Hillsdale87

The UCLA athletic department is remarkably terrible. This is getting embarrassing. They're going to end up with Cronin, and that's going to end badly. Cronin is fine, and he will have decent teams, but his plodding style doesn't fit UCLA, and he's not a good enough coach to get them back to National dominance Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DeAndre Hunter's shot is completely broken. Bizarre. He's been terrible on offense all tourney Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, we need guys who play hard, but consistently getting highly ranked recruits is the only way Archie is going to have sustained success. It sounds really nice to get a bunch of guys who work really hard and play basketball the right way, but talent wins. Occasionally you get lucky and a lower ranked guy breaks through, so there's nothing wrong with taking the occasional flyer. But the recruiting rankings are pretty good and more accurate than not. From those Villanova teams, they had one contributor who was not a top 80 recruit, and that was DiVincenzo, who was 124. Hart, Booth, Arcidiacono, Ochefu, Bridges, Spellman, Brunson were all top 80. Their recruiting gets underrated because they do things "the right way", but Wright consistently pulls in very good to great classes.

His per minute stats were very similar to Deron's. I expect that they'll be a good duo Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed. He has more defensive versatility than anybody else. Effort and focus was an issue, but he could switch 1-5. Consistent focus would give the defense a really high ceiling Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think the thumb helps explain some of the times he missed badly to the left or right. But he just needs a coach who can tweak things, and he needs a lot of work in catch and shoot. Most of his high school highlights show him shooting either off the dribble or from a stand still, when he's held the ball after a pass and shoots in a guy's face. He's clearly most comfortable shooting in these types of situations. His shot looks pretty natural on these types of plays. But he's really bad in catch and shoot situations, and that's where he needs a lot of work. This isn't shocking as he's likely always had the ball in his hand, so playing off ball in a SG role is a bit different, but he never got comfortable getting into his shot. It showed in the results too. I don't remember where I saw it, but he was in the 66th percentile on shots off the dribble, but only 25th percentile in catch and shoot situations. Some of that is likely that he had issues catching the ball with his thumb, but there are also ways to make his shot more efficient.

Certainly didn't help, but his shot needs to be reworked anyway. He's never going to be a good shooter until he cleans up his form. Ball comes back too far and his wrist action is not good. He's athletic enough to still make it work, but that's not going to cut it in the NBA. He's athletic enough that I'm sure he can fix it relatively quickly, so hopefully he can come back from surgery quickly Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The game was too fast for him too. He missed a bunch of rebounds by just not reacting quickly enough or being strong enough. He tried hard, but that's about all he could do. I know Fitzner was frustrating, but he at least knew what he was doing on the court, even if he got pushed around on defense. He had 3 years of college experience, so he was just more prepared. Jake was behind from a physical and mental standpoint this year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don't give up on Damezi yet. As I remember, most people who had seen Jake in high school said he was a project who probably wouldn't play much as a freshman or sophomore. That doesn't mean he would have been worthless. We get 13 scholarships, so not all are going to contribute every year. His expectations may be different though, so he's free to leave and try to prove Archie wrong Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Which is why Archie signed a McD AA in back to back years... [emoji849] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Always disappointed when something doesn't work out, but not a shock. He just wasn't strong enough to play in the Big 10 this year. He tried hard, and I know Fitzner wasn't good, but I think Jake got abused even more when he was out there. If he thinks he deserves to play more minutes, he's probably better off elsewhere. I thought he had a chance to be good eventually, but he still needs a lot of work

UCLA is close to hiring Jamie Dixon... I know some people arent happy with Archie, but he was undeniably a hot coaching candidate. UCLA settling for Dixon is very underwhelming Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If somebody else has reported it, and it's likely to be a factor in Romeo's decision, which is the biggest story for the team, he can't really ignore it. It's public knowledge. You could debate whether the original Washington Post article was in poor taste, but now that it's out there, it's very relevant to Romeo's situation.

Doyel just referenced what the Washington Post reported last spring. It was already out there, and in a much bigger newspaper. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What did Doyel say? Are you referencing the article from a couple weeks ago when Doyel said Romeo should come back or is it something else? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Really good, and this is a big part of why I'm very uncomfortable with some of the personal criticisms that often get made toward players. We really don't know what these guys are thinking, what they've been through, or what they're going through. Yes, Devonte is often an undisciplined basketball player. But he's a young guy, who's had to deal with a lot of terrible things in his life that most of us will fortunately never have to. And that's clearly impacted him. Being abandoned by your mom is no doubt extremely scarring. Having your dad in prison is going to impact you too. Mark Titus always talks about how fans never really understand how players can be impacted by the personal distractions going on in their lives. Players can be frustrating, but it's good to err on the side of empathy... Good to see in the article that Devonte seems pretty committed to the team and that his dad seems to have a good perspective. Hopefully he and Rob continue to work well together and both make big jumps next year!

I'm still waiting for Charlie Miller to reach his potential. I was 9 or 10 and kept thinking he was going to be awesome. He teased just enough to be extremely disappointing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pretty crazy that Culver was around 300. Anunoby made some sense even though he was clearly under-ranked. But he was very raw. Culver is both extremely athletic and polished Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He doesn’t even have an offer yet. I'm guessing he's lower on the priority list than a number of other guys Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Right. Not everybody develops at the same pace. I haven't seen him play, but it's possible he showed a lot more in his high school season than he had showed before.

Joel Berry, Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, Marcus Paige, Isaiah Hicks, Tyler Hansborough, etc.. Loaded with elite recruits who were perfect college players but didn't have exactly what the NBA was looking for

I think Roy has the perfect model at UNC, and he somehow doesn't get nearly the respect he deserves. UNC has had a lot more success than Duke in his time there, but Duke gets all the headlines. Roy specializes in finding stars and McD AAs who are often good enough to contribute as freshmen, but not quite good enough to be one and done, and so he always has a talented, experienced roster. Yes he has some one and dones (and this year he has 2), but it's mostly guys who stay 3-4 years, even though they were big time recruits.

The fact that Indiana is talking to Windham is just good due diligence. A player from Indiana at a position of need is available. It doesn't mean he has priority over Beverly, Quinones, or any of the potential grad transfers. That said, we need shooters, and if Windham can do that really well, then he's worth consideration. For instance, if he can shoot the 3 at 40+% and play decent defense but not much else, I'd probably rather have him than Beverly, who's a much better all around player but, at least at this point, not much of an outside shooting threat. We saw this year that it doesn't matter how good a player is if he's constantly driving into double teams. I just looked at Zeisloft's recruiting page, and he didn't even have a ranking. And I don't think that's too inaccurate considering he really couldn't do much other than shoot 3s. He shot 35 2s in 69 games at IU. But his ability to do one thing really well made us a much more dangerous team. Not everybody needs to be a top recruit. Yes, we want mostly top 100 guys. But sprinkling in some low rated specialists is going to help too.

They could, but I would doubt it. Both of these guys want to make it to the NBA as quickly as possible, so sitting a year won't help that. Plus, the incoming recruits don't play their positions, so they should have plenty of playing time.

Those guys don't play Brooks' position. I think he'll get plenty of playing time next year Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk