How do you even begin to know such a thing?
Bigs for next year?
- Thread starter clonedude
- Start date
TJ has referred to Milan as a guard, so I think in his mind, Lipsey/Gilbert/Jones/Momcilovic is a four guard lineup
He's listed at 6'5", so he'd be pretty undersized for a Big 12 frontcourt, although so was Burton.
Can't find a lot of Pierce highlight reels on YouTube. He looks like a strong dude but seems to be playing more of a guard position at the high school level.
Yeah, and that's fair. I didn't quite know what to do with MM when making that post. I separated him out because the other four guys can all be primary/secondary ball handlers, whereas Momcilovic is usually more of a tertiary ball handler. I guess that's kind of my distinction of "true guard" vs. more of a wing/forward.
For what it's worth, though, if we add him in, lineups with at least 4 of those 5 guys have played 333 minutes this season.
"Modern" basketball offenses I think don't need five unique and clearly defined different positions. Hasn't been that way for a while. I remember Larry mentioning ~20 years ago that they don't recruit guys to be 1s/2s/3s/4s/5s, just "guards" and "posts".
Milan is still pretty different to me though in terms of his role compared to Tamin/Keshon/Curtis.
Milan is still pretty different to me though in terms of his role compared to Tamin/Keshon/Curtis.
Basketball positions are more "clusters" of size and skills than specific groups like football.
I think there's fundamentally four of them right now...
Points (a guard with the ball skills, passing ability, and vision to run an offense)
Guards (a guard who lacks PG skills but bring something to the table scoring and/or on defense)
Wings (taller than guards, forwards with a game oriented towards the basket/out of the lane)
Centers (true big men defined by their size, desire to be down low, and general lack of shooting skills)
Even that is imperfect, but it is how I tend to think of things.
Play 2 guards handling the ball, 2 wings, and 1 center. If Rock and Omaha can develop to share a spot, we’ll be just fine. If not, then we’ll need to find another big body.
Guards: Lipsey, Gilbert, Pav
Wings: MM, Jones, Watson
Center: Rock, Omaha, Fish
Guards: Lipsey, Gilbert, Pav
Wings: MM, Jones, Watson
Center: Rock, Omaha, Fish
He's not a big but I also have high hopes for Nojus Indrusaitis! He's listed at 6'5" in some places but I think he's more like 6'4". Guy's just a shooter/scorer:
Him and Milan are the guys we've missed for a few years. Pure, graceful shooters that can make jump shots by creating space.
Too soon to know, but I imagine once the season is officially over and guys start announcing transfers, TJ will get to work on that. He'll bring in a dominant guy. King/BRE/Ward were such under the radar steals. All bring a different dimension in style of needed play.
Has to be some incentive for someone to see the roster, current success, and development of the current bigs that will be luring for top tier guys. Yeah, we may not have the best NIL, but it'll fall into place.
BRE also communicates very well in terms of keeping guys moving. And yeah agree, Ward covers so much ground and protects that rim very well.
A lot hinges I think on (1a) Does Omaha stay, (1b) How much can he play and contribute, and (2) Same question for Rock, how much can he play and contribute?
If the answers to those questions are "Yes" and "20+ productive minutes against Big 12 teams" and we see why these guys were 4- and 5-star recruits, then we're in real good shape for next year. We should hit the portal regardless though!
If the answers to those questions are "Yes" and "20+ productive minutes against Big 12 teams" and we see why these guys were 4- and 5-star recruits, then we're in real good shape for next year. We should hit the portal regardless though!
Ward has been a really good rim protector. Not elite though, and I do sometimes wish he'd focus more on defensive rebounding versus going for the highlight reel block into the 5th row.
What would make you say this based on the 10 minutes of garbage time ball we got to see him play this season?
Look for Nojus to next year be our version of that annoying little headbanded floppy haired BYU guard the other night. Lightning in a bottle offense.
Nobody knows how Fish will turn out or what his career will hold (here or elsewhere). He came in knowing he needed to develop and has been a hard worker in practice. He has a total of 18 minutes played this year so anybody making any outside assessment on those 18 minutes is full of it. He's engaged on the bench and can develop into a good role player. I don't think he's an All Big 12 Team kind of guy, but that never should have been the expectation either.
Pav is in a difficult position. He's used his transfer (possible that doesn't matter given some current legal events with the NCAA) and I think has shown to really struggle adjusting to the size and physicality of the Big 12. He has some skill, but how much higher the ceiling is for him is really hard to tell. The makeup of the other 4 guys playing with him at any given time makes a huge difference in his ability to create any space to score.
Pav is in a difficult position. He's used his transfer (possible that doesn't matter given some current legal events with the NCAA) and I think has shown to really struggle adjusting to the size and physicality of the Big 12. He has some skill, but how much higher the ceiling is for him is really hard to tell. The makeup of the other 4 guys playing with him at any given time makes a huge difference in his ability to create any space to score.
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Lipsey
Gilbert
Milan
Watson
Dawson Garcia
Jones
Nojus
Biliew
Transfer 5 like Ward
That's your 2025 Final Four Cyclones
Gilbert
Milan
Watson
Dawson Garcia
Jones
Nojus
Biliew
Transfer 5 like Ward
That's your 2025 Final Four Cyclones
