I agree that Mathis has played much more disciplined this year and has shot the ball better (both from three and the line). While a nice and important glue piece (Paris Horne comes to mind ), I think Mathis is limited.
I do think Pinzon has potential to be a good offensive contributor and give us some much needed shooting. But I have reservations about his shot selection, consistency, and most importantly, his defense. The staff seems high on him and has given him a good amount of PT from the getgo. As long as he’s healthy, I suspect he’ll be on the floor a lot. Whether he starts or not is irrelevant.
Would love to see more from (not necessarily of) Storr as he’s a big guard/wing who can shoot a little. I have to say I’ve been surprised by his lack of rebounding and inability (at least so far) to generate any offense other than shooting an open three (is it just me or does he have a really high arcing shot?) or dunking in transition.
Most critical, in order to be successful this year, I think we need Posh and Jones to consistently play like “All Big East” players. Maybe it’s a function of chemistry or coaching or an early season slump — who know — but in my estimation, neither have been close so far. Nonetheless, I think both kids have the potential to be All Big East performers.
Posh will likely never be a very good shooter, but I believe he’s a better shooter than he’s shown.
The turnovers are inexplicable. I think he’s struggling playing the two guard role.
Jones is trying to do much. He needs to be reigned in and play to his strengths. It’s ok if he takes an occasional three, but dribbling for ten seconds at the top of the key and launching a deep three or continuously putting his head down and dribbling into traffic has to stop. For the most part, Jones should be around the basket or limited to a penetration consisting of a few dribbles.
As for Curbelo, I haven’t really formed an opinion. My initial reaction is that while he has obvious ability, he’s careless with the basketball to a fault and is hurting the team’s chemistry. That said, he exhibited leadership and a “killer mentality” in the Temple and Syracuse games that this team hasn’t had since Ponds (I know some on this board are hard on Ponds, but I never felt he was afraid of the big moment even if he didn’t always deliver). I think the jury’s out on Belo.
Finally, Soriano has been a revelation. I actually was impressed by him even in the Iowa St. game. His points were way down and he got into foul trouble, but he was the subject of relentless double teams and he still rebounded the ball very well. We didn’t lose that game because of him. Unfortunately, I do think his numbers will go down in league play unless we get some consistent shooting and half court play making. But even so, Soriano is the first legitimate post presence we’ve had in a long time and I’m thrilled with his development.
) I would say We wipe the slate clean tonight in the tune of a double digit win and I’m talking about 20 plus.
