Donnie Freeman injures foot

[Day2]

Based on playing in a Sweet 16 game (and losing by 16 points) in 2021, do you think we should be ranked next season?

That’s a clown question, bro.

 

[CardiacCuse]

Statistically he was not close to Freeman. There were 3 freshmen definitely better than Freeman in Donte, Flynn and Ennis going back to Melo. If you want you can argue a 4th maybe Lydon. I was not trying to denigrate any player. I was simply going off the stats. It’s the posters in this thread who are trying to say Donnie isn’t very good that make no sense.

so youre just ignoring defense then?

 

[tptcuse]

We have two accomplishments post-2016. Two sweet sixteens. That's the list.

We haven't finished a season ranked.
We haven't won a conference title.
Hell, we haven't finished more than 2 games over .500 in conference.
We have 3 tourney appearances.

None of that matters as long as I am allowed to boo my team. (j/k)

 

[Irishsecra1]

Agree. Personally I think he’s waiting for Duke. And If he doesn’t play that game with a national spotlight I don’t think we’ll see him again.

Having said that I also doubt he plays the Duke game if he’s not 100% so seems like it’s a lot of probably No.

Just a comment too. Autry is really bad at press conferences and media. This off-season someone needs to sit down with him and get that straightened out. He gives just bad responses when he shouldn’t say anything and then doesn’t say anything when he should give more thought out responses.

Hell Fran Brown has never been even a Coordinator and he got up at the podium day 1 was confident and demanded respect. Autry was pretty much the opposite.

We need a basketball version of Fran Brown to coach this team.
Communication skills, recruiting skills, and the will to create and maintain a winning and team oriented culture.

 

[Irishsecra1]

I haven’t seen this many discounts since before K-Mart closed down.

Stop discounting Freeman. We are not better off without him. Majstorovic is not a better player. Dolezaj was not a better player. Losing Freeman would not be a net positive for this program.

Stop discounting our Final Four and Sweet 16 appearances. Those happened. You can parse the hows and the whys all you want, but they happened. We’ve won one national championship in our history, so let’s not pretend these accomplishments are meaningless.

Freeman has plenty of room for improvement and the program isn’t headed in the right direction yet. We should all be in agreement on that.

Ditto!

 

[Cusefan0307]

so youre just ignoring defense then?

No, that’s part of the equation. He was the least of our problems on that end even if he wasn’t great there.

 

[Scooch]

I haven’t seen this many discounts since before K-Mart closed down.

Stop discounting Freeman. We are not better off without him. Majstorovic is not a better player. Dolezaj was not a better player. Losing Freeman would not be a net positive for this program.

Stop discounting our Final Four and Sweet 16 appearances. Those happened. You can parse the hows and the whys all you want, but they happened. We’ve won one national championship in our history, so let’s not pretend these accomplishments are meaningless.

Freeman has plenty of room for improvement and the program isn’t headed in the right direction yet. We should all be in agreement on that.

Anyone who discounts the 2016 F4 is being stupid. And no one should discount the '18 and '21 sweet 16s either.

It's just that those two sweet sixteens are the extent of our program accomplishments over the past 9 seasons. No rankings, no conference titles, no high seeds. Literally just a 2 game and 3 game run.

 

[CardiacCuse]

No, that’s part of the equation. He was the least of our problems on that end even if he wasn’t great there.

i like donnie a lot but its simply inaccurate to say he isnt a problem on defense

 

[CardiacCuse]

texas techs starting forwards put up 35, donnie, jyare, and petar combined for 9
maryland had 42 points in the paint syr had 26
fl state had 40 points in paint and syr 26 (starting forwards 13-21 from the floor for 28 points)

i realize that the guards are horrible defensivle and they are really a huge problem for the team's defense but when this team plays a good team...donnie often just gives up easy buckets to the opposing power forward. it happens a lot.

donnie isnt "the problem" ...but his defense is not winning caliber vs p5 teams and p5 PFs
imo

if youre even going to entertain having chris bell be one of your forwards...the other guy better be a great defender...davis is too small for PF and Donnie is too skinny. defensively, anyway...


offensively i think donnie is ready for nba now

 

[atlanticuse]

From what Autry just said sounds like it’s up too Donnie and his camp/family when he will return.

Shocker. Also vaguely familiar to an earlier post.

 

[Cusefan0307]

i like donnie a lot but its simply inaccurate to say he isnt a problem on defense

Lampkin, JJ, Bell, Carlos, and Moore are all worse. He was and is better than them on that end.

 

[tptcuse]

Agree. Personally I think he’s waiting for Duke. And If he doesn’t play that game with a national spotlight I don’t think we’ll see him again.

Having said that I also doubt he plays the Duke game if he’s not 100% so seems like it’s a lot of probably No.

Just a comment too. Autry is really bad at press conferences and media. This off-season someone needs to sit down with him and get that straightened out. He gives just bad responses when he shouldn’t say anything and then doesn’t say anything when he should give more thought out responses.

Hell Fran Brown has never been even a Coordinator and he got up at the podium day 1 was confident and demanded respect. Autry was pretty much the opposite.

Everyone is different but he could benefit from some coaching on his press appearances. He has some habits that could be fixed pretty easily ("You know" and the throat clearing are the big ones I notice.)

 

[shu 49]

texas techs starting forwards put up 35, donnie, jyare, and petar combined for 9
maryland had 42 points in the paint syr had 26
fl state had 40 points in paint and syr 26 (starting forwards 13-21 from the floor for 28 points)

i realize that the guards are horrible defensivle and they are really a huge problem for the team's defense but when this team plays a good team...donnie often just gives up easy buckets to the opposing power forward. it happens a lot.

donnie isnt "the problem" ...but his defense is not winning caliber vs p5 teams and p5 PFs
imo

if youre even going to entertain having chris bell be one of your forwards...the other guy better be a great defender...davis is too small for PF and Donnie is too skinny. defensively, anyway...


offensively i think donnie is ready for nba now

If he scores like he does he can also defend but Donny chooses not too and honestly Red allows it so it’s coaches fault in
my eyes.

 

[hoopsupstate]

If he scores like he does he can also defend but Donny chooses not too and honestly Red allows it so it’s coaches fault in
my eyes.

That’s probably why Donnie sat for several minutes at the end of several games.

 

[shu 49]

That’s probably why Donnie sat for several minutes at the end of several games.

True

 

[Cstate]

I was at the Texas game in Brooklyn when he played a season low 15 minutes because he couldn’t defend or stay in front of anyone. To his defense, that was the first time he did see a Power 5 team and those boys were some serious grown men! But then again, what would the NBA be like.

 

[atlanticuse]

I was at the Texas game in Brooklyn when he played a season low 15 minutes because he couldn’t defend or stay in front of anyone. To his defense, that was the first time he did see a Power 5 team and those boys were some serious grown men! But then again, what would the NBA be like.

#mccullough

 

[DoctahLexus]

Lampkin, JJ, Bell, Carlos, and Moore are all worse. He was and is better than them on that end.

Not by much, if at all, and that is true for both the stats and the eye test. He has 5 blocks on the year to Lampkin's 11, and the dude can actually jump. Even Starling has 4 blocks. Also has only 5 steals on the year. Like so many guys on our team, he will follow his man around but not actually alter any of their actions in any way. Attempts at shot blocking and rim protection are a beat late. And the stats don't show his poor rotations/awareness on defense. His only worthwhile accomplishment on defense is his defensive rebounding. It is a serious weakness to his game that will hold him back from any sort of pro career unless he improves in a major way. It is still early for him and he could easily improve in a big way with more experience.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Not by much, if at all, and that is true for both the stats and the eye test. He has 5 blocks on the year to Lampkin's 11, and the dude can actually jump. Even Starling has 4 blocks. Also has only 5 steals on the year. Like so many guys on our team, he will follow his man around but not actually alter any of their actions in any way. Attempts at shot blocking and rim protection are a beat late. And the stats don't show his poor rotations/awareness on defense. His only worthwhile accomplishment on defense is his defensive rebounding. It is a serious weakness to his game that will hold him back from any sort of pro career unless he improves in a major way. It is still early for him and he could easily improve in a big way with more experience.

There’s more to defense than blocked shots. His overall defensive metrics are better than the guys I mentioned.

 

[DoctahLexus]

There’s more to defense than blocked shots. His overall defensive metrics are better than the guys I mentioned.

That is true for everyone except Lampkin. And like I said, he is not better than those other guys by much. If his defense remains only slightly better than guys like Bell and Carlos, he will be going nowhere in the pros. Is there something you like about his defense that does not show up in the stats?

 

[atlanticuse]

That is true for everyone except Lampkin. And like I said, he is not better than those other guys by much. If his defense remains only slightly better than guys like Bell and Carlos, he will be going nowhere in the pros. Is there something you like about his defense that does not show up in the stats?

He claps and antagonizes better than anyone else?
He hops around after a basket better?
His mismatched shoes don't show up in the box score?

 

[Cusefan0307]

That is true for everyone except Lampkin. And like I said, he is not better than those other guys by much. If his defense remains only slightly better than guys like Bell and Carlos, he will be going nowhere in the pros. Is there something you like about his defense that does not show up in the stats?

His defensive rating and Defensive Box/Plus minus are all better than those guys. He's also still second on the team in defensive win shares while missing 4 games which is kind of like WAR in baseball. Overall he lead the team in win shares per 40 minutes. He was our best player.

 

[JustPherU]

He claps and antagonizes better than anyone else?
He hops around after a basket better?
His mismatched shoes don't show up in the box score?

He walks, he talks, he crawls on his belly like a reptile!!!

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

i don't believe there's another program in the country that FEARS us. if anything we've become easy Upsets.

We are not upsets.