Filo
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,908
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Post by Filo on Dec 19, 2020 18:38:16 GMT -5
Not embarrassed to admit a little schadenfreude. I rooted like hell for the kid when he was at GU. He left, which is fine. Now, I don't root for him. I don't particularly root against him, either; in fact, I try not to think about him at all. LOL. But there is some schadenfreude due to the way it all went down. Coach gave him the keys to the kingdom; had is back at every turn. Could even be argued that we lost Akinjo due to Coach's support of Mac. If Mac just left with class, I would have been OK; but the insinuations and the comments from Mac left a bad taste in my mouth given how much Coach had his back. Good riddance. Ewing certainly gave Mac his opportunities, but to say he gave him the keys to the kingdom is blatantly false. Akinjo led the team in minutes as a freshman and was leading the team in minutes as a sophomore before transferring. Akinjo was the point guard who had the ball in his hands virtually every single possession. Mac started and played decent minutes but he also spent his fair share of time watching much of the game from the bench. In saying that the team lost Akinjo due to Ewing's support of Mac, are you suggesting that Akinjo should've been allowed to dictate the starting lineup and other players minutes instead of Ewing? That's pretty much what it sounds like. Imagine a 7 foot NBA Hall of Famer letting some 6 foot 19 year old kid tell him who to play and how to coach. Also, just curious, what exactly did Mac do to Akinjo and what could he have done to make Akinjo happy? Should he have stopped shooting? Maybe asked Ewing to only play him the 8 or so mins a game that Akinjo is on the bench. Transferred to accommodate James? Shut down his IG and request that Overtime, Ball Is Life, Slam and the rest no longer post any videos of him? For the record, I'm pretty sure Terrell Allen's presence had almost as much to do with James transferring as Mac did. Allen was a legit threat to James' playing time and starting spot. Reports are the alleged locker room blowup between Ewing and James came after he was informed Allen would be starting the next game following the UNC Greensboro loss. Maybe Allen should've decline the promotion to appease James. Ewing had Mac's back at every stage, but my impressions generally relate to when Mac was here and Akinjo was gone. I am just as disappointed in Akinjo, since he certainly was given wide latitude by coach. But, honestly, I don't really feel that strongly to continue hashing it over with a Mac fanboy who may try to couch some posts in objectivity but, in reality, has absolutely zero objectivity.
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Post by oldbigeast on Dec 20, 2020 13:23:37 GMT -5
Mac gets more attention here due to Mac fans bringing him up. Not because Hoya fans are going out of our way to bash him.
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Post by professorhoya on Dec 20, 2020 17:44:31 GMT -5
I mean, it's a fan board. Of georgetown. Not of any individual players. There's going to be a considerable amount of schadenfreude for people that proactively reject the school, especially in the context of all that happened last year. I'd be shocked if there wasn't. Rationality isn't the point. He was a very inefficient offensive player at Georgetown that had some spectacular games and some duds but always showed the ability to create for himself. He was never a guy that drove in order to draw and kick....he had already made up his mind he would shoot before he started his move. It appears he is largely the same guy at TT. Probably better at being him as you'd expect. Defensively? I'd hope he's better, since he's playing for Beard and he must know that's an area he needs to improve. I am curious cgallstar02, are you a Georgetown fan or just a defender of McClung? You appear to know all things McClung and I guess that is cool and all. Perhaps a relative or from his hometown. I get it, I am defensive of those people as well, in my own way. We were looking forward to McClung playing a pivotal role this year, but he divorced us. He pretty much inferred he was going to a program where he is more comfortable, on and off the court. He is in a better place. I for one don’t need my ex wife coming around telling me how much better her life is without me. He has some kind of inside connection with Mac. Knew the story behind the Mac-Akinjo fight.
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Post by professorhoya on Dec 20, 2020 17:50:50 GMT -5
Mac. Still, he had 2 three pointers that went in and out. If those drop they win by 5, Mac has 27 pts and its crickets on the board. That's a poor argument. I support Mac but you can't give him points that he didn't make. There are no bonus points for close shots. (One could make an efficiency argument for airballs vs close shots as airballs are almost always automatic turnovers, but that's not what we are talking about here)
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swhoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,137
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Post by swhoya on Dec 20, 2020 17:53:25 GMT -5
FWIW, I leave in DEEP Texas Tech territory and happened to watch the TTU-KU game with a Tech alum. Needless to say, I've taken untold amount of grief from my Tech friends, both when he committed and every time he blows up.
Just my observation from what I'm hearing, not my own judgement: Tech fans seem to have accepted that there are days Mac will amaze, but also that he will shoot them out of some games (every 3 he shot in the 2nd half resulted in yelling from my friend). They realize he's capable of being a special player, but as fans of a team that isn't that far from the championship game and has hopes of going back...there's a lot of concern over what he'd mean in the tournament. He might almost single-handedly win a couple of games, but the lack of a conscience on a night where he's cold, in a one-and-done tourney, makes people really nervous.
Basically I hear a lot of complaints that he pulls them out of Beard's traditional offense and that people wonder why he doesn't seem to have a leash.
I don't root for Mac to fail, and he can be fun to watch. But I hear a lot of the same complaints from Tech fans that you used to hear here.
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Post by professorhoya on Dec 20, 2020 18:00:35 GMT -5
FWIW, I leave in DEEP Texas Tech territory and happened to watch the TTU-KU game with a Tech alum. Needless to say, I've taken untold amount of grief from my Tech friends, both when he committed and every time he blows up. Just my observation from what I'm hearing, not my own judgement: Tech fans seem to have accepted that there are days Mac will amaze, but also that he will shoot them out of some games (every 3 he shot in the 2nd half resulted in yelling from my friend). They realize he's capable of being a special player, but as fans of a team that isn't that far from the championship game and has hopes of going back...there's a lot of concern over what he'd mean in the tournament. He might almost single-handedly win a couple of games, but the lack of a conscience on a night where he's cold, in a one-and-done tourney, makes people really nervous. Basically I hear a lot of complaints that he pulls them out of Beard's traditional offense and that people wonder why he doesn't seem to have a leash. I don't root for Mac to fail, and he can be fun to watch. But I hear a lot of the same complaints from Tech fans that you used to hear here. At the end of the day a player is a player. They have habits that have been practice 1000s of times for 10-14 years. It's the whole you can't teach an old dog new tricks. (and habit wise college kids are old dogs in terms of their skills that they have been honing since childhood) It's why Lubick and Jeremiah Rivers could never improve there outside shot. So really the coach, program, all that stuff is insignificant to the players NBA potential. At the end of the day it's size/athleticism measurables and skillset. You looked the the guys who really turned it around and it's almost always based off growth spurts. Steph Curry from 5-11 to 6-3. Scotti Pippen 6-1 to 6-8. David Robinson 6-7 to 7-1, Gorden Hayward 5-11 to 6-8. Michael Jordan 5-11 to 6-6. It's not that they somehow proved them wrong or people missed on them or something like that, they just grew a whole lot with the guard skillset they had when they were sub six feet or went from an undersized powerforward/center to all world center.
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Post by cgallstar02 on Dec 20, 2020 21:37:09 GMT -5
Mac gets more attention here due to Mac fans bringing him up. Not because Hoya fans are going out of our way to bash him. We must be reading different threads. The only Mac fans I've seen are myself and apparently Dr Quigley. The only posts I've made regarding Mac were in response to others. For comparison sake, Mac had a game where he scored 21, led his team in scoring, and his team lost by 1 to the number 5 ranked team. There was probably 50 plus posts about him during and after the game... vast majority of which were of course negative. On the other hand Akinjo had a game yesterday against Stanford. His team lost. He shot 2-8 from the field... 2-9 from the line... 7 pts, 9 assts, 6 tos. Had a chance to give his team the go ahead basket with 15 secs left... drove to the basket and was called for a charge. They then intentionally fouled Stanford who hit both free throws to go ahead 3. Stanford then intentionally fouled Akinjo who missed both free throws. Ball game. Does that mean Akinjo sucks? No. Players aren't going to shoot 50+ percent with no turnovers and always hit the game winning or tying shot every game. I'm sure Akinjo will have his share of good games for Arizona as well. My point though? There were 0 posts about it.
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Post by cgallstar02 on Dec 20, 2020 22:09:24 GMT -5
At the end of the day a player is a player. They have habits that have been practice 1000s of times for 10-14 years. It's the whole you can't teach an old dog new tricks. (and habit wise college kids are old dogs in terms of their skills that they have been honing since childhood) It's why Lubick and Jeremiah Rivers could never improve there outside shot. So really the coach, program, all that stuff is insignificant to the players NBA potential. At the end of the day it's size/athleticism measurables and skillset. You looked the the guys who really turned it around and it's almost always based off growth spurts. Steph Curry from 5-11 to 6-3. Scotti Pippen 6-1 to 6-8. David Robinson 6-7 to 7-1, Gorden Hayward 5-11 to 6-8. Michael Jordan 5-11 to 6-6. It's not that they somehow proved them wrong or people missed on them or something like that, they just grew a whole lot with the guard skillset they had when they were sub six feet or went from an undersized powerforward/center to all world center. Simply not true. You're talking about players that were lottery picks and went on to be all-stars, hall of famers, etc. If Mac suddenly grew 6 inches would he be a top 5 pick regardless of coach/school? Of course. Mac like many others is currently a borderline NBA player. The difference between being 80 or 90 on most teams Big Board and being 40 or 50 on most teams Big Board will absolutely be the result of good coaching, player development, fit with in the program, and the programs success throughout the season. Do you really think if Ty Jerome had went to Georgetown and Kyle Guy went to St Johns instead of them going to Virginia, they would've still been 1st and 2nd round picks? I suppose it's possible, but I think it's highly unlikely. They may have still made the league eventually as UDFA's and a few years of solid G League play. But going to Virginia absolutely increased their draft stock and expedited their NBA careers. Players like Mac, and Pickett for that matter are the exact kind of players that need player development under the right coach and right system. Pickett has the kind of wingspan NBA GM's and scouts drool over. Wingspan provides many advantages in basketball, but I would say defense is where it helps the most. In spite of that wingspan Pickett has been an average at best defender throughout his college career. If Pickett had gone to play for a school/coach that was able to maximize his defensive potential and make him the elite defender he should be, even if he was the same player offensively, I think he'd have a very good chance of being a late first/early second round pick. Not saying that still can't happen, but if it does it will be solely based on his draft workouts, etc... not anything he did during his career at Georgetown. In the case of someone like Akinjo, you're probably right. While more skilled and polished than Mac and Pickett, he has a much lower ceiling. Mac has the NBA athleticism, and Pickett has the NBA measurables. James isn't going to benefit much from player development because he's already maximizing his abilities. Mac and Pickett are not. That said, James could still benefit from his transfer if Arizona ended up making the tourney, then making a run in the tourney with James playing well. Every year there's a few guys who's stock goes way up due to good play in a deep tourney run. Arizona doesn't appear to be that good, so it's doubtful, but anything can happen so who knows.
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Post by cindad on Dec 21, 2020 14:27:02 GMT -5
Reading the last few pages of this thread, one would think Mac put up a doughnut and his team lost by 30 to a mid-major. He had more than a third of his team's points and they lost by 1 to Kansas, the 5th ranked team in the country. Ironically on the Tech board and in all the Tech media articles (people that actually have a vested interest in how Tech and their players perform) the general consensus is that Mac was the second best player on the floor for his team, next to Shannon. Which is pretty much what I saw as well. I'm also curious what people expected to see? Did they think they were gonna turn on the TV and see Mac had become Steve Nash or John Stockton? Mac will always be a scorer first... that's who he is and it's also what his team needs him to be. To expect him to suddenly be a pass first playmaker would be no more silly than it would be to expect Akinjo to turn in to a post up player at Arizona. Defensively he has improved a ton. Tech is currently the #1 ranked defense according to Kenpom in all of college basketball... Mac is a starter who plays the second most minutes on that team. I don't think it would be possible for a. Mac to be starting and second on the team in minutes, and b. his team be #1 in the nation in defense if he was still the turnstile he was made out to be at Georgetown. Even more impressive... Kevin McCullar, a starter and Tech's best defender hasn't played a game all season. He should be back in the next game or two, so their defense will likely get even better. I've followed every one of Tech's game threads... there's been 1 mildly critical post on Mac's defense in 8 games. On the flip side, the first 2 or 3 games were pretty much shock and awe at the fact that he came in with a reputation as such a poor defender. As a playmaker his improvements have been more subtle. He has certainly made strides as a playmaker and has limited his bad shots... that said he kind of reverted back to his old ways in the Kansas game, so if that's all you're going off of, it's not really fair given he's played 8 games and that was his most shot happy one thus far. Also in his defense, playmaking didn't seem to be much of an option. Kyler Edwards, their 3rd leading scorer was 0-9 with 0 pts. Santos Silva, the starting center also had 0 points. Burnett and Burton, the main 2 scorers off the bench were a combined 2-10. Running the offense was not leading to points or open shots. The only guy to get decent looks the whole game was Edwards, who was again 0-9. Their best offense was Mac going 1 on 1 in the first half and Shannon going 1 on 1 in the second half. A lot of the credit goes to Bill Self and Kansas. They too have a great defense and are ranked #6 in the country. Mac was being guarded by Marcus Garrett the entire first half... yes, the guy who was the Naismith defensive player of the year last season. I certainly wouldn't say Mac struggled in the first half in that match up. In fact, Mac's success against Garrett was likely Self's reason to switch to the zone. The zone definitely stifled Mac. Still, he had 2 three pointers that went in and out. If those drop they win by 5, Mac has 27 pts and its crickets on the board. I didn't have a problem with him looking for his shot in the second half... again the offense wasn't generating good shots when they ran it and the few times it did guys weren't hitting. My biggest critique of Mac as well his teammates would be the fact they were in the double bonus with over 8 mins left and suddenly decided to just shoot jumpers. Would've loved to seen Mac and a few of his teammates drive hard to the basket and try to get some calls. For whatever reason they didn't do that. A few other observations and notes; According to Beard's press conference the last play of the game was supposed be for Shannon or Mac. Shannon was supposed to get the ball, drive left and either shoot or pass to Mac. For whatever reason he chose to drive right, shot and got blocked. Mac's one bad defensive play that of course everyone chose to grasp on to and ignore the fact he played very good defense the entire game was in fact not a bad defensive play. Both live and during the replay it was blatantly obvious that Garrett used his forearm and elbow of his off hand to push Mac in the chest in order to get the separation he needed to get the layup off. Mac did a great job of staying in front of him. Garrett got away with a very obvious offensive foul. The play was even detailed and discussed in a Bleacher Report article where the author talks about the exact same thing. I get that refs didn't wanna call it due to the fact that players get away with a lot more in the final seconds of games but that doesn't detract from the fact that it was still good defense from Mac and Garrett had to push off to score. At the end of the day there were a lot of reasons Tech lost that game. The play of Mac was not one of them. Beard singled out the issues during his press conference and he pretty much saw what I saw. Players not named Mac were 2-8 from the free throw line. Kyler Edwards, their longest tenured player played 37 mins to lead the team. He was 0-9, 0 pts, 1 asst, 1 Reb, 0 stls, 0 blks. That's pretty much the ball game. You gotta hit free throws. And if you're gonna go 0-9 and play 37 mins you gotta at least contribute with some rebounds or assists. When asked about Edwards play, Beard said he would have to answer those questions. He was the lone player he sent out to talk to the media after the game. At the end of the day Mac will have some good games, he'll have some bad ones. Myles Powell was in my opinion the best player in the Big East last year. He shot under 40% from the field, under 31% from 3, and had 1/1 asst/to ratio. Not sure why Mac is held to some standard that if he doesn't shoot 50/40/90 with a 5 to 1 asst/to ratio and doesn't give up a basket on D all season that he's a huge failure and his decision to transfer to Tech was a massive blunder. He has goals to make it to the NBA. He wanted to get better and challenge himself. Beard is light years ahead of Ewing as a defensive coach. He's already made massive strides in that area. Offensively, he's now playing with 3 players that are projected as future NBA draft picks... Tech isn't Kentucky or Kansas or Duke when it comes to churning out NBA players, but the fact is it's a lot more impressive to average 10 pts on one of those teams than it is to average 30 on a mid major. Averaging 15 at Tech is gonna mean more to scouts than if he stayed at Georgetown and averaged 20 plus. Lastly, the competition level is higher. The Big East is no slouch, but the Big 12, at least this year is certainly better. They currently have 5 of the top 10 defensives teams in the nation. Mac will be the focal point of all of those teams defenses. I imagine he'll have some rough games in at least a few of those, but what better way to prepare yourself for the next level than games like the one last night? Lastly, I'm still not sure why everyone not only here but even on YouTube comments, instagram comments, etc is so obsessed with Mac being drafted or not. It's literally all everyone talks about related to Mac and is quite frankly bizarre. Cindad literally rolled in here specifically to declare that Mac will never play in the NBA and then give some random comparison to another borderline NBA player. You can't make this stuff up. Who the heck cares if he plays in the NBA? As a fan, on the one hand it would be nice just to shut everyone up, but we all know that wouldn't happen. 0 credit would be given, instead it would turn to well he sucks, he's the 12th man, he only averages 2 pts a game. If he was the 8th man averaging 9 pts, it'd be well he doesn't even start, can't even average double figures, told you he's a bum! Realistically though as a fan, unless he was able to carve out a major role, I'd rather see him start and play 30 mins a night in the G League. Nothing fun about watching a guy nailed to the end of the bench. Its because the guy takes up a ton oxygen way above his ability/production or future projections. Like there are intriguing players every year. Like last year Obi is a great example. Lotto pick? wow He was one of these best players in college last year. But Lotto pick? Its intriguing. Garza this year. Easily the best player in college this year. Somehow he ended up in Iowa and not at Georgetown. But you wonder whats his NBA prospects. I see a NBA player in there if he is 20 lbs lighter. With the subject player we are not talking about that level of player but the social media exposure says differently. I can't remember player having this level of exposure, and defenders 3 years into their college career. DJ Shockely for UGA Football? Chris Simms at Texas? DeMarcus Nelson at Duke? I saw a Zona game Saturday and Akinjo was highly unimpressive. But for games I saw so far this year, ball movement is in. Just the talent is lacking right now. I know this prob for another thread, but Dickinson looks solid for the Wolverines. How Did Ewing lose him? The Hoyas are my Big East Team, I track Big East play by watching Georgetown, so I don't follow the recruiting. Its obvious something is missing on the Hilltop. Do they lack a technical expert to preach skill development? Another thing I notice I was in DC recently and I feel like there was not a ton of Georgetown signage or billboards. I was in DC 2012 around Christmas and I saw lots Georgetown ads and media stuff? Has something changed?
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Post by professorhoya on Dec 21, 2020 16:24:42 GMT -5
At the end of the day a player is a player. They have habits that have been practice 1000s of times for 10-14 years. It's the whole you can't teach an old dog new tricks. (and habit wise college kids are old dogs in terms of their skills that they have been honing since childhood) It's why Lubick and Jeremiah Rivers could never improve there outside shot. So really the coach, program, all that stuff is insignificant to the players NBA potential. At the end of the day it's size/athleticism measurables and skillset. You looked the the guys who really turned it around and it's almost always based off growth spurts. Steph Curry from 5-11 to 6-3. Scotti Pippen 6-1 to 6-8. David Robinson 6-7 to 7-1, Gorden Hayward 5-11 to 6-8. Michael Jordan 5-11 to 6-6. It's not that they somehow proved them wrong or people missed on them or something like that, they just grew a whole lot with the guard skillset they had when they were sub six feet or went from an undersized powerforward/center to all world center. Simply not true. You're talking about players that were lottery picks and went on to be all-stars, hall of famers, etc. If Mac suddenly grew 6 inches would he be a top 5 pick regardless of coach/school? Of course. Mac like many others is currently a borderline NBA player. The difference between being 80 or 90 on most teams Big Board and being 40 or 50 on most teams Big Board will absolutely be the result of good coaching, player development, fit with in the program, and the programs success throughout the season. Do you really think if Ty Jerome had went to Georgetown and Kyle Guy went to St Johns instead of them going to Virginia, they would've still been 1st and 2nd round picks? I suppose it's possible, but I think it's highly unlikely. They may have still made the league eventually as UDFA's and a few years of solid G League play. But going to Virginia absolutely increased their draft stock and expedited their NBA careers. Players like Mac, and Pickett for that matter are the exact kind of players that need player development under the right coach and right system. Pickett has the kind of wingspan NBA GM's and scouts drool over. Wingspan provides many advantages in basketball, but I would say defense is where it helps the most. In spite of that wingspan Pickett has been an average at best defender throughout his college career. If Pickett had gone to play for a school/coach that was able to maximize his defensive potential and make him the elite defender he should be, even if he was the same player offensively, I think he'd have a very good chance of being a late first/early second round pick. Not saying that still can't happen, but if it does it will be solely based on his draft workouts, etc... not anything he did during his career at Georgetown. In the case of someone like Akinjo, you're probably right. While more skilled and polished than Mac and Pickett, he has a much lower ceiling. Mac has the NBA athleticism, and Pickett has the NBA measurables. James isn't going to benefit much from player development because he's already maximizing his abilities. Mac and Pickett are not. That said, James could still benefit from his transfer if Arizona ended up making the tourney, then making a run in the tourney with James playing well. Every year there's a few guys who's stock goes way up due to good play in a deep tourney run. Arizona doesn't appear to be that good, so it's doubtful, but anything can happen so who knows. Kyle Guy actually isn’t about development though, rather The exposure he got and clutch success he got during uva National champ run. And as you say with Akinjo it would be the same thing if Arizona has a deep tournament run
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Post by professorhoya on Dec 21, 2020 16:27:56 GMT -5
Reading the last few pages of this thread, one would think Mac put up a doughnut and his team lost by 30 to a mid-major. He had more than a third of his team's points and they lost by 1 to Kansas, the 5th ranked team in the country. Ironically on the Tech board and in all the Tech media articles (people that actually have a vested interest in how Tech and their players perform) the general consensus is that Mac was the second best player on the floor for his team, next to Shannon. Which is pretty much what I saw as well. I'm also curious what people expected to see? Did they think they were gonna turn on the TV and see Mac had become Steve Nash or John Stockton? Mac will always be a scorer first... that's who he is and it's also what his team needs him to be. To expect him to suddenly be a pass first playmaker would be no more silly than it would be to expect Akinjo to turn in to a post up player at Arizona. Defensively he has improved a ton. Tech is currently the #1 ranked defense according to Kenpom in all of college basketball... Mac is a starter who plays the second most minutes on that team. I don't think it would be possible for a. Mac to be starting and second on the team in minutes, and b. his team be #1 in the nation in defense if he was still the turnstile he was made out to be at Georgetown. Even more impressive... Kevin McCullar, a starter and Tech's best defender hasn't played a game all season. He should be back in the next game or two, so their defense will likely get even better. I've followed every one of Tech's game threads... there's been 1 mildly critical post on Mac's defense in 8 games. On the flip side, the first 2 or 3 games were pretty much shock and awe at the fact that he came in with a reputation as such a poor defender. As a playmaker his improvements have been more subtle. He has certainly made strides as a playmaker and has limited his bad shots... that said he kind of reverted back to his old ways in the Kansas game, so if that's all you're going off of, it's not really fair given he's played 8 games and that was his most shot happy one thus far. Also in his defense, playmaking didn't seem to be much of an option. Kyler Edwards, their 3rd leading scorer was 0-9 with 0 pts. Santos Silva, the starting center also had 0 points. Burnett and Burton, the main 2 scorers off the bench were a combined 2-10. Running the offense was not leading to points or open shots. The only guy to get decent looks the whole game was Edwards, who was again 0-9. Their best offense was Mac going 1 on 1 in the first half and Shannon going 1 on 1 in the second half. A lot of the credit goes to Bill Self and Kansas. They too have a great defense and are ranked #6 in the country. Mac was being guarded by Marcus Garrett the entire first half... yes, the guy who was the Naismith defensive player of the year last season. I certainly wouldn't say Mac struggled in the first half in that match up. In fact, Mac's success against Garrett was likely Self's reason to switch to the zone. The zone definitely stifled Mac. Still, he had 2 three pointers that went in and out. If those drop they win by 5, Mac has 27 pts and its crickets on the board. I didn't have a problem with him looking for his shot in the second half... again the offense wasn't generating good shots when they ran it and the few times it did guys weren't hitting. My biggest critique of Mac as well his teammates would be the fact they were in the double bonus with over 8 mins left and suddenly decided to just shoot jumpers. Would've loved to seen Mac and a few of his teammates drive hard to the basket and try to get some calls. For whatever reason they didn't do that. A few other observations and notes; According to Beard's press conference the last play of the game was supposed be for Shannon or Mac. Shannon was supposed to get the ball, drive left and either shoot or pass to Mac. For whatever reason he chose to drive right, shot and got blocked. Mac's one bad defensive play that of course everyone chose to grasp on to and ignore the fact he played very good defense the entire game was in fact not a bad defensive play. Both live and during the replay it was blatantly obvious that Garrett used his forearm and elbow of his off hand to push Mac in the chest in order to get the separation he needed to get the layup off. Mac did a great job of staying in front of him. Garrett got away with a very obvious offensive foul. The play was even detailed and discussed in a Bleacher Report article where the author talks about the exact same thing. I get that refs didn't wanna call it due to the fact that players get away with a lot more in the final seconds of games but that doesn't detract from the fact that it was still good defense from Mac and Garrett had to push off to score. At the end of the day there were a lot of reasons Tech lost that game. The play of Mac was not one of them. Beard singled out the issues during his press conference and he pretty much saw what I saw. Players not named Mac were 2-8 from the free throw line. Kyler Edwards, their longest tenured player played 37 mins to lead the team. He was 0-9, 0 pts, 1 asst, 1 Reb, 0 stls, 0 blks. That's pretty much the ball game. You gotta hit free throws. And if you're gonna go 0-9 and play 37 mins you gotta at least contribute with some rebounds or assists. When asked about Edwards play, Beard said he would have to answer those questions. He was the lone player he sent out to talk to the media after the game. At the end of the day Mac will have some good games, he'll have some bad ones. Myles Powell was in my opinion the best player in the Big East last year. He shot under 40% from the field, under 31% from 3, and had 1/1 asst/to ratio. Not sure why Mac is held to some standard that if he doesn't shoot 50/40/90 with a 5 to 1 asst/to ratio and doesn't give up a basket on D all season that he's a huge failure and his decision to transfer to Tech was a massive blunder. He has goals to make it to the NBA. He wanted to get better and challenge himself. Beard is light years ahead of Ewing as a defensive coach. He's already made massive strides in that area. Offensively, he's now playing with 3 players that are projected as future NBA draft picks... Tech isn't Kentucky or Kansas or Duke when it comes to churning out NBA players, but the fact is it's a lot more impressive to average 10 pts on one of those teams than it is to average 30 on a mid major. Averaging 15 at Tech is gonna mean more to scouts than if he stayed at Georgetown and averaged 20 plus. Lastly, the competition level is higher. The Big East is no slouch, but the Big 12, at least this year is certainly better. They currently have 5 of the top 10 defensives teams in the nation. Mac will be the focal point of all of those teams defenses. I imagine he'll have some rough games in at least a few of those, but what better way to prepare yourself for the next level than games like the one last night? Lastly, I'm still not sure why everyone not only here but even on YouTube comments, instagram comments, etc is so obsessed with Mac being drafted or not. It's literally all everyone talks about related to Mac and is quite frankly bizarre. Cindad literally rolled in here specifically to declare that Mac will never play in the NBA and then give some random comparison to another borderline NBA player. You can't make this stuff up. Who the heck cares if he plays in the NBA? As a fan, on the one hand it would be nice just to shut everyone up, but we all know that wouldn't happen. 0 credit would be given, instead it would turn to well he sucks, he's the 12th man, he only averages 2 pts a game. If he was the 8th man averaging 9 pts, it'd be well he doesn't even start, can't even average double figures, told you he's a bum! Realistically though as a fan, unless he was able to carve out a major role, I'd rather see him start and play 30 mins a night in the G League. Nothing fun about watching a guy nailed to the end of the bench. Its because the guy takes up a ton oxygen way above his ability/production or future projections. Like there are intriguing players every year. Like last year Obi is a great example. Lotto pick? wow He was one of these best players in college last year. But Lotto pick? Its intriguing. Garza this year. Easily the best player in college this year. Somehow he ended up in Iowa and not at Georgetown. But you wonder whats his NBA prospects. I see a NBA player in there if he is 20 lbs lighter. With the subject player we are not talking about that level of player but the social media exposure says differently. I can't remember player having this level of exposure, and defenders 3 years into their college career. DJ Shockely for UGA Football? Chris Simms at Texas? DeMarcus Nelson at Duke? I saw a Zona game Saturday and Akinjo was highly unimpressive. But for games I saw so far this year, ball movement is in. Just the talent is lacking right now. I know this prob for another thread, but Dickinson looks solid for the Wolverines. How Did Ewing lose him? The Hoyas are my Big East Team, I track Big East play by watching Georgetown, so I don't follow the recruiting. Its obvious something is missing on the Hilltop. Do they lack a technical expert to preach skill development? Another thing I notice I was in DC recently and I feel like there was not a ton of Georgetown signage or billboards. I was in DC 2012 around Christmas and I saw lots Georgetown ads and media stuff? Has something changed? Garza seems like a Michael Jordan type lotto pick
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rlo24
Bulldog (over 250 posts)
Posts: 337
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Post by rlo24 on Dec 28, 2020 20:24:51 GMT -5
The Athletic article on Mac was really interesting last week. As some have noted, Texas Tech is STILL #1 in team defense and Mac leads the team in scoring and min (including 2 games .vs top 5 teams). He had 6 points in the last 30 seconds on the road against a good Oklahoma team. Beard said there are specific things they are working on with Mac, like squaring up for 3's and that they had limited practice time before the season. He said Mac has delivered on everything they hoped he would and it is early in a long season and they expect continuing improvement. His defense is better, assists are up, free throw % better and turnovers are down. Other metrics abt same as before after last 5 games. Seems like he's on a good path where he is. Expect things to improve even more when starter Kevin McCullar plays for the first time this year.
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