What does a pre season poll have to do with how you play your guys? Are you assuming these polls are always accurate? They are not. You play to win. Like every year, we should go in trying to win the conference, and a top 4 seed.
I tend to agree…let’s get him on campus first and see what he looks like in practice. I def like the pick up and maybe bc he decided to come in late he could have been promised something🤷🏼♂️. If he’s a true European player he may pick it up fairly quickly. We will see and I still think he’s a win win type of pick up.
best players play.
Yes - seeing minutes on the court and not end of bench or getting mop up mins sparingly.
Yep. Best players play. Don't play freshman just to play them, but if they are better than seniors, beat out seniors, and give you a better chance to win, of course you play them. Just like I am not a fan of playing young guys just to try to develop them faster, I am also not a fan of playing seniors over young guys just because they are seniors. Best players play.
As King stated in the interview: "Coach Mooney is always telling us to just make plays" paraphrasing - it was something like that.
I can agree to start the season but like last year, I think it will become clear by mid season, that this a team going nowhere and when that become clear, more minutes need to be given to our future. We all realize that Mooney never does that, which is a shame that he almost always chooses to ride or die with senior players who have shown they can deliver nothing more than mediocre results.
Hoping that we see a much better team identity and chemistry this season. If the transfers aren’t getting the wins, then the only way the Spiders are going to improve is to build something with the young guys. As I said last year, which was deemed a transition year, what exactly is being built?
Well said. I think Tyler going to Nova helps both us and Tyler.
Agree, you play to win. Problem is that Mooney has a long history of struggling to figure out which players, and what combinations will give him the best chance of winning.
.
I agree that King is locked in for big minutes. It likes like Hunt will start, but it has been implied that he may be offensively challenged, so can he deliver in big minutes? Quinn has got to deliver, but he will need rest (much like Golden), and I don't see Bigelow as highly effective in large minutes as many on here do. Bigelow certainly brings strengths with his rebounding and aggressiveness, but his passing, ball handling, turnovers, and low shooting % may get in the way of him playing 30+ minutes a game.Not a Homer, this is the year Mooney figures it out
One positive, it does seem like early in the preseason - from insider board musings, King iterview, etc - he does seem like he is running King and Hunt together as a starting guard tandem. So we have that going for us. Would think Bigs/Neal is set for the 4/5. So it would seem only wing forward and then sub pattern after that is up in the air.
Maybe offensively, I could buy it. Defensively, he got a LOT of rebounds. I think we are really going to struggle there.
Statistically Bigelow is the best rebounder we have had under Mooney, by a long shot. He rebounded the ball on 25.5% of opponent misses when he was on the court, Burton was at 20.6%. Bigelow had the 37th best rebounding rate in the country last year.
Good point. I was mainly thinking on the offensive side of the ball. Burton was the best rebounder, Mooney has ever had and that will be missed for sure. I do hope by not having him on offense though, our offense becomes a bit more egalitarian. Our offense last year was way to dependent on him making shots. Mooney's offense is at its best when he has guards that can score, I think King will help that this year, and maybe Hunt as well.
I like your stats.
“Egalitarian “ is a new one me. Is this a new common business term? Does it mean more balanced, then I am all for it.
But, why can't Bigs get the rebounds out of his area? Bigs got 10.5 rebounds per 40 minutes last year, Tyler 8.5. No question, Tyler was a great rebounder, but I like our rebounding with Bigs and Quinn out there.
Saying a Mooney team is going to struggle with rebounding isn't super insightful. Last year was our by far our best rebounding year under Mooney, next year we will still be well above the average Mooney team in rebounding.
Interesting. I would take 5 good TEAM players.
This is the dictionary definition: "relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities"
I don't think you want an offense like that, though. I don't see 5 equal players being a recipe for great success. You better have one or two stars. Our best seasons have had stars that separated themselves. All the way back to Newman, along with guys like Atkinson, Woolfolk, Rice, Blair, Stevenson, KA, Harper, TJ, ShawnDre, Jacob, Blake, and Grant. A few others as well, but the key is all of these guys separated themselves and were not average, but well above average players, who you need for great success. 5 equal players might sound good on paper, but I don't see this winning many games.
I wasn't saying you don't need stars. You need star players. But I think as s-man said our star last year was Tyler. Tyler didn't have his best season and wasn't the type of offensive player that is suited to be a star in the way we play offense. Mooney needs one of his star players to be a guard with the offense we play and it goes without saying that we did not have anything approaching a star player in the guard role last year.
4.6 per game. very comparable stats to Burton but shot a lot better from 3.
www.sports-reference.com
www.sports-reference.com
Harp had one heck of a year that year. Just outstanding all year long.4.6 per game. very comparable stats to Burton but shot a lot better from 3.
Justin Harper College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com
Justin Harper - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much moreTyler Burton College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com
Tyler Burton - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more
