So, I misunderstood your joke. Sorry. I'm a literalist, sometimes it gets me into trouble.
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- Thread starter Aclone
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So, I misunderstood your joke. Sorry. I'm a literalist, sometimes it gets me into trouble.
What I’m hoping to see is closing out games with Milan at the 4 and Jefferson at the 5. Maybe Nelson at the 2 because he can get to the line.
I think that the season depends on avoiding any major injuries. Buchanan being able to switch on D is a major plus, as we didn’t have that last year and it really hurt us. A starting lineup of Lipsey, Heise, Momcilivic, Jefferson Buchanan with Batemon, Toure, Moukder, Pleta, Nelson mixing in is really, really solid. That’s an elite 8 roster if none of the starters are out multiple games with an injury.
I think that the season depends on avoiding any major injuries. Buchanan being able to switch on D is a major plus, as we didn’t have that last year and it really hurt us. A starting lineup of Lipsey, Heise, Momcilivic, Jefferson Buchanan with Batemon, Toure, Moukder, Pleta, Nelson mixing in is really, really solid. That’s an elite 8 roster if none of the starters are out multiple games with an injury.
History would say that TJ is prone to do that - he's almost always reverted to a small lineup at crunch time - with the exception of him stubbornly not doing that at times during Robert Jones' last year.
Fred did that as well a lot - running Georges at the 5 at crunch time.
That said - TJ can be stubborn about it and at least right now, it sounds like he plans to keep JJ at the 4 and play one of Blake/Mulder/Pleta at all times. Although it depends on just how well Blake fits with JJ.
I hope he goes small too:
FT%
Buchanan
Fr .500
So .541
Pleta
Ger Pro B .709 (5 seasons)
Mulder
Fr .513
So .346
Jr .596
Gotta see some improvement from the line from some of these guys.
Don't we always need improvement at the line?
Shooting 60-65%? needs improvement.
Shooting 50-59%? NEEDS IMPROVEMENT!
Yikes, that was fun for one year, right back to our bigs looking completely embarrassing at the line.
Jesus tap dancing Christ they haven’t even played a ******* game yet!
Yeah I fully expect TJ to play the more traditional lineup a vast majority of the time. That said, when you are closing out a tough game, there is a lot of benefit in having good FT shooters in and guys that can switch on defense. Not to mention the ability to draw fouls.
Guys that shoot 52% from the line don't magically shoot 70% out of nowhere. The Ward/BRE era was extremely bad from a FT perspective and you just cringed every time they got fouled because it was basically a turnover.
The only good thing about this is we have enough weapons that the bigs probably won't need to score much.
That's pretty a gloom & doom outlook for a team that is more than 50% new to Ames, and to each other...
Our overall outlook should be pretty good again. I simply made an observation that we might see some comical free throw attempts again if our bigs are struggling to break 50% from the line.
Yeah, that wasn't quite how it read. But I'll take your word for it.
Am I the only one who thinks Dominick Nelson will be a starter? I know it’s just the WAC but he was the league’s player of the year. He’s got good size and gets to the rim in tapes I’ve seen. I think he starts over Heise
CW was on the record the starting SG is likely Batemon.
Lipsey or Toure (if Lipsey isn't starting or is on a pitch count due to injury)
Batemon (reported as the best off-ball guard right now)
Momcilovic (incumbent starter)
Jefferson (incumbent starter)
Buchanan (likely the best of the three "centers," and seems the plan is to have a true big out there)
Honestly, I don't hate this. Using Nelson off the bench gives us at least some point from an aggressive slasher that can get to the line
I expect to see some improvement this bye month. Wait a minute, it's opening game week!!!It's not even mid-October and there's a possibility they'll have some flaws.
