I clicked on this thread. Saw this pic without context. And thought what kind of cluster **** of a derailment happened in here?
Demarion Watson has entered the portal
- Thread starter LLCoolCY
- Start date
After Enaruna went to Cleveland St, I knew D-Rob must be liked by the players more than we could even assume.
This reaffirms that.
This reaffirms that.
Not some sweeping slam on TJ...but having watched basketball for 40+ years now I cannot imagine how we wouldn't have been far better off playing Watson more minutes than Kelderman in the NCAA. It's not like we didn't have a big in Jefferson who is incredible handling the ball if a team pressed us, please do press us with Jefferson in the game and only one true point guard.
Kelderman had great moments in that first round game and surely contributed a lot to ISU's team but he just got torched in those Ole Miss minutes. It's an easy choice to me between a walk on without the needed athleticism at the position of need vs playing an incredible athlete (with far more experience) forcing a couple other players slightly out of position.
The other thing is we're supposed to be about defense and I think D-Wat defending the perimeter would have resulted in our best defensive lineup possible pretty clearly.
As a fan, I 100% agree with you -- and yet I trust the coaching staff knew/saw something I didn't. Plus, I'm a big DWatt fan so I'm biased.
There are exceptions...
Jefferson is not a "break the press" ballhandler. He had plenty of turnovers considering the amount of time he handled the ball and most of them were close quarters situations. He is an excellent passer and good ball handler but not a press breaker.
If you think Tamin/Jefferson/Watson, Tamin/Cujo/Jefferson, and Cujo/Jefferson/Watson would be a bigger liability breaking a press than how Kelderman was getting torched against Ole Miss on both ends we just don't have the same core values as basketball viewers.
Heise isn't a terrible person to throw in that mix either and I didn't even mention him. I don't disagree with the staff in a major way on almost anything, but I strongly thought that was a dumb decision to not go big with injured Tamin, Cujo, and Heise as the only guards who play. Extra minutes go to Watson at wing. All the other wings and bigs play extra minutes. It will always seem absolutely insane to me even though I loved watching Kelderman have a great game in first round.
We should have done that in Big 12 Tournament, first round and maybe even later B12 games when we knew Gilbert and Lipsey were both hurt, it's not like this had to be some last minute thing. It's also not like Watson was some freshman who had never played in crazy games. I'll never understand it.
I'm not one of the people who was demanding Watson should play a ton when we were at full strength early and mid season, or even when Milan was out really.
Congratulations on finding a good landing spot Demarion. Finish on a high-note. Thanks for being a Cyclone. God bless young man.
Watson might have had some success against Ole Miss because of his athleticism & defense. But Watson is a liability on offense and it seemed TJ was searching for offensive flow more than defense when Kelderman was inserted the Clones were down 48-37 (he played 2:25).
Saying Kelderman got torched by Ole Miss is an exaggeration for two reasons. As a team we got torched- at one point the Cyclones were down 27 pts. Hard to put much of that on Kelderman who played a whopping 6 minutes. Second, Kelderman's +/- for the game was minus 2. During his 4 stints in the Ole Miss game the team was: +5, 0, 0, -7. And Brakefield had 5 of Ole Miss points during the -7 stint. Brakefield is 6'8".
In Watson's last playing time with Iowa State, he got 5 minutes in the Big12 Tournament against BYU and scored no points, no rebounds and 1 block. I understand the love for Watson. And I would have liked to have seen him play more over his career. However, the other reality is Watson's offensive skills and shooting never improved from his freshman year. Maybe TJ's system was a bad fit, hopefully Daniyal Robinson can get more from Watson.
I suspect TJ knows more about basketball and his team than me.
I’m arguing in the context of playing a walk on in the most important games of the year. Not one of the people who was a fan boy even when the team is at full strength.
Watch Kelderman vs Ole Miss, just watch it. if you think Watson has ever looked that outclassed in an ISU uniform we have irreconcilable differences of opinion on the sport.
I am a poor one to mention this because I have opinions on everything. That being said rumors are you earn you spot in practice. I wasn't there so I don't know.
I didn’t think Watson was all big 12 or anything but I never saw him and thought he couldn’t hang with big 12 players. It seems like we took an incredibly rash direction the last five games by not playing some “positionless” basketball with our clearly best players especially on defense.
Awoken from deep slumber at 2 am by bright lights and a loud humming noise, I rush to the window and see a UFO has landed in my backyard. As I rush outside, a hiss emanates from the craft and a ramp slowly drops to the earth. Two massive but gangly life forms saunter down the ramp and we make eye contact. The taller of the two speaks to me in perfect English: “We come in peace, earthling. Tell us, what is most important to know about your people?”
Without hesitation I say “TJ didn’t play Demarion Watson enough!!!”
Without hesitation I say “TJ didn’t play Demarion Watson enough!!!”
Tamin was also injured and someone needed to play PG to be serviceable in bringing the ball up the court.
Playing Watson for some length in situations is imo perhaps a valid point but this notion that he should have playing instead of someone who could handle PG duties with a hobbled Lipsey and Cujo having to do about everything has been kind of bewildering.
He's going to North Texas now. If he's so good wouldn't he be somewhere better?
I’m not arguing he’s fantastic, I think he was above average on defense as a big 12 player though.
I do think playing only 3 guards and increased minutes for everybody with maybe 10 for Watson would have made more sense. Notice I’m not calling for Nojus either, he wasn’t any more ready for the situation than Kelderman.
It’s not just about the Ole Miss beat down either. I’d have moved this direction as the injuries mounted and it would have just been the normal rotation by then. Maybe we still lose to Ole Miss but I’m pretty certain we’d have shown out better. It’s especially baffling to me since even with no injuries our best defensive rotation obviously includes Watson.
Is there data for this? How was it obvious? He would have provided some length but was noted for not being able to guard the perimeter all that well.
Which 3 guards play increased minutes with many players injured?
