No PG

[acgclone]

I hate all this "panic" talk. There is a huge gap between panic and the Baghdad Bob "all is well" routine. I am not panicked about the PG situation, but I do think it is what is going to keep us out of the tournament. I felt that way when Scotty was announced as the starter a few weeks ago. I saw nothing today to change my opinion. Somebody made the "Jake Sullivan as a PG" comparison and it is 100% apt. Scott is IMO the best 3 point shooter in ISU history, and we have him dribbling around the perimeter and guarding the other team's primary ball handler.

I'm not ripping Fred or any of the decisions he makes with the players on the team. The problem is that in regard to the PG position there are no good choices.

In fairness, I doubt that Scotty will be guarding the opposing PG all game long, but I could be wrong. Hopefully we'll have someone else on the other team's point. If we rotate enough, he shouldn't be any more tired than he was last year playing 38 min/game, even though he'll be more active at PG.

 

[madcityCY]

I hate all this "panic" talk. There is a huge gap between panic and the Baghdad Bob "all is well" routine. I am not panicked about the PG situation, but I do think it is what is going to keep us out of the tournament. I felt that way when Scotty was announced as the starter a few weeks ago.

Scott has not been named the PG. This is false, but it has been perpetuated because in one media meet n greet Fred specifically mentioned that Scott was doing a nice job.

Officially, it is PG by committee - and Fred keeps saying that. For the record, I think Royce brought the ball up the court almost as much as Scott, and Bubu and Tavon got some time too.

 

[CycloneErik]

I hate all this "panic" talk. There is a huge gap between panic and the Baghdad Bob "all is well" routine. I am not panicked about the PG situation, but I do think it is what is going to keep us out of the tournament. I felt that way when Scotty was announced as the starter a few weeks ago.

Scott has not been named the PG. This is false, but it has been perpetuated because in one media meet n greet Fred specifically mentioned that Scott was doing a nice job.

Officially, it is PG by committee - and Fred keeps saying that. For the record, I think Royce brought the ball up the court almost as much as Scott, and Bubu and Tavon got some time too.

I thought so, too, about Royce and Scott "sharing time" bringing the ball up the court. The PG by committee is still a work in progress. Sure, it didn't look great today, but we didn't really run many plays, either. It didn't seem like there was much to glean today. We kept things very, very simple and vanilla, and it's tough to gauge a PG off of an offense that isn't really running.

At least everybody got game experience. That's all I really care about today.

 

[BryceC]

True, that is correct. I admit my error.

I will amend my statement to say when I knew we would be using Scott in the rotation of PG, that meant that nobody had differentiated himself as better than him. Scott is an excellent basketball player but he is not a PG. That means we don't have any good PG's on this team. That means I amended my expectations. I saw nothing to change that based on anybody who was bringing the ball up. Note I am not panicking nor am I giving up on this team. I anxiously await them to prove me wrong and I'd love it if they did.

 

[BigBake]

Officially, it is PG by committee - and Fred keeps saying that. For the record, I think Royce brought the ball up the court almost as much as Scott, and Bubu and Tavon got some time too.

Hey, don't take our right to be upset by labels dangn't.

 

[CyJack13]

Didn't get a chance to watch the game, did Scotty just not look to shoot at all? Was there a lot of ball movement on offense or did he dominate the ball when he was at point?

 

[CyBer]

I think scott maybe shot 3 times (from what I remember) he made a three and a layup.

 

[madcityCY]

Didn't get a chance to watch the game, did Scotty just not look to shoot at all? Was there a lot of ball movement on offense or did he dominate the ball when he was at point?

Scott had a 3:1 assist to turnover ratio today. 6 assists, 2 TOs. He did not shoot much, which if it were to be a trend - would be bad.

Im awaiting some pic n pops to be run (like last year) for our guards. Hell, we ran pic n pops for DG last year, so that has to be a way to get shots for whichever shooter-turned-PG brought the ball up. Our ball movement will improve.... It has to.

 

[Doc]

Scott had a 3:1 assist to turnover ratio today. 6 assists, 2 TOs. He did not shoot much, which if it were to be a trend - would be bad.

Im awaiting some pic n pops to be run (like last year) for our guards. Hell, we ran pic n pops for DG last year, so that has to be a way to get shots for whichever shooter-turned-PG brought the ball up. Our ball movement will improve.... It has to.

We could run pick and pops effectively last year because we had VanderBeken who was dangerous on the pop. Maybe we could run pick and pops with Royce on the ball and a guard doing the screening. That'd be funky.

 

[The_Architect]

Didn't get a chance to watch the game, did Scotty just not look to shoot at all? Was there a lot of ball movement on offense or did he dominate the ball when he was at point?

They moved the ball around the perimeter alright. GVS played zone effectively against us the majority of the game. We didnt have anyone who could penetrate into the zone off the dribble and didnt seem to try to beat the zone passing into the high post /free-throw line.

Our biggest weakness other than rebounding is clearly not having a PG who can beat his defender off the dribble and open up a shooter by drawing the double team. Scotty did a good job with his TO's today but got trapped a lot when trying to go into the lane.

 

[Cyclonefan89]

I just need to get this tumor off my chest. Clones21 and Clonedude are the WORST posters on this forum.

 

[Cyclone90]

Naz Long is a possibility for 2nd semester, but I can't see how you throw a freshmen into conference play right away with any quality minutes. We struggled rebounding against a D-II team today and having Royce bring the ball up will hurt our offensive boards even further. I'm not sure I like him there more than a token presence considering our lack of production in the paint.

 

[Rhoadhoused]

I think something that might need to be considered is just that someone might have to be the odd man out. It might suck for SC's scoring, but I don't think he brings anything that the team can't replace at the 2 spot just because we have so much 3pt shooting at the 2 off guard positions. We still keep his leadership, great FT shooting, ect when he is at the 1.

He might not be able to get off screens and stuff like that as well, but if he can avoid turnovers and get us into an offense then he is probably the best choice. The only other thing I could think of would just be to get Sledge a bunch of minutes and try trial by fire, but I doubt that happens (especially at the beginning of the season)

 

[mj4cy]

Can't get all twisted over one game....things will work themselves out. Not too worried.

 

[Rhoadhoused]

Naz Long is a possibility for 2nd semester, but I can't see how you throw a freshmen into conference play right away with any quality minutes. We struggled rebounding against a D-II team today and having Royce bring the ball up will hurt our offensive boards even further. I'm not sure I like him there more than a token presence considering our lack of production in the paint.

I think if that is a viable option, you will just see Sledge playing 1st semester.

Also, everyone needs to remember that when Royce is at point, that brings their biggest player to the perimeter as well. It isn't a complete mismatch on the boards even if it does hurt a bit.

 

[CycloneErik]

I think if that is a viable option, you will just see Sledge playing 1st semester.

Also, everyone needs to remember that when Royce is at point, that brings their biggest player to the perimeter as well. It isn't a complete mismatch on the boards even if it does hurt a bit.

It also doesn't mean that Royce stays on the perimeter much after he passes halfcourt. He isn't confined to dribbling for 30 seconds and heaving up a 30-footer. He either moved to the center point or dumped the ball off and moved on to his normal position.

There's flexibility to all of this. It doesn't have to look like a McD thing.

 

[Clone5]

This will not be a big problem for us. We may not be traditional and could struggle against some pressure but in some cases having many options at the point will be helpful for us.
A much bigger problem will be rebounding. This will be something we will need to get a lot better at. Whoever our guards are will need to help out a lot like Jake Anderson and Brian Peterson have in past years.
Another big problem is the lack of front court depth. Hopefully Percy Gibson was just having a bad game today because he did not look like he's anywhere near ready for Big 12 basketball.
I really like the play where Royce has the ball at the top of the key and all the shooters are spread out around him. This will be our base offense and will be very effective if we shoot the ball like we should be able to. Royce is going to shoot a lot of free throws this year.

 

[cymaniac17]

I think Bubu might be a good choice for point.

To be honest he probably is. He is are fastest and quickest guy outside of sledge and possibly allen and he is a TRUE point guard. I think its just hard for freedy to put him out there because either scotty, allen or babb would have to come off the bench and they are the best scorers on the team. Also he is a walk on which doesnt look good. In my uneducated opinion if scotty cant get the job done or it makes him less of a scorer either bubu needs to be the main PG or sledge needs to start throughout the very weak non-conf schedule to get him game experience and ready for the big12 because bubu and sledge are the best pure point guards on the team right now

 

[cysocool]

Better not be dissin my boy.

Listen. I loved Jacy just like the rest of you but he wasn't great or even very good D1 player. He was an adequate PG with very good/great players around him. It seemed like it took him forever to get the ball across half court and get us into offense. Dedric, Kenny, and Shawn constantly had to come to the ball to bail him out. I can still see Dedric bailing him out above the time line- just to get into the offense.

I personally think that, Allen, Sledge, Scotty, Royce, and Bubu can all do what Jacy did back in the day.

Does this team have a Dedric, Cato, or Pratt? No. But that team didn't have a White, Ejim, Allen, Booker and about 6 or 7 guys that can all shoot the three?

 

[mikem]

You know, everyone knew that pg play, defense, and rebounding were the keys to this season.

I am truly more worried about how we guard, and how we rebound, than I am about getting into an offense. I think the point is that we have enough skilled players that we should be able to initiate offense from at least 3 spots on the floor.

As an aside, Cyclonefan89 has THE most correct post in this thread. 21 is one of those that comes on here, and talks himself into believing we are somehow going to be great, and then when the slightest thing goes wrong they come on here and complain about it. Stop doing that....We are more than likely going to lose games this season, especially in conference. There, now you know.

It doesn't mean that we are going to bad if we lose a game.

As for clonedude, I am QUITE certain that we will ONLY hear from him when we lose. So, look out for the next 2 fb games, and of course all of the bb losses, he will be a posting fool on those occassions.

Can't wait. Oh, and it's spelled JACY....