Grill
- Thread starter omar34
- Start date
If you are going to make mistakes as a young player in a new program, you better be making them at 120%. Love his hustle, you can tell he has the skill, just needs the game to slow down for him a bit. I'm excited to see how he progresses.
If I remember correctly, that play was called out of a timeout. The way the bench reacted, I'm guessing he's thrown down a couple in practice off that action. Bolton is good in that play as well. One of the best sets I've seen from Prohm.
I'm pretty sure Caleb was thinking dunk from the time the play was called
With the way he plays and seems to always be around the ball, I think it would be valid to question the reasoning behind not playing him regularly if he's doing more than others while he's in.
I think he already played himself ahead of Jackson -- and not trying to criticize Jackson in saying that. I think he might start eating into Nixon's minutes, too.
Remember, Naing didn't start until 13 games into his Freshman season.
Bowie helped when he was playing the proper position for his size and skill set
Which was helped by Solomon working his way into the lineup.
That team was playing some good basketball in February and March. Too bad they couldn’t finish off Purdue
I realize its early, and I didn't watch the OSU game, but it seems like we're running more controlled sets/plays this year than in past seasons, and they've been effective. Either we need to, because we don't have the offensive talent that the last 3 teams had to create offense on their own. Or, Prohm has improved his X's & O's and the players are better at running structured plays than in the past. I sit close enough to hear what Prohm is yelling most of the time. Last year it was pretty much always "motion!, motion!" This year he's been calling out a lot more plays.
I loved that team too. Such good guard play, just didn't have post depth and that killed their ability to go deep in the tourney. No deficit was ever too big for them.
If only Fred had recruited a big man in the same class as Morris and Thomas to be quality depth behind Georges during his junior year and the “5” man alongside Morris, Mitrou-Long, Thomas, and Burton as a senior. Having somebody who grew up with them, even if not the flashiest of players but one with experience and rapport with those guards as an upperclassman, would have been huge and not made us dependent on bringing freshman Solomon along slowly that year to really get the team going. I guess Manny Malou was a similar idea, as well. I have posted this before, but something like...
Morris
Mitrou-Long
Thomas
Burton
Malou
—
Jackson
Weiler-Babb
Bowie
Young
...is one heck of a team.
Fred? It would be unusual in today’s college basketball for all starters to be filled that far out. The top teams are generally able to plug a hole in the the previous two offseasons. We added Holden.
Young hurt his hand, but we really should have gone all in on him from the beginning. He went from effectively DNPs to 30+ minutes in two games.
That team was made to go further than the second round. Then again, basically every year has ended prematurely via close losses (2012-13, 2014-15, 2016-17, 2018-19) or bad draws (2011-12) or horrible breaks (2013-14). We’ve had some really ******* horrible luck in the tournament.
I am not saying Fred needed to have such omniscience about the state of the roster four years out when he took commitments from Morris and Thomas. I was saying that it would have been extremely convenient to work out such that we had an experienced big man in the same class as those two excellent guards, though, and add that hypothetical post to an extra year with Naz and finding Burton equals an excellent team. That gives you something behind Georges and McKay the previous year, allows you to bring Solomon along slowly the next year/not rely on him so quickly, and not have to take a shot on a guy like Holden who did not belong in the Big 12 (or Bowie, a 3-4, not a big man).
I agree with the rest of your point, though. We have had teams good enough to make deep runs every year since 2011-2012 save for 2017-2018, and even that team at its best could take on some good teams (see the wins against very good Texas Tech and West Virginia teams) and might have accomplished more without some rotten luck on injuries. The secret to success with the NCAA tournament is simply more whacks at the piñata. We had some good shots, but we swung and missed. That Purdue game really hurt.
Keep making it, though, and one of these years and you think it works out.
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I'd have to go back and watch but it didn't seem like he was too bad at these for now as it is. Imo his rebounding positioning is very good. I think some on here think that boxing out is overrated vs. athleticism....well, he had some solid box outs the other night, and low and behold, got the rebound.
He’s the top backup guard on a team that starts three guards. He’s one of our better shooters for a team that needs shooters. We better rush him.
It would benefit this year and next to get Grill and Jackson ready as soon as possible, even if that’s rushing them a bit imo
I'm in agreement and don't think Coach Prohm would put Grill out on the floor in meaningful minutes unless he believed Grill was truly ready to play at this level. From what I've seen, Grill is a very smart player and understands his role. He already looks like he knows how to play on the offensive and defensive ends and what I like about him the most is the fact that he's doing the little things. There were 2 times on defense I saw him go to his defender to box out after a shot was put up and he ended up getting the rebound. The play where he got the ball on the fast break and dished it off to Griffin for the dunk was also great to see. The little things like that are going to be the reasons why he continues to get minutes and the more he does that, the more his game and skill set will start to open up.
A good way of phrasing it is I don't think the gap between Nixon/Bolton and Jackson/Grill is as big as we're used to between the starting guards and bench players. The freshmen don't look completely comfortable out there yet but we are going to need their shooting to max out as a team this year.
It's an investment benefiting this year and next year to keep playing them early like @FinalFourCy said. Hopefully we can pick up a couple of the coin flip games along the way and Grill/Jackson can have some of those growing pains worked out by January.
It's an investment benefiting this year and next year to keep playing them early like @FinalFourCy said. Hopefully we can pick up a couple of the coin flip games along the way and Grill/Jackson can have some of those growing pains worked out by January.
