No PG

madcityCY

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A few reactions fm various posts:

Sledge needs time. He's a freshman. If he doesn't become THE guy this year, it doesn't make him a "bust" or a "miss"

There is no comparison of Gibson to McKnight. I think even the most myopic posters will see that before the seasons end.

This "PG" issue... We will figure it out. Between Royce, and all the guards getting time, and the staff constantly hammering on things like "not dribbling in to a trap". Because it happened today, by a particular player does not mean it can't be solved. All of these guys need to learn the right habits. The offense will find it's own, but I'm sure it will bs gradual. The good news is we beat a decent D2 team by double digits playing a lot of different guys, and did it without looking sharp. That means we have a lot of unrealized potential. No, we probably won't win the conference, but we should bs able to make things interesting.

Holloway was a different kind of PG. He was surrounded by scorers, he only needed to take care of the ball, and get the other four involved. He did that pretty well. Not flashy, but solid and good enough. IMO we will not "find" a DG, a Tinsley, or even a Blalock on this team. Collectively, the guards need to be Holloway.... If that makes sense.
 
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BBHMagic

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We won the Big 8 tournament and went to the NCAA tournament twice without a great point guard. Remember J.C. Holloway? I liked J.C. but we have 2 or 3 players that can play the position better than him. Give it time.

Holloway may not have been amazing but that team had one of the best shot blockers in Big 8 history and one of the best shooters and all around players in ISU history. Oh yeah and Pratt was unguardable and Bankhead wasn't too bad either.
 

Al_4_State

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I would take a PG like Holloway any day of the week. He was an excellent distributor.

We don't need a PG who can score, we just need someone that can facilitate the offense.

madcityCy said:
Collectively, the guards need to be Holloway.... If that makes sense.

That makes a lot of sense.
 

cyclones500

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I didn't see the game, so I can't comment about what happened. But as alluded to earlier in the thread, I think the largest drawback w/ Scotty at point isn't because he's not capable, but it "takes away Scotty."

It reminds of when Sullivan had to play point. He was fine, but he didn't have a clone to be Sullivan the Shooting Guard — and he couldn't fill his more typical role nearly as often or effectively
 

Dryburn

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It seems to me it is a little too early to panic. We have to remember that for many of these guys, this is the first "real and organized" game they have played in for a year, By real and organized I mean in uniform, keeping score, in front of fans, timeouts, refs, etc. Plus, the game did not count and was probably just informative for the coaches more than anything else.

IMO, I don't see Scotty as a point guard, but I do think he will give it his 100 per cent effort, and who knows, maybe he can pick it up. The problem I see for him is that he is a catch and shoot guard, and that is really not what a point does. If he stays at point, I think his scoring production will be way down this year, but maybe that is what this team will require.

I think the best thing right now is for Allen to start at the point, backed up by Bubu, and then Sledge. Sledge did not play point his last year in high school (and there was probably a reason for that) but maybe he can grow into it on this level with some better coaching. Bubu is not really a true point, but hopefully, Allen should not need many minutes on the bench. Or at the very least, start Allen there, and have Scotty back him up when he needs a rest. I just wouldn't start Scotty there.

I liked what I saw out of Babb. He reminds me a little of Jake Anderson in that he seems to like to get in there and rebound too. ISU needs a guard or two to do that.

I was the most impressed with Melvin. If he can play consistently even close to that..he is going to have an outstanding year. I think White has some great potential, but honestly I was not impressed with his attempted drives from the top of the key.

Again, it was an exhibition game, and I thought the team looked kind of in a daze or something......maybe that was just because it was their first "real" game together. Time will tell.
 

acgclone

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Obviously I'm not Fred and I don't see all the things that he does in practice, but I'm surprised that instead of using Scotty at PG, he doesn't use Bubu and Sledge and just tell them in no uncertain terms, that they aren't really allowed to shoot. Make them similar to Jacy. With the scoring firepower we have, we just need the ball to get to half court.

Of course, I am a total novice bball coach.
 

heitclone

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I don't think we need a true PG.......and not to knock on DG but we didn't have one last year either. Diante struggled his first 3 years because the coaching staff tried to mold him into a true PG, the smartest thing FH did last year was just let him play to his strengths, which was as a scoring combo guard. Thats the only reason I question SC at point, it just seems like he's not going to be comfortable in that role. It has only been 1 exhibition game (that I did not see)though and this was the first time this team had played together, I'm not too concerned just yet.
 

CycloneErik

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There isn't a way to describe our PG play in this game as sharp, but I'm not concerned about that from the exhibition. Most teams struggle to get going in these games, and I'm guessing that Hoiberg wasn't exactly looking to run anything that could turn into video for anybody else. Offensively, we often looked very vanilla and stationary. I think we'll look different on Saturday when it counts.

The PG thing will still be a work in progress, but I'd bet it's sharper when it matters. Today, we got the guys into a game. That's really the point of this thing. And I got to watch Cyclone basketball. Of course, that's the other point.
 
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Hugs4ISU

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We won the Big 8 tournament and went to the NCAA tournament twice without a great point guard. Remember J.C. Holloway? I liked J.C. but we have 2 or 3 players that can play the position better than him. Give it time.

I don't think people realize just how much of a solid rock JC was when he was here. He wasn't Tinsley, but he never turned the ball over. He was solid.
 

acgclone

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I don't think people realize just how much of a solid rock JC was when he was here. He wasn't Tinsley, but he never turned the ball over. He was solid.

Agreed. PG is 90% not making mistakes and 10% razzle dazzle, IMO. I think Scotty can not make mental mistakes, but I'm not sold that he won't be physically outmatched by very quick, athletic PG's.
 

Istater4life

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We won the Big 8 tournament and went to the NCAA tournament twice without a great point guard. Remember J.C. Holloway? I liked J.C. but we have 2 or 3 players that can play the position better than him. Give it time.

Better not be dissin my boy.:jimlad:
 

marothisu

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I think if SC was playing SG and someone like Allen, McGee, or Sledge, etc was playing PG today we could have won by at least 23-30. No joke. I think SC is not used to PG and took him off his normal game big time.
 

Cydkar

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I didn't see the game, so I can't comment about what happened. But as alluded to earlier in the thread, I think the largest drawback w/ Scotty at point isn't because he's not capable, but it "takes away Scotty."

It reminds of when Sullivan had to play point. He was fine, but he didn't have a clone to be Sullivan the Shooting Guard — and he couldn't fill his more typical role nearly as often or effectively

This x 1,000,000,000.
 

jsb

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This x 1,000,000,000.


I agree, but anyone we have playing point will take away a great shooter. I suspect that as the season goes on you'll see McGee playing more point guard. I also would be curious what our offense would look like with a healthy Allen. Allen was supposed to be our best player going in and he played 13 minutes and looked bad those 13 minutes.
 

bawbie

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I think if SC was playing SG and someone like Allen, McGee, or Sledge, etc was playing PG today we could have won by at least 23-30. No joke. I think SC is not used to PG and took him off his normal game big time.

So you think Fred is just flat wrong, and can't judge the talent on his team and that's why none of those other players are playing PG?
 

madcityCY

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So you think Fred is just flat wrong, and can't judge the talent on his team and that's why none of those other players are playing PG?

this.

I heard Fred call Allen an "assassin" during the pregame w/ J-Walt. I think they found in practice that putting Allen on ball hurt his strength (scoring). So that should tell us something.

Relax, this problem will work itself out as best it can. PG by committee.
 

BryceC

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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.
 

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