The Starting lineup

[daytonahoya31]

So rumor has it that Jason, Chris and Freeman are starting along with Henry and Greg. If that is in fact the opening day lineup, this may tell a few things about our personnel.

1) Jason has made the biggest leap of improvement on the team. We already knew he was good, but we also knew that we didn't want to go back to a three guard look that we employed most of last season. This means that Jason's been so good that it's impossible for III to keep him off the floor, which can only mean great things for us.

2) It means that Vee Stanford may be ready for meaningful minutes. Because if Jason starts we have no choice but for Vee to be the first guard off the bench, and that bodes well for our quality of depth if he can provide good minutes off the bench.

3) Not sure what it means for Hollis. It may mean that he's not as ready as we thought. Or it may mean that III wants a natural scorer off the bench because we already have enough in the starting lineup.....not sure either way.

4) Glad to see Henry in there with Greg...people don't realize that Henry works great in that Marcus Camby sort of role where he plays off a great big, cutting to the basket, getting putbacks and dunks...he could average 12-14 points a game just doing that. Love the length that provides.

anyway, be interested to hear opinions

[EasyEd]

Maybe Jason might be starting because of his defense. Plus his overall play.

[cnyhoya]

I think it doesn't mean too much at all this early in the season. The more experienced players tend to start early on. I expect Hollis will be in the starting line-up soon enough.

[bigelephant]

Coaches usually start out with the experienced players and let the freshman play their way into the starting lineup unless it is someone like Pat, Zo, Iverson or Greg.

[skyhoya]

Katz in the ESPN article has Julian coming on strong according to Greg, so it might be Julian over Henry in the starting rotation. I would still expect both to get close to 20 minutes each.

[OldHoyafan]

One of the biggest reasons for optimism for this year for me, was the return of Freeman to his natural position of 2 guard. If this starting lineup is true, then a slimmed down Freeman is again at the small forward position. This does not bode well for future rebounding or defense. If Sims has cracked the starting lineup, then this is good news because of the flexibility it provides for Monroe to slide between center and big forward during the game. Other than starting Wallace, Green and Hibbert as freshmen from day one his first year, and Monroe last year, JT3 has given preference to starting upperclassmen at the beginning and then as he gets close to conference play insert the more talented freshmen. Also, Tulane is relatively small up front with 6"9" being the tallest starter. So maybe this is limited to that game, because Temple is much bigger. I love Jason Clark's game as it reminds me of David Wingate, but I like players playing in their natural position if possible so Hollis starting would give Freeman that chance for the first time as a Hoya. I think he will create so many matchup problems for the opposition. Next year when Monroe is gone and the Hoyas are a shorter team then yes lets start a 3 guard team with Jason, Freeman and Wright.

[MCIGuy]

^^^^

What OldHoyafan said. That's how I feel. No more "small" ball. Small ball has not worked with III's Hoya teams. It can't work unless he allows a team of that size to run more and play faster in order to compensate for their lack of size. III doesn't allow faster, not to that extent. In fact he increasingly gets irritated when people ask him about playing faster.

Also I'm not comfortable with having only one true guard off the bench in Vee.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I fully expect Hollis to be starting on the 13th or at least relatively soon afterward.

[dense]

I think everyone is getting too overinvolved in this small ball thing. I dont think small ball has worked in III's time here because we havent had three guards who worked well together. I think this team will be more like the owens.bowman/Cook teams in terms of we have "6 starters" type of thing. I dont really think we will use as many players as people think , and starters aren't as important as who finishes the game, and for me personally this starting line-up is the one I'd rather have in at the end of the game. Word also is that Vaughn played the best of all the bigs against Mason in that scrimmage.

[Boz]

I am confident that JTIII will start the best five players and that everyone on the team who is capable of contributing will see meaningful minutes. It's not a real deep roster this year, so everyone who can contribute is going to have to see meaningful minutes.

I would like to believe all of daytona's points (except the first part of #3, of course), but it's all pretty much supposition, yeah?

If everyone who does go on the floor is committed to defense, rebounding* and running the offense, I think we're all going to be pretty happy, regardless of which of them take to the floor for the opening tip.


(*I could do with never, ever again in my life seeing another opponent possession against Georgetown like some of those St. Johns 5-shot trips last year.)

[HoyaSinceBirth]

PG:wright, clark, vee
SG:freeman, clark, vee
SF:Hollis, freeman, nikita
PF:Henry, Hollis?, Nikita?
C:Greg, Julian

I think this is what we're likely to see most of the year. I wonder if we see any Julian and greg at the same time. any other guesses on depth chart?

[daytonahoya31]

I agree with HSB's depth chart, except I think Julian backs up at both spots and nikita or hollis sees time at the four only in an emergency case....playing a small forward at the four did not work well at all last season

[hoyabinx]

PG: Wright (35), Vee (5)
SG: Freeman (20), Clark (20)
SF: Thompson (25), Freeman (10), Nikita (5)
PF: Henry (20), Monroe (10), Vaughn (10)
C: Monroe (25), Vaughn (15)

Wright (35)
Freeman (35)
Monroe (35)
Thompson (25)
Vaughn (25)
Henry (20)
Clark (20)
Nikita (5)
Vee (5)

Think thats right

I think what you will see is Wright, Freeman, Thompson, Sims, and Monroe start. Clark will be the first off the bench to spell Thompson with Vaughn coming in for Sims. Sims will come in briefly to spell Monroe around the 10 minute mark, but Monroe will be back in a few minutes later to take out Vaughn. May look something like this.

First 8 minutes: Wright, Freeman, Thompson, Sims, Monroe
8-10: Wright, Clark, Freeman, Monroe, Vaughn
10-12: Wright, Clark, Freeman, Sims, Vaughn
12-14: Vee, Clark, Thompson, Sims, Monroe
14-16: Wright, Freeman, Thompson, Monroe, Vaughn
16-18: Wright Freeman, Nikita, Monroe, Vaughn
18-20: Wright, Freeman, Thompson, Sims, Monroe

Too much time on my hands?

[HeartAttackHoya]

just for fun imagine the depth on this team if all the non-seniors decide to come back and we add the two (at least 2) Frosh. that's a national championship team to me.

[kchoya]

Nov 2, 2009 4:16:23 GMT -5 daytonahoya31 said:

So rumor has it that Jason, Chris and Freeman are starting along with Henry and Greg.

Did I miss something? Did we play a game already? How do you have a starting lineup in practice?

[HoyaSinceBirth]

that's the rumored starting line up fromt he Secret George Mason scrimmage that took place this weekend.

Also I forgot to include Benimon. I think he might get 5 minutes a game. Maybe at the 4.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

A few thoughts:
-- I'm excited by the prospect of Wright/Clark/Freeman on the court at the same time, whether that's a starting lineup or not.
-- From the very little I've seen of Hollis (Kenner/open practice), I'm not sure that he'd provide a rebounding boost over Freeman. I think those folks who are thinking in those terms are over-rating the value of length vs strength. And in person, he only looks to be an inch or two taller than Free.
-- I'm willing to bet that Nikita gets more than 5 a game, and if his skill level has developed at all from last year, he'll earn it.

[SFHoya99]

There's no way that Clark only plays 20 minutes.

I bet Clark plays starter minutes. My guess:

PG: Wright (33), Vee (5), Clark (2)
SG: Clark (28), Freeman (12)
SF: Freeman (20), Thompson (20),
PF: Sims (23), Vaughn (12), Nikita (5)
C: Monroe (35), Vaughn (5)

Something like that.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I'm going to take a second crack at this:
PG: Wright (32.5),Clark (5) Vee (2.5)
SG: Freeman (20), Clark (17.5)Vee (2.5)
SF: Thompson (20), Freeman (10), Nikita (10)
PF: Henry (20), Vaughn (15), Benimon (5)
C: Monroe (35), Vaughn (5)

Wright (32.5)
Freeman (30)
Monroe (35)
Thompson (20)
Vaughn (20)
Henry (20)
Clark (22.5)
Nikita (10)
Vee (5)
Benimon (5)

[williambraskyiii]

so, so, so glad we are less than two weeks away from start of season.