Thoughts after 4 games

tom in salem

tom in salem

Well-known member
Can't get over how improved Phil Greene is.
D'Lo is D'Lo-I'll take him on my team any game.
Jakarr is the goods.
Bad tourney for Amir, but it's a long season.
Dom is what he is.
Jones is not what Lav thought he was.
Just don't see Marco logging a lot of minutes with our style of play.
Really like Felix.
Obekpa is a 20 mpg game center at tops.
Sanchez could make us a top 20 team.
Branch will give us a tough rotation come BE play.
Wish Lav had decided to let Gift play this year-need some inside help desperately.
Happy with 2-2-we lost to 2 better teams.
Really looking forward to the rest of the season.
 
Can't get over how improved Phil Greene is.
D'Lo is D'Lo-I'll take him on my team any game.
Jakarr is the goods.
Bad tourney for Amir, but it's a long season.
Dom is what he is.
Jones is not what Lav thought he was.
Just don't see Marco logging a lot of minutes with our style of play.
Really like Felix.
Obekpa is a 20 mpg game center at tops.
Sanchez could make us a top 20 team.
Branch will give us a tough rotation come BE play.
Wish Lav had decided to let Gift play this year-need some inside help desperately.
Happy with 2-2-we lost to 2 better teams.
Really looking forward to the rest of the season.
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Agree with everything you stated except that I think Obepka is the real deal also. He got in to some foul trouble today but he is much more advanced offensively than I thought he was. He has shown the ability to hit the mid range jumper and has some nice post moves.
 
D-lo needs to remove his head from his arse. He has been anything but the leader that he needs to be this season.

Being benched 3 times so far? That could be a record or something to start a season.

The kid can shoot, no doubt. But I have yet to see, this season, him do anything else that a team leader should do. Pitiful defense, bad ball handling, and horrendous body language.

Give me 2 Phil Greenes....
 
I disagree on your Jones assessment. I don't think he considered him anything besides an athletic freak who can get up and down the court. I think Jones is just finding his way since the offense benefits the guards. He's pretty much out there knowing he's not going to get touches which has got to be frustrating.

I also disagree about Obekpa. He should be starting. He is what Lavin has never been able to recruit. I say give him the keys and watch him blossom. He allows you to play man and if he sags off to help, he has the instincts, length and ability to catch up for a block.

I feel so fortunate to have him. If he was in a Cincy uniform, I'd throw up.
 
I disagree on your Jones assessment. I don't think he considered him anything besides an athletic freak who can get up and down the court. I think Jones is just finding his way since the offense benefits the guards. He's pretty much out there knowing he's not going to get touches which has got to be frustrating.

I also disagree about Obekpa. He should be starting. He is what Lavin has never been able to recruit. I say give him the keys and watch him blossom. He allows you to play man and if he sags off to help, he has the instincts, length and ability to catch up for a block.

I feel so fortunate to have him. If he was in a Cincy uniform, I'd throw up.
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I agree Obekpa should start, just don't see him as a 20+ mpg center with Sancez/Gift on the team.
 
I disagree on your Jones assessment. I don't think he considered him anything besides an athletic freak who can get up and down the court. I think Jones is just finding his way since the offense benefits the guards. He's pretty much out there knowing he's not going to get touches which has got to be frustrating.

I also disagree about Obekpa. He should be starting. He is what Lavin has never been able to recruit. I say give him the keys and watch him blossom. He allows you to play man and if he sags off to help, he has the instincts, length and ability to catch up for a block.

I feel so fortunate to have him. If he was in a Cincy uniform, I'd throw up.
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I agree Obekpa should start, just don't see him as a 20+ mpg center with Sancez/Gift on the team.
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I think a front line of this for stretches in a game would be deadly:

C- Obekpa
PF- Sanchez
SF- Sampson

They'd turn it into a game of volleyball swatting shots left and right.
 
I disagree on your Jones assessment. I don't think he considered him anything besides an athletic freak who can get up and down the court. I think Jones is just finding his way since the offense benefits the guards. He's pretty much out there knowing he's not going to get touches which has got to be frustrating.

I also disagree about Obekpa. He should be starting. He is what Lavin has never been able to recruit. I say give him the keys and watch him blossom. He allows you to play man and if he sags off to help, he has the instincts, length and ability to catch up for a block.

I feel so fortunate to have him. If he was in a Cincy uniform, I'd throw up.
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Jones is a liability and he looked like he didn't belong on the court tonight. What good is a kid built like that if he doesn't rebound or get 50/50 balls? Who cares if he can pop an open jump shot and make an acrobatic dunk? He rebounds like a girl and doesn't cover any ground at all.
 
I disagree on your Jones assessment. I don't think he considered him anything besides an athletic freak who can get up and down the court. I think Jones is just finding his way since the offense benefits the guards. He's pretty much out there knowing he's not going to get touches which has got to be frustrating.

I also disagree about Obekpa. He should be starting. He is what Lavin has never been able to recruit. I say give him the keys and watch him blossom. He allows you to play man and if he sags off to help, he has the instincts, length and ability to catch up for a block.

I feel so fortunate to have him. If he was in a Cincy uniform, I'd throw up.
Click to expand...

Jones is a liability and he looked like he didn't belong on the court tonight. What good is a kid built like that if he doesn't rebound or get 50/50 balls? Who cares if he can pop an open jump shot and make an acrobatic dunk? He rebounds like a girl and doesn't cover any ground at all.
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In case nobody knew who Marillac's whipping boy would be this year
 
I disagree on your Jones assessment. I don't think he considered him anything besides an athletic freak who can get up and down the court. I think Jones is just finding his way since the offense benefits the guards. He's pretty much out there knowing he's not going to get touches which has got to be frustrating.

I also disagree about Obekpa. He should be starting. He is what Lavin has never been able to recruit. I say give him the keys and watch him blossom. He allows you to play man and if he sags off to help, he has the instincts, length and ability to catch up for a block.

I feel so fortunate to have him. If he was in a Cincy uniform, I'd throw up.
Click to expand...

Jones is a liability and he looked like he didn't belong on the court tonight. What good is a kid built like that if he doesn't rebound or get 50/50 balls? Who cares if he can pop an open jump shot and make an acrobatic dunk? He rebounds like a girl and doesn't cover any ground at all.
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That sounds like Ricardo Gathers.

I don't think it's Lavin's expectations of him. It's your own.
 
I disagree on your Jones assessment. I don't think he considered him anything besides an athletic freak who can get up and down the court. I think Jones is just finding his way since the offense benefits the guards. He's pretty much out there knowing he's not going to get touches which has got to be frustrating.

I also disagree about Obekpa. He should be starting. He is what Lavin has never been able to recruit. I say give him the keys and watch him blossom. He allows you to play man and if he sags off to help, he has the instincts, length and ability to catch up for a block.

I feel so fortunate to have him. If he was in a Cincy uniform, I'd throw up.
Click to expand...

Jones is a liability and he looked like he didn't belong on the court tonight. What good is a kid built like that if he doesn't rebound or get 50/50 balls? Who cares if he can pop an open jump shot and make an acrobatic dunk? He rebounds like a girl and doesn't cover any ground at all.
Click to expand...

That sounds like Ricardo Gathers.

I don't think it's Lavin's expectations of him. It's your own.
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Was anyone drooling over Gathers tonight? Tonight was by far his best game of the tourney and thats not saying much. These physical freaks need to get the ball in the right moment. Mr Branch will do the trick jussssst fine for Christian's game.
 
Baylor scored 97 points against us. Yikes! Were they that good, or was our defense that bad?

That being said, we've scored in the 70's three out of four games now. Our scoring is definitely improved from the pre-Lavin years. That's nice to see.

I know that there was a bit of hyperbole - but perhaps not - regarding Sanchez. I was shocked when Jay Williams from ESPN recounted that Earl Watson on the Utah Jazz apparently told him that Orlando Sanchez can start on the Jazz team. Later, Williams also recounted that Calipari apparently said that Sanchez can be a 'bona-fide' professional player. That's pretty high praise. I don't know anything about Sanchez besides one or two YouTube clips, but sounds like it would be an amazing get if we can land him. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Again, as I said earlier - with the softer part of our schedule we can probably afford to wait a bunch of weeks to get Sanchez approved. It would be nice to get him approved soon, but not critical.

We can have three really really good front court pieces (Sanchez, Obekpa and Sampson) and three good backcourt pieces (Harrison, Greene, Branch) and lots of complementary players: Pointer, Garret, Borgault, Jones, Balamou) That's a pretty well put together team. Kudos to Lavin. I hope Sanchez gets approved.
 
I was a little troubled that twice during telecast Sanchez was referenced as a senior.(do they know something we don't know) Because in general they seem to be in the dark1
 
I disagree on your Jones assessment. I don't think he considered him anything besides an athletic freak who can get up and down the court. I think Jones is just finding his way since the offense benefits the guards. He's pretty much out there knowing he's not going to get touches which has got to be frustrating.

I also disagree about Obekpa. He should be starting. He is what Lavin has never been able to recruit. I say give him the keys and watch him blossom. He allows you to play man and if he sags off to help, he has the instincts, length and ability to catch up for a block.

I feel so fortunate to have him. If he was in a Cincy uniform, I'd throw up.
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Well said.

Let's not fall into our old trap of hammering on freshmen four games into their college careers. The talent on this team is unlike anything we've seen in years.

Going to be some ups and downs, but I'm excited to watch this group play and develop.
 
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