No. I think Young is our best post defender and will have a lot less blocks per min than Lard
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No. I think Young is our best post defender and will have a lot less blocks per min than Lard
Nah, after the OU game in Ames that season Prohm said something along the lines that he should have started him earlier. SY was very effective in the win vs. KU that year by not letting much happen in the middle, and then didn't start in the loss at Texas.
Last year was odd too when DJ started at PG for two games when it was pretty clear that the offense ran better with Babb at the point, and DJ was better off the ball.
Prohm has definitely had times where he should he knew he probably should change things but stuck with what he was doing or what the plan was rather than shake things up.
I don't think anyone here is rooting against Lard, we'd all love for him to be doing that in February. The problem is right now he hasn't shown us enough in the minutes he has gotten to warrant a significant increase in playing time until he can stay out of foul problems. That's his biggest downfall right now is just staying on the court when he does get into the game. He's currently committing a foul about every 2 minutes and at that rate he'll be lucky enough to stay in the game much more than 10 minutes.
I really do hope he gets it figured out and we get the same Cam Lard we got in his best games last year because that guy not only is entertaining to watch but also will just add to the depth and talent on this team too. Right now though we just need to be patient with him and hope he takes advantage of the minutes he does gets and gradually earns more. I don't think there is a surefire solution to "fix" him right now like benching a productive guy just so he can start or saying he has to play 20 minutes else he's ineffective. As talented as he is he should be able to make a positive impact on a game whether that is in 10 minutes or 25.
You act like we don't want him to play like he did last year and that is not the case. I want Lard blocking shots and dunking put backs and lobs. But right NOW he's not playing that way and there are guys playing better than him. That is all people are saying.
Jacobson's offensive production far out ways his defensive flaws.
I think Lard currently would foul out in 10 minutes if he was guarding a fence post.
I’d really like to see Jacobson paired with another big 10-15 min/game, at least to see how it goes. I want his offense out there but question how well Jacobson as the sole big will do defensively in conference play.
So hypothetically, if Lard is lazy in practice while Conditt busts his ass, and Lard is marginally better at this moment (which is arguable) he should play over Conditt? It's a great recipe for destruction of culture.
Babying talent and holding it to low standards gets you losses. Lots and lots of losses.
They won't eat crow; they'll just slink away until the team loses a game only to emerge with "Prohm can't coach/recruit" posts. Eating crow implies being open to the possibility of being wrong.
The spread against Drake was roughly 13.5 -- we won by 9, and we would have won by 12 if not for a garbage time 3PT. Drake is not good, but they are not awful, and we did roughly what we were "supposed" to do against them according to the projections.
Barttovik has us at #17 in the country.
KenPom has us at #20.
Sports Reference has us at #21.
ESPN BPI has us at #19.
Sagarin has us at #24.
We have two losses -- once on a neutral floor early in the season to an Arizona team that, while probably not great, is probably going to finish in the top four of the Pac-12 and compete for an NCAA tournament slot. We had a bad ten minutes and it costs us, though I remember Arizona throwing up a ton of bad shots that miraculously went in.
The other was to a good Iowa team. They are #22 in Barttovik, #35 on KenPom, and #35 on Sports Reference. I know we like to troll them, but we have to step back and see that they are objectively a decent if not a pretty good team this year. They are. We lost on their court when they shot the lights out and some of their bench guys at the games of their lives.
I would like to have some wins over more quality opponents, too, but trust me, the Big 12 is going to give us more than ample chances for quality wins for our CV.
And we have done this while down...
-- Lindell Wigginton, a potential first-round draft pick and first-team all-Big 12 player
-- Solomon Young, one of the old men of the program, and our biggest post and defender
-- Zoran Talley, while limited offensively, is a versatile wing who does everything else well
-- Cameron Lard, an enigma who is not starting this season off where he was last year...
...starting three transfers and two true freshman, one of which was 17 on opening night.
Right now, assuming the former two come back healthy, I would imagine the "core" seven of our rotation is going to be the current starters plus LW and Solomon. That is going to be a heck of a team, and the few men behind that will be serviceable/useful, too.
This season has gone fine.
I really do not know what would please some of you people.
Did we need to crush Gonzaga and Duke on Maui or something?
Barttovik has us at #17 in the country.
KenPom has us at #20.
Sports Reference has us at #21.
ESPN BPI has us at #19.
Sagarin has us at #24.
We have two losses -- once on a neutral floor early in the season to an Arizona team that, while probably not great, is probably going to finish in the top four of the Pac-12 and compete for an NCAA tournament slot. We had a bad ten minutes and it costs us, though I remember Arizona throwing up a ton of bad shots that miraculously went in.
The other was to a good Iowa team. They are #22 in Barttovik, #35 on KenPom, and #35 on Sports Reference. I know we like to troll them, but we have to step back and see that they are objectively a decent if not a pretty good team this year. They are. We lost on their court when they shot the lights out and some of their bench guys at the games of their lives.
I would like to have some wins over more quality opponents, too, but trust me, the Big 12 is going to give us more than ample chances for quality wins for our CV.
And we have done this while down...
-- Lindell Wigginton, a potential first-round draft pick and first-team all-Big 12 player
-- Solomon Young, one of the old men of the program, and our biggest post and defender
-- Zoran Talley, while limited offensively, is a versatile wing who does everything else well
-- Cameron Lard, an enigma who is not starting this season off where he was last year...
...starting three transfers and two true freshman, one of which was 17 on opening night.
Right now, assuming the former two come back healthy, I would imagine the "core" seven of our rotation is going to be the current starters plus LW and Solomon. That is going to be a heck of a team, and the few men behind that will be serviceable/useful, too.
This season has gone fine.
I really do not know what would please some of you people.
Did we need to crush Gonzaga and Duke on Maui or something?
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If Lard can get whatever figured out I'd like to see Jacobson and Lard split time at one big which would always leave us with a big with strong offensive skills. Then Solo can slide into the other giving us a post defender and a post scorer upfront when we go big.
That could be the dumbest argument I've heard in a long time. So on those 2-3 possessions a game a great shot blocker holds the opponent to 0% FGs. Therefore, shot blocking is a huge indicator in how good a defender is. That's like saying dunking ability is the best way to evaluate an offensive player, because FG% for dunks (save for Jeremy Lamb) is 99%.
Blocked shots are great. But they are a really poor way to evaluate post defense. As Larry said in a postgame interview when being asked about his ISU team setting the school single game record for blocks, "Oh what a worthless stat."
I'd like to see a stat that compares blocked shots to points allowed too. When someone fouls on a block attempt that could potentially be -2 points or -3 if they made the shot + FT. You don't have to block a shot to defend every basket. May be 0 points scored on a successful blocked shot but what about a contested shot that does not go in, that too is also 0 points. Same result but different way of defending the shot. It's just like how a wide open layup and a contested 20 foot jump shot are still worth 2 points too. One may be more difficult to make than the other but the result is the same.
I understand what you are saying but I think then MJ has to guard a 4 which will be worse than him guarding a 5. Plus I like small ball and don't understand way so many think it won't work in the Big 12.
Yes, technically NWB is a transfer but come on he's been here four years and is a returning starter. The other two logged major minutes at P5 schools. The bare cubbord analogy really doesn't work.
To the contrary the situation allowed Prohm to evaluate the four freshmen.
To the contrary the situation allowed Prohm to evaluate the four freshmen.
Aren't there only like 2 teams in the Big 12 this year that are starting 2 true post players I heard? Maybe someone can shed some light on the depth charts as I haven't gotten in Big 12 mode yet myself but thought I heard/read some analysis that this small ball lineup we currently are using should matchup just fine against what most of the other Big 12 teams are running out there currently.
Right now the 2 biggest guys we'll face this year are Azubuike at KU who is a load for anyone to guard and Konate at WVU where we are going to need an all hands on deck approach to contain them anyways.
Right now the 2 biggest guys we'll face this year are Azubuike at KU who is a load for anyone to guard and Konate at WVU where we are going to need an all hands on deck approach to contain them anyways.
I think small ball will work great... sometimes. But there will be opposing lineups where its not working and would like to be ready for that. eg Iowa
