He reminds me a little of Matt Thomas as a freshman. He doesn't seem entirely confident with his shot yet but he definitely has a nice stroke. If he can get his shot going, he could be a valuable contributor off the bench and provide a real spark.
Terrence Lewis playing time
- Thread starter jhummel7
- Start date
Long looks like he is 25 and fully grown, Lewis looks like he is 16 and needs to add 25 pounds so he doesn't get hurt. Lewis will be fine if he has the patience to learn and get stronger while developing his college level defense skills. If Long keeps playing good defense he will be hard to keep off the floor as the first guard off the bench, which will cost Lewis minutes until he develops.
The rotation will be pretty tight in games that are close. As of now I see the rotation as:
NWB
Jackson
Wigginton
Beverly
Young
Lard
Brase
Talley
Long/Lewis if needed
Going forward it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I believe either Lard or Brase will move into the starting lineup - I would think most likely Lard so that Brase can be used as a bullet to fix offensive dry spells and help close out games where we need points rather than D. Beverly and Talley will then fight for backup 4 minutes as I don't know how often Talley will be wanted at the 3 with his shooting - although his length is intriguing there, but the spacing doesn't seem to smooth with him at 3. And then the 8th man will be whoever we want at the 3 to give a 10 minute spell per game to our backcourt between Talley, Long, and Lewis. And I think there it comes down to who will not get lost on defensive rotations. So by conference play I see:
NWB
Jackson
Wigginton
Lard
Young
Brase
Beverly/Talley
Talley/Long/Lewis
NWB
Jackson
Wigginton
Beverly
Young
Lard
Brase
Talley
Long/Lewis if needed
Going forward it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I believe either Lard or Brase will move into the starting lineup - I would think most likely Lard so that Brase can be used as a bullet to fix offensive dry spells and help close out games where we need points rather than D. Beverly and Talley will then fight for backup 4 minutes as I don't know how often Talley will be wanted at the 3 with his shooting - although his length is intriguing there, but the spacing doesn't seem to smooth with him at 3. And then the 8th man will be whoever we want at the 3 to give a 10 minute spell per game to our backcourt between Talley, Long, and Lewis. And I think there it comes down to who will not get lost on defensive rotations. So by conference play I see:
NWB
Jackson
Wigginton
Lard
Young
Brase
Beverly/Talley
Talley/Long/Lewis
Lewis is only 4 games into a college career.
let's hold off judgment on his outlook this season till at least 5?
Seriously Lewis will be fine. Right now him and Long/Talley are competing for those minutes and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends having those at the end of the year. Prohm has shown that wants a trust level in his freshman before playing them in high leverage minutes (Long/Young last year).
let's hold off judgment on his outlook this season till at least 5?
Seriously Lewis will be fine. Right now him and Long/Talley are competing for those minutes and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends having those at the end of the year. Prohm has shown that wants a trust level in his freshman before playing them in high leverage minutes (Long/Young last year).
He's behind some good players. Beverly is under whelming to watch but he is sound fundamentally. Wouldn't be surprised to see Talley taking some more of his minutes as the year goes on.
Yes, if I may add to that, Prohm has shown he likes to teach/coach the freshman by letting them watch and learn from the bench.
Amazing that Nick can go from guarding Przemek Karnowski last year (with us lacking any other options, and he did okay, held the guy to 11 and 5) and now he is playing point guard for us this season -- and doing a bang-up job of it, for that matter.
I agree. He needs to sit - it is in his best interest and that of the team. He has talent. Hopefully he remains positive. Right now he is totally lost on defense. That can be fixed through practice. Also seems to me that he is rushing his shots, too eager to shoot. I expect he will earn some minutes as the season progresses. A very knowledgeable basketball fan told me pre season that his game might struggle in its transition to college bb. He might have been right.
Lewis will be fine. He's a bit shell shocked right now in his first few games at this level. He just needs to let the game come to him.
We all know he's a lights out shooter, and I can't wait for him to get comfortable on where he needs to be on the court in the flow of the game to find those open spaces beyond the arc where he can just drain shots for us. It's actually a much needed skill on this team (3 pt shooter), he just looks lost out there at the moment, which is to be expected.
I fully expect him to find his place and get comfortable yet this year, and by the middle of the conference season he'll be draining big shots for us. I can't wait.
We all know he's a lights out shooter, and I can't wait for him to get comfortable on where he needs to be on the court in the flow of the game to find those open spaces beyond the arc where he can just drain shots for us. It's actually a much needed skill on this team (3 pt shooter), he just looks lost out there at the moment, which is to be expected.
I fully expect him to find his place and get comfortable yet this year, and by the middle of the conference season he'll be draining big shots for us. I can't wait.
He should just watch DJ tape.
The guy is a master at moving along the three-point line to give the ball-handler an angle and vision and make the defense forget about him just a second too long.
I echo the Matt Thomas comparisons, Matt came in as a great shooter but didn't come in to his own until halfway through his jr year. That's how I see Lewis, probably a year or two away. We'll see some flashes but unless, like Thomas, he commits to defense,rebounding,passing etc early in his career and proves he's more than just a shooter, its tough to see him getting much quality PT this year.
The good news is, in the little time we've seen him on the floor, I'd say he's buying in to a similar mindset. He's played hard when he's been out there and you can see he's certainly a big 12 caliber athlete. The difference between he and Matt is, this program is in much better shape now. Matt really only had to compete with Naz for PT that season, a guy who hadn't played either. Lewis is competing with upper class men and a 5 star recruit.
The good news is, in the little time we've seen him on the floor, I'd say he's buying in to a similar mindset. He's played hard when he's been out there and you can see he's certainly a big 12 caliber athlete. The difference between he and Matt is, this program is in much better shape now. Matt really only had to compete with Naz for PT that season, a guy who hadn't played either. Lewis is competing with upper class men and a 5 star recruit.
IMO a lot of freshman think their opportunity for minutes as freshman is based on how many points they score. The reality, being a solid defender is just or maybe even more important. In Lewis' case, his big competition for minutes is Jakolby Long and Long is a pretty solid defender.
Wigginton is a stud on offense, but his defense against Milwaukee was pretty bad. He did better at the PR Tournament. It does no good for a team if 4 guys are playing solid defense and 1 guy is bad- in college basketball a good opposing coach/players will exploit.
Wigginton is a stud on offense, but his defense against Milwaukee was pretty bad. He did better at the PR Tournament. It does no good for a team if 4 guys are playing solid defense and 1 guy is bad- in college basketball a good opposing coach/players will exploit.
What? Lewis is pretty big for a freshman, not sure what you're talking about. Are you looking at senior year photos?
Yeah, it’s not his size or strength that’s keeping him off the court.
That said, he’ll be really fun to watch as an upperclassman.
Lewis has strength and a decent amount of athleticism.
If he can get his shot to fall, he’ll be really good for us.
If he can get his shot to fall, he’ll be really good for us.
Here to agree with all of the Iceman comparisons. Remember that along with Matt's freshman year shooting struggles, he also was a defensive liability. I think they're very similar situations, except I think Lewis is a better athlete, and because of that will probably meet expectations sooner. Lewis will be just as good of a shooter as a Thomas, maybe better, and he's got enough size to more versatile as well.
When we are effective, we burn a lot of energy on offense, transition, and defense. Our 3 guards played 39 , 37, and 33 minutes last game. We also gave up second half runs of 26- 8 to BSU, and 14-0 to Tulsa. The backup guards need to get up to speed in order get NWB, DJ, and Wiggs some recovery time.
I have to remind myself to temper my expectations of the freshmen. I looked back at the freshman stats for the three seniors last year that played all four (or five) years at ISU.
MT - 5.5 pts/2.1 rb
NML - 1.4 pts
MM - 6.8 pts/3.7 ast
MT - 5.5 pts/2.1 rb
NML - 1.4 pts
MM - 6.8 pts/3.7 ast
