@Creighton, Tue., Dec. 31, 4p, PEACOCK

Pitinos love of the three point shot and the SJU RedStorm appears to be a match made in hell. For the almost forty years of the college three point shot you can count the number of very good SJU three point shooters on one hand.
Pitino suggested that RJ should have taken a three instead of his two pattempts vs Creighton. You can’t take it to the rim vs the Creighton center but a mid range attempt down one is fine.
If any SJU player took a three at the end of that game I would have screamed at the TV..
 
CBA69 said:
Excellent post! That being said, if you were the coach, who would be in your starting lineup and who would be the 6th, 7th and 8th players off of your bench.
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I would start Richmond at PG and (outside of run-outs) run my offense through him around the top of the key. He and Zuby should have a very nice two-man game down there.

I would play Wilcher and Scott with those two for defense, extra rebounding (from Scott) and to provide outside shooting (of course this assumes we could get Scott untracked). If and when defenses try to take away the mid-range and post game from Kadary and Zuby those guys will be open.
The hard part is who is the 5th man.

If you play Smith then he has to be a shooter (which takes away some of his plus skills set) and he can be exposed on defense.

If you start Luis then you have a third player who is going to want to be in the lane with Kadary and Zuby and there's only so much real estate there.

If you start Glover then you get more shooting but you lose defense and rebounding.

TBH if Dunlap were healthy I might start him over all 3 of those since he will share the ball, rebound some, hustle a lot, and hopefully hit some shots (cue Larry Wright). Then you bring Smith, Luis and Glover off the bench plus Vince and you have a great second unit to change the pace, press, run out and get dunks.

If you said to me that you wanted to start Smith and Wilcher in the backcourt and put Luis and Scott up front with Zuby I wouldn't argue with that. You could press and play with speed better with that lineup. I just prefer Kadary's size and defense to Smith. In that event your second team is Kadary, Glover and Prey.

But either way the challenge remains that if Scott is not going to be a shooter then this team is in a world of hurt. And you see the structural problem here, which is that you have a lot of pieces but it's hard to figure out how to fit them together (and that's without even taking into consideration the NIL aspect of things).

My problem with Pitino's approach to things - and why I think Scott is struggling - is that most players need a comfort level to be able to play freely and not be thinking and looking over their shoulder. They need to know what their role is, have experience with who they're on the floor with, and have confidence. And I feel that Pitino's approach destroys that which is harmful to all but a few players. It's nice that he wants a whole team of guys who are unfazed by anything and roll with whatever he does but that isn't the way it is.
 
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Alex9045 said:
If you believe the staff is just now installing offense (I used the term prioritized), then I don't know what to tell you. Sure, bad offense is going to cost them seeding. Bad defense...cost them the whole tournament last season.
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We just disagree, you can parse words all you want, but how is it that the good teams we play don’t seem to have these “prioritizing” issues?
 
lawmanfan said:
I would start Richmond at PG and (outside of run-outs) run my offense through him around the top of the key. He and Zuby should have a very nice two-man game down there.

I would play Wilcher and Scott with those two for defense, extra rebounding (from Scott) and to provide outside shooting (of course this assumes we could get Scott untracked). If and when defenses try to take away the mid-range and post game from Kadary and Zuby those guys will be open.
The hard part is who is the 5th man.

If you play Smith then he has to be a shooter (which takes away some of his plus skills set) and he can be exposed on defense.

If you start Luis then you have a third player who is going to want to be in the lane with Kadary and Zuby and there's only so much real estate there.

If you start Glover then you get more shooting but you lose defense and rebounding.

TBH if Dunlap were healthy I might start him over all 3 of those since he will share the ball, rebound some, hustle a lot, and hopefully hit some shots (cue Larry Wright). Then you bring Smith, Luis and Glover off the bench plus Vince and you have a great second unit to change the pace, press, run out and get dunks.

If you said to me that you wanted to start Smith and Wilcher in the backcourt and put Luis and Scott up front with Zuby I wouldn't argue with that. You could press and play with speed better with that lineup. I just prefer Kadary's size and defense to Smith. In that event your second team is Kadary, Glover and Prey.

But either way the challenge remains that if Scott is not going to be a shooter then this team is in a world of hurt. And you see the structural problem here, which is that you have a lot of pieces but it's hard to figure out how to fit them together (and that's without even taking into consideration the NIL aspect of things).

My problem with Pitino's approach to things - and why I think Scott is struggling - is that most players need a comfort level to be able to play freely and not be thinking and looking over their shoulder. They need to know what their role is, have experience with who they're on the floor with, and have confidence. And I feel that Pitino's approach destroys that which is harmful to all but a few players. It's nice that he wants a whole team of guys who are unfazed by anything and roll with whatever he does but that isn't the way it is.
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Again, a well thought out plan. But since this team has difficulty with shooting and since you posted that "The hard part is who is the 5th man", why not go big and put Prey in as the 5th man? He and Zuby could be interchangeable between the 4 and the 5, both men are athletic and can move, rebounding would improve and this might open up the wings for more open shots for Wilcher and Scott in your scenario.
 
CBA69 said:
Again, a well thought out plan. But since this team has difficulty with shooting and since you posted that "The hard part is who is the 5th man", why not go big and put Prey in as the 5th man? He and Zuby could be interchangeable between the 4 and the 5, both men are athletic and can move, rebounding would improve and this might open up the wings for more open shots for Wilcher and Scott in your scenario.
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We could definitely brute-force people with a lineup of Prey, Zuby, Luis, Kadary and pick your 5th man. And probably defend really well also. But not press.
 
lawmanfan said:
We could definitely brute-force people with a lineup of Prey, Zuby, Luis, Kadary and pick your 5th man. And probably defend really well also. But not press.
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Roster seems a “pick your poison” conundrum as you have implied.
 
CBA69 said:
Again, a well thought out plan. But since this team has difficulty with shooting and since you posted that "The hard part is who is the 5th man", why not go big and put Prey in as the 5th man? He and Zuby could be interchangeable between the 4 and the 5, both men are athletic and can move, rebounding would improve and this might open up the wings for more open shots for Wilcher and Scott in your scenario.
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I don't think either Richmond or Scott should start at this point. Prey is an intriguing possibility but can he shoot? IMO, Smith, Wilcher at 1 and 2; Luis and Prey (if Prey can shoot) or Dunlap (if he starts shooting 3s like RP thought he could) at 3 and 4; and Zuby at 5.
 
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