hoyaboya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by hoyaboya on Feb 8, 2024 13:17:46 GMT -5
With the amount of shots the guy takes, as well as a poor assist to turnover ratio, I hope the coaching staff is rethinking the whole Epps as PG thing. It's hard to believe that a backcourt of Epps getting 38 minutes at PG and Heath getting 36 minutes at SG (like they did last night) is a winning formula in Big East play. Brumbaugh is a better passer and better defender than both of those guys. Not that Brumbaugh's playing well, but Heath literally has no future at Georgetown, and if it's a marginal difference between the two, wouldn't you want to give minutes to the freshman over the fifth year senior?
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Post by BeantownHoya on Feb 8, 2024 14:02:18 GMT -5
With the amount of shots the guy takes, as well as a poor assist to turnover ratio, I hope the coaching staff is rethinking the whole Epps as PG thing. It's hard to believe that a backcourt of Epps getting 38 minutes at PG and Heath getting 36 minutes at SG (like they did last night) is a winning formula in Big East play. Brumbaugh is a better passer and better defender than both of those guys. Not that Brumbaugh's playing well, but Heath literally has no future at Georgetown, and if it's a marginal difference between the two, wouldn't you want to give minutes to the freshman over the fifth year senior? A couple of things from my view... 1. I hope they are playing Epps at PG from a necessity standpoint versus any thought that is a long term fixture. He would be so much better coming off the ball in my opinion. 2. I am not a huge Heath fan but also realize we don't have a ton of options but do agree NOW is the time you see what Rowan has so you better understand going into the off-season if he the answer next year at PG or you need to bring in a SR transfer to split some minutes. 3. I know not your point but I feel the same applies to Fielder. This season is toast. How he is not playing 15-20 minutes a game is beyond me. Yes his defense stinks but again this is the time you build him w/no pressure and make him a capable defender. You can see long term the offense will come together for him. He feels like a long term piece so he should be developed as such. I was fine 5-6 games ago if you wanted to see if this team could turn things around...but we are way beyond that point...minutes need to be a blend of best players but also looking towards the future with Rowan and Fielder and the incoming class. |
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bostonfan
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,508
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Post by bostonfan on Feb 8, 2024 14:48:35 GMT -5
Epps needs to become more efficient offensively. He is the most talented scorer on the current roster and I think sometimes he feels he needs to be ultra aggressive because the team needs points, which sometimes ends up with him taking forced/bad shots. To some degree I think it looks a little like Akinjo used to at the end of games when he would completely disregard what the staff asked him to do and try to go on his own.
On one hand you want players with that aggressiveness and self confidence, but it needs to be tempered to work within the system and to trust his teammates. Epps does do a good job setting up teammates when he trusts the offense. Hopefully as he gets more experienced and gets better players around him, that improves.
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Post by reformation on Feb 8, 2024 16:47:59 GMT -5
He plays like he has no confidence in his teammates. Given his poor shooting not sure why they'd have confidence in him either.
Next year, hopefully with a real PG, I'd have him come off the bench as a sixth man and then see what happens with his play, i.e., whether he is worth inserting as an off-guard starter or a radically transformed pt. He is small to play the 2 and needs to exhibit better shooting and overall efficiency to justify starting.
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hoyarooter
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 10,212
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Post by hoyarooter on Feb 8, 2024 20:06:50 GMT -5
With the amount of shots the guy takes, as well as a poor assist to turnover ratio, I hope the coaching staff is rethinking the whole Epps as PG thing. It's hard to believe that a backcourt of Epps getting 38 minutes at PG and Heath getting 36 minutes at SG (like they did last night) is a winning formula in Big East play. Brumbaugh is a better passer and better defender than both of those guys. Not that Brumbaugh's playing well, but Heath literally has no future at Georgetown, and if it's a marginal difference between the two, wouldn't you want to give minutes to the freshman over the fifth year senior? A couple of things from my view... 1. I hope they are playing Epps at PG from a necessity standpoint versus any thought that is a long term fixture. He would be so much better coming off the ball in my opinion. 2. I am not a huge Heath fan but also realize we don't have a ton of options but do agree NOW is the time you see what Rowan has so you better understand going into the off-season if he the answer next year at PG or you need to bring in a SR transfer to split some minutes. 3. I know not your point but I feel the same applies to Fielder. This season is toast. How he is not playing 15-20 minutes a game is beyond me. Yes his defense stinks but again this is the time you build him w/no pressure and make him a capable defender. You can see long term the offense will come together for him. He feels like a long term piece so he should be developed as such. I was fine 5-6 games ago if you wanted to see if this team could turn things around...but we are way beyond that point...minutes need to be a blend of best players but also looking towards the future with Rowan and Fielder and the incoming class. This. I may give hoyaboya a lot of crap for his excessive and constant criticism of Cooley, but I totally agree with him here. |
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hoyaboya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 12,359
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Post by hoyaboya on Feb 8, 2024 20:14:27 GMT -5
A couple of things from my view... 1. I hope they are playing Epps at PG from a necessity standpoint versus any thought that is a long term fixture. He would be so much better coming off the ball in my opinion. 2. I am not a huge Heath fan but also realize we don't have a ton of options but do agree NOW is the time you see what Rowan has so you better understand going into the off-season if he the answer next year at PG or you need to bring in a SR transfer to split some minutes. 3. I know not your point but I feel the same applies to Fielder. This season is toast. How he is not playing 15-20 minutes a game is beyond me. Yes his defense stinks but again this is the time you build him w/no pressure and make him a capable defender. You can see long term the offense will come together for him. He feels like a long term piece so he should be developed as such. I was fine 5-6 games ago if you wanted to see if this team could turn things around...but we are way beyond that point...minutes need to be a blend of best players but also looking towards the future with Rowan and Fielder and the incoming class. This. I may give hoyaboya a lot of crap for his excessive and constant criticism of Cooley, but I totally agree with him here. Thanks man but to be fair, most of the intelligent things that were said came from Beantown. |
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hoyarooter
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by hoyarooter on Feb 8, 2024 20:27:46 GMT -5
This. I may give hoyaboya a lot of crap for his excessive and constant criticism of Cooley, but I totally agree with him here. Thanks man but to be fair, most of the intelligent things that were said came from Beantown. Yeah, I agree, that's why I quoted Beantown and not just you, but wanted to give credit where credit was due. |
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hoyaboya
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Post by hoyaboya on Feb 14, 2024 9:46:09 GMT -5
Bump...updated the stats in the thread title, through 13 Big East games. Averaging 16.6 points, 4.1 assists and 2.3 rebounds, which on paper is pretty solid. But given his usage and the way he plays defense, the guy seems to be a net negative for the Hoyas in Big East play.
I'm hoping Cooley & Co. use these last 8+ games to get Rowan more playing time at PG and play Epps off the ball more, with Rowan's minutes coming primarily from Heath. We need to see what we have in Rowan in these last 8 games prior to free agency/NIL season and we also need to see if Epps can be a better player if he's not the PG. The defense will improve simply by having Heath off the floor more.
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gujake
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
Posts: 831
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Post by gujake on Feb 14, 2024 17:35:20 GMT -5
The guy has to be leading the nation in dribbles to passes ratio.
I was (and am, I think?) a fan of Cooley, but his handling of Epps has been baffling to me. Cooley started the season by preaching team basketball and saying he wanted high assist numbers. But I guess now he's cool with Epps dribbling the air out of the ball while everyone else stands around doing nothing? This happens WAY too often, and just isn't how modern basketball is played. It's selfish and inefficient and it's the kind of thing that causes guys to lose trust with each other. I don't get it.
By the way, color me skeptical this is all going to go away with new personnel next year. Bad habits are hard to break and this is setting a precedent that individual hero ball is acceptable. I don't care if he's the most talented player on the team. Pass the rock and get people moving and playing like a team or sit down. Better to set good habits and lose that way than what we're doing now.
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