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Post by hhgreen on Feb 22, 2015 13:12:49 GMT -5
I don't think any guard we have now are suited for point guard. Nobody has the superior ball handling skills in traffic and Thomasson and Mitchell are slashers. Howell and Collie are the only players close to being ready that we have. We need to recruit a PG and a post player.
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Post by gerb on Feb 22, 2015 13:46:32 GMT -5
Here's where I'm a bit baffled: In the last three games, we were playing with a severely depleted roster (hence Collie's major minutes). Even with such a short bench, Howell only saw a combined 19 minutes in those three games. Justin Mitchell, meanwhile, played all but 13 minutes of that stretch and did well with his time.
Last night, our two senior point guards returned healthy and Mitchell rode the bench most of the game, including the entire the second half. That seems reasonable on paper, I suppose, since Hopkins and/or Reggie have run the show for the majority of the season. HOWEVER... Donlon also ran Howell onto the floor for huge chunks of the second half including crunch time. He played almost as much as he did in the previous three games combined. The second half featured stretches with Hopkins (6'0"), Howell (5'10"), and Arceneaux (5'10" and in foul trouble) on the floor at the same time against an already taller opponent. Meanwhile, Mitchell (6'4" with two fouls) collected dust on the bench.
Wright State was down by nine with the ball with 1:11 left. We promptly turned it over and didn't attempt to foul. At all. We let them run clock for 31 seconds. We don't put up our next shot until 0:18 left. Then, at seven points down with FIVE seconds left, Donlon called a timeout. For what? Why?
I'm not a coach, nor have I ever claimed to be one so maybe I'm missing an important element here. Maybe someone else can help me out here: how does ANY of that make any sense whatsoever?
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Post by wsu97 on Feb 22, 2015 14:35:51 GMT -5
I don't think any guard we have now are suited for point guard. Nobody has the superior ball handling skills in traffic and Thomasson and Mitchell are slashers. Howell and Collie are the only players close to being ready that we have. We need to recruit a PG and a post player. 1. Thomasson and Mitchell both played a lot of PG last year on their JUCO/HS teams. I think they both need to improve their ball handling to be our primary PG next year, but I think they could both do it. 2. We already have 1 PG signed for next year: Mark Hughes. 3. We only have one available scholarship open for next year. We can only add a post or PG, not both unless someone else leaves.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Feb 22, 2015 15:06:29 GMT -5
I'm with you gerb- I don't get it either. I think Mitchell is hand over foot the best option we have to be running things for us currently. I haven't seen anything out of Mark Howell that makes me want to give him minutes of Justin Mitchell. Mitchell has come out of his shell with all the injuries we've been dealing with...His aggressiveness to get inside is something we haven't seen in a PG arguably since N'gai Evans. He creates off the dribble. I know Reggie has been playing hurt, but it seems like Mitchell is outplaying him day in and day out.
I think that Mitchell should be our go to next season in handling the point...although I'm interested to see what Mark Hughes can do transferring in. Hopefully he can be a major impact quickly.
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Post by Raider3G on Feb 22, 2015 20:58:24 GMT -5
Here's where I'm a bit baffled: In the last three games, we were playing with a severely depleted roster (hence Collie's major minutes). Even with such a short bench, Howell only saw a combined 19 minutes in those three games. Justin Mitchell, meanwhile, played all but 13 minutes of that stretch and did well with his time. Last night, our two senior point guards returned healthy and Mitchell rode the bench most of the game, including the entire the second half. That seems reasonable on paper, I suppose, since Hopkins and/or Reggie have run the show for the majority of the season. HOWEVER... Donlon also ran Howell onto the floor for huge chunks of the second half including crunch time. He played almost as much as he did in the previous three games combined. The second half featured stretches with Hopkins (6'0"), Howell (5'10"), and Arceneaux (5'10" and in foul trouble) on the floor at the same time against an already taller opponent. Meanwhile, Mitchell (6'4" with two fouls) collected dust on the bench. Wright State was down by nine with the ball with 1:11 left. We promptly turned it over and didn't attempt to foul. At all. We let them run clock for 31 seconds. We don't put up our next shot until 0:18 left. Then, at seven points down with FIVE seconds left, Donlon called a timeout. For what? Why? I'm not a coach, nor have I ever claimed to be one so maybe I'm missing an important element here. Maybe someone else can help me out here: how does ANY of that make any sense whatsoever? For sure...that is what was so surprising to me....it was first a) why isn't Mitchell out there and b) if he had to pick any of the three other guards (Evans, Howell, Collie) guard off the bench, I would have said Collie, Evans (especially the latter considering the amount of zone we saw), Howell would have been my third choice. It will definitely be interesting to see how the PG position shakes out next year, and it will deserve its own thread I'm sure. Hughes is big (6-3), and so is Joe T. (6-2 and some change) and Mitchell (6-4)---all have experience at the point in HS or college. That size could actually create match-up problems for other teams, especially on the defensive end. Because of Karena, JT, and Benzinger, I don't think we'll need a scorer out of the starting PG position. Just somebody that can take care of the ball, hit the occasional outside shot, and play consistent, good D.
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Post by jumbojimbo on Feb 22, 2015 22:32:53 GMT -5
Here's where I'm a bit baffled: Yup, you pretty much summed up my confusion. There were a couple of games there where Reggie was persona non grata with the injury as an excuse for not playing him. And Howell has been pretty much ignored all year. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there a recent game (UIC?) where we needed a guard late in the game, we still had a chance, and he skipped over Reggie, didn't even look at Howell and pointed at Stacey. I thought at that point the book was closed on Howell when Collie and Stacey are in a game we have a chance to win. Surely he knows better than us what his opinion of Collie is. Based on this game he agrees with some of you. I'm fine with that, but why in the world did he waste minutes on Collie when he could have played Howell? The wild swings in playing time simply make no sense to me. From game to game we seem to be cutting off our own nose to spite our face. Also mystifying: How Hopkins plays a single minute in the second half of the Oakland game after that possession with 2 minutes left in the first half. How we can go 10 straight possessions without scoring in the Valpo game and Billy can say the zone bothered us for a few possessions.
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