Nicholson's Development

[loyolacat]

Well I am going to start my thoughts with 1. Buddha who told as that all cause of suffering is desire... and2. quote John Prine from his song Dear Abbey " you are what you are and you aint what you aint" 3. Reflect on true fandom.
Matt Nicolson is who he is, he is big, only moderately mobile and cannot jump buildings in a single bound and his touch does not encourage one to give him 3 eggs and ask him to juggle. So I am thinking we all want Matt to be something he is not and probably cannot be.....but I would argue he has come close to maximizing who he can be...not sure we can ask or expect more...But as a fan(of Loyola and NU) I have reached a point where I do not expect to win all the time but enjoy the experience of rooting for guys representing their school (although this has been upset some by the constant transferring) and win or lose, heartbreak or joy enjoy those moments when kids play hard or someone who may not be the most gifted, contributes beyond what may have been their baseline. So that is how I see Matt. Now if we are just spit balling and wondering if NU would have been better with a more dominant center and a better low post presence I would say yes...but certainly not Matt's fault...I found the comments about Matt being better with Boo interesting as it was a great example of the sum of the parts...last year they found it. this year not so far...Sometimes I think CC is just such a nice guy he develops an over active loyalty glan...and maybe this year Fitz should have gotten more time earlier.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I don't know exactly what explains it, I have seen it happen with multiple taller or inside dudes, but Nicholson is not even able to, for example after grabbing an offensive board or getting a clear assist, to release his shot at the highest point of a one handed shooting motion. Most big man develop a one handed shot, does not even need to be a close range hook, with a release with the arm extended, as high as it reaches to avoid a block. They do not go up, in such a situation, with both hands touching the ball and the release being at eye level. Matt does.

With some players it's probably a sense of not being able to decently palm the ball to go into such a shot. I don't think that's the problem with Matt. His brain just does not seem able to go into that motion quickly. In warm ups it does.

There is a very long distance between the neurons in Matt's hands and his brain. It probably takes a few seconds for the electrical impulses to travel.

 

[TheC]

I think many of us who are disappointed in Matt’s offense think his points shouldn’t be pretty much solely dependent on getting free lob slams at this stage of his NU career. At times it seems like a 50/50 opportunity at best if he gets a pass down low that isn’t a lob and should probably be a high success rate dunk. A couple times a game he seems to turn what should be an easy two into no points.

Finding players who either have good low post offensive talent or the skills that can be developed might be the weakest link of CC’s tenure. Or maybe the other option is the staff doesn’t develop them well.

And overall I’m a CC fan for what he has accomplished here.

This is it. No matter how much we want to analyze this to death, the bottom line is that Matt never emerged as any kind of option on the offensive end, which is the easiest thing for a fan to see. Considering that a big part of the problem with this year's version of the Cats is an inconsistent offensive attack, this glaring weakness from Big Matt is even more damning.