Grace officially back
- Thread starter spider23
- Start date
Great news for the team, great off-season so far
Do you think Matt Grace is told to be aggressive on defense, not give up easy baskets and take fouls? I assume this to be the case but he will need to adjust his game if he is a starter as we will need many more minutes from him.
Cant wait to see him step out of the shadow.
Cant wait to see him step out of the shadow.
Honestly feel like our bigs have always been told the opposite, give up the hoop over risk the foul - BECAUSE we rarely had quality depth to bring in. I mean we saw it with TJ , then Grant, and I can recall many times this season Grace backing off inside - though he did seem more aggressive later in the season. This is why I think we need one more legit interior player, an athletic defender/rebounder who hopefully has some skill too.
I think I saw a few times at various points in the season that Matt grace led the nation in the ratio of fouls to minutes.
Yes, definitely saw more of the back away with TJ and Grant. You can still pick up fouls in either scenario if not quick or strong enough.
this board has a weird fascination with taking fouls.
but LET'S GO! nice to have Matt back.
but LET'S GO! nice to have Matt back.
misinterpreting again. I want to have a team with 3 to 4 legit interior players that can play strong defense, NOT BACK UP when the other team has an aggressive post up player. That is all. I went to one game in person TJ's senior year, and what I saw on tv is exacerbated in person. Not asking for us to "TAKE" fouls, just play strong defense and not back away. Kind of like the d we played the last 6 games.
if I recall correctly, some others on the board have basically equated number of fouls with quality of defense. like if you only had one foul in a game, you didn't play hard. and the "take a hard foul to send a message" mentality.
OK, I am not in that crowd. I am fine with playing good, strong defense and Yes, not fouling would be fine. There can be a lot of banging inside, and sometimes that will get called on the defense - so that may be what they are alluding to.
My approach would be to start as many walkons as possible, have each of them collect really hard fouls against the opponent's best players, and then put in the starters. Voila! You aren't going to get away with anything when you play Richmond -- it's going to be a war. Bring your body armor.
I was on the MFG bandwagon long ago, when so many here did nothing but trash him. I'm super excited that he's coming back and will show even more improvement.
I don’t see how you could’ve been on it prior last season. He struggled. But the improvement has been really amazing and I’m excited to see what he can do!
I feel like Grace could be a more consistent shooter with more playing time and the extra year under his belt. Not going to check the stats, but feel like he got way more minutes this year, and feel like he is another one that could take a little jump, based on that experience, plus all the positive plays he made down the stretch.
I've got him penciled in for 20/8/5 on average next year. LFG.
You got me. But I will say, mostly was his defense or lack thereof. I think he got a lot more aggressive last part of the season and I am hoping he uses that positive run to springboard him into a top line big in the A10 next season.
We can disagree, but I thought he did just fine backing up Grant as a true freshman and sophomore. Playing about 7 minutes a game, scoring a little, getting a steal here, or a block there, not turning the ball over much, getting some nice assists playing Grant's high post spot, and just battling his guy the best he could out there. The bottom line is I didn't think he hurt us at all when out there. I wasn't looking for Grant's production or any other major production in 7 minutes when we usually had other scoring options out there.
As probably the single hardest poster on here on Matt Grace for his first few years, I am genuinely excited about Grace being back. He was a very passive player early on but he certainly has developed his game and most notably his confidence in his game. I like a confident Matt effing Grace. Welcome back, big boy.
Do we think Matt came back to not start? I’ll go out on this limb and say no. Starts at the 4 😀🫠
He deserves it
He's coming back for his 97Spiderfan Revenge Tour. I think you deserve credit for motivating him, and consequently, for our A10 tournament title and Iowa win. Well done!
I'm just glad he's back. We are always at our best with more experienced players. Let's see if we can surprise some people next year.
I've been in his camp since he was a freshman and even before his first game
This is accurate. I know, because it was I who told Fan1 12 years ago about this skinny Canadian kid I saw at an AAU tournament during a spring break trip to Hamilton, Ontario.
"One day, that kid is going to lead us to an improbable conference title," I believe is what I said at the time.
Definitely good news that Grace is back, since the ability to land post players is a staff weakness. Matt has significantly improved each year and I look forward to seeing what he can contribute next season. We definitely know he has become a Forum favorite.
I thought the other staff weakness was players don’t improve during their time here?? Hmmmmm
recall some of the players saying Matt is one of the best 3 pt shooters on the team
Similar threads
