Utah State (11/29/24)

Green Lantern · November 30, 2024

16 minutes ago, Censored by Laurie said:

I'll add too...more under GM than RH, but there were some seasons we were pretty slow out of the gate in the non-conference trying to find the right fit building into conference play. would you trade, say, the win against Minnesota or Oregon State for a conference win later in the season or finding out that Mason is a 15 minute/game contributor?

We just need to be battle hardened for the likes of Memphis. Just like WKU back in the SBC days, that’s the standard bearer program in the American we should be leveling up to match. These tough non-conference games will serve us well again when we get to AAC play.

GMG_Dallas · November 30, 2024

1 hour ago, Censored by Laurie said:

I hear you...and don't fully disagree with anything here...I just knew it was going to be those 8 dudes baring something crazy and it felt like a pointless addition to a conversation surrounding a good game by a good team last night. let's also keep in mind of our 8-man rotation, 2 players were here last year so they need as much court time together as possible. and despite all that, no one is averaging more than 30 min/game. I don't love the sub pattern, but it is clearly keeping minutes down

I would expect the same thing against High Point. now...if we do what we should in the home-stand and none of these three players get any run...well, it's cause for complaint in one of two directions: 1. Hodge doesn't trust freshmen 2. our freshmen aren't good enough.

That's a good point that 6 of these 8 guys are new and do need as much time together as possible. Hopefully that serves us well come conference play. I do think our freshmen will see some more PT come in December. With that, I think the issue is more that Hodge doesn’t trust freshmen.

1 hour ago, Censored by Laurie said:

I'll add too...more under GM than RH, but there were some seasons we were pretty slow out of the gate in the non-conference trying to find the right fit building into conference play. would you trade, say, the win against Minnesota or Oregon State for a conference win later in the season or finding out that Mason is a 15 minute/game contributor?

Regarding this, that's a good question. Would I trade one of those wins for Mason? No. Would I trade it for Vice being a 15 minute/game contributor? Yes. The post is my biggest area of concern with Sissoko being so inconsistent. Per ESPN, we are ranked 321 out of 362 in blocks per game and for as good as we are on defense, we are 1 of 4 teams in the top 20 of scoring defense who allow a shooting percentage above 40%. I think that's a direct result of our weakness in post defense. We allowed 26 points in the paint yesterday and who knows how many more from three throws generated by committing fouls around the rim.

May be odd to talk about Vice when the focus has been Cotton and Mason but again, we are struggling on the interior. To clarify, I don't think we can make a deep conference tourney run without figuring out our interior dilemma.

Edited November 30, 2024 by GMG_Dallas

greenminer · November 30, 2024

16 hours ago, NT80 said:

They should keep it consistent.

Hi. Devil's advocating here:

They should keep it consistently accurate.

If coaches can make halftime adjustments that impact the flow and physicality of the 2H, refs can account for that and the foul numbers can be legitimately, dramatically different from one half to the next.

BigWillie · November 30, 2024

2 hours ago, GMG_Dallas said:

That's a good point that 6 of these 8 guys are new and do need as much time together as possible. Hopefully that serves us well come conference play. I do think our freshmen will see some more PT come in December. With that, I think the issue is more that Hodge doesn’t trust freshmen.

Regarding this, that's a good question. Would I trade one of those wins for Mason? No. Would I trade it for Vice being a 15 minute/game contributor? Yes. The post is my biggest area of concern with Sissoko being so inconsistent. Per ESPN, we are ranked 321 out of 362 in blocks per game and for as good as we are on defense, we are 1 of 4 teams in the top 20 of scoring defense who allow a shooting percentage above 40%. I think that's a direct result of our weakness in post defense. We allowed 26 points in the paint yesterday and who knows how many more from three throws generated by committing fouls around the rim.

May be odd to talk about Vice when the focus has been Cotton and Mason but again, we are struggling on the interior. To clarify, I don't think we can make a deep conference tourney run without figuring out our interior dilemma.

The simplest answer to this is having a big man. We have never really had a true big. One of the reasons is there are so few of them. Look around college basketball. There are fewer true bigs than college teams, even in P4.

GMG_Dallas · November 30, 2024

29 minutes ago, BigWillie said:

The simplest answer to this is having a big man. We have never really had a true big. One of the reasons is there are so few of them. Look around college basketball. There are fewer true bigs than college teams, even in P4.

If only we had a highly touted center who transfered in from a Sweet 16 team that we could give a shot...

The No. 3 ranked prep prospect from Tennessee and No. 32 ranked center in the country per 247Sports...

Vice led his Houston High School team to the 2021 3A Tennessee state championship where they defeated future NBA Draft Lottery pick Brandon Miller in the finals...Vice averaged 17.5 points, 14.0 rebounds per game as a senior...

https://meangreensports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/brock-vice/6688

greenminer · November 30, 2024

2 hours ago, GMG_Dallas said:

If only we had a highly touted center who transfered in from a Sweet 16 team that we could give a shot...

The No. 3 ranked prep prospect from Tennessee and No. 32 ranked center in the country per 247Sports...

Vice led his Houston High School team to the 2021 3A Tennessee state championship where they defeated future NBA Draft Lottery pick Brandon Miller in the finals...Vice averaged 17.5 points, 14.0 rebounds per game as a senior...

https://meangreensports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/brock-vice/6688

(thinking about football here) we have historically been better with xfers that come with excellent performance experience at a previous non-Power school, rather than these guys coming from Power schools that rode the bench the entire time.

Maybe we bball is different, though. Vice got 9 minutes vs Wayland Baptist. Might be worth digging a little deeper.

4 points (1-1 FG, 2-2 FT), 1 ORB, 1 DRB, and an assist.

Edited November 30, 2024 by greenminer

GMG_Dallas · November 30, 2024

20 minutes ago, greenminer said:

(thinking about football here) we have historically been better with xfers that come with excellent performance experience at a previous non-Power school, rather than these guys coming from Power schools that rode the bench the entire time.

Maybe we bball is different, though. Vice got 9 minutes vs Wayland Baptist. Might be worth digging a little deeper.

4 points (1-1 FG, 2-2 FT), 1 ORB, 1 DRB, and an assist.

Looking at other programs, basketball tends to be different plus this guy is a redshirt freshman. It's not like he's been sitting for years.

If you want a few examples without looking too far, Jelly Walker didn't play much as a freshman at Seton Hall, Kaleb Banks is currently averaging about 17 ppg for Tulane after averaging less than 3 ppg in 2 seasons at Indiana, PJ Haggerty who's putting up 22 ppg at Memphis and was great at Tulsa last year was first at TCU where he played sparingly in 6 games his first year.

Edited November 30, 2024 by GMG_Dallas