bnkepner

Rojo and Holt showed a lot of promise from freshman. Holt was thrown to the wolves early. Rojo did well for being a freshman. Had a lot of games where his scoring kept us in it, but lacked consistency (typical for a freshman). He will be a solid 4 year player as will Holt. 

You aren't understanding what Im saying. He put up 6 points in 17 minutes over 4 games. Two points against Savannah St,  scored 2 points against Mississippi Valley State, none against Louisville when he played, and scored two against Rutgers. He scored two buckets against cupcakes at the end of games and scored a bucket at the end of a Rutgers game. You're hypothetical situation about a team failing to reach 100 really has nothing to do with April. He got in and scored a bucket when it didn't matter, a lot of players did that. Fact is that April couldnt even get it done in practice to earn enough minutes. I would've be for seeing him get a shot cause he did show potential but lets not start acting like scoring 6 points against low competition is a big deal. He chose to leave anyways

I would say the biggest focus should be on consistency. Consistency in every part of the game. Last years team had some fantastic moments where we looked like one of the top teams in the big ten while at other times we looked terrible. If we consistently play to the best of our ability, our squad is a top team. Consistency also goes hand in hand with how you carry yourself off the court.

Trying hard doesn't mean you are going to stop your opponent on D. Trying hard is only a part of it. Zeisloft and Hartman both tried hard but consistently got beat by defenders. 

Draymond is a great player and defender but i don't know if I would use his matchup against Dwight as an example. Dwight averaged 14 and 14 while playing on a bum ankle that entire series. Draymond may have "held his own" but Dwight still pretty much played his game the whole time

  Hartman and Zeisloft aren't really good examples when talking about defense. Hartman was the worst offender when it came to over helping on D last year. If he was guarding a wing he always over helped inside, leaving his man wide open for a bucket. And Zeisloft got beat man his man 9 times out of 10. Although I do think Zeisloft got screwed on calls more than anyone on the team last year. Both tried hard on defense but trying hard will only get you a participation trophy, and those don't count for anything

What competition did he face though? He minutes in a few games when we were winning big at the beginning of the year and a few minutes when we were getting blown out against Louisville. Easy to put up stats when the game is pretty much over

Frank Jackson is another guy we are recruiting who is a heck of a player in the 2016 class( and on the USA select team with Davis and Alkins)

Easily

Vijay Blackmon is not a player who is going to play at high D1 

What happened to Eron Gordon? Was rated pretty high and now out of the top 100

European basketball uses the 24 second shot clock and European basketball is all about the game of basketball, good offensive sets and solid defense. That is all possible with a 24 second shot clock. The shot clock has nothing to do with the decline in those three things

Exactly! I think Lebron James is an amazing basketball player, but the guy is a crybaby. I've watched him closely for the past couple years and he is one of the worst tantrum throwers in the NBA. He expects a call every single play. If he doesn't get a call he in in the refs ear about it. If it wasn't for that I could stomach rooting for him cause he is a great player, he is just a crybaby. Reminds me of too many kids I played sports with growing up

Its a perfect dream scenario to have a dominant player at every position but doesn't happen for the majority of schools out there. I think Bryant will be good. Vonleh was in no way dominating when he was here and if Bryant can do at least what Vonleh did here, we will be in good shape

Im just saying our offense is not designed to have a dominating big man down low who we just feed and everyone else watches. You yourself were just talking about how Zeller ran the floor. That was Zeller's strength, he wasn't the typical "dominating big man". We have a guard and win centered offense and with a little more experience this year will be one of the top offenses in the nation again this year.  Its evident that you aren't understanding what Im saying and we aren't seeing eye to eye so lets just leave it at that

NBA has been ruined by the ESPN culture. ESPN just continually pumps up people like Lebron James and other superstars. This finals series is killing ESPN because Lebron is the underdog. The last few years with the Spurs and now the Warriors has shown that a TEAM is more valuable than a couple superstars playing together. I hope the Warriors crush the Cavs 

Exactly!!

No one is expecting him to dominate, we honestly only need him to be around the level that Vonleh played at and I see Thomas as easily being able to do that for us. He fills a need. We don't need a dominant post presence. We need someone who can contribute their fair share, which is something we didn't have last season in the post. Bryant will be a defensive factor and be able to score on offense. We definitely don't need him to be a dominating big man cause we have all the offense we need with our guards. Bryant will be big upgrade over Perea and anything other post player we had last year and thats definitely all we need him for this upcoming year

Yeah Im not arguing for the case of playing Hartman and Bryant together much cause Im not big on Hartman anyway. I'm just saying I think people are downplaying Bryant's skill level. Cody was a very special player and you are right that they are two different players all together. There are a lot of things that Bryant won't be able to do that Zeller did, but vice versa as well.

Have you seen Bryant play? Im honestly asking. Not a knock but an honest question. If Holt could rebound and get out ahead of the play last year, then there is no doubt that Bryant can do the same. Bryant is athletic. He isn't going to be as fast as Zeller, but like I said earlier, he will be able to get down the court for some easy buckets. 

I haven't seen enough from Holt offensively to justify him getting major minutes. His only offense is put backs. Those are definitely needed and useful but I like what we have with the three shooters, Troy, and our big man down low. If we can defend well, that is a solid lineup for me. I'm guessing that this year we will see tons of different lineups throughout the season as Crean always does

I honestly don't think we will see much of a change from last year's lineup. I think its going to be the same lineup except Bryant will be in Hanner's place. Holt and/or Hartman would get by on the defensive side but Im afraid would not give us much of anything on offense. 

Most kids get released from their LOI after the coach leaves. Look what happened after Shaka Smart left VCU and after Donovan left Florida. Kids who have signed their LOI but havent even started yet are usually allowed out of their LOI to puruse another option. Its a completely different story for players that are already years into their scholarship. Coaching change doesn't matter for those players. There is no hardship waiver anymore so its pretty much automatic that you have to sit out a year unless you have already graduated. Hanner could fight it for all he wants but he has little to none chance of winning cause they've done away with the hardship waiver as I already said. 

Well him getting booted off the team shows that he didn't learn anything. Neither did DD

Bryant is definitely no Zeller as far as running up and down the floor but Bryant is not slow by any means. Granted I've only seen him a handful of times but he had good enough speed to run with IU. He also is a heck of a passer and has a shooting advantage over Zeller