cooney exact same player since his soph year

[CorduroyG]

Zero improvement. Disappointing.

 

[OrangeDW]

Yup. I posted this earlier this year and many got irritated with me and tried to shift the conversation to other players who struggled. He's a 25 minute per game guy unless he's hot. When his D is as bad as it was today, he should see much less than 25 minutes. More Howard and Joseph please and see how they respond. We're going nowhere leaning on Cooney like this.

 

[Cuse House]

Zero improvement. Disappointing.

Always been a huge fan of Cooney for the other things he does. Today was the first time I have ever said "NO TREVOR, PLEASE DON'T SHOOT!" Which signals that I have basically lost all faith in his ability on offense. Hate to say it, but I am ready for him to move on so we can get a legit scorer on the floor. And before I get flamed, I know Cooney has a solid PPG, but he is a volume shooter. Not what this team needs with the pieces we have.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

The difference is that now he has the keys to drive the car into the ditch. He and Richardson are going Thelma and Louise on the program.

 

[doc05]

He simply isn't who I think people wanted him to be coming in. He was not a very highly rated recruit and was always a streaky volume shooter. He is who he is -- a gritty glue type player who is probably asked to do more on these teams due to a lack of scoring -- and that really just isn't is game.

 

[MikeSU02]

Zero improvement. Disappointing.

His soph year was statistically his best year, actually.

When you have inefficient players with high usage rates, you will lose games unless you have a coaching decision that removes them from the equation.

It's obviously not just Cooney, especially today, but this isn't hard. If we don't have anyone capable of giving Cooney (and Mal) rest, we are screwed.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

His terrible defense is what kills me. He gives up more 3s than any other guard we have. He gets an occasional steal, but he just plays so far out of position consistently. Completely blows my mind that a guy who relies on shooting threes has a hard time contesting 3s.

 

[TinyManInside]

No, he was actually a better shooter for much of his soph year.

He started his sophomore year 74-171 from three (43.2% - excellent).

Since then he is 110-370 at 29.7% from three.

He is a below average shooter.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

No, he was actually a better shooter for much of his soph year.

He started his sophomore year 74-171 from three (43.2% - excellent).

Since then he is 110-370 at 29.7% from three.

He is a below average shooter.

Geez.

 

[orangenirvana]

 

[jr4750]

But it gets better, not only is he off badly now, but as the year goes on and he gets more and more beat up, he will be an even bigger liability.

Malachi I worried about even before he got here. He seemed like a streaky shooter whose effort I questioned. No way should he get more shots than Mike and Trevor for that matter. Just not a big fan of his game. Rather play a big guard and have Mike play 3 for us.

 

[jgeorge322]

Can our coach just tell trev not to oenetrate too deep. Just pull up at like 8 ft. He gets by his man fairly consistently but then does nothing with it.

 

[skurey]

I think he would be a nice 1st option off the bench. Provides the energy and is capable of going off. Unfortunately he's not in that position for whatever reason.

 

[Ghost]

At the end of the day, Cooney can function well when we have 4 other players playing well. The games he plays his best, are the ones where everyone is running hot. Then he can join in - you see it in Atlantis. He's a complimentary player. He's also been left on the court to play through any and every error, so he hasn't shown too much improvement in certain areas that you would expect from a fifth year guy. There are games where he's fine to play 40 minutes - Atlantis is a good example. There are plenty of times where you just sit there shaking your head though with the PT.

He's average at everything. As Skurey mentioned, he's an ideal back-up. As a 40MPG guy for three years, well, that's simply insanity. And I guess it's somewhat necessity, but at the same time, the team never implodes the way people claim it will when he sits...even last year.

I don't blame the kid though - he's a good kid, and tough as nails. He plays hard - and he's always been asked to do much considering his skill set. Happy to have him in the program, and hope he plays well every game. What people see in his game that makes them think he passes as some sort of SG that can't sit without the team falling into an abyss though (even with the rosters we've had) - never seen that in his game.

We'd be better off with BJ Johnson on this team instead of Kaleb Joseph. The Joseph/Howard combo seems to have confused the coaches. With BJ on the team the line is delineated a lot clearer as BJ could not play point and Howard would have to have those minutes. With Joseph, they seem to just be all over the place with rotations/minutes. JB would play Joseph/Howard together a lot early on, Hop doesn't seem to know which dude to play and when...hot hand, maybe? Neither are really "hot hand" guys though from what we've seen.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Can our coach just tell trev not to oenetrate too deep. Just pull up at like 8 ft. He gets by his man fairly consistently but then does nothing with it.

The defense vs cooney is designed to let him get by them. They know its essentially a fast break the other way once that happens.

 

[iommi]

Great post, Ghost.

One thing about Kaleb: I think he's significant shorter than he's listed. His handle is very suspect, so we try to play him off the ball but that's not working so well. He also has Roberson-itis-- thinking way too much out there.

Howard has good vision and drives and dishes arguably better than anyone on the team but he's more of a penetration player than a shooter at this juncture. In other words he's limited as well.

I agree with others that say we seem to recruit way too many combo guards lately. We wind up with guys that do some things well but we don't have any true point guards. I've seen Battle play and love that kid; I think he's a superstar in the making. But he's not a true point guard either.

As you've illuminated with your Kaleb and Frank thoughts, neither has a defined role or position. Plus, they don't get enough playing time to get into the flow.

 

[Cuse Action]

Zero improvement. Disappointing.

His shot selection is often terrible.

 

[tptcuse]

His terrible defense is what kills me. He gives up more 3s than any other guard we have. He gets an occasional steal, but he just plays so far out of position consistently. Completely blows my mind that a guy who relies on shooting threes has a hard time contesting 3s.

I usually agree with you, bit disagree here. IMO, he give up shots because of other things players' errors.

 

[iommi]

His terrible defense is what kills me. He gives up more 3s than any other guard we have. He gets an occasional steal, but he just plays so far out of position consistently. Completely blows my mind that a guy who relies on shooting threes has a hard time contesting 3s.

He is way too flat footed on defense. Cooney sort of shuffles his feet instead of springing into position to challenge shots and he's constantly too far inside. He got abused on his side of the zone today. It was an awful game by him. He's been a huge disappointment since his solid play in Atlantis.

 

[jdubs30]

But it gets better, not only is he off badly now, but as the year goes on and he gets more and more beat up, he will be an even bigger liability.

Malachi I worried about even before he got here. He seemed like a streaky shooter whose effort I questioned. No way should he get more shots than Mike and Trevor for that matter. Just not a big fan of his game. Rather play a big guard and have Mike play 3 for us.

It's funny--Malachi's best asset seems to be his ability to drive and draw fouls, even though he looks awkward usually he gets a foul called. However his shooting has been atrocious

 

[TinyManInside]

At the end of the day, Cooney can function well when we have 4 other players playing well. The games he plays his best, are the ones where everyone is running hot. Then he can join in - you see it in Atlantis. He's a complimentary player. He's also been left on the court to play through any and every error, so he hasn't shown too much improvement in certain areas that you would expect from a fifth year guy. There are games where he's fine to play 40 minutes - Atlantis is a good example. There are plenty of times where you just sit there shaking your head though with the PT.

He's average at everything.

No. He's below average at shooting.

 

[two3zone]

On the plus side he isn't Roberson who's regressed since his senior year of high school.

 

[BuffOrange]

No, he was actually a better shooter for much of his soph year.

He started his sophomore year 74-171 from three (43.2% - excellent).

Since then he is 110-370 at 29.7% from three.

He is a below average shooter.

No more "he's the only shooter" excuse this year either.

That wide open 3 to close the half where you could sense the tide may be turning in our favor, would blow the roof off if it were in the dome or maybe even MSG...I swear he is a career 0 for 47 on that exact shot.

 

[upperdeck]

His terrible defense is what kills me. He gives up more 3s than any other guard we have. He gets an occasional steal, but he just plays so far out of position consistently. Completely blows my mind that a guy who relies on shooting threes has a hard time contesting 3s.

the guy who is near the one shooting 3's is not always the one to blame when he makes it.

 

[rrlbees]

the guy who is near the one shooting 3's is not always the one to blame when he makes it.

Too many times today Cooney, and sometimes G, were caught too far down on the wing because Mali or TR didn't get out on the wing in the shooter. Then when the ball got rotated back to their guard, our guard couldn't recover quick enough. Cooney and G both do a great job in the zone. Our forwards struggle. And SJU had a few today that were real deep, even with the zone extended.