*** Official St. John's vs #23 IOWA STATE Game(Day) Thread ***

[Sigmapolis]

I suspect the rotation is about to shorten. Eight guys is all you really need in Big 12 play.

Lipsey
Grill
Holmes
Kunc
Osunniyi
---
Kalscheur
T. King
Jones

Not trying to trash Ward and Watson's play there. Ward has shown flashes of being super disruptive on defense, and Watson seems to playing better by the week. But Tre King would play the same position as both of them and, for what we're told, he's one of the better players on the roster right now.

I think those are the eight that will go to war.

 

[Frak]

He had 3 dunks which means he missed every other shot he took. I agree he doesn’t quite seem adapted to the toughness of high major play yet. Needs to man up and play physically stronger down the stretch.

I think he's going through an adjustment now. He's not going to be the biggest guy on the court at this level, so things aren't as easy.

 

[Frak]

I suspect the rotation is about to shorten. Eight guys is all you really need in Big 12 play.

Lipsey
Grill
Holmes
Kunc
Osunniyi
---
Kalscheur
T. King
Jones

Not trying to trash Ward and Watson's play there. Ward has shown flashes of being super disruptive on defense, and Watson seems to playing better by the week. But Tre King would play the same position as both of them and, for what we're told, he's one of the better players on the roster right now.

I think those are the eight that will go to war.

I agree. Although, I do think that Watson can play some 3. You see him coming in for Grill at times. Ward is more of a 4 and King is probably taking all of his minutes. Still pretty thin in the back court, but there's nothing they can do about that now. Pretty much 4 guys for 3 spots. One injury and we're in trouble.

 

[Didley]

I suspect the rotation is about to shorten. Eight guys is all you really need in Big 12 play.

Lipsey
Grill
Holmes
Kunc
Osunniyi
---
Kalscheur
T. King
Jones

Not trying to trash Ward and Watson's play there. Ward has shown flashes of being super disruptive on defense, and Watson seems to playing better by the week. But Tre King would play the same position as both of them and, for what we're told, he's one of the better players on the roster right now.

I think those are the eight that will go to war.

I think Watson will still get some pretty decent minutes in Big12 play. Ward had gotten fewer as of late.

 

[Kaner04]

i think Watson will play quite a bit come conference play. He crashes the boards hard and makes great cuts. He only had 3 rebounds today but it felt like 10 how often he was in there.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Watson's net ratings have improved since the first few games of the season, but they're still not great or ideally what you want in a Big 12 rotation player. Even against St. John's, where he had a few nice energy plays, his high usage (21.6%) but low shooting numbers (42% TS) dragged the offense down.



He seems to be more or less how CW and TJ described him to us -- talented young man, works hard at his game and is a good kid, though just not much of a basketball player at this point. I hope he ends up being similar to Caleb Grill... didn't offer much as a freshman or even a sophomore, but by the time he is a junior or a senior he's turned into a pretty good player who definitely belongs as one the team's leaders.

Compare that to Lipsey --



He hasn't been perfect. But there are a lot more green numbers of pretty good size there.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Lipsey is really really good. Grill and Jones are playing great as well. Love this team.

 

[casey1973]

Lipsey is really really good. Grill and Jones are playing great as well. Love this team.

Cleary blue collar and this team likes each other. Kudos to TJ.

 

[HFCS]

I suspect the rotation is about to shorten. Eight guys is all you really need in Big 12 play.

Lipsey
Grill
Holmes
Kunc
Osunniyi
---
Kalscheur
T. King
Jones

Not trying to trash Ward and Watson's play there. Ward has shown flashes of being super disruptive on defense, and Watson seems to playing better by the week. But Tre King would play the same position as both of them and, for what we're told, he's one of the better players on the roster right now.

I think those are the eight that will go to war.

If they call fouls like today they'll need a 9 or 10 man rotation in crunch time to finish games. So I'd hope we at least get some of those guys minutes so they are ready when we need them. Maybe these games early without King have been enough for guys like Ward and Watson to get acclimated.

Over 40 fouls today.

I keep forgetting King is going to be in the mix soon. Hopefully his offensive game dictates that he plays close to starter minutes or starts because that's what we need...the team we have is already good enough on defense.

 

[Gunnerclone]

If they call fouls like today they'll need a 9 or 10 man rotation in crunch time to finish games. So I'd hope we at least get some of those guys minutes so they are ready when we need them. Maybe these games early without King have been enough for guys like Ward and Watson to get acclimated.

Over 40 fouls today.

I keep forgetting King is going to be in the mix soon. Hopefully his offensive game dictates that he plays close to starter minutes or starts because that's what we need...the team we have is already good enough on defense.

An underrated thing about TJ is his minutes management. We’ve got a really nice minutes distribution where we have decent group of players in that 20-29 mpg (Grill is the outlier over 30. Osun is the outlier under 20, he and RJ combine to form one 30+ mpg guy together at that spot more or less).

Imo it’s a good distribution to keep our defense going. I’m sure it will tighten up in conference even with King coming eligible.

Need Osun to be able to play in late game with his FT ability to max out, but I‘d put RJ ahead of him for late game in conference right now. Crazy how Robert Jones has become a pretty integral part of the team over his time here.

 

[HFCS]

An underrated thing about TJ is his minutes management. We’ve got a really nice minutes distribution where we have decent group of players in that 20-29 mpg (Grill is the outlier over 30. Osun is the outlier under 20, he and RJ combine to form one 30+ mpg guy together at that spot more or less).

Imo it’s a good distribution to keep our defense going. I’m sure it will tighten up in conference even with King coming eligible.

Need Osun to be able to play in late game with his FT ability to max out, but I‘d put RJ ahead of him for late game in conference right now. Crazy how Robert Jones has become a pretty integral part of the team over his time here.

I feel like Jones probably really did improve his ft shooting like rest of his game…but also getting some good fortune on a few.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I feel like Jones probably really did improve his ft shooting like rest of his game…but also getting some good fortune on a few.

He would definitely be a target late game once we get in to conference play. There’s always games in a Big 12 run where it seems like each team gets two buckets in the last 10 minutes of the game but shoot 20 free throws over that time.

 

[Acylum]

Watson's net ratings have improved since the first few games of the season, but they're still not great or ideally what you want in a Big 12 rotation player. Even against St. John's, where he had a few nice energy plays, his high usage (21.6%) but low shooting numbers (42% TS) dragged the offense down.

View attachment 106331

He seems to be more or less how CW and TJ described him to us -- talented young man, works hard at his game and is a good kid, though just not much of a basketball player at this point. I hope he ends up being similar to Caleb Grill... didn't offer much as a freshman or even a sophomore, but by the time he is a junior or a senior he's turned into a pretty good player who definitely belongs as one the team's leaders.

Compare that to Lipsey --

View attachment 106332

He hasn't been perfect. But there are a lot more green numbers of pretty good size there.

I think Watson could be one of those guys where you just have to say “Screw the analytics, he just passes the eye test.”

 

[singsing]

I feel like Jones probably really did improve his ft shooting like rest of his game…but also getting some good fortune on a few.

He should get some credit for being able to hit back iron, bounce straight up, hit the top of the backboard, and have it drop in. Think he does that more than a clean ft

 

[Cyclonepride]

He’s been a great surprise/help and I agree. Having a big come off the bench and grab 10 pts a night is HUGE.

That being said, need Osun to step it up a bit Thursday/in B12 play. 3/12 from the field today and at least 2 of those made baskets were dunks… Missing too much at the rim.

He's just rushing it a bit

 

[madguy30]

I suspect the rotation is about to shorten. Eight guys is all you really need in Big 12 play.

Lipsey
Grill
Holmes
Kunc
Osunniyi
---
Kalscheur
T. King
Jones

Not trying to trash Ward and Watson's play there. Ward has shown flashes of being super disruptive on defense, and Watson seems to playing better by the week. But Tre King would play the same position as both of them and, for what we're told, he's one of the better players on the roster right now.

I think those are the eight that will go to war.

I'm super curious to see how King fits into all things. He gets to practice with the team like normal, right?

Have to wonder if he works with the regular rotation after this week.

If Ward and Watson don't make the regular rotation I'm glad they're around in case of weird foul trouble, etc.

 

[Cyclonepride]

If they call fouls like today they'll need a 9 or 10 man rotation in crunch time to finish games. So I'd hope we at least get some of those guys minutes so they are ready when we need them. Maybe these games early without King have been enough for guys like Ward and Watson to get acclimated.

Over 40 fouls today.

I keep forgetting King is going to be in the mix soon. Hopefully his offensive game dictates that he plays close to starter minutes or starts because that's what we need...the team we have is already good enough on defense.

I agree. Between fouls and maintaining the intensity of our defense for 40 minutes every night, I think there is a lot of value in keeping 9 or 10 guys used to hitting the floor nightly. The value of that may not show up (directly) in the statistics.

 

[cyclones500]

I just read Stanz's game recap, had forgotten about SJ's no-FG drought until under-10 in first half.

Did anyone else think like I did ? --> When St. John's hit a 3-pointer, I thought, "Well, that sucks!" And ISU still was up 17-5.

 

[NoCreativity]

Watson's net ratings have improved since the first few games of the season, but they're still not great or ideally what you want in a Big 12 rotation player. Even against St. John's, where he had a few nice energy plays, his high usage (21.6%) but low shooting numbers (42% TS) dragged the offense down.

View attachment 106331

He seems to be more or less how CW and TJ described him to us -- talented young man, works hard at his game and is a good kid, though just not much of a basketball player at this point. I hope he ends up being similar to Caleb Grill... didn't offer much as a freshman or even a sophomore, but by the time he is a junior or a senior he's turned into a pretty good player who definitely belongs as one the team's leaders.

Compare that to Lipsey --

View attachment 106332

He hasn't been perfect. But there are a lot more green numbers of pretty good size there.

There was one inbound play yesterday where he got absolutely torched by two different players for an easy layup. I like his energy and potential but he still has some stuff to work on.

 

[Sigmapolis]

I'm super curious to see how King fits into all things. He gets to practice with the team like normal, right?

Have to wonder if he works with the regular rotation after this week.

If Ward and Watson don't make the regular rotation I'm glad they're around in case of weird foul trouble, etc.

I am not the world's foremost expert on NCAA redshirt rules, but it is my understanding a player on a redshirt is a full member of the team. They just can't dress or compete against other programs.

So Tre King has been practicing with the team since middle of last season. I'm sure TJ and crew have a role designed for him, even if they had to balance that with the knowledge he wasn't going to be able to play until a third the way through the season and therefore Ward and Watson needed to be ready.

I don't think those two are going to self-immolate once Tre King becomes eligible, by the way. I just think there's going to be a core eight playing ~25+ MPG with spot minutes for those two for specific situations or to prevent foul trouble earlier in the games/because of foul trouble late in the games.