Saratoga2
04-04-2017, 08:42 AM
Looking forward
What could and did the team and coaches learn from the past season and how will they apply the lessons going forward? Having lost to South Carolina where we faded badly in the final half, something we had shown signs of doing in many other games, I think coach k realized he needed more quality depth and toughness on the team. How to achieve that is the big question for him. Certainly, we need to recruit strong, athletic players with excellent basketball skills. We need a savvy floor general who can lead the team and minimize TO’s. In the recruiting area, the one kid who stands out is Duval. The staff is doing its best to recruit him. Hope for good results there. We also need to develop and retain some of those season to season so that we have a mix of experienced and young players and have the depth to avoid fatigue, injury and foul issues at positions.
Easy to say this but not so easy to achieve that in a competitive environment where other schools offer recruits options and our school needs to pick from the brightest and the best. Only so many of those. Wendell Carter is just that type of player. Strong, athletic and skillful. Adapting to Div 1 basketball will mean a learning curve on how to score against big physical opponents and how to avoid foul trouble. We should realize he is going to be good for 25 mpg. The hope is not foot injuries. Trent and O’Connel are talented young players but are they the strong physical type players we need. They have some size and length so they may morph into the hard-nosed kids we need. Size is great but guys like Berry of UNC and our own Quinn are short but have that physical and mental toughness that wins games. What about Bamba. We can always use and player of his caliber. Again, I would expect our young bigs to get around 25 minutes of PT per game, so there is room. Failure to get him means we would be less deep and flexible inside. Clearly, we could use talent at the small forward position and Knox would be a perfect fit although is an unknown at this point. He might fill the role vacated by Jayson, but we need to be able to succeed without him.
Of our returning players, we survived the Bolden scare and now have a kid committed to getting better and giving the team a real lift. He has the size and strength to be effective inside. What he also had is a propensity to foul and a lack of any touch inside. He will need to work on his offensive game over the off season, continue to strengthen his body and gain additional understanding of how to defend without fouling at a high rate. He may be another of those 25 mpg guys. I really liked DeLaurier and say him as having the size (6’9” -220#) and excellent athleticism to become a very useful player going forward. I believe he has the toughness to succeed in our program but again needs to work on his offensive game, defense and ball security. Coach K needs to commit to playing both Bolden and DeLaurier this season.
I believe Frank Jackson is not only coming back but is exactly that tough, explosive player that we need going forward. He will undoubtedly make a jump in ability going into his second season and may have to fill the PG role or the backup PG role (like Quinn did). He has enough quickness to be a plus defender going forward.
One of the major unsettled points for next year is the status of both Grayson and Luke. Grayson is another of those tough, experienced and talented players this team could really use. Having a healthy Grayson on the team would give us the experienced guard we need to allow the other depth to develop at a reasonable pace. I’m guessing Grayson is a 50/50 proposition for next year.
Luke was a mainstay of the team offensively last year and was better defensively then he was given credit. He does lack lateral quickness and that will not improve but he has a variety of offensive moves that make him very difficult to stop and is a smart player who involves others. I thought he had a weakness that showed up in the tourney and at a few other points in the season and that was the tendency to defer to others too often. Perhaps he felt he couldn’t get his shot off under the kind of defense he faced, but the NBA will be tougher that way. As a team leader next year, he would have to develop an attitude that the defense can’t stop him.
We have Jack and Vrank who can provide depth and may surprise us as their experience allows them to contribute.
It’s up to coach K and the vicissitudes of fate as to who comes as a recruit, who stays with the team and whether the injury bug haunts us again next season. What he can do is commit to develop his players such that we have a 8 man rotation or more so that we can put pressure on other teams without severe fatigue issues ourselves. Not an easy task, but at least the attempt should be made.
What could and did the team and coaches learn from the past season and how will they apply the lessons going forward? Having lost to South Carolina where we faded badly in the final half, something we had shown signs of doing in many other games, I think coach k realized he needed more quality depth and toughness on the team. How to achieve that is the big question for him. Certainly, we need to recruit strong, athletic players with excellent basketball skills. We need a savvy floor general who can lead the team and minimize TO’s. In the recruiting area, the one kid who stands out is Duval. The staff is doing its best to recruit him. Hope for good results there. We also need to develop and retain some of those season to season so that we have a mix of experienced and young players and have the depth to avoid fatigue, injury and foul issues at positions.
Easy to say this but not so easy to achieve that in a competitive environment where other schools offer recruits options and our school needs to pick from the brightest and the best. Only so many of those. Wendell Carter is just that type of player. Strong, athletic and skillful. Adapting to Div 1 basketball will mean a learning curve on how to score against big physical opponents and how to avoid foul trouble. We should realize he is going to be good for 25 mpg. The hope is not foot injuries. Trent and O’Connel are talented young players but are they the strong physical type players we need. They have some size and length so they may morph into the hard-nosed kids we need. Size is great but guys like Berry of UNC and our own Quinn are short but have that physical and mental toughness that wins games. What about Bamba. We can always use and player of his caliber. Again, I would expect our young bigs to get around 25 minutes of PT per game, so there is room. Failure to get him means we would be less deep and flexible inside. Clearly, we could use talent at the small forward position and Knox would be a perfect fit although is an unknown at this point. He might fill the role vacated by Jayson, but we need to be able to succeed without him.
Of our returning players, we survived the Bolden scare and now have a kid committed to getting better and giving the team a real lift. He has the size and strength to be effective inside. What he also had is a propensity to foul and a lack of any touch inside. He will need to work on his offensive game over the off season, continue to strengthen his body and gain additional understanding of how to defend without fouling at a high rate. He may be another of those 25 mpg guys. I really liked DeLaurier and say him as having the size (6’9” -220#) and excellent athleticism to become a very useful player going forward. I believe he has the toughness to succeed in our program but again needs to work on his offensive game, defense and ball security. Coach K needs to commit to playing both Bolden and DeLaurier this season.
I believe Frank Jackson is not only coming back but is exactly that tough, explosive player that we need going forward. He will undoubtedly make a jump in ability going into his second season and may have to fill the PG role or the backup PG role (like Quinn did). He has enough quickness to be a plus defender going forward.
One of the major unsettled points for next year is the status of both Grayson and Luke. Grayson is another of those tough, experienced and talented players this team could really use. Having a healthy Grayson on the team would give us the experienced guard we need to allow the other depth to develop at a reasonable pace. I’m guessing Grayson is a 50/50 proposition for next year.
Luke was a mainstay of the team offensively last year and was better defensively then he was given credit. He does lack lateral quickness and that will not improve but he has a variety of offensive moves that make him very difficult to stop and is a smart player who involves others. I thought he had a weakness that showed up in the tourney and at a few other points in the season and that was the tendency to defer to others too often. Perhaps he felt he couldn’t get his shot off under the kind of defense he faced, but the NBA will be tougher that way. As a team leader next year, he would have to develop an attitude that the defense can’t stop him.
We have Jack and Vrank who can provide depth and may surprise us as their experience allows them to contribute.
It’s up to coach K and the vicissitudes of fate as to who comes as a recruit, who stays with the team and whether the injury bug haunts us again next season. What he can do is commit to develop his players such that we have a 8 man rotation or more so that we can put pressure on other teams without severe fatigue issues ourselves. Not an easy task, but at least the attempt should be made.