If you are even comparing him to a player like Law, your knowledge of basketball is nil.
The future was shown in glimpses tonight.
- Thread starter T_Levine
- Start date
And if you think I am comparing Brown the player and Law the player, then your reading comprehension is below nil. I'm talking about one very specific skill, and I think it's perfectly reasonable to think that Brown is better at it than Law. I would take my basketball knowledge against yours any day.
[QUOTE="Cat Fan in Buckeye Land, post: 252523, member: 778”]... This is the kind of play out of Gavin Skelly that I saw when he was in high school. He is a very skilled and athletic player that we only saw glimpses of last season, because he really was playing a little out of position as a freshman[/QUOTE]
I’m glad you said that CatFanInB’Land, because in the limited amount of time I’ve seen Gavin play I get the sense that he can be VERY good for the Cats. I think it’s the combination of strength, attitude, and determination that I sense --- moreso than refined basketball skill, which should still be on the rise. Moreover, there’s a comment in his online bio that caught my eye; he’s been into cross country and lacrosse. As a former cross country guy myself, I consider it a sport where there is virtually NO glory and where pushing yourself to endure beyond normal limits is key. I assume the same is true of lacrosse.
I figure he’s likely more than willing to put in the work, and I have a hunch he will be an “exceeds expectations” contributor in upcoming seasons.
I’m glad you said that CatFanInB’Land, because in the limited amount of time I’ve seen Gavin play I get the sense that he can be VERY good for the Cats. I think it’s the combination of strength, attitude, and determination that I sense --- moreso than refined basketball skill, which should still be on the rise. Moreover, there’s a comment in his online bio that caught my eye; he’s been into cross country and lacrosse. As a former cross country guy myself, I consider it a sport where there is virtually NO glory and where pushing yourself to endure beyond normal limits is key. I assume the same is true of lacrosse.
I figure he’s likely more than willing to put in the work, and I have a hunch he will be an “exceeds expectations” contributor in upcoming seasons.
Semi-occasionally? We've gone I believe 7 times in our entire history. 4 of them were in one stretch. I don't think that's semi-occasionally at all.
As far as the better program, I think the jump is coming soon. Most of the changes so far have been perception, recruiting, image, etc. I'd compare it to Barnett's tenure -- the ON FIELD leap occurred in year 4. The first 3 years were getting closer and closer. So I'd say next year or the year after, it would be fair to expect.
This is an important point and a good way of looking at things.
When Collins took over, there was a lot of discussion about Carmody being an "A to B" guy (from 0 B1G wins the year before he arrived to NIT appearances 4 of his last 5 seasons)...and that Collins would be the "B to C" guy. Some fans who just look at the bottom line are frustrated to see that, on paper, Carmody's last 3 seasons were better than Collins' first 3 seasons. But you make a great point that a lot of the "B to C" changes have already started happening--"perception, recruiting, image, etc." On court results will follow.
I have no statistics for this, but Skelly just seems to make good things happen when he's in the game. The issue is I don't think we can play him and a center without getting major offense from the three other positions on the floor.
We already have that situation with Sanjay and a center. Difference is that with Sanjay, if he gets an OR, he really cannot do much with it as he is among the trees and has to pass the ball out. Skelly, on the other hand, can get the ball back up. Sanjay has a better range and ball handling skills but at least on O, inside presence is not there.
I love Skelly's energy and he's a good rebounder and free throw shooter as well but I've only seen try a couple of midrange shots and maybe one three. Needs to expand his offensive game to get more minutes next year.
This is reasonable. You know going into a season you're going to watch all the games so you'd like to be surprised with early success but next year and the year after are when it should happen.
Willy's getting wacked on the boards and deservedly so. But he was right three years ago when he said Collins needs a team with 100% his recruits. So far, Collins is doing a superior job of getting skilled, athletic basketball players. Overall, he's improved the length of the team. He wants to play man, we'll see if his recruits can play man in the Big Ten.
Skelly has the 3rd highest player efficiency ratio on the team (based on the ESPN formulation) so the stat's support your view. Of course, it's unclear at this point whether Skelly can produce at a similar rate playing more minutes but I hope he at least gets the chance. Sanjay is not in the top 100 of the players in the conference in PER (unless I missed him), which should cover just about every rotation player in the conference. PER doesn't measure defense other than steals and blocks so it obviously doesn't take into account Sanjay's strengths, but he still needs to produce more when he is in the game. He needs to get more steals, a few more putbacks, a few more offensive rebounds, etc. He averages less than a steal a game and has only 6 blocks for the season (Skelly has 12). I don't think you can't have a guy play 25 plus minutes who consistently produces 2-3 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist and nothing else. Sanjay is an excellent on ball defender and brings a toughness and intensity that the team really needs, but the team is not good enough offensively to have him play the majority of the minutes at the 4. From the games I have attended, I get the impression that Skelly may blow defensive assignments because he frequently gets yelled at coming off the court. I hope that he can reduce his mistakes with more playing time.
Based on what I've seen this year, I'm not sure we have a fully functional off guard for next year. Lindsey is making great strides, but I haven't seen much ball handling yet, which makes our ability to break the press suspect. As for Brown, based on seeing part of that 50 point performance against the nation's #3 ranked team (thanks for the link), I can see Brown playing with BMac on occasion, at least against teams with smaller backcourts or when we need extra ball handling to break presses. Having two "point guards" starting together has been a revelation for Iowa this year and we are going to have to play off guards that are probably more comfortable at the 3 spot otherwise (including Lindsey). That would also leave some room for Ash in the same rotation. We'll see.
Nice research and some interesting thoughts. The quibble I might offer is that steals are not a good measure of whether someone is playing good defense and are not really a good measurement of what Sanjay adds to a team. Steals are a good measure at whether someone is good at getting steals. The key thing I think you bring up is that Sanjay's strengths may not be a luxury this team can afford given our offensive struggles. If we have dangerous offensive weapons at the other four positions offensively, then you can afford a guy who plays 25 minutes and produces 2-3 points and 5 rebounds, etc. Given our injuries and the way we are playing, we only have a couple of real offensive weapons. If Scottie, Falzon, and Pardon develop some consistency towards next year, I could easily see Sanjay playing a major role. But, if they don't, it might be difficult without Sanjay adding 7-8 ppg.
I agree that having a high steal rate does not make you a good defender (see James Harden) but I think you will find that almost every great wing defenders averages at least 1.5 steals a game (or thereabouts). And when you are not scoring and you are undersized for your position, I think you need to produce more than .6 steals a game. They often lead to easy buckets and help swing momentum. And interestingly, steal rate is something that the NBA stats guys look at heavily in predicting the potential of college players in the NBA.
Is Brown really that much smaller than Demps? Though, I guess we don't necessarily want the results of the past 2 years repeated.
I would love if we can get a bigger presence at the 2, but I'm not seeing the skills from Lindsey yet. Law is a maybe because we have no idea how he has developed or will develop with two off seasons.
I know it was a joke, and it was actually funny, for a little while. I'm sure you enjoyed being accused of being Turk and hungry Jack
First post was deleted because it absolutely look like a troll. That was before I realized who it was, and no further posts were deleted. No harm no foul
