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Post by BasketBallJones on Nov 15, 2022 22:04:00 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the concern is with our starting 5. The takeaway I have after 3 games in is that this team is the deepest team we've had here under Nagy and maybe the deepest and we've had in our D1 history. We have 9 guys who appear to be in the rotation, and that should play huge dividends as the season wears on. Everyone on this board over the last few years has complained about our starters wearing down by the end of the season. I don't think that will be a problem this year. If you want to know who the coaches think are their best 5, just look at who's on the floor in the final 4 minutes in crunch time.
In tonight's BGSU game, our bench played 61 minutes, scored 25 points, and collected 15 rebounds.
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Post by Wolf on Nov 15, 2022 23:01:09 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the concern is with our starting 5. The takeaway I have after 3 games in is that this team is the deepest team we've had here under Nagy and maybe the deepest and we've had in our D1 history. We have 9 guys who appear to be in the rotation, and that should play huge dividends as the season wears on. Everyone on this board over the last few years has complained about our starters wearing down by the end of the season. I don't think that will be a problem this year. If you want to know who the coaches think are their best 5, just look at who's on the floor in the final 4 minutes in crunch time. In tonight's BGSU game, our bench played 61 minutes, scored 25 points, and collected 15 rebounds. I'm not worried about who starts. I care more about who is getting playing time and how much playing time they are getting. In this new era of college athletics you constantly have to worry about keeping your players happy or be ready for them to transfer at the end of the season. We have 9 guys that can all play at this level. I'd like to see 2 of those guys get more minutes: Welage and Sisley. They are barely getting more than mop up minutes and both are contributing more to our offense than a few of our starters who are getting 3 times the amount of time on the court. I don't think Norris or Finke need to be playing as much as they are. Sit Norris and Finke 5 more minutes a game and give that playing time to Welage and Sisley. If Nagy balances out the minutes a little more, I think it will result in us being more successful this year but more importantly it will set us up well with our returning players for next year. |
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Post by BasketBallJones on Nov 15, 2022 23:16:14 GMT -5
Nagy's main concern is winning. Players earn PT based on their practice habits and production when they are on the court during games. It's a meritocracy, and at the end of the season if one or more of his players decide to leave for greener pastures, so be it. That gate swings both ways. We have picked up players like Gentry, Wampler, Finke, Davis, etc from the transfer portal. I don't think Nagy or any of his staff make substitution patterns or PT decisions based on the fear of a player leaving at the end of the season.
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Post by Big D on Nov 15, 2022 23:44:05 GMT -5
Players earn PT based on their practice habits and production when they are on the court during games. If you have watched Nagy's teams since he has been here, you know that isn't really true. Nagy plays guys he trusts much more so than how productive they are on the court. He likes to prepare guys for games in practice and lets them play through some adversity in the games. It is one of the things that drives a lot of our fans nuts because he will let us lose a large lead often trying to let the players figure it our themselves instead of calling a timeout and telling them what they need to do. Finke, for example, is a guy that can put up straight 0s in the stat columns and he is still going to get a ton of playing time because Nagy trusts that he is going to play the way he expects his players to play the game. If Nagy was playing guys based on their production when they are on the court, Sisley would be getting 30+ minutes a game and Norris would be playing less than 10 minutes a game. Sisley is averaging 6 points a game while only playing 9 minutes. Norris is averaging 3.7 points while being third on the team in minutes played at 33.7 minutes. The difference is Norris earned Nagy's trust all of last season. He barely knows Sisley yet. As the year wears on, I think we will see more and more of Sisley as Nagy starts to trust him more on the court. Botton line, we have one hell of a team that all seem to be on the same page with one another. They are making mistakes still but compared to where we have been at this point of past seasons, we are lightyears ahead of where we usually are at. We are also playing 9 guys consistently. That is unheard of in Nagy's tenure here. This team has the makings to be one of our all-time best teams if they continue to improve like Nagy's teams tend to do as the season progresses. I think it's great that our fans are debating our starting line-up and player rotation because we legitimately have so many good options on our roster. |
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Post by rock70 on Nov 16, 2022 6:50:27 GMT -5
I agree 100%! My hope is that coach Nagy continues to use a 9 man rotation all season since it appears he has the players this year to do it.
I also think Sisley minutes will continue to creep up as he gains Nagy's trust defensively.
He seemed to play a bit more with two bigs on the floor last night so I'm looking for that trend continues as well.
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Post by refrigeratorraider on Nov 16, 2022 8:01:19 GMT -5
I agree with most of what has been said. It's not who starts, but rather the playing time. In the first half against Bowling Green last night, Welage tied with Davis in leading the Raiders in scoring with 7 points. Sisley was right behind them with 6 points. Welage and Sisley got extra minutes because Davis and Calvin were both in foul trouble. Unfortunately there just aren't enough minutes to get everyone as much playing time as most of us would like on a regular basis. This depth will be greatly beneficial when we have people in foul trouble and undoubtedly at some point during this season when someone misses a game because they have minor injury or get the flu.
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Post by paulkris on Nov 16, 2022 10:54:06 GMT -5
also keep in mind that Nagy really wants to play a fast paced game with this team. Playing three bigs at one time does not lend itself to running the court like he wants. AJ is quicker than Grant was. Both Brandon and Blake can get down the court okay but I'm not sure they can play to the pace that Nagy wants.
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Post by nomeara on Nov 16, 2022 12:05:14 GMT -5
AJ is improving consistently but saying he is quicker than Grant Basile is crazy. He still looks gassed 5 minutes into most games.
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Post by refrigeratorraider on Nov 16, 2022 13:31:58 GMT -5
I think AJ's biggest weaknesses are his speed and stamina. He's definitely not quicker than Basile. However, I think he's great offensively at the post--dare I say the best we've had during Nagy's tenure.
Brandon Noel is going to be a star over the next few years. Perhaps Sisley too, but it's harder to tell since he hasn't logged as many minutes. By the end of the season, I think those associated with other Horizon League programs, many of whom were looking forward to facing a Raider team without Love and Basile, will be dreading the prospect of facing Braun, Noel, and Sisley the next few seasons.
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Post by nomeara on Nov 16, 2022 14:52:32 GMT -5
It's going to be fun watching the season unfold but I'm praying Nagy will give some others a chance to start in place of Keaton. Starting 2 bigs seems like the obvious choice, but I'd be happy to see Andrew or Alex start too.
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