Life without Royce...
- Thread starter HuddleUp
- Start date
I hope my post didn't come across as jumping on you.
I guess I'd put his point on its ear and comment on how good a job Fred has done running his offense with no pg and a 6-7 point forward. Also, with Royce getting so much love and the entire offense running through him, how well he has handled egos and kept the petty stuff to a non-existent level. Or how about how he has taken a guy that was considered to be a shooter/scorer in his former basketball life and utilized him as the best defensive stopper in the league?
I can see the point he's trying to make, but if he's using Royce as an excuse to pick apart Fred's coaching without recognizing all the other good things he's done, he's missing his mark and not doing his show justice.
C
CyBer
Guest
The butthurt in Kansas right now is amazing. Is it not Fred who took Royce in? Suck it Kansas, we are better than you.
It's cool... I didn't take it that way. He said every team obviously has their star that carries them... he mentioned Robinson at KU. His point was that Royce is so critical to every phase of our game that he's unusual even by "star" standards. How many players are out there that lead their teams in basically every important category? He truly is a unique beast.
As for Fred, he wasn't knocking his coaching so much as saying all he did was give his best player the ball and tell him to win the game. His other radio host was giving Fred a lot of credit for the comeback. He downplayed it given Royce's dominance.
To me, I think Royce could be a difficult player to manage without the right coach. I think he has a lot of respect for Fred and his ability and has really bought into our program. He's made huge strides this year. Fred gets a lot of that credit, of course.
How good would Kansas be without Taylor their PG? Without him they would be in the same position that ISU is currently in. We have a talented post player, some talented shooting guards, some quality role players, and no PG. Put a true PG on this ISU team and they are a superior squad to Kansas IMO.
C
CyBer
Guest
BTW, this guy went to Syracuse. He doesn't care one way or another for any team in the B12 and has no beef with us. All he's doing is bringing up a topic to discuss on the radio. It shows to me how great everyone else thinks Royce is... even casual fans.
I'll take that all day long over a former coach who shall not be named that had the players so freakin' confused that they couldn't function in the clutch. You recruit players to play. You gotta let 'em.
I'm guessing if this radio station lost their best commentator and were left with douchebags like this guy they'd also suck.
I don't think it was just Royce that brought us back at all, although he was the primary figure. But, Scotty, Allen, Babb, Ejim and Gibson all had significant contributions that I can recall, whether it was shots made, defensive stops, or rebounds.
As far as what FH did in regards to the comeback, I am not sure we will ever know the exact details.......but here is something I observed.
In the first half, CA and the team struggled. At about the 14 minute mark of the 2nd half......CA was no longer acting as the point guard. That was where Royce or Scotty (usually Royce) started bringing the ball up and running the offense, freeing CA up to be more of his natural shooting guard. If you look at those last 14 minutes again, CA's overall contribution was nearly as significant to the comeback as was Royce's.
Now, I don't know for sure, but I doubt that Scotty and Royce just did that on their own. I think someone on the bench decided to make that move, that adjustment, and it turned out to be exactly the right thing to do. We can only guess what may have happened if CA stayed in the PG role, and Royce did not bring the ball up at all.
As far as what FH did in regards to the comeback, I am not sure we will ever know the exact details.......but here is something I observed.
In the first half, CA and the team struggled. At about the 14 minute mark of the 2nd half......CA was no longer acting as the point guard. That was where Royce or Scotty (usually Royce) started bringing the ball up and running the offense, freeing CA up to be more of his natural shooting guard. If you look at those last 14 minutes again, CA's overall contribution was nearly as significant to the comeback as was Royce's.
Now, I don't know for sure, but I doubt that Scotty and Royce just did that on their own. I think someone on the bench decided to make that move, that adjustment, and it turned out to be exactly the right thing to do. We can only guess what may have happened if CA stayed in the PG role, and Royce did not bring the ball up at all.
Something I don't think we give Hoiberg credit for (and probably don't cut the team enough slack for) is that a brand new coach had to figure out how to coach two completely different types of teams in two years. Last year, we were a team with a great point guard and not much else. This year, we have the other pieces, but not a great point guard.
One could argue that a real point guard could do a better job getting the ball to our shooters.
One could argue that a real point guard could do a better job getting the ball to our shooters.
