HoosierHoopster

Morris has been an ACC player of the week, his stats don’t really reflect how good he is. Really unassuming, bright kid (also a several time academic all american or something like that), came out of Richmond TX, which is basically a far out SW Houston suburb not far from where we live, my son worked out with him and an AAU coach regularly. He’s the kind of up front player who helps the whole team

Truth But I kind of liked Barney Fife

Has Morris Udeze entered the portal? We know him, great kid, my son used to train with him here outside Houston

It's been posted (from his twitter) but it's still good to see!

Sure one never knows, but Duncomb came in a top 100 ranked kid, no reason at this point I'm aware of not to expect him to put in the work. Race of course reclassed, but still a good ref point, he averaged under 4 points and boards as a soph, development...

Dumcomb is kind of a sleeper. He wasn't fully healthy and had to build his body, and was behind seasoned vets as a frosh. Consider Race's frosh look to his soph look... Race wasn't ready either and redshirted. I'm looking forward to seeing what a soph Duncomb might grow into Btw, Race didn't become a full-time starter until his redshirt junior year

I like Bates’s : “BOW”

I’ve been saying there was never a doubt in my mind, he’s clearly a key player now for Woodson— But still, Hallelujah!!

I’m looking at it this way — We finished the year basically the best D in conference— allowed least points per possession, FG D was very good. So far we’re returning all of that except Phin, and JG’s D (already strong) will be better this season and with more minutes We’re adding as of now the #5 ranked (247) incoming class including Ren who’s excellent defensively). The team right now has good chemistry and defense is not a weakness, it’s a strength. Imo we do not need Dennis. I’m for development, guys develop, on both sides of the ball. I go back to remembering people calling for Wat to transfer after his sophomore year, and saying Vic was a “mediocre” shooter and always would be after his sophomore year, and there’ve been a number of those guys. We have a strong core right now. Chemistry, commitment of staff to the players who who are committed to the team and have shown contributions to the team matter. Running out and grabbing portal players at the expense of all that is not any kind of guarantee and it comes with risk. Guys like Leal contribute, depth, locker room, chemistry, skill set including shooting that with development can blossom, all that matters

Yeah yeah but can you pronounce Iwuchuckwu :)

Classic — i forgot a player lol ;)

Red: TJD Race JG - Kopp JHS X White: Duncomb Reneau - Banks Galloway - Dennis Bates Red wins - the difference is TJD

No inside info whatsoever but tend to agree. There's a reason the three guys announced early and we've heard nothing since other than Race going out of his way to say he's staying (which imo doesn't need to be announced). We know how Woodson valued Geronimo in the last several games, how his minutes jumped into the 20s, how his rebounding and blocks and D are valued, I have never thought he was considering leaving and still don't - a bit concerned about the possibility of adding 2 new guys, but those end of year conversations are not loosy goosey, and both the staff and the players are looking for their clear path, they don't tend to sit around waiting to see how chips fall into place

Well said, and dead on

Rooting for him to have a banner year at Cinci -- Thanks for all you brought to IU, and good to luck to you Rob

Wasn't meant to be directed to you str8

It’s just so bizarre and surprising to me to sit here and read people criticizing his D and actually favoring Kopp, it’s so plainly off. Those numbers, clear as they are, will probably just get dismissively disregarded. Kopp is just not a good defender. He does play positional team D, he does give good effort, his reads are good, but he doesn’t have any quickness, laterally he’s poor, has no length, can’t elevate against the 3, can’t stay with a slashing guard / wing, all those things were plainly obvious all year, while he scored at 10th on the team but some still advocate starting him, amazing

Bingo

Absolutely, watch a guy’s form, watch how he shoots FTs, watch his footwork and lift. I often go back to Vic bc of his massive improvement to his jr year of plus 40, on volume, from shooting in the 20s, and all the debates i had with guys who said he was not a shooter and never would be. The form was there, the work ethic was there, the footwork was there, but guys like to label people and fail to see the likely development. We have guys who can develop into strong shooters, i’d be surprised if Bates isn’t one of them. On top of that, really need to consider the other things guys bring, running out to grab a shooter at the risk of losing a guy like JG for examp to me would be just stupid. The guy kills the glass, blocks all over the place, defends nasty, has monster upside and already shows a good stroke on the trey. Or consider a guy like Wat. There were actually people talking about how it would be good if he transferred his soph year, gave him silly labels for his D, called him soft. How’d that turn out? Thank God we didn’t have the portal then

Gallo absolutely helps move the ball, he's one of those guys who seem to make players around him better. Right, not a 1, but the ball moves with him on the floor for sure. Now if he can just take care of that kind of out of control run along the baseline.... I'd love to see him doing those baseline runs like Troy used to do, just has to get under control (and Troy had similar issues early).

So Reneau's a clear 4 coming in, they recruited him, Banks is really a 4 isn't he?, another recruitment. In any event though we were talking about last season, re your comments why didn't they play JG on the wing, at least as relevant is the fairly obvious point that they didn't have a player to take on the 4 in any meaningful minutes if JG was on the wing and Race was sitting. Kind of important to your assumptions about what the staff was showing us, no? Come on now Gleas, you argue but you're not acknowledging anything that goes against what you want to argue -- that JG was the only real option at the 4 other than Race, and more importantly was developing really well there, best rebounder and right there in blocks with TJD. That JG has all the tools to develop into a wing player, length, wingspan, athletic (uber), quickness, developing and really already demonstrated outside shot, defensive tenacity. That OG is now a pro SF, same deal, lots of similarities in their college games. I think we're arguing past each other now, which strikes me as kind of odd since we all love what JG brings to the team regardless, but it'd be kind of cool if you'd at least acknowledging some things you know :)

This is a good point that I think is also getting overlooked in this discussion. While the point is made that he has been played at the 4 not the 3 therefore he isn't/can't play on the wing (with which I wholeheartedly disagree), the flip side of that argument, with which I agree, is that he is an already very good and improving 4 who can be absolutely dominant -- and the question there, which I think the staff considers, is not who else can play on the wing, but who can play JG's current role when Race sits? JG is right there with TJD in rebounding and shot blocking (he actually leads per 40 in boards). So who fills the 4 role on significant minutes if JG is on the wing while Race sits? That, to me, is why he hasn't been played more on the wing, not because he doesn't have the ability.

He already showed an outside shot, the point made is that he has both, not one or the other, and Smith had neither. They aren't remotely the same player.

Yeah, I don't buy it. His usage numbers, completely ignored, are already there.

Nice, we see things completely differently.