Football worries me more than basketball because there are so many more people and because they start sooner.
Tyler Harris eligible!
- Thread starter CyTwins
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Football worries me more than basketball because there are so many more people and because they start sooner.
I used to think that, but now I am not so sure.
Here is the national infection curve --
So I hope we are on the downswing now and will continue on that path going forward. Then again, part of me is worried that, as more and more activities open up and the winter flu season hits, then we might have another spike in the graph. I do not think we will be truly out of this until we find a functional vaccine, which might be much later.
Iowa is just weird. No idea what is going to happen there.
Yeah, I am more talking about ISU basketball v football. Because there are so many cases in Ames right now. And because you could maybe have most of the team get it before the season even starts. I read Iowa has already had half of their basketball team get it. Just have to hope that if they do get it they don't get it bad or develop the heart condition.
Studentss at eiu and I State started gathering in Ames and Ia Schitty starting August 1st.
Solomon is a fifth-year senior and the old man of the program at this point. We all know Prohm loves his seniors, and he loves guys like Solomon who do little things, like positional defense and boxing out.
I have no doubt he starts to begin the season as the incumbent, and I would imagine he probably keeps that the rest of the season. He has 92 career games and 63 career starts as a Cyclone. For comparison, the guys on the roster who are next in line are 58 career games (Conditt IV) and 30 career starts (Bolton) -- all last season.
But I do see the point Solomon is more of a high floor, low ceiling kind of guy. If Conditt is better than him, then that is nothing but good news. It raises the floor and the ceiling for the whole team. Same deal with Foster, and all the better if Foster has an outside game to play as the 4 alongside the two centers.
If I had to guess (and this is a guess) right now...
(35+) Bolton
(30ish) Coleman-Lands
(25ish) Johnson
(30ish) Hinson
(25ish) Young
---
(20ish) Harris OR Jackson III
(15ish) Foster
(15ish) Conditt IV
Spot (5ish) minutes for the remaining guys, at least to start the season.
Prohm will show favoritism to upperclassmen to start the year, which he always does and is especially important now considering the (likely) shortened season and the weird on-boarding process for freshmen.
George should do better with improved spacing as a result of improved 3P shooting. It's hard to flourish with his game when everything is clogged in the middle because defenses can sag into the paint without fear of the skip and ball rotation three's.
I agree that Prohm trusts upper classmen and Solo will start game 1 at Center. I am not sure that will be the case for the whole season though.
Last year SP did bench Young for Conditt mid year only to have to re-insert SY as the starter when George went through his funk. Prohm appears he would like to get a improvement out of the 5.
(Not meant as a to knock Solo as much as he's a consistent player and an asset but the ceiling isn't as high as Conditt's/Foster's. )
I can see a similar thing happening if Conditt shows hes playing at a high level or even more ideally Xavier (and his strech ablility) is ready for B12 play. Regardless I anticipate all 3 will rotate enough to get 20ish minutes depending on matchups so I am not sure a true starter will mean much overall.
From the things I have heard about Jackson's offseason, we are sleeping on him heavily. That and he will be our best guard defender next year. He will either be starting or be first in off the bench.
Having trouble figuring out who the starters and guys in the 8(9? 10?) man rotation is a good thing. We have a lot more depth, talent, height, and versatility this season. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out. It’ll be interesting to see which freshman force their way in the rotation(which may be harder this year with Covid).
That is good to hear. He is always going to be undersized for a Big 12 guard at 6'1" and roughly 175, but if he can play tough, stay in front of guys, and nail 40% of his threes (and he was roughly 37-38% in the Big 12 last years after a slow start), then he is going to be hard not to play. 3&D players are worth their weight in platinum.
Jackson showed some flashes last year. Remember the TCU game?
40 minutes, 170.6 ORTG, 14.3% USG, 82% TS, 4/7 from three and 6/10 from the field, 2/2 from the line
5 assists, no turnovers, 1 steal, 2 rebounds, only 2 personal fouls, 18 points, net rating of +8.5
I do not expect him to play like that every night... thought I think we need Bolton to... but I cannot remember many of our past busts that ever had a game like that one against Big 12 competition.
I know we do this every offseason... talking ourselves into having so much depth and flexibility... but history and reality says we will settle into something like a 6-7-8 man rotation once the season really gets going.
And when we move into a postseason (of whatever form), that rotation gets even shorter.
I think Fran F. said this during one of our games a year or two ago, but it rings true to me -- depth is underrated in practice and overrated in games. My hope is less we play 8-10 guys but more that iron sharpens iron in practice, that Prohm has a credible threat behind guys to bench them if they screw around, and that, once the Harris, Bolton, Johnson, and Conditt IV junior class (that is going to carry us the next two seasons) departs, then the guys behind them will be ready to step into larger roles with aplomb. That we can actually reload, instead of having the roster crash again.
I saw that list posted.
I also noticed that as far down as I looked, every town listed was a college town.
Gosh, college students coming back to school and being irresponsible. What a shock.
I think the short rotation has been a problem for us down the stretch the last few years and is part of the reason we have had roster crashes. Playing your best starters 30+ or 35+ minutes every game vs. 25-30 minutes not only causes your best players to be more fatigued than the opponent on a regular basis, but limits the time for the younger guys to develop with game experience.
It is a bit of a self-fulfilling cycle to play your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th bench guys only ~5 minutes a game and then not trust them to play in big moments later in the season because they don't have the experience. Opening up the bench rotation to 8 or 9 guys of regular 10-15+ minutes and sticking with it throughout the season helps everyone long term because your underclassmen will be far more ready to go when needed and your stars will be fresher too.
Quality of bench depth is a major factor in deciding, but it's hard to develop quality bench depth when only 6 or 7 guys get legitimate playing time.
Sweet! What do you all think our starting lineup will be (not including Hinson right now)? My guess is Harris, Bolton, Coleman-Lands, Johnson, Young. It may seem silly, but I’m not too up to date at the moment on the squad.
As of now that would be it, when Hinson is added, someone from those 5 likely gets bumped to 6th man.
At the same time, those at the end of the bench need to bring it to practice. Minutes in a game are dictated by the work you put in. I cannot fault a coach for not playing kids if they aren't doing everything they need to do outside of game time.
That's the other part of it that we don't see as fans which is hard to judge. Hopefully if you get the right guys in the system, often upperclassmen like our recent transfers, then your practices become more competitive and everyone develops a better work ethic.
I think coaching mentality has a lot to do with it too though. Prohm seems to use one of the shortest benches in the conference most years even when the team has been good.
Hopefully the talent on the team this year is good enough to force playing time for a lot of guys
I think there have been a few instances in the past few years where Prohm had to continue playing troublemakers and/or guys taking stupid shots or shirking on defense for lack of a better... or any... options.
Having a guy behind you the coach can credibly threaten to insert into the game if a more talented player shows lapses in judgement, effort, or discipline should help to show talent that it, indeed, needs to work hard.
Nixon could get away with playing derpy last year because we lacked much for other options. Imagining Harris (not to pick on the young man, only as an example) taking a few indulgent shots next year... hopefully leads to Jackson III replacing him in the same role/niche and/or one of the freshman waiting for his opportunity.
Hopefully such a lesson is instructive to the offender more than any lecture during film later that week might be.
I think the above is way more valuable than being able to extend your bench. Competition in practice and a guy on your own team gunning for your spot with a good chance of seizing it if you screw up too much is a great way to improve a program and a team. Campbell and crew are building the football team around it.
I do not know if Prohm's rotations are uniquely short for college basketball. Seven men with consistent minutes seems pretty standard. Yes, they are out there playing hard, but the games are only 40 minutes long, they have tons of timeout breaks, dead balls, and halftime to catch their breath, and these are young athletes in the absolute best shape of their life. They should be able to play 30+ effectively, and some (e.g., Tyrese) could play 40.
Games and seasons are short, so you need to maximize your talent out there. I absolutely want the depth to foster competition in practice and instill discipline in your starters. I also think it is a good idea to give young players a chance in "real" games when you can. But the games and season are short enough that, well, you really need to maximize your talent at all times, which is why I think we end up with like six guys playing in the postseason.
Good stuff. I have no idea what Prohm will do with the 3 bigs, especially if Foster is ready to play. I think Johnson will play big minutes, but am not sure Hinson will get that much PT if one of the freshman wings is ready.
Hinson will get PT if he's eligible. Dude was the 3rd leading scorer in back to back years as a freshman and sophomore. He's very athletic and has a fiery personality. If he ends up not getting that much PT, that means one of the freshman is really really good, but I think it's a slim chance that any of them will average more PT than him.
Yes, we haven't had a ton of depth though either. I would imagine if you go and look at how Kennedy coached, you'll see what Prohm will do with substitutes.
