Batemon & Toure

Toure isn't shooting well from 3, no doubt. He is so spooked about his shot lately that he is passing up wide open looks as they sag off of him.

But in this 5 game period when he has gone 0-fer, he hasn't been turning the ball over (6 TOs to 6 As). He hasn't been totally tearing it up with steals (3 Ss) but he has been asked to do a lot more ball denial than generating steals. He has been dreadful from 3 but has hit his shots from 2 (5 of 10), and from the line the few times he has gotten there (3 of 4). Also despite being assigned with crawling in the jock strap of the other team's best perimeter player every game he hasn't fouled more than 3 times in any of those games (2.4 per game) granted in reduced minutes (17.6 per game). I think there is value in setting the tone defensively with Toure to start to shake up their best back court player and then have Batemon come in for the change of pace defensively and to provide a spark offensively.
A 1:1 assist to TO ratio isn’t very good in the men’s game. Especially if you’re not scoring. His -8.3 box plus/minus average the last 5 haves kind of shows that.
 
Those are good players, but I don't think ISU is going to win many games playing 3 on 5.

:p
Well the other two could be Lipsey/Toure (moreso Lipsey) and Buchanan/Pleta. Their lack of outside shooting isn’t as much of a liability with the other three on the floor. Spacing should be a lot better for penetration and/or lob passes.
 
The other move if it’s clear those 3 don’t have it early in the game, is to just play Jefferson, Momcilovic, and Batemon in the floor together for extended minutes.

Oh, I think that's coming. Maybe not in KC, but once it's win or go home, I think we're going to see a LOT of that lineup. Especially against teams that don't have big post scorers.
 
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Lipsey as a freshman couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. Not that he’s great from range now but seems early for concern

I fully expect Toure to make major improvements in his shot this offseason. That said, I don't know if he starts next year. Depends on Mason Williams. I don't think that you can keep Batemon on the bench.
 
Regardless of the ratio, having 6 turnovers in 5 games isn't a cause for concern.
Yeah not a huge issue especially since his usage rate is third-lowest of our rotation players in conference play.

Unfortunately, his usage rate is higher than Momcilovic’s in conference play which is a whole other issue.
 
Toure isn't shooting well from 3, no doubt. He is so spooked about his shot lately that he is passing up wide open looks as they sag off of him.

But in this 5 game period when he has gone 0-fer, he hasn't been turning the ball over (6 TOs to 6 As). He hasn't been totally tearing it up with steals (3 Ss) but he has been asked to do a lot more ball denial than generating steals. He has been dreadful from 3 but has hit his shots from 2 (5 of 10), and from the line the few times he has gotten there (3 of 4). Also despite being assigned with crawling in the jock strap of the other team's best perimeter player every game he hasn't fouled more than 3 times in any of those games (2.4 per game) granted in reduced minutes (17.6 per game). I think there is value in setting the tone defensively with Toure to start to shake up their best back court player and then have Batemon come in for the change of pace defensively and to provide a spark offensively.
There's definitely value there, but the fact remains that wings (and yes Toure is sometimes playing PG) are an offensive position. If you're going to go very far, you need to get offense out of your wings, or at the very least be a threat that you essentially don't have a guy sitting in the lane waiting to double Jefferson or cut off Lipsey when they get into the lane.

It might be a little different if we had a scoring 5, or Lipsey was a 38% 3 pt. shooter. But our 5s don't score outside of 4 ft, and Lipsey's a very good offensive player, but it isn't 3 pt. shooting. So with two wings playing big minutes that aren't offensive threats, it kills the offense. Not just from their lack of production, but the impacts to other players.

Whether that offense comes off of turnovers they cause, or otherwise, there has to offense generation from Toure and Heise at a rate far better than the last 5 games. Otherwise this team isn't going very far. There isn't much of a solution at this point in the season other than playing Batemon a little more, maybe going with the smaller lineup with JJ at the 5, and seeing what can be done to help create some opportunities for them to get some easy buckets.

Just a quick glance at the stats and the last 5 games it looks like Toure and Heise are averaging about 43 minutes and maybe 5.5-6 ppg. Not saying it can't be done, but it's really hard to win at a high level with wings that are scoring at a rate of about 5-6 per 40 minutes and aren't creating shots for others.
 
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Hate to put pressure on the kid but Toure needs to be at least somewhat of an offensive threat in the tourney, he has also been a huge turnover machine. Two things that can really hurt this teams chances of making a run. Hopefully Lipsey gets it going though.
 
Lipsey as a freshman couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. Not that he’s great from range now but seems early for concern
I'm not concerned long-term. He'll be fine. I'm concerned about the impact this year, when we've got a bunch of experience and talent, and we've got huge minutes going to wings that are essentially non-existent offensively.
 
Hate to put pressure on the kid but Toure needs to be at least somewhat of an offensive threat in the tourney, he has also been a huge turnover machine. Two things that can really hurt this teams chances of making a run. Hopefully Lipsey gets it going though.

Someone just said it's 6 turnovers in 5 games.

That's a turnover machine?
 
Hate to put pressure on the kid but Toure needs to be at least somewhat of an offensive threat in the tourney, he has also been a huge turnover machine. Two things that can really hurt this teams chances of making a run. Hopefully Lipsey gets it going though.
Toure was pretty aggressive attacking the rim early in the season, and the offense was much better. He needs to let it rip. And Heise needs to let it fly some too. The token take a couple dribbles and always looking only to kick it out needs to stop.

My view could be totally wrong, but these guys having some level of productivity is the only way the team goes beyond a S16. They don't have to light it up or be high usage, but they need to be some level of offensive threats. Their current level of being so passive puts a limit on the team anyway, so might as well try to make things happen and see if they can unlock another level for this team.
 
Hate to put pressure on the kid but Toure needs to be at least somewhat of an offensive threat in the tourney, he has also been a huge turnover machine. Two things that can really hurt this teams chances of making a run. Hopefully Lipsey gets it going though.
Right now he is almost a zero on offense. He is a great defender but he's not handling the ball and not distributing either. I'm honestly not sure what his role on offense is right now.
 
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I fully expect Toure to make major improvements in his shot this offseason. That said, I don't know if he starts next year. Depends on Mason Williams. I don't think that you can keep Batemon on the bench.
I hope both of those are true
 
I’ve been hard on Toure but going to give him props here. That play he had where Buchanan got a flagrant foul, was pissed, and was going to go back at the ASU guy.

Toure held Buchanan so he couldn’t physically react and allowed ASU to dig their own grave by talking ****. Game basically ended there with 6 FTs plus the ball. Whereas if he hadn’t held Buchanan, probably a double T and scuffle and who knows what else. Great, heady move by Toure. Super proud and impressed he did that.
 
Toure hit a three. The slump is over!!!!

But seriously, I really wanted TJ to tell Toure, "We are up by 40, I want you to take every open 3 you get until I take you out of the game. The way shooters get out of a slump is to keep shooting. Don't worry about making them, just work on your shot."