Everyone needs to shift their mindset away from Hoiball and in to a more running style. That’s where we’re going. Defensive disruption and lots of going hard to the basket and crashing with a lot of the 3s coming out of the chaos rather than in the flow of an offense.
Is Next Year’s Team Honestly Going To Be Any Good?
- Thread starter Thomasrickj
- Start date
I'm all for being an elite transition offensive team, but when that fails (similar to when Press Virginia's press fails on defense) we can't just collapse and fold. Please tell me that once Steve can field a full roster of TALENTED individuals (sorry Jeff and Hans, Zoran on offense), that we'll see some decent half court sets?
It's really hard not to like Coach Beard
Don't really feel like reading 100+ posts but I've been doing some thinking on this as well.
With a healthy Babb our starting 5 can compete with anyone in this league. It's the lack of production off the bench that is hurting us. Talley is our best bench player but was dealing with a stress fracture for most of the season so wasn't really ready to contribute until Babb's injury. With Babb out Talley is a starter leaving even less production from the bench. Lewis and Long just haven't developed enough to contribute. Beverly has his moments but struggles at times on defending the post.
My concern about next year's team is 3 point shooting. This year's team lacks 3pt shooting and with Jackson an elite 3pt shooter, gone it's not going to be better. Next year we replace Jackson with Shayock. Who has more parts to his game than Jackson but I doubt he's on par from 3.
With that being said I think next year's starting 5 will be better due to the development of Wigs and Lard. Wigs is getting trial by fire running the point and I expect by next season will be capable of running this team. Babb has shown he's more than capable of of being the PG when needed. It can be argued that even though Wiggs is having a great freshman season, Lard is our best player. Another year of seasoning and the sky's the limit for him.
What is really going to determine next year's success is the bench. Which will have THT and Zion. Unless Lewis or Long make unprecedented strides THT and Zion are going to be the main contributors off the bench. Add in Jacobson who has gotten praise from the staff and Talley next year is going to be the team that will challenge KU for the B12 champs.
With a healthy Babb our starting 5 can compete with anyone in this league. It's the lack of production off the bench that is hurting us. Talley is our best bench player but was dealing with a stress fracture for most of the season so wasn't really ready to contribute until Babb's injury. With Babb out Talley is a starter leaving even less production from the bench. Lewis and Long just haven't developed enough to contribute. Beverly has his moments but struggles at times on defending the post.
My concern about next year's team is 3 point shooting. This year's team lacks 3pt shooting and with Jackson an elite 3pt shooter, gone it's not going to be better. Next year we replace Jackson with Shayock. Who has more parts to his game than Jackson but I doubt he's on par from 3.
With that being said I think next year's starting 5 will be better due to the development of Wigs and Lard. Wigs is getting trial by fire running the point and I expect by next season will be capable of running this team. Babb has shown he's more than capable of of being the PG when needed. It can be argued that even though Wiggs is having a great freshman season, Lard is our best player. Another year of seasoning and the sky's the limit for him.
What is really going to determine next year's success is the bench. Which will have THT and Zion. Unless Lewis or Long make unprecedented strides THT and Zion are going to be the main contributors off the bench. Add in Jacobson who has gotten praise from the staff and Talley next year is going to be the team that will challenge KU for the B12 champs.
DJ has suffered this year because the spotlight is on him (as a long range shooter). Last year Morris and Naz and MT got the attention, and DJ was basically a wild card - and with no pressure, the shots flowed. He's finding out that being the main man isn't all it's cracked up to be.
I don't really think we're that far from being good this year, so of course I think they'll be good next year, with more experience and some reinforcements.
Having any guard off the bench that could score would be huge, heck any position that could bring offense would be big. When Lard was put in the starting lineup, we lost that energy and production off the bench. Don't get me wrong, he should be starting but we just never filled that void, especially before Talley got healthy. I know the competition is much better but the last month, this team fades about halfway through the second half.
Next year will be a big improvement as long as we can avoid the injury bug, injuries more or less never allowed this years team a chance to prove themselves. Have we played more than a handful of games at full strength?
Babb is vastly improved this year over where he was at last year. Injuries have set him back this year, remember his knee was hurting even before he started sitting out.
Lard has made great improvement as the year goes on, our best rebounder and shooting what, about 70%.
Talley is much better now than in November.
Wigginton I would agree he has not looked great lately but ball handling is not his strength yet. Having Babb out has hurt his play I think.
Brase I would argue has made slight progress this season but the injuries also limit him.
Jackson has not had a good year but again I think Babb being out hurts him a lot.
I guess all in all I would say players do generally make progress under our coaching staff but lack of a consistent starting lineup combined with our lack of depth, those have really defined this year the most.
Sorry didn't read all the posts but I think we have a bunch of good players but are struggling with an identity right now. When you lose Morris,Thomas, Naz and Burton, is anyone surprised? They'll be better next sure I just think we need a vocal leader out there maybe Babb or Wigginton to lean on because this year I don't see it. We were spoiled with Morris.
We lose....
Jackson
Brase
Beverly
And add...
Shayok
Jacobson
Talen Horton-Tucker
Zion Griffin
Tyrese Halliburton
George Conditt
No way we can be worse. Brase gave us some good mins this year at times, but he's at best about 75% when he's in there, so it won't be much of a loss. Beverly tries, but he's just not at the Big 12 level at all IMO. We'll obviously miss Jackson's shooting and his leadership, but he's a pretty one dimensional player.
Jackson
Brase
Beverly
And add...
Shayok
Jacobson
Talen Horton-Tucker
Zion Griffin
Tyrese Halliburton
George Conditt
No way we can be worse. Brase gave us some good mins this year at times, but he's at best about 75% when he's in there, so it won't be much of a loss. Beverly tries, but he's just not at the Big 12 level at all IMO. We'll obviously miss Jackson's shooting and his leadership, but he's a pretty one dimensional player.
What I can't get over is that WE KNEW this was going to be a rebuilding year. Add that to the Big 12 being an absolute meat grinder this year, but we've still been competitive in most of our games with a young and disjointed team. One of our best recruiting classes ever on the way. And yet we still get posts like the OP that say Prohm is incompetent and we're ******. Fantastic.
A season’s not over until we miss our first free throw and give up our first offensive rebound.
Current lineup:
Wigginton
Jackson
Talley
Young
Lard
Off the bench: Beverly, Lewis, Long
Likely lineup next year
NWB (Yes he played most of the year, but he was clearly injured for a good part of it)
Wigginton
Shayok
Young or Jacobsen
Lard
Players off the bench:
Talley
THT
Young or Jacobsen
Lewis
Zion
Haliburton
Long
Yes, we'll be better next year. Probably not a big 12 contender, but should be good enough to get back to the tournament
Wigginton
Jackson
Talley
Young
Lard
Off the bench: Beverly, Lewis, Long
Likely lineup next year
NWB (Yes he played most of the year, but he was clearly injured for a good part of it)
Wigginton
Shayok
Young or Jacobsen
Lard
Players off the bench:
Talley
THT
Young or Jacobsen
Lewis
Zion
Haliburton
Long
Yes, we'll be better next year. Probably not a big 12 contender, but should be good enough to get back to the tournament
Coaches think we have a chance to win the Big12 next year, so idk, we might at least be decent.
