Maliq at center doesn’t work

[OptimusOtto]

I wonder how much Benny getting back into the fold would help Brown at the 5. Yes Benny has his flaws but one area where he has seemed to excel is as a help side contester.

 

[General20]

I wonder how much Benny getting back into the fold would help Brown at the 5. Yes Benny has his flaws but one area where he has

If Benny can learn how to play defense it will help a LOT. Brown is a good defender, he's got quick hands and gets a lot of steals, but he's not a good rim protector. Taylor at the 4 is a good defender, he's really good positionally, and he's strong, he gets in your way and its hard to push through him ... but he's not a good rim protector. Those two guys dont work well as a 4 and 5 combo. Either one is fine but play both together and you are missing something important.

McLeod is a shot blocker but he doesn't seem to be able to play more than about 20 minutes a game, so we need another shot blocker out there.

Benny is a good shot blocker, he's tall, he can jump, he has long arms, he has good timing for it. The big but in all this is that he gets lost in no-man's land on defense a lot. We need him to be more alert and aware on that side of the ball. If he can pull it off his shot blocking will help us field a more complete defense for the entire game.

 

[Sbucketball]

I think he’s going to redshirt and grad transfer after the season. He averaged 1 ppg and 1.7 rpg last year.

I forgot due to his redshirt year he probably has enough credits to grad transfer after this year so we're not stuck. That's probably for the best. Hopefully they grant a medical redshirt if that's what he's going for. If we want to be serious next year, we should recruit an upperclassman high-level center from the portal, and have McLeod come off the bench when the transfer or Maliq aren't playing. That would leave no room for Hima, and we probably only need one of Patterson and Carey.

 

[0.2 YNdeeR]

If Benny can learn how to play defense it will help a LOT. Brown is a good defender, he's got quick hands and gets a lot of steals, but he's not a good rim protector. Taylor at the 4 is a good defender, he's really good positionally, and he's strong, he gets in your way and its hard to push through him ... but he's not a good rim protector. Those two guys dont work well as a 4 and 5 combo. Either one is fine but play both together and you are missing something important.

McLeod is a shot blocker but he doesn't seem to be able to play more than about 20 minutes a game, so we need another shot blocker out there.

Benny is a good shot blocker, he's tall, he can jump, he has long arms, he has good timing for it. The big but in all this is that he gets lost in no-man's land on defense a lot. We need him to be more alert and aware on that side of the ball. If he can pull it off his shot blocking will help us field a more complete defense for the entire game.

Agree about Benny's ability to rim protect. The problem is, he's doesn't instinctively crash the boards. He seems to want to lurk on the perimeter at both ends, which is opposite of where he should be (IMHO).

Another issue emerged against Colgate when our bench guys hit the floor (Benny, Cuffe and QC). All of them were bricking shots and we wound up in a big hole. Can't happen.

Bench minutes need to reflect whether they can hold their own on De and provide some offense. Until then, the only tenable lineup seems to be JM, JJ, Bell, NM and Taylor, with Brown subbing in.

 

[SUFan44]

You said "he stinks". Maybe he's been hurt. I've heard he has a lot of pain in his knees. The question is not his talent, if he could do that against a quality opponent. The question is whether he is ever healthy enough to play, or whether we have another DuJuan Coleman on our hands.

Both can be true. I think he stinks. He barely played at Duquesne. Not a P5 center. He also might be hurt too.