Frank

[realorange]

There may not be many excuses left for Frank's play.

There aren't many excuses left for the repetitive and sometimes negative comments about Frank.

 

[AWMKY]

Out of market fan (by way of relocating due to employment) and have watched all games via broadcast up until today and I was consistently on Frank's performance as the reason for our regression. After watching his play today at Littlejohn (made a trek to the game), I see a player who has lost a major part of his skill set who is fighting to be that guy for us and himself. It hurts to watch.

 

[kcsu]

Read Franks interviews. He is a fragile talent. Im not sure if his injury is 100% but regardless it has effected him mentally.

 

[sdcuseguy]

I see we are engaging in hyperbole now. Throw pretty much any of us on this board onto that court, and we'd get run over.

Lighten up. It was an exaggeration. Yes, hyperbole to make a point. He has been subpar at best.

 

[CardiacCuse]

Carey isn’t getting minutes because JB is loyal to seniors, for better or worse.

carey has had a TON of turnovers in limited outings recently...it is based on his performance - nothing else...carey is another player who has regressed since even the beginning of the season...he came in from day 1 better than he is right now...its really odd how so many of the players in this team have trended/are trending down...unusual to say the least.

 

[orangehomer]

Carey doesn't get minutes because he has been completely terrible in every measurable way.

frank howard has been terrible in every measurable way. one guy has a future here in theory, the other guy doesn't.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Frank was overhyped based on a few nice passes as a freshman. It was obvious he wasn’t a PG from early on, couldn’t really beat anybody off the bounce and had a terrible handle. Everybody hoped he could become MCW but he just doesn’t have the talent.

He’s a SG or mid-major SF that was shoehorned into the PG role. I don’t blame him for not succeeding there.

 

[MadNY3]

Howard reminds me of Billy Edelin but without the elite passing and ball handling skills. Billy used his size better than Frank also. Posting up smaller guards. His ball handling enabled him to get by his defender. Howard doesn't have a great handle to break down a quicker defender. He made 2 great passes today and then made some horrible passes.

He reminds me 0% of Billy Edelin.

Billy was an enigma off the court, not on. He had basketball IQ.

 

[MSOrange]

Frank was overhyped based on a few nice passes as a freshman. It was obvious he wasn’t a PG from early on, couldn’t really beat anybody off the bounce and had a terrible handle. Everybody hoped he could become MCW but he just doesn’t have the talent.

He’s a SG or mid-major SF that was shoehorned into the PG role. I don’t blame him for not succeeding there.

I still remember those nice passes and how I thought he would develop as a PG. I was wrong.

 

[djcon57]

We are not good when Frankie is out of the game. Buddy knows where to be in the zone and can hit some 3s but if he isn't red hot he really isn't helping the team.

The facts (box plus/minus, for example) simply say otherwise.

 

[acuse816]

Lighten up. It was an exaggeration. Yes, hyperbole to make a point. He has been subpar at best.

Next time, use the sarcasm font.

 

[doc05]

Frank was overhyped based on a few nice passes as a freshman. It was obvious he wasn’t a PG from early on, couldn’t really beat anybody off the bounce and had a terrible handle. Everybody hoped he could become MCW but he just doesn’t have the talent.

He’s a SG or mid-major SF that was shoehorned into the PG role. I don’t blame him for not succeeding there.

He just never seemed to have a natural position to me. I'm guessing in his recruitment the staff had dreams of MCW part II with him given his size etc.

 

[orangecuse]

That's insane, come on.

Not at all. What is (I'll use a different word) quite baffling, is the whirlwind romance type remembrance of what he was last year, and the year before that as well. There's a reason the staff brought in 5th year grad transfer Gillon heading into Frank's soph season. Gillon ultimately won the starting PG spot over Frank, as you may recall, to the point many thought he was transferring after that season because of some of the antics he allegedly pulled because of it, along with other shenanigans when hosting recruiting prospects during visits.

The following season we brought in another 5th year transfer in Geno Thorpe, for the same/similar reason Gillon was brought in the year before...huge question mark at the point guard position. Geno was thought of quite highly here based upon his senior year stats at USF, and many felt he would likely start at PG over Frank. Geno had the preseason ankle injury, then not seeing eye to eye with JB and ultimately quitting the team. That left Frank as the only option last year at PG, and JB had really no other options.

We lost 14 games last year. We have lost 12 to date, and by season's end, we will have 14 losses again. There are practically the same exact parallel's to our losses this season to last season's...and it mostly stems from the same offensive deficiencies at the PG spot. In the games we lost last year, our offense was putrid. The same standing in place dribbling for 15 seconds or more, east to west vs. north/south movement, picking up the dribble and being stuck precariously because of it. The inability to create off the bounce, getting penetration, etc. to tax the D, and open up things for other players, etc. This was quite evident and really exacerbated when teams played aggressive/hounding ball pressure D. Go back and revisit those losses, even those game threads or other post game related threads relative to our offensive struggles.

You'll find many of the same offensive issues we sustained in those losses last year, consistent/cloning our losses this season. For the most part our D last year was solid, as has been the case this year. If you don't agree, that's fine. I ask you this though, what do you think caused or was the main contributor to our 14 losses last year? You can claim/state the obvious that we simply missed shots or didn't make enough to win, but that was just the symptoms of a much larger underlining issue.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Not at all. What is (I'll use a different word) quite baffling, is the whirlwind romance type remembrance of what he was last year, and the year before that as well. There's a reason the staff brought in 5th year grad transfer Gillon heading into Frank's soph season. Gillon ultimately won the starting PG spot over Frank, as you may recall, to the point many thought he was transferring after that season because of some of the antics he allegedly pulled because of it, along with other shenanigans when hosting recruiting prospects during visits.

The following season we brought in another 5th year transfer in Geno Thorpe, for the same/similar reason Gillon was brought in the year before...huge question mark at the point guard position. Geno was thought of quite highly here based upon his senior year stats at USF, and many felt he would likely start at PG over Frank. Geno had the preseason ankle injury, then not seeing eye to eye with JB and ultimately quitting the team. That left Frank as the only option last year at PG, and JB had really no other options.

We lost 14 games last year. We have lost 12 to date, and by season's end, we will have 14 losses again. There are practically the same exact parallel's to our losses this season to last season's...and it mostly stems from the same offensive deficiencies at the PG spot. In the games we lost last year, our offense was putrid. The same standing in place dribbling for 15 seconds or more, east to west vs. north/south movement, picking up the dribble and being stuck precariously because of it. The inability to create off the bounce, getting penetration, etc. to tax the D, and open up things for other players, etc. This was quite evident and really exacerbated when teams played aggressive/hounding ball pressure D. Go back and revisit those losses, even those game threads or other post game related threads relative to our offensive struggles.

You'll find many of the same offensive issues we sustained in those losses last year, consistent/cloning our losses this season. For the most part our D last year was solid, as has been the case this year. If you don't agree, that's fine. I ask you this though, what do you think caused or was the main contributor to our 14 losses last year? You can claim/state the obvious that we simply missed shots or didn't make enough to win, but that was just the symptoms of a much larger underlining issue.

TL;DR

 

[hungrychuck]

I was going to suggest that the people who brought us the Rutgers Dumpster Fire Thread turn their efforts to Frank.

Then I remembered that we have Frank for as little as two more games, and Rutgers is forever.

 

[NateW]

It's truly amazing that a guy like JB, who has minimal tolerance for mistakes when it comes to certain players, can sit there and watch this horrific play night after night without going to Plan B. Nuts!

If Carey wasn’t such a mess right now I think JB would go a different route but we need a 3rd guard in the rotation so it has to be Frank.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

how we could use Z sims

 

[ethoo18]

What’s gonna happen is we are gonna get in the tournament make a little run win a game or two, then we run into a big boy frank starts stalling the offense, JB knowing it’s the tournament looks at Carey tells him to get in, Carey leads us to a win and looks like a lottery pick next year

 

[CorduroyG]

It's truly amazing that a guy like JB, who has minimal tolerance for mistakes when it comes to certain players, can sit there and watch this horrific play night after night without going to Plan B. Nuts!

hes a senior. jb loves seniors.

 

[jdubs30]

I agree with people saying Frank couldn’t get by people last year either (in regards to if the injury is effecting him). However, he was so good at the top of the zone last year. Now he’s not good and looks a step slow; I’m not sure if it is the injury or laziness or what

 

[bpo57]

If Carey wasn’t such a mess right now I think JB would go a different route but we need a 3rd guard in the rotation so it has to be Frank.

Fair point but then I'd prefer FH play the traditional role of a third guard in JB's system. That means a handful of minutes on the floor.

 

[Ghost]

I agree with people saying Frank couldn’t get by people last year either (in regards to if the injury is effecting him). However, he was so good at the top of the zone last year. Now he’s not good and looks a step slow; I’m not sure if it is the injury or laziness or what

That's true - and a somewhat underappreciated problem plaguing us.

Unless it's strategy...cover up subpar defense with subpar offense. Evil genius!

 

[sugrad68]

I’m not engaging with you about that. I’ve already gone back and forth about Carey and Buddy. Buddy is playing because he’s a better shooter than Frank. Frank is playing over Carey because he’s a senior.

Carey has done very little this year to be trusted at critical points in a game. No, Howard is not playing well. But Carey, with the limited playing time he has gotten over the ACC season, has shown an almost total lack of understanding the game flow. Charges. Turnovers by over-penetration. Maybe he should have gotten 10 minutes a game during ACC play and it would have been to the team's advantage. Easy to second guess. I certainly agree with you on Buddy's playing time. He has his limitations but his shooting is unmatched on this team.

 

[acuse816]

Yes, Frank has struggled this year and contributed to some of the stagnant stretches on offense, but don't forget that they would not have beaten Duke without him.

 

[br801]

There's a lot of real estate between "dynamic playmaker" and what Frank is now, and without the injury Frank is more than he is.

If people are over exaggerating how well he played last season, there are others also exaggerating how similar his game is last season to this season.

Frank's not this bad. He wasn't this bad. If you don't trust your eyes look at the numbers. Here's one that seems to matter - last season he attempted 3.5 ft attempts per game. This season he's at 1.3. He isn't playing as many minutes, but that doesn't account for all of it. What accounts for the rest?

64% of his FG attempts this season are 3-pointers, up from 41% in the two seasons prior. He also takes a fair number of long 2-pointers. That is a significant change in style of play, and I have to believe it's attributable to his physical health.