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Post by bereal on Mar 22, 2019 12:48:41 GMT -5
Why criticize Mosely, Pickett and Kaleb in defense of Mac? I thought when Mosely was on the floor with Mac it allowed Mac to stay aggressive looking for his shot.
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Mar 22, 2019 13:03:46 GMT -5
Why criticize Mosely, Pickett and Kaleb in defense of Mac? I thought when Mosely was on the floor with Mac it allowed Mac to stay aggressive looking for his shot. To reach the top, we need five offensive threats on the floor together most of the time. Those three players were not offensive threats, be it lack of confidence or whatever, as we could see. Mac, as well as the other players, will have more scoring opportunities when they cannot be double-teamed because all the other players are threats. If we pass the ball crisply, we can look like Harvard at McD while making the defenders chase us and look like GU.
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calhoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
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Post by calhoya on Mar 22, 2019 13:29:25 GMT -5
I don't agree at all with the Mac upside discussion. Or with the idea that he didn't improve during the year - especially on defense. Honestly, the "Mac is terrible on defense" isn't really true; it's just something that people seem to say. There's a whole lot of picking on him for individual plays, but he's improved his positioning quite a bit, he's improved his rebounding, and he's actually one of the best players on the team at closing out outside shooters (low bar). There's just a lot of lazy analysis here -- and in a few cases, something where people are seeing what they want to see. Improvement-wise, Mac has a ton of potential. He doesn't have a bad shot, and there's no reason he can't up the % 5+ points. Maybe that won't happen this summer, but he just needs to improve some consistency and shot selection. That will improve his ability to drive. Add in some decision making improvement -- and I don't really get why people think he can't do that -- and the improvement will be exponential. There's no guarantee he gets there, but there's an easily envisionable future where's he an efficient 20 ppg scorer. Probably not next year, but it wouldn't shock me. If there defense could generate a few more steals, and he's going to get easy points. This is college. He has the skills, instincts and quickness to be a very good player. Agree on the upside. Agree that he improved over the year. Most people see players through their own filter. I do not think he has a bad outside shot--just a very inconsistent shot. On this team better shooting is needed, particularly from the starters. McClung took far more 3s than any other player on the team, with Akinjo being second. Do not believe that 28% is going to be good enough shooting at that rate. Not an unfair criticism, just an observation. I think that the kid will be an excellent player and will work his tail off to improve. I think his upside is very high and he is going to be a 4 year starter.
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Post by bereal on Mar 22, 2019 13:37:24 GMT -5
Why criticize Mosely, Pickett and Kaleb in defense of Mac? I thought when Mosely was on the floor with Mac it allowed Mac to stay aggressive looking for his shot. To reach the top, we need five offensive threats on the floor together most of the time. Those three players were not offensive threats as we could see. Mac, as well as the other players, will have more scoring opportunities when they cannot be double-teamed because all the other players are threats. If we pass the ball crisply, we can look like Harvard at McD while making the defenders chase us and look like GU. We need a strong balanced team of two way players and specialist. Those three kids are defensive specialists who have shown offensive flashes during the season. They probably should not all be together on the floor at the same time if we need points, but if we have a big lead, I can see two of them on the floor making it difficult for the other team to score while we run our plays.
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prhoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by prhoya on Mar 22, 2019 13:41:31 GMT -5
To reach the top, we need five offensive threats on the floor together most of the time. Those three players were not offensive threats as we could see. Mac, as well as the other players, will have more scoring opportunities when they cannot be double-teamed because all the other players are threats. If we pass the ball crisply, we can look like Harvard at McD while making the defenders chase us and look like GU. We need a strong balanced team of two way players and specialist. Those three kids are defensive specialists who have shown offensive flashes during the season. They probably should not all be together on the floor at the same time if we need points, but if we have a big lead, I can see two of them on the floor making it difficult for the other team to score while we run our plays. That will depend on Galen and whoever else comes in, but we agree that they have their defensive roles. Wouldn't it be awesome if they come back and have worked like crazy in the off-season to improve offensively? We know Jagan was working on his 3-pt shot. We need it to go up and in.
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Post by bereal on Mar 22, 2019 14:03:54 GMT -5
We need a strong balanced team of two way players and specialist. Those three kids are defensive specialists who have shown offensive flashes during the season. They probably should not all be together on the floor at the same time if we need points, but if we have a big lead, I can see two of them on the floor making it difficult for the other team to score while we run our plays. That will depend on Galen and whoever else comes in, but we agree that they have their defensive roles. Wouldn't it be awesome if they come back and have worked like crazy in the off-season to improve offensively? We know Jagan was working on his 3-pt shot. We need it to go up and in. Absolutely, experienced kids competing everyday in the weight room, skill work and pick up games.
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Bigs"R"Us
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by Bigs"R"Us on Mar 22, 2019 14:13:01 GMT -5
Mosely needs to become more an offensive threat. Can’t have a guard just dribble around looking to pass. It becomes 4 on 5 and defenders anticipate a pass.
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Post by cgallstar02 on Mar 22, 2019 15:03:40 GMT -5
I don't agree at all with the Mac upside discussion. Or with the idea that he didn't improve during the year - especially on defense. Honestly, the "Mac is terrible on defense" isn't really true; it's just something that people seem to say. There's a whole lot of picking on him for individual plays, but he's improved his positioning quite a bit, he's improved his rebounding, and he's actually one of the best players on the team at closing out outside shooters (low bar). There's just a lot of lazy analysis here -- and in a few cases, something where people are seeing what they want to see. What I've noticed is that first impressions are everything, especially with something like defense where all you have to rely on is your eyes and observations. It's not nearly as easy to evaluate as scoring, rebounding, passing, etc. Guys get labeled with one reputation or another early in their career and from there it's very hard to shake it. Mac got the label early as a poor defender and it most definitely stuck with him throughout the year. I thought he improved quite a bit and by the last third of the season was at least an average defender for his position. He also had a few individual games where he played excellent defense, yet all it would take is one mistake of losing his man or letting a guy get past him on a drive and you'd suddenly have 5 people bashing his defense on that particular play in the game thread. Meanwhile I'd see guys blowing past Mosely or James left and right and you'd never hear a peep except what great defense they played because that is the reps they earned early in the season.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2019 19:16:26 GMT -5
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rlo24
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Post by rlo24 on Mar 22, 2019 23:59:51 GMT -5
Working hard on that 3 point shot and defense already..
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blueandgray
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Post by blueandgray on Mar 23, 2019 0:24:05 GMT -5
He needs to stop dunking and instead work on his defense and court vision.
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Post by trillesthoya on Mar 23, 2019 0:26:22 GMT -5
He needs to stop dunking and instead work on his defense and court vision. You right, but when you got as much of a following as he does you gotta give the people what they want lol.
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Post by cgallstar02 on Mar 23, 2019 0:42:04 GMT -5
He needs to stop dunking and instead work on his defense and court vision. C'mon, the season ended 2 days ago... he's back in the gym already with his 2 best friends from high school having some fun. He could've spent 4 hours before that working on some other areas of his game, but he's not gonna post that on IG cus no one wants to see him practice 3 pointers on IG. Even if all they did was goof off and dunk all night, what's wrong with that? You can't expect guys to never have a little fun. I will say I hope he doesn't stay home and practice all summer. Would be great if he can find some NBA guys to practice and train with in the off season. Best way to get better is by competing every day against guys better than you. He probably didn't struggle scoring much in practice going up against Greg and Blair every day with Trey down low. He needs to start practicing against bigger more athletic guys.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2019 9:27:57 GMT -5
Can we not make assumptions on what the kid is working on in probably an hours long work out session based on a 10 second clip?
Idk I'm just happy that he's in the gym working out 2 days after the season ended. No time off, back to the grind... Chill people, he's allowed to enjoy himself.
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Post by gatormcclusky on Mar 23, 2019 10:13:00 GMT -5
Again. That is the only example you can give is hang time/jumping ability. By the way, Mac has had his shot sent the other way plenty of time this season. Please name one other area where he exhibits more athleticism than Akinjo. Change of direction....nope. Feet movement/side shuffle....nope Acceleration to get from one end of the court to the other....nope There are a bunch of tests done on every athlete a couple of times a year and I'd bet straight standing vertical jump is the o ly one Mac has on Akinjo. I'd love to take that action... I'm 100% Mac wins standing vertical as well as max vertical, and about 90+% he takes 3/4 court sprint and the shuttle run... generally speaking speed and vertical leap go hand in hand, not to mention Mac looks significantly faster on the break than James dose. The only thing that James would maybe have a chance to win is the lane agility drill, but the fact Grayson Allen set the combine record last year leads me to believe that Mac would destroy him there too. agreed - James is quick, no doubt, but I'd bet McClung beats him pretty easily in most athletic tests. The thing with James is that he has a lot tighter handle than Mac (in fact I think Akinjo handles the ball as well or better than anybody else in college hoops, it's his greatest strength) and that allows him to use his quickness more efficiently in game with changing speeds, hesitation moves, etc. Mac just beats guys with his speed and first step 99% of the time rather than having much of a bag of tricks off the bounce like James. McClung definitely has a lot of stuff to work on, but I wouldn't have thought anybody that's watched him much would question whether his athleticism is elite.
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Post by augustusfinknottle on Mar 23, 2019 11:43:15 GMT -5
No doubt the world is crying out for video of him working on defense.
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justsaying
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
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Post by justsaying on Mar 23, 2019 12:48:48 GMT -5
evidently this is what it is going to be like.
Analyzing, sub-analyzing, re-analyzing, micro-analyzing until that very first bounce of the ball of the very first game of the 19/20 season. Coach Ew has shown he is after workers and workers are what we see so far.
As one of our fellow poster has posted before progress is not linear and to add that it is not guaranteed. We will just have to see.
The staff is showing that are constantly looking to add more high quality workers. Probably the next diatribe will be "high quality worker".
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SirSaxa
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Post by SirSaxa on Mar 23, 2019 12:52:52 GMT -5
To recap Mac's season, I selectively chose to use his stats from the start of his BE season (he missed the first three BE games with an ankle injury) and included both the BET and NIT games. Why? To give him time to adapt to D1 hoops, but also to see how he performed v BE competition.
Mac's stats in Big East Games (+ NIT) 17 games in total -- 15 regular season BE games, +1 BET, +1 NIT
TEAM RECORD: 8W, 9L
Mac Averaged: FG % 40% 2PT % 48% 3pt% 30% FT% 79% PPG 13.6
Boards 3.2 Assists 2.3 Steals 0.6 TOs 2.2 PFs 1.7 MPG 27.3
Mac's 3 pt shooting was pretty decent until his last 7 games, during which he shot a disappointing 21%, and his PPG dropped to 12.0
By comparison, here are results of his first 10 BE games:
Mac's first ten BIG EAST Games FG% 42% 3pt% 34% FT% 77% PPG 14.8
Boards 3.7 Assists 2.8 Steals 0.5 TOs 2.3 PFs 1.7 MPG 27.5
IMHO, Mac had a good freshman season and clearly demonstrated he can drive - on anyone. I think he showed he can shoot 3s too, despite the late season swoon. Mac has a quick trigger on his 3s, but even so it seemed he was often "rushing" his shots late in the season. I could easily be wrong, but to me that was the primary reason his % dropped.
Can he come back stronger and better next year? We know he's going to work all summer to get better. Coach has to teach him and the entire team how to play much better D. Rather shocking that a Ewing coached team was so pathetic on D. Yes, replacing the seniors with new kids should help. But really, Coach was a flat out unbelievable defensive force his entire career. I expected better from his team.
Akinjo certainly proved himself during the season. Was playing at a far higher level at the end of the season, and at both ends of the court. Josh too. My guess is the exposure to D1 play, getting so many minutes, playing crucial roles.... will pay big dividends next year. I am hoping for a significant jump from all three.
We know we are adding some serious talent at the 5 with Yurtseven and Q. And we believe Galen will be an important rotation member too. Mosely looked a lot better as the season wore on.
I am hoping Pickett and Blair can play bigger roles with better reliability next season.
Finally, i do expect Coach to add at least on more contributor to our roster prior to next fall. Lots of ups and downs this year, but our disappointment is a sign of just how much talent and potential this team has.
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Bigs"R"Us
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Post by Bigs"R"Us on Mar 23, 2019 14:21:51 GMT -5
As far as defense goes, it’s the players not the coach. Recruit dogs and we will stop folks and rebound.
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rlo24
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Post by rlo24 on Mar 26, 2019 12:46:43 GMT -5
As far as defense goes, it’s the players not the coach. Recruit dogs and we will stop folks and rebound. I heard a really good college coach say he "recruits offense and COACHES defense". He felt defense is something that can be learned by anyone and that was his primary job in practice.
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