If you lead with seems like a good kid
We were + 3 in the far too many minutes. Maybe he should have played more
Darling is being ridiculously scrutinized IMO. He was far from the problem last night; two things caused the loss IMO.
First, the front court is being praised and certainly deserve it to a degree but their inability to cover the court on the press with no adjustment at all on their part on the court or the coaching staff from the bench. Experienced players all and I give Mitchell an obvious pass because he was on the point of the press but leaving the back court exposed for uncontested layup after layup at this level is an abomination. That is certainly correctable but obviously there was no attempt to do so in real time last night, not sure why. Isn’t that what “exhibitions” are for?
Second, people can praise, Sellers, Sanon, and Jackson all they want but games are not played on paper nor on mix tapes. To have none of the three integrated yet is far more long term concerning IMO. I know some are appalled that I dare criticize Pitino but his idea that Sellers or Jackson could “initiate the offense” in a position less basketball approach was not a plan, it was a pipe dream. Again small sample size but:
Sellers has shown nothing in two games and in fairness, needs to get a real chance playing off the ball.
Jackson is lost on both sides of the court and I have no opinion other than that. Again, in fairness, a small sample size but he shows no comfort level on either side of the ball.
Sanon should be coming off the bench in an instant offense role. Has shown by far the most of the three.
That leaves Lefty, who IMO, should either get a real chance, with a real role, but how do you do that? Time to find out if he is the miracle minute or the two clanged foul shots. The problem is you have a glutted backcourt with seemingly no defined roles except for Darling, like it or not.
I would start Darling and either Sellers or Lefty off the ball and see what happens, the team HAS to get a least one shooter on the court to stretch the defense.
Right now, I see a team teetering between year one’s and year two’s identities.
Now on to Pitino, if he was playing to win last night, clearly he calls off the press and makes Michigan beat them in the half court where they scored but with much less consistency and a lot more effort and expenditure of energy.
Finally, after two games, one of which was a real game against a real opponent in a real atmosphere, I think we will finally see a team closer to last years than year ones’, but not without some very real growing pains against a challenging early schedule. I hope I am wrong but
We shall see……….
