He didn't often finish near the rim but his ability to get to the basket and at least get some calls or some hoops were missed Saturday. Battle was obviously higher ranked and AW clearly may have more hype, but Mal seems to have a much better all around O game than either. Again, on an early sample.
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It's early but Mal is missed
- Thread starter Newhouser
- Start date
Was Battle more highly rated? Probably his ratings were similar (top 30 or so), but Richardson was a McD's AA, and was a starter at SU from day 1. Battle still looks very tentative -- predictions about his minutes or his value to the team have not been realized. Good prospect, great potential, but he still needs to earn his spot.
White -- just one mediocre game, and otherwise he is as advertised.
White -- just one mediocre game, and otherwise he is as advertised.
Briancuse
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Mal was ranked like 23rd, Battle was 35th I believe.
Jasoncuse
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We miss his ability to create his own shot, whether it's getting to the rim or getting a defender off him to shoot a jumper/3. We don't have anyone that can do any of that this year. Maybe Battle, but I have yet to see that ability.
Cusefan0307
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And make it 35% of the time. Isolation basketball stinks. It doesn't work.
Howard was fine creating his own shot Saturday IMO.
SU_Fan_in_VA
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Mal also had Gbinije and Cooney
orangehomer
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a first round draft pick is missed. someone alert the media!
iommi
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I don't get the negativity towards Battle. Yes, the early returns have meager but it's not like he's been getting a lot of playing time. This is a kid used to starting and more importantly used to playing big minutes. Let's give him a chance to get acclimated. Jeeze. Personally, I think he should be getting more minutes. It's a mistake playing AW3 at the two. He's not a guard in our defense. Battle should be getting more minutes than AW3 at the 2.
Very early sample. Keep in mind that in our first two losses last season, which were also the first two teams that played defense against us, Mal was horrendous. If you are talking about NCAA tourney Mal then I agree with you. I miss that Mal very much. I imagine our freshmen will improve quite a bit throughout the season though.
cuseinseattle
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I would like to believe that mistake is gone now. The way Boeheim talked about Lydon at the 5 we should be able to have AW on a wing with another big (Roberson/Thompson) and have the 3 guards split the minutes up top (Battle/Howard/Gillon). We shall see. I would think if we have Thompson and White on the wings with Lydon we should be ok rebounding because White is a good rebounder and Thompson has good size.
RF2044
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I think for this team to maximize it's potential, Battle needs to get integrated into the mix, and play starter's minutes.
I'm not suggesting that he's earned that, after such a strong preseason. Would be a welcome development to have him emerge and bring some versatile diversification to the offense.
cuseinseattle
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I would love nothing more than this. He needs to play with confidence though. It will improve over the year but I don't think we can leave him out there if he is not being assertive with his athletic ability on the offensive end. We have to run Howard and Gillon at the same time more in that scenario. I don't want that especially for our long term success but that may just be what we have to do until a handful of games down the road.
