Can someone tell me why Blake Smith is in the game?

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

I've gotta disagree about the Smith thing - and I was raging at him on those last three fouls

You have to rid yourself of this objectivity. No matter what happens it was 100% the right move and the best we could do. If it didn't work, we were very unlucky. Most importantly if something doesn't work, there was no way to foresee this happening. If it does work, well, you know, the man's a genius....

I like Blake Smith and am one of those who said we should have given him a scholarship. Doesn’t change the fact that he should have been swapped out for KJ

Thank you! Of course Smith deserved a scholarship. Not on his ability, but as a reward for his significant contribution last year. At least some sort of monetary award, I don't know what, if anything, was worked out.

But what in the name of Collins does that have to do with who subs in for Leach? Its just asinine to conflate those two things.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

regarding Clayton—> hasn’t played a minute? Injured? Expect him to transfer?

If I were Jordan Clayton, Sr, I would say to my son "The only way you're transferring is if you can get a full ride at a better school."

It looks like he is redshirting.

 

[DaCat]

If I were Jordan Clayton, Sr, I would say to my son "The only way you're transferring is if you can get a full ride at a better school."

It looks like he is redshirting.

They announced at the beginning of the season that he is redshirting. He’s got a great attitude on the bench, he’s very engaged and supports his teammates, no sulking. That’s impressive in this day and age.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

I get it we want to point blame, but let's not make this about Smith's decision making. This can be an argument about other things, about strategy, but about decision making, I don't know, who knows if one of the freshmen would have committed 4 turnovers? What happened was very, very out of the ordinary.

I don't agree that Smith was there for defense, or any other reason other than he was, on paper, more seasoned. To me Collins went with the more seasoned players he had on hand. We can argue that minutes wise Smith is not seasoned, which is true, but he's been with the team for longer than the freshmen.

Here's what, in my mind we can question, without knowing if alternatives would have turned out better:

• USC was pressing, double teaming full court and 1/2 court on Nick. When Leach was out it was risky to not put another better ball handler in. That would be KJ. Anyway, we did not suffer from it because USC could not figure out they needed to take the ball off of Nick's hands (or simply could not do it) in the full court press. We saw what happened when the ball was in Mullins' hands, we were lucky to not have a turnover and had to call timeout.
• Smith made a lot of mistakes and was not yanked (I am not counting the last 12 seconds). I get it, each mistake looked so dumb and exceptional you think no way it happens again, but it did! Maybe he should have been pulled? There's often a double standard on the leash players have, with the youngin having a very short one. We saw how quickly Ciaravino was benched 2 minutes into the game. We see how badly he gets yelled at compared to others: growing pains.
• Should KJ have been in for the last 120 to 90 seconds based on free throw ability? Smith is a 75% shooter, Mullins is a 67%. KJ is 83%. The others, FT% or not, Berry, Nicholson, Martinelli, you are not benching them unless it's defense/offense.

Thank you for adding your insight to the discussion. Even-handed and thoughtful as always. Well, very close to always.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Wow, just wow. Imagine all the criticism of CCC’s rotations when we lose a game.

Someone is going to have to score with Barney and Jalen out. Maybe KJ or Gelo can show some offense that has been missing all season. Smith will play if Jalen doesn’t because understands the defense. KJ should be able to get 10 points or so driving and hitting an occasional 3 against Washington.

 

[SDakaGordie]

I get it we want to point blame, but let's not make this about Smith's decision making. This can be an argument about other things, about strategy, but about decision making, I don't know, who knows if one of the freshmen would have committed 4 turnovers? What happened was very, very out of the ordinary.

I don't agree that Smith was there for defense, or any other reason other than he was, on paper, more seasoned. To me Collins went with the more seasoned players he had on hand. We can argue that minutes wise Smith is not seasoned, which is true, but he's been with the team for longer than the freshmen.

Here's what, in my mind we can question, without knowing if alternatives would have turned out better:

• USC was pressing, double teaming full court and 1/2 court on Nick. When Leach was out it was risky to not put another better ball handler in. That would be KJ. Anyway, we did not suffer from it because USC could not figure out they needed to take the ball off of Nick's hands (or simply could not do it) in the full court press. We saw what happened when the ball was in Mullins' hands, we were lucky to not have a turnover and had to call timeout.
• Smith made a lot of mistakes and was not yanked (I am not counting the last 12 seconds). I get it, each mistake looked so dumb and exceptional you think no way it happens again, but it did! Maybe he should have been pulled? There's often a double standard on the leash players have, with the youngin having a very short one. We saw how quickly Ciaravino was benched 2 minutes into the game. We see how badly he gets yelled at compared to others: growing pains.
• Should KJ have been in for the last 120 to 90 seconds based on free throw ability? Smith is a 75% shooter, Mullins is a 67%. KJ is 83%. The others, FT% or not, Berry, Nicholson, Martinelli, you are not benching them unless it's defense/offense.

To say this is not about Smith’s decision making is ultimately quite out of the ordinary. Collins went with a “seasoned” guy because seasoned means Collins has seen him in action before and trusts him. Things didn’t turn out the way anyone wanted, but it’s on Smith (and I’m sure he believes that himself).