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RaceToTheTop

Your Starters and Lineups

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5 minutes ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:


He’s a wing whether he’s a 3 or a 4. Either way he’s not out of position.


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Uh, yeah he is out of position. He’s not a wing. He needs to be slashing to the basket or on the block, not standing around the 3-pt line with nobody even trying to pretend they’re guarding him. 

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Assuming health, I’d go Phinisee, Green, Durham, Smith and TJD. 
Brunk comes in for TJD
Hunter in for Smith
Anderson in for Durham
Franklin in for Green/Phinisee 
Thompson for a few to go big for a bit. 
We need to get quicker, faster and more skilled, and create more space. 

I agree but where is the personnel to do so? Maybe run RP, AF, DA, JS, TJD
JH for DA
AD for RP
DG for AF
RT for JS/TJD. Rotate the 3?

play Brunk minimally and DD none at all.




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9 minutes ago, yogisballin said:


I agree but where is the personnel to do so? Maybe run RP, AF, DA, JS, TJD
JH for DA
AD for RP
DG for AF
RT for JS/TJD. Rotate the 3?

play Brunk minimally and DD none at all.




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I still think Brunk should play a lot. He’s playing too well to just remove his minutes. I’d shorten the rotation on the inside with TJD and Smith starting and Brunk playing almost all the rest of those minutes spelling both. Race if we need to go a little deeper with foul trouble or something. 

I know our guards and wings are playing terrible. I get it. But this team isn’t going anywhere if our guards and wings don’t gain confidence and start producing and playing better. The status quo won’t accomplish that. 

We need to go smaller which gets Smith in the right spot, let’s us feature TJD, Anderson should open lanes for Rob and Al and hopefully more open shots for our guards/wings. 

Play through TJD and then on kick outs have our guards and wings attack the basket relentlessly. Hope that sucks in the defense and gets them scrambling and quick reversals get our guys more open, in rythem 3. Attacking smaller will also hopefully get some easy baskets driving for guards/wings to get their confidence going. 

But, we can’t continue with our guards and wings having nowhere to go, no mechanism for getting easy baskets and just clanging late shotclock jumpers. People complain about Durham’s contested layups, maybe those layups are less contested with more space and a less clogged lane.  

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13 hours ago, Chris007 said:

I don't know but we have to see if he can. I also would shorten the rotation, Anderson and Thompson might not be in it. Either use Thompson or Davis but not both ever in the same game. 

Chris, do you get the sense that certain players on this team have completely lost and been unable to find their confidence? Guys like Phinisee and Hunter (hunter especially) were very good natural scorers. I feel like when I watch this team play, many of our guys are so scared to shoot an open shot for fear of not running a complete set. Many of our jump shots are taken late in the clock and rushed. It seems obvious that they not allowed freedom within the offense. That’s a death sentence. 
 

I just can’t wrap my head around this. When Archie was hired we were told that we were going to run a pack line defense and a uptempo offense built on the fast break, much like North Carolina’s. Our bigs, outside of Deron Davis are all mobile and can easily get up and down. Why aren’t we getting up and down? In my opinion, this team is not built whatsoever for the half court on offense (the opposite as when on defense). We need to be pushing the tempo before teams can get set and pack the lane. 
 

idk. Questioning everything at this point. Team looks out of sorts. Seems to be part of this staff’s DNA at this point. 
 

tell me something encouraging! Lol.

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9 hours ago, HoosierTrav said:

Chris, do you get the sense that certain players on this team have completely lost and been unable to find their confidence? Guys like Phinisee and Hunter (hunter especially) were very good natural scorers. I feel like when I watch this team play, many of our guys are so scared to shoot an open shot for fear of not running a complete set. Many of our jump shots are taken late in the clock and rushed. It seems obvious that they not allowed freedom within the offense. That’s a death sentence. 
 

I just can’t wrap my head around this. When Archie was hired we were told that we were going to run a pack line defense and a uptempo offense built on the fast break, much like North Carolina’s. Our bigs, outside of Deron Davis are all mobile and can easily get up and down. Why aren’t we getting up and down? In my opinion, this team is not built whatsoever for the half court on offense (the opposite as when on defense). We need to be pushing the tempo before teams can get set and pack the lane. 
 

idk. Questioning everything at this point. Team looks out of sorts. Seems to be part of this staff’s DNA at this point. 
 

tell me something encouraging! Lol.

I don't find them to be completely lost, I just find them not being able to find their confidence due to injuries. Hunter I really thought would be a surprise this season and he's been nonexistent. 

I really do think we want to play fast but if Phinisee is not in the game, the other guards especially Green walks it up the floor. I read what Archie said on the radio last night, but I do know he was not happy with that effort. I think we will see us play better tomorrow night.

Something encouraging? A bad Northwestern team comes to town tomorrow night. Hopefully, that cures some of our woes for a few days. 

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9 hours ago, BGleas said:

Smith. He’s 1,000% not a wing, at least not on this team. Maybe he could be on a team that has some dynamic guards that can make plays and score, as well as a true stretch 4, but that’s not this team. 

On this team, playing Smith on the wing means 3 guys in the lineup that can’t shoot or dribble drive. It means 3 guys in the lineup that the defense doesn’t even have to leave the paint to defend. 

On this team, he’s a 4. As far as the halfcourt, he does his best work near the basket, but that’s hard to do with TJD and Brunk both there. 

Edit: just to be clear, I love Smith’s effort this year, his mentality amd his leadership. 

I 100% agree with this post. He is so much playing out of position. That's why you can't have TJD, Smith, and Brunk all in at the same time. Smith has to be able to post his man up and jump over him in the lane to get his shot off. 

The one thing I disagree with is that he has any leadership. I don't believe any of the Crean guys Green, Al, Smith or Davis are leaders at all and I think it's one of the major flaws of this team. 

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9 hours ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:


He’s a wing whether he’s a 3 or a 4. Either way he’s not out of position.


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He's a wing who can't shoot or dribble. You're not going to be successful with wings like that. He has to play in the paint because that is his range. Yes every once in a while he will step out and hit a jumper but you can't count on that. 

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9 hours ago, BGleas said:

I still think Brunk should play a lot. He’s playing too well to just remove his minutes. I’d shorten the rotation on the inside with TJD and Smith starting and Brunk playing almost all the rest of those minutes spelling both. Race if we need to go a little deeper with foul trouble or something. 

I know our guards and wings are playing terrible. I get it. But this team isn’t going anywhere if our guards and wings don’t gain confidence and start producing and playing better. The status quo won’t accomplish that. 

We need to go smaller which gets Smith in the right spot, let’s us feature TJD, Anderson should open lanes for Rob and Al and hopefully more open shots for our guards/wings. 

Play through TJD and then on kick outs have our guards and wings attack the basket relentlessly. Hope that sucks in the defense and gets them scrambling and quick reversals get our guys more open, in rythem 3. Attacking smaller will also hopefully get some easy baskets driving for guards/wings to get their confidence going. 

But, we can’t continue with our guards and wings having nowhere to go, no mechanism for getting easy baskets and just clanging late shotclock jumpers. People complain about Durham’s contested layups, maybe those layups are less contested with more space and a less clogged lane.  

Were on the same page. 

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He's a wing who can't shoot or dribble. You're not going to be successful with wings like that. He has to play in the paint because that is his range. Yes every once in a while he will step out and hit a jumper but you can't count on that. 

He definitely can’t shoot 3’s but that doesn’t make him a post player. And he can dribble. He may not be Kyrie Irving but he can dribble. He’s the one kid on this team who returned and has shown improvement. A lot of that improvement has come from moving to his natural 3 position. People here are so confusing. Don’t want to bench Green or Durham but want to bench or move Smith, the one kid that’s actually improved and is arguably our 2nd best player.


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1 minute ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:


He definitely can’t shoot 3’s but that doesn’t make him a post player. And he can dribble. He may not be Kyrie Irving but he can dribble. He’s the one kid on this team who returned and has shown improvement. A lot of that improvement has come from moving to his natural 3 position. People here are so confusing. Don’t want to bench Green or Durham but want to bench or move Smith, the one kid that’s actually improved and is arguably our 2nd best player.


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My starting rotation has Durham on the bench. I agree he has shown improvement by playing hard the whole time. He can't shoot outside 15 feet. If he does it's a bad shot. He has crazy athletic ability and he needs to use that to his advantage. Which would mean fast break points and points in the paint by rising above his guy to get his shots off. Also hitting the offensive rebounds. You say the offense sucks or we can't shoot but whenever someone mentions changes or tries to add another shooter to the lineup you are not oh no don't do that. It seems you might have an agenda

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Nothing will convince me that CAM doesn't see the same things that we do. I also think he knows the players better than we do. So, given our struggles and apparent shortcomings, why hasn't he tried any of the things suggested here? I don't particularly like system coaches, but I don't think his approach is the problem. What worked at Dayton, should work just as well here if the talent is good enough. So, what are the possible reasons no significant changes have been made?

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Just now, cthomas said:

Nothing will convince me that CAM doesn't see the same things that we do. I also think he knows the players better than we do. So, given our struggles and apparent shortcomings, why hasn't he tried any of the things suggested here? I don't particularly like system coaches, but I don't think his approach is the problem. What worked at Dayton, should work just as well here if the talent is good enough. So, what are the possible reasons no significant changes have been made?

So I would simply say. that isn’t Archie responsible for Talent acquisition. 
 

And it’s not just Archie’s job to see what we are seeing he’s got to fix it. It’s been over two years of the same crap.  It’s time to do something significant. 

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Just now, Brass Cannon said:

So I would simply say. that isn’t Archie responsible for Talent acquisition. 
 

And it’s not just Archie’s job to see what we are seeing he’s got to fix it. It’s been over two years of the same crap.  It’s time to do something significant. 

The question was, given everything that's been discussed, why he hasn't tried something different. He manages the game and studies the film. He has way more information to work with than any of us. So, once again, WHY haven't changes been made?

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Just now, cthomas said:

The question was, given everything that's been discussed, why he hasn't tried something different. He manages the game and studies the film. He has way more information to work with than any of us. So, once again, WHY haven't changes been made?

Doesn’t matter two years in no reason should justify it. 

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3 hours ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:


He definitely can’t shoot 3’s but that doesn’t make him a post player. And he can dribble. He may not be Kyrie Irving but he can dribble. He’s the one kid on this team who returned and has shown improvement. A lot of that improvement has come from moving to his natural 3 position. People here are so confusing. Don’t want to bench Green or Durham but want to bench or move Smith, the one kid that’s actually improved and is arguably our 2nd best player.


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Not too many 'natural 3's' that can't dribble or shoot. And no, he can't dribble. I mean yes, technically he can dribble a ball, but he has almost no ability to break a defender down with the dribble and get to the basket. Almost all of his scoring comes from the paint and the block. His best move the past 2-3 weeks has been his little jump hook from the block/paint. 

Just because he's 6'8", long and athletic, it doesn't make him a 3. You have to have the skill to go with it and he doesn't. 

Where I will agree with you is that Smith is really important to this team. That's why I've never suggested, at least not this season, removing him from the lineup. He can and would be really effective playing around the basket and slashing to the basket if there was actually space to do it, but with TJD, Brunk and Smith playing together there is no space. We also need his defense, he often gets overlooked as one of our best defenders.

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2 minutes ago, BGleas said:

Not too many 'natural 3's' that can't dribble or shoot. And no, he can't dribble. I mean yes, technically he can dribble a ball, but he has almost no ability to break a defender down with the dribble and get to the basket. Almost all of his scoring comes from the paint and the block. His best move the past 2-3 weeks has been his little jump hook from the block/paint. 

Just because he's 6'8", long and athletic, it doesn't make him a 3. You have to have the skill to go with it and he doesn't. 

Where I will agree with you is that Smith is really important to this team. That's why I've never suggested, at least not this season, removing him from the lineup. He can and would be really effective playing around the basket and slashing to the basket if there was actually space to do it, but with TJD, Brunk and Smith playing together there is no space. We also need his defense, he often gets overlooked as one of our best defenders.

He dribbles, but not well.

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My starting rotation has Durham on the bench. I agree he has shown improvement by playing hard the whole time. He can't shoot outside 15 feet. If he does it's a bad shot. He has crazy athletic ability and he needs to use that to his advantage. Which would mean fast break points and points in the paint by rising above his guy to get his shots off. Also hitting the offensive rebounds. You say the offense sucks or we can't shoot but whenever someone mentions changes or tries to add another shooter to the lineup you are not oh no don't do that. It seems you might have an agenda

What shooter are you adding to the lineup? We don’t have any.


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1 minute ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:


What shooter are you adding to the lineup? We don’t have any.


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I would add Franklin. I would go with three perimeter players and 2 bigs. Right now I consider it 3 bigs two wings. I said yesterday Rob, Green, Franklin, TJD and Smith

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13 minutes ago, BGleas said:

Not too many 'natural 3's' that can't dribble or shoot. And no, he can't dribble. I mean yes, technically he can dribble a ball, but he has almost no ability to break a defender down with the dribble and get to the basket. Almost all of his scoring comes from the paint and the block. His best move the past 2-3 weeks has been his little jump hook from the block/paint. 

Just because he's 6'8", long and athletic, it doesn't make him a 3. You have to have the skill to go with it and he doesn't. 

Where I will agree with you is that Smith is really important to this team. That's why I've never suggested, at least not this season, removing him from the lineup. He can and would be really effective playing around the basket and slashing to the basket if there was actually space to do it, but with TJD, Brunk and Smith playing together there is no space. We also need his defense, he often gets overlooked as one of our best defenders.

He is a worse dribbling Troy Williams with fewer turnovers though. 

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3 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

He is a worse dribbling Troy Williams with fewer turnovers though. 

Worse dribbling, worse shooting, worst finishing at the basket, but smarter and a much better defender. Williams could fly to the basket and break someone down off the dribble to get to the basket. Smith can't do that. 

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