BillySee58

Gibson breathes life into a flatlining offense

Name is Jahmiah but yeah. Shooting 35.3% from the field, 11.1% from three, and 33% from the free throw line in CUSA play. Just terrible offensively. And Smart has arguably been worse.

I don’t buy that one bit. If he gets the squad that he really wants, I do expect it to be a relatively high scoring team. Not a team that’s leading the nation or even conference in points, but a team that is efficient offensively and is cracking 80 fairly routinely. That’s what we were between the beginning of our CBI run and through the first 16 games of the year. That’s what he wants to be. Not a team that sacrifices offense for defense. I don’t assume that. Mccasland only had one player above 6’4” in his rotation at Arkansas State as well. I get that’s what he does and I’ve spent a lot of time explaining that to people on here this year. But even in a “four-guard lineup” you would still prefer quality size. The point of a four-guard lineup is not to have a smaller lineup than the other team. The point is to put as much skill as you can on the floor. If Mccasland could get a 6’7” player who shoots as well as Gibson (bad example after yesterday) he would. So when I say quality size, I don’t mean get a bunch of 6’10” guys. I mean get at least one player who has the size, length, and strength to rebound and defend the four spot, but can also adequately stretch the floor from the four spot, and get at least one person who the coaches can trust at the five behind Simmons. And also someone who could play both, ideally. I.e. someone 6’7”ish who can rebound well and shoot well enough to play the four next to a five like Zach Simmons. Someone like Colin Voss I think would be nice to have off the bench in this scheme. We still play big men. It’s not a five-guard lineup. That’s no excuse. A good recruiting coach could get a decent five here, even in a primarily four-guard lineup. Zach Simmons is a very involved player in our offense as a passer, rim roller, and even in back-to-the-basket plays. A good big would play here plenty and be very involved as well. And a good recruiting coach could spell that out fairly easily. I don’t feel comfortable with that group, and wouldn’t consider that a solid guard rotation heading into the season. If you’re starting Gibson and Smart then you have no established bench scorer. I really would prefer Draper towards the end of the bench. A capable player but the more he has been forced to play, the less successful we have been. Not terrible, just don’t want to have to bank on him. And as for Jalen Jackson and Larry Wise, they are promising but their shooting abilities are concerning. Wise does not have a smooth looking stroke and Jackson is shooting 21% from three and 66% from the line this season, according to MaxPreps. As of now I don’t feel comfortable in those guys and Draper being our top bench scoring options. That’s planning very dangerously imo. I think all of those players are worthy of scholarships, I just don’t think it’s playing the percentages smartly to have those be your top bench players. Jahmiah Simmons has been an absolute liability offensively this year, particularly in conference play. Mccasland seems to like him but I really think we need more options at the four next year than just him and Mohamed, which is what it looks like for now. He seems to be recruiting this position with offers like Trey Wade out there. Agreed. We desperately need a rim protector. Zach Simmons isn’t even really a great rim protector. But we need someone off the bench who can be at least a decent rim protector when Zach Simmons is out. This roster is in no shape to be filling our last spots with players who lack offensive skill. Losing Miller and Duffy and replacing them with poor shooters who are limited offensively is a recipe for a lot more games like the last four we have played. Not sure how you interpreted me saying “that’s on him. It’s his responsibility to figure it out” as an ultimatum or a suggestion at a coaching change. I’m just saying he needs to be held responsible for the roster and if it isn’t good enough next year, that’s on him. And based on what he is getting paid, we can’t just give him a pass simply because he is doing better than the previous regime.

Miller hasn’t missed a game. Guessing you mean Woolridge. We only played one game without Woolridge and Duffy. We haven’t been good offensively all year, even when both were healthy. Record was good, but we were not exactly lighting it up. Quality size. We have one guy who fits that category (Zach Simmons). A 6’4” player who is struggling to crack 30% from the field and the free throw line in conference play is not how I would describe a quality big. Neither are guys who Coach Mccasland struggles to trust to even play more than a few minutes (Alcindor and Arikawe). We don’t need to “go big.” I’m the last person who has ever advocated that. We just need enough quality size, which to me is three quality big men. Right now we have one with two open scholarships left, and some pressing wing scoring needs to boot. Yes, he had put himself in a pickle by not making great use of scholarships. That’s on him. His responsibility to figure it out. If he makes the decision to try and get more out of the guys who are on campus but haven’t shown the ability, then he better make sure it works. Same if he decides to move on from those players.

Whether we win our next three or lose our next three, Mccasland cannot sit by and feel like our win total alone is enough to warrant running it back with this roster next year. This team needs offense and quality size and we only have two scholarships left to do that.

It’s not like we have been good offensively with him

We had 15 in the first half against WKU. Terrible offense.

Well we can put the theory that the coaches are redshirting Alcindor to bed.

They’re about 50% on indentifying UNT players correctly. Called about 3 different players “Smart”

Like the way we’re moving the ball. We should be able to move the ball like this, with or without Woolridge.

He has played in three division one games. He has played two division one opponents. You don’t get to keep your redshirt just because you don’t play against division one opponents, which he has. They burned his redshirt unless they can claim he has been injured, but he has been in the layup lines all year to my recollection so I didn’t think they were trying to go that route.

Exactly. We don’t need first-round o-linemen or draftable basketball players. Just get all conference guys or close to all conference guys. Every all-CUSA player chose to play at a CUSA school. No reason that school can’t be ours.

Why do you keep calling him Hawkeem? It’d be one thing if you were calling him Hakeem, but I have no explanation where you keep pulling Hawkeem from. Also, our lineup was terrible with Holston and Lawson starting. We took off when we stopped playing them. There’s a cool alternative to bringing back failed players and it’s called signing actual good players who other schools want. We should try it.

Who played where is thrown out the window for bonus play. If the goal is putting a second team in the NCAA Tournament, then the best way to do that would be for the 1 seed and 2 seed to not have to go the 3 seed’s home and have the easiest road games, except for the 2 seed having to play at the 1 seed. This is the most likely way that the 1 and 2 seed will go 7-1 combined in pod play, which is the best case scenario for the conference. Unfortunately I don’t think any of that will matter. No way we get two teams in this year imo

Oh, right. I think you’re looking in the wrong spot for unfairness. What would be unfair would be a team finishing as a 2 seed having to play at the 3 seed in bonus play. This is perfectly fair. It is impossible for a team to jump another team unless someone wins on the road against a team that finished ahead of them. You reward the teams that finished highest by allowing them to prevent the teams directly below them from jumping them on their home court. Why would they make the matchups so that teams would have to win on the road against the teams directly below them in order to maintain the seed that they earned?

What was your complaint with it for pod 1? Seeding. Would you rather play the 3 seed or the 1 seed in the quarters?

So looks like it will be the way I laid it out. You have to win on the road to pass the teams directly ahead of you.

I wouldn’t worry too much about downvotes. I have someone who downvotes (or gives the eye-roll emoji) on almost all of my posts, positive, negative, or indifferent.

I think it’s much too early to say that, but these questionable signings are turning into subpar players. I was not a fan of signing Shakeem Alcindor, who had no other offers out of a prep school, and now he’s a player who the coaches show they see him as unplayable. Jahmiah Simmons is a 6’4” player who was 0-7 from three in conference play and barely hit over 30% of his free throws in conference play. A 6’4” player who is a bad shooter looked questionable at the beginning but it really looks bad now. You can go on down the list. The coaches have to recruit better if we want to compete for CUSA titles and not falter down the stretch anymore. If everyone on here just wants us to be better than we were under Benford then there’s no reason to be upset about the way anything is going right now.

I don’t see any posts on here denigrating a 20-win season. Also not sure who your question is directed at since you didn’t quote or tag anyone, but I am a season ticket holder. Which does not preclude someone from being able to honestly evaluate this team or coaching staff.

We are almost two full seasons into the Mccasland era and we paid a lot of money to get him. We can take a step back and give him fair and honest evaluations instead of acting like he can do no wrong just because he’s better than the train wreck of a coach that came before him. It’s a fan forum, not the official team site.

What I am upset with the most right now is not that we lost with a ridiculously short bench. It’s that we get 13 scholarships to use and 3 of those 13 being out relegates us to having 6 playable players. Yes, I know Tikhonenko is also out so technically it’s 4 players out, but he has played in 13 minutes against D1 opponents in two years. Guys who struggle to get off the bench probably wouldn’t help much even when we’re this depleted. Mccasland and his staff do not get a pass because of being short-handed. They are short-handed because they have not made effective use of all of their scholarships.

Yeah, I really wish Smart would take advantage of the mid-range game. So many times he pump fakes a three and goes all the way to the basket only to lose it or flip up a bad shot. He’s supposed to be a good shooter. Pull up for that open 14-footer instead of crashing into the trees. Use the floater he has in his arsenal. Mid-range shots are not statistically the most efficient shot in basketball, but when you’re struggling to get 25 points in a half, you just need to find good looks, not perfect ones.

Yeah, the defense the last two years is what makes it so frustrating. If we could just be above average offensively we’d probably be in first place. Two years in, I just don’t like how many guys we have redshirted and how many guys are supposed to be quality depth yet have been well below average CUSA level players.

Two straight years we look bad offensively all season, never really get it together, and falter down the stretch once we start getting exposed and have almost no bench production. The season isn’t over, but Mccasland can’t hide the truth of this season behind our win total. I get that Duffy is hurt (which we already knew he was injury prone), but in two years the only bench player who has brought consistent scoring is Gibson who has now been forced to start, leaving us with almost zero bench scoring. Why is that? Because we’re not deep. Why are we not deep? Because we have used a lot of scholarships on guys who give us nothing. Wise and Mohamed are redshirting. Tikhonenko has played zero conference games in 2 seasons under scholarship. Alcindor came in with no scholarship offers and picked up more fouls than points this year, and Mccasland doesn’t even trust him with essentially no bench. Mccasland is showing that he sees Alcindor as unplayable. So right there you’re down to just 9 scholarship players. Of those 9, one of them is spent on a former walk on who is a 5’10” shooter but is shooting barely over 20% from three in conference. Another is spent on a player in Duffy missing time for his fourth different injury in two seasons. Another is spent on a 6’4” forward (Jahmiah Simmons) whose shooting splits in conference play were 34.6%/0%/31.3% before he was injured. 0-7 from three and 5-16 from the free throw line on conference play. That leaves six players. One of those is Tope Arikawe who has a -7 offensive box plus/minus, which is the second lowest only to walk on John Weger. Then lastly, we have Roosevelt Smart who seemingly hasn’t recovered from his preseason injury, and is almost single-handedly sinking us in these losses. Smart is a combined 4-32 (12.5%!!!) in our last three losses. Our single-season school record holder for points in a season has a shooting percentage that looks like a pitcher’s batting average in these huge conference games. The truth is, he has been a bad basketball player this season and we don’t have any other options because of our lack of depth. The good news is that if this is the worst that it gets, that’s not so bad. The problem is this is the second straight year, and we only have two scholarships left and we have quite a bit to replace in Miller and Duffy, plus we need to add some quality size. I really don’t think Mccasland can just stick with the status quo this offseason. He has to make some tough decisions, really make good use of the scholarships instead of spending it on guys who don’t play, and get the guys we have right (mainly Smart). I don’t know how much can be done before the season is over but the offense can’t look this bad and our bench can’t still be this shallow next year.