Demo

Top picture looks pretty shockingly like a young Al Harrington

Yeah, Troy doesn’t have much, but the player movement and the fact the ball isn’t sticking anywhere is really good stuff. 1 worry: TJD is really handsy defending the perimeter. At some point he’s going to come up against a guy experienced enough to just rip the ball through his arms and create fouls.

Green has been really good defensively first few trips. Textbook closeouts. Great positioning.

La Tech not defending the line at all. Creighton with 6 3’s in the first 8 mins, all of them wide open looks. And, man, is Ballock a fun watch. Good, good player. Had a Crean offer, I believe.

Just stop with your damned reasonableness and optimism!

Hope everyone’s enjoying DeBoer. I imagine he’s gonna be somewhere else next year.

I think you’re right. I also have no problem hearing a guy like Self selling recruits with a line like, “the system screws you. I believe in taking care of you any way I can and I won’t apologize for that.” A certain kid/family would eat that up. You know Will Wade is selling it like that.

Painter is really good. But, sorry, if you’re running stuff with the goal to get Matt Haarms face ups in the midrange you have SERIOUS offensive issues. Unless Wheeler really takes off I don’t know where their offense comes from against anyone any good at all.

You might be right. But suppose the NCAA says to Memphis something along the lines of, “You want to play Wiseman? Fine, we can’t physically stop you. But if you do, none of your wins will count. We will not give you a tournament bid. Even if you win your Conference tournament we won’t honor it.” I don’t pretend to know NCAA bylaws, and I’m entirely too lazy to research it, but I would be surprised if they don’t have that level of control over participants in their own tournament. What does Memphis do then?

Dude, when I see your name pop in a recruiting thread, I think “THERE IT IS” and rip it open. Imagine my disappointment at finding conventional snark. you have, indeed, set a high bar.

You’re right. But Hoyer is playing because of mitigating circumstances. He isn’t Reich’s best option. He’s his insurance policy. Vinatieri is their chosen guy. His job is to make kicks. Extra points should be a given. He’s missed 6 of them. He’s missed, I believe, 5 fg attempts under 45 yds. He is not doing his job. He has absolutely contributed to 3 losses. Kickers don’t get to do that, even HOF’ers. It is time to move on.

Agree with every word of this. The lineups with Davis/Brunk and TJD together clog lanes in a way I’m not sure you can mitigate. Maybe when Green gets back they can run some 1-3-1 stuff with TJD playing out of the high post. But I don’t remember Archie running any sets like that and I doubt TJD is ready for that catalyst role anyway. Also agree on the best lineup. I don’t think anyone in the conference has enough skilled size to really exploit it, plus it creates space and exploitable matchups. Btw: I was really hard on Smith and his role going into the year. He looks like a new kid and I’m happy as hell to be wrong. Good for him.

The difference between what UT can create with Coleman and Ramey and what PU has with Eastern and Hunter is stark.

Yeah, if your play out of the timeout involves Eastern creating for himself, you’ve got some stuff to figure out.

Serious question: Has there been a change of emphasis for this year on block/charge calls that de-emphasizes squared up contact? I’ve seen at least a half dozen charges called so far where the driver has caught the defender at an angle without the defender being set. Just saw 2 in 5 mins in the PU-UT and SLU-Valpo games. They look like obvious blocks.

Yup, can feel it comin’. As shaky as Tua was early, the guy who’s been really lousy is Delpit. Missed tackles, bad angles, been run over, been wired to blocks. If I didn’t know he was supposed to be a stud, I’d say he isn’t one.

There’s a pretty good workout video of Edey on You Tube. He’s a long way away. Nowhere close to Haarms in terms of movement or bend and not nearly the frame and bulk of Haas. When he puts the ball on the floor with his left hand he looks like a kid in freshman gym. But Painter seems to get these right.

Yup. Best ball defender in the country.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Cade Cunningham just committed to Oklahoma St.

For the pure X’s and O’s geeks of the world, St Mary’s-Wiscy is a hell of a day 1 game. Randy Bennett is destination tv for me.

There’s a lot of reasonable minds can disagree stuff in this post. I agree with some of it, disagree with some. But 1 point rates a mention. If you genuinely think that Bitadze was a wasted pick, I really don’t know what to tell you other than you’re just flat wrong. 20 year old 7’ kids with a skill set that high and that complete who can also see the game and mentally process it as quickly as he does this early in their careers just aren’t common. He’s going to have a long, productive career. Zero doubt in my mind.

One of these days someone needs to explain to me why so many sports media types constantly talk about Adrian Martinez like he’s any good at all. Maybe he will be, but he’s not now. Would take Penix over Martinez all day long.

Plummer with a Mayfieldesque shuffle pass int in the Purdue-Nebraska game. Then Martinez almost does the same thing on the next freaking play. Great stuff.

Love it. Though the Hardenesque blatant walk before the release is a little bit of a problem

I really like the fit with what Underwood does offensively. Not sure the kid’s long enough or quick enough laterally to fit that extreme denial defensive structure that he runs.