SWC75
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The Team
There are always three groups of players at the beginning of each season: the guys we lost, the guys coming back and the new guys. The average fan is mournful about the guys we lost, wondering how we will ever replace them, but excited about the new guys, having seen You-Tube videos where all the shots go in. (I am susceptible to this myself.) You see the upside, not the downside. Actually, you can probably tell more about a player’s abilities by the shots that don’t go in- how close were they to going in, did they miss short or long or right to left, was the form still good, etc. The guys we’ve got coming back tend to be ignored because the fan has already seen them play at this level and tends to assume that they will never get any better. But the charm of college sports is watching the players get better. And the improvement of returning players usually will be a bigger factor in the team’s success than the talents of the newcomers.
But this year a lot will depend on the newcomers, one in particular. That’s because we lost a lot. Michael Carter-Williams, our point guard who as a sophomore averaged 12 pints and 7 assists and led us to the Final Four is now tearing it up in the NBA. Brandon Triche was the model of consistency for four years. He never became the star player some thought he could be but he was an excellent college combo guard who played the “2” and spelled MCW at the point. James Southerland completed his four year journey to consistency and was our best outside shooter, a guy who could turn a game around by hitting a succession of three pointers. We have six guys coming back and have added six more to the mix. We need to replace our starting backcourt and a forward and so the new guys will play a substantial role on this team. Whether they are ready or not to do so will have a lot to do with how successful this season will be.
The other way to divide players up into three groups is to look at them as centers, forwards and guards:
CENTERS
We actually have four centers on this team but you’ll only see three of them and one of them will get some time at forward. We had a triumvirate at center last year and we’ll have the same three guys this year.
RAKEEM CHRISTMAS grew up in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. He moved to Philadelphia at age 13 after his mother died to live with an aunt. That’s when he took up the game of basketball. He’s athletic and strong, (6-9 and 250, up from 228 last year), but lacking in developed basketball skills. He hits an occasional jumper and sometimes makes a startling move to the basket. But he doesn’t score much and he doesn’t rebound enough, either. He did play excellent defense in the run to the Final Four last year. Rak was a McDonald’s All-America based on his size athleticism- one service even listed him as the top center prospect in the country. We have been waiting for him to live up to the hype. But he hasn’t been playing this game as long as the others and he seems to be the type of guy who has to have a fire lit under him. This is his junior year so he still has time to develop. So far Boeheim seems to want to use him as a forward, at least to start games but he’s played a lot more center than forward and seems more comfortable there. And every minute he spends at forward is a minute Jerami Grant spends on the bench.
BAYE MOUSSA KEITA is another big man who came to this country to learn the game. He was born in Senegal. He’s also quick and athletic but very skinny (6-10 220). Like Christmas he hasn’t developed much of a shot or many ways to get to the basket on offense. His scoring is mostly on follow-shots. He seems to have relatively small hands and a lot of passes to him wind up as turn-overs. But he’s can rebound some and blocks shots. Like Christmas, he played lock-down defense at the center spot during the post season run. Because of his comparatively slight stature, he has a tendency to wear down as the season goes along or if he plays too many minutes. Last year, with three centers, JB could avoid that fate and he’ll get the chance to do it again this year.
DaJUAN COLEMAN has been playing basketball for years but sometimes it’s hard to tell. He’s always easy to spot: He’s 6-9 280 with some impressive tattoos. He’s got some useful basketball skills. He can score facing the basket with jump shots. He’s an excellent passer, particularly on outlet passes. He can handle the ball well enough to participate in the break or to dribble away from the basket to set up his pass- a very valuable tool for a big man. He’s our best rebounder and the one guy we have who can score inside. Like Rakeem, he was a McDonald’s All-American. But he’s had problems adjusting to this level of play where the defenders are closer to his size than in high school. He tends to hold the ball too low, where defenders can grab hold of it. A big man on offense is only as tall as where he holds the ball. DaJuan also tends to dribble the ball when he doesn’t necessarily need to. His timing on his moves to the basket is sometimes off, causing him to plow into defenders rather than letting them go by or finding a seam between them. He has yet to develop the back to the basket moves that a predecessor with a similar build, Arinze Onuaku, developed. AO used to turn his back to the defender near the top of the key and back him down with the dribble, then turn and score over him. Defensively, AO was never a shot blocker but he learned to move his feet to stay in front of people and to use his bulk to block the route ot the basket. DaJuan needs to learn how to do those things. Without those skills, he commits too many fouls and turnovers to be able to stay in the game for long periods. But it took AO most of his four years to develop his game and it may take DC2, as he’s being called, (DC1 being Derrick Coleman), as long. He did show promise in the game against Ottawa, hitting 10 of 13 shots to score 26 points. Against Ryerson he had only 2 field goals but got to the line 10 times and made 7 to go with 10 rebounds in 23 minutes. When the college game starts making sense to him, watch out!
The fourth center is another Senegalize who played his high school ball in Rochester, Chinonso Obokoh. He’s also 6-10 and 210 and will red-shirt his year, meaning he won’t get to play with his countryman, Keita, who is a senior. From the few clips I’ve seen, Obokoh may turn out to be a more complete player than Keita, one who can help us on both ends. But that’s a story for another year.
FORWARDS
Many of our best teams have been very strong at the forward position: Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens. John Wallace and Todd Burgan, Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick. Forwards are the players who do everything: they handle the ball, pass it, shoot it, rebound, block shots, make steals, play defense. I still remember when we went down to Georgetown in 1990 and Coleman and Owens took on Mourning and Motumbo and we blew them out of their own place 95-76. Their dominance at the center position was no match for our domination of both forward positions. We could have that again this year with C.J. Fair and Jerami Grant. There may not be a better pair of forwards in the country.
C. J. FAIR was an unknown quantity when he came here. He’d injured a knee in his junior year in high school and recruiters backed off. But Syracuse stayed with him and he came here. He was kind of an afterthought in a class that included Fab Melo and Dion Waiters. But people who had seen him play said “You’re going to like this guy” and we did. His instincts for playing the game were great. He seemed to know where the ball was or will be on play after play. He found ways to slip through the defense and score. He became our best pound for pound rebounder and a good defender. Everything he did seemed smooth and effortless because he did it so efficiently. Yet he was capable of very athletic plays, including rim-rattling dunks. He’s not a muscle man but at 6-8 215 he has a wiry strength and gets a lot of loose balls. He had a nice medium range jump shot. The one real weakness was the lack of three point range. But he’s worked hard on that and improved from a 25% three point shooter as a sophomore to 47% last year, (30 for 64). This year he’ll be relied on more to provide an outside game as James Southerland is no longer there and he probably won’t shoot 47%. But he still is as complete a player as you’lll see and is the pre-season pick for ACC player of the year. He makes the game look so easy that that seems a stretch to some but people who look at the box scores know better. One thing he isn’t is a player who is at his best when he’s dominating the ball. Early last year he seemed to be struggling a bit in his new role as one of the team’s stars. His whole emphasis seemed to be setting up his own shot and he was a bit of a “black hole”. He’s best when he moves without the ball and lets the game come to him.
But C.J. , as good as he is, might not be the best forward on this team. JERAMI GRANT came here with an outstanding pedigree. He’s the son of Harvey Grant, a 6-8 195 pound forward for Oklahoma during the Billy Tubbs years who played 11 years in the NBA for Washington, Portland and Philadelphia, averaging 18 points and 7 rebounds a game in his best years. Jerami’s uncle is Horace Grant, a 6-10 215 pound forward for Clemson who went on to play with Michael Jordan’s Bulls during their glory era, as well as Orlando, Seattle and the Lakers for 17 years, averaging as much as 15 points and 11 rebounds in a season. Jerami is listed at 6-8 210 but with the wingspan of a 7 footer, he seems much bigger and may still be growing. His first season, he showed flashes as a reserve behind Southerland and Fair and when Southerland got suspended for 6 games, Grant was playing starter’s minutes and he looked like a coming star, going up over people to score, hitting jumpers, grabbing rebounds and blocking shots. Then Southerland came back and Grant seemed to go into a shell. He wasn’t much of a factor down the stretch and people wondered which direction he was going in. But in the four exhibitions, he’s looked like a guy already ready for the NBA. All the moves were there and all the shots, too. He gets to the line and makes free throws. He seemed like a man among boys. Other than Carleton, the level of completion was not strong but Grant played so well, it didn’t seem to matter. In six games he averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds per 40 minutes of play, shot 51% from the field and had games where he made 10 of 14 and 7 of 9 free throws. We still need to see him do it against quality opposition but I have a strong feeling that Jerami is going to “blow up” this year and be in the NBA next year. But he needs to play, not get stuck behind a Rakeem Christmas as a forward experiment.
TYLER ROBERSON will be the leading reserve forward. He’s a good-looking freshman prospect who was unable to play in the Canadian tour while the NCAA reviewed his academic situation. He’s been cleared now and played in the two exhibitions in the Dome. He’s 6-8 212 and plays tough. He’s a good rebounder and could help us on “D”. I like his form with the jump shot. He didn’t make very many of them, 3 for 13) but I think he’ll be able to score as well.
B. J. JOHNSON facially looks like C. J. Fair and may someday replace him in the line-up. He’s a 6-7 185 pound jumping jack who also has a good outside shot. He may see some time at the “2” as well as playing some forward. His best chance at playing time is if the guys at the 2 don’t provide the outside shooting we need. I think any team needs at least a couple guys on the floor who are three point threats to stretch the defense in more than one direction.
GUARDS
TYLER ENNIS is our latest in a long line of talented point guards. He’s from Canada, which is becoming a significant source of basketball talent. Ennis is a good friend of Andrew Wiggins, the Kansas recruit who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated but could not convince him to wear Orange. Tyler is different from Michael Carter-Williams. MCW was 6-6 and had a 7 foot wingspan. He had an average outside shot but was very good at driving to the basket and was a creative passer and strong defender. But on last year’s team, with the lack of inside AND outside scoring, he felt they had to do things by himself and he wasn’t a dynamic enough scorer to carry the team by himself. He had a lot of good plays but some bad plays mixed in with them because he was trying to do a bit too much. Ennis is 6-2 and thus much less imposing as a defensive guard. He’s also a mediocre outside shooter at best. But he’s a great distributor of the ball and gets everyone involved. He’s quick enough to take advantage of scoring opportunities but never seems to be forcing anything. He, too, will need to have some teammates who can score so he doesn’t have to do too much but he’s so smooth in everything he does I think his teammates will find scoring easier than it was last year. We have a history of great freshman point guards- Pearl Washington, Adrian Autry, (who is on the coaching staff), Jason Hart, Gerry McNamara, (also on the staff) and Jonny Flynn. Ennis will be another.
TREVOR COONEY was supposed to be a phenomenal outside shooter. He’s also an under-rated athlete and defender. He can dunk with both hands, (he’s 6-4) and plays the passing lanes very well. But he’s out there to shoot and last year he got off to a bad start and never really broke out of his slump. He missed 99 of his 146 three point attempts. That’s 32% and it seemed worse. Your “shooting guard” needs to do better than that and his playing time this year will depend on his ability to improve that. In the six exhibitions he’s been 13 for 34 (38%), which is more like it but I think he can do better than that. He’s not a creative ball-handler. In the national semi-finals against Michigan last year, both our starting guards, MCW and Triche, had fouled out and Cooney wound up running the team. The results were not pretty. A final drive to the basket when the game could still be tied was pretty much of a disaster. Trevor is involved in trying to answer two of the big questions on this team: Who will be the “2” guard and who will back up Ennis at the point? He’s much more likely to be the answer to the first question than the second.
MICHAEL GBINIJE is a transfer from Duke who practiced with the team last year but could not play under the transfer rule. He’s thus been coached by the two winningest coaches in college basketball history, so he should know how to play the game. He looked great in his high school highlight tapes- there are several on You-Tube. He can hit three point shots, can pull up for jumpers, (a lost art), pass the ball, rebound it and play defense. His tape had several steals and a block where he slipped around his man, scooped up the ball and dribbled the length of the court to score. Nobody is quite sure why he didn’t work out at Duke but the hope here was that he could become our 2 guard and also back up Ennis at the point. He’s essentially a forward (6-7 200) but a jack of all trades who can give you whatever you need. I call him an “Alice’s Restaurant Player”, (“You can get anything you want…”). But in the exhibitions, something seemed to be missing. “G” seemed to play without emotions, sort of going through the motions. His shot was AWOL: 7 for 23 overall, (30%) and 1 for 10 from the arc. He had a 12-14 assist to turnover ratio. I don’t know what the problem is, (I have yet to see him smile), but this guy could contribute a lot more than we’ve seen. Maybe that’s why he’s not a Duke anymore.
RON PATTERSON is an intriguing freshman guard who originally committed to Indiana but changed his mind and came here. He’ll get a chance to show the Hoosiers what they are missing on December 3rd. Ron is a long-armed tenacious defender with a football player’s build, (6-3, 200). He also loves to shoot the ball from all angles and is either way off or right on. He’s had a 1 for 12 games and a 4 for 7 game with 3 treys. That makes him an exciting player but it also makes him another dubious candidate to be the back-up point guard. If Cooney isn’t hitting and Gbinije isn’t trying, Patterson could see some time at the 2 guard spot.
I love having a good point guard to go with two terrific forwards. I’d like to see more progress from the centers and I don’t know what the solution is at the 2 or for Ennis’ back-up. If Coleman doesn’t get it going, we will again be without a reliable inside scorer and if nobody takes charge at the 2, we will again be without a reliable outside game. I do think we’ll again be a strong defensive team and that will keep us in games. Hopefully the zone will be a mystery to our new conference brethren.
There are always three groups of players at the beginning of each season: the guys we lost, the guys coming back and the new guys. The average fan is mournful about the guys we lost, wondering how we will ever replace them, but excited about the new guys, having seen You-Tube videos where all the shots go in. (I am susceptible to this myself.) You see the upside, not the downside. Actually, you can probably tell more about a player’s abilities by the shots that don’t go in- how close were they to going in, did they miss short or long or right to left, was the form still good, etc. The guys we’ve got coming back tend to be ignored because the fan has already seen them play at this level and tends to assume that they will never get any better. But the charm of college sports is watching the players get better. And the improvement of returning players usually will be a bigger factor in the team’s success than the talents of the newcomers.
But this year a lot will depend on the newcomers, one in particular. That’s because we lost a lot. Michael Carter-Williams, our point guard who as a sophomore averaged 12 pints and 7 assists and led us to the Final Four is now tearing it up in the NBA. Brandon Triche was the model of consistency for four years. He never became the star player some thought he could be but he was an excellent college combo guard who played the “2” and spelled MCW at the point. James Southerland completed his four year journey to consistency and was our best outside shooter, a guy who could turn a game around by hitting a succession of three pointers. We have six guys coming back and have added six more to the mix. We need to replace our starting backcourt and a forward and so the new guys will play a substantial role on this team. Whether they are ready or not to do so will have a lot to do with how successful this season will be.
The other way to divide players up into three groups is to look at them as centers, forwards and guards:
CENTERS
We actually have four centers on this team but you’ll only see three of them and one of them will get some time at forward. We had a triumvirate at center last year and we’ll have the same three guys this year.
RAKEEM CHRISTMAS grew up in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. He moved to Philadelphia at age 13 after his mother died to live with an aunt. That’s when he took up the game of basketball. He’s athletic and strong, (6-9 and 250, up from 228 last year), but lacking in developed basketball skills. He hits an occasional jumper and sometimes makes a startling move to the basket. But he doesn’t score much and he doesn’t rebound enough, either. He did play excellent defense in the run to the Final Four last year. Rak was a McDonald’s All-America based on his size athleticism- one service even listed him as the top center prospect in the country. We have been waiting for him to live up to the hype. But he hasn’t been playing this game as long as the others and he seems to be the type of guy who has to have a fire lit under him. This is his junior year so he still has time to develop. So far Boeheim seems to want to use him as a forward, at least to start games but he’s played a lot more center than forward and seems more comfortable there. And every minute he spends at forward is a minute Jerami Grant spends on the bench.
BAYE MOUSSA KEITA is another big man who came to this country to learn the game. He was born in Senegal. He’s also quick and athletic but very skinny (6-10 220). Like Christmas he hasn’t developed much of a shot or many ways to get to the basket on offense. His scoring is mostly on follow-shots. He seems to have relatively small hands and a lot of passes to him wind up as turn-overs. But he’s can rebound some and blocks shots. Like Christmas, he played lock-down defense at the center spot during the post season run. Because of his comparatively slight stature, he has a tendency to wear down as the season goes along or if he plays too many minutes. Last year, with three centers, JB could avoid that fate and he’ll get the chance to do it again this year.
DaJUAN COLEMAN has been playing basketball for years but sometimes it’s hard to tell. He’s always easy to spot: He’s 6-9 280 with some impressive tattoos. He’s got some useful basketball skills. He can score facing the basket with jump shots. He’s an excellent passer, particularly on outlet passes. He can handle the ball well enough to participate in the break or to dribble away from the basket to set up his pass- a very valuable tool for a big man. He’s our best rebounder and the one guy we have who can score inside. Like Rakeem, he was a McDonald’s All-American. But he’s had problems adjusting to this level of play where the defenders are closer to his size than in high school. He tends to hold the ball too low, where defenders can grab hold of it. A big man on offense is only as tall as where he holds the ball. DaJuan also tends to dribble the ball when he doesn’t necessarily need to. His timing on his moves to the basket is sometimes off, causing him to plow into defenders rather than letting them go by or finding a seam between them. He has yet to develop the back to the basket moves that a predecessor with a similar build, Arinze Onuaku, developed. AO used to turn his back to the defender near the top of the key and back him down with the dribble, then turn and score over him. Defensively, AO was never a shot blocker but he learned to move his feet to stay in front of people and to use his bulk to block the route ot the basket. DaJuan needs to learn how to do those things. Without those skills, he commits too many fouls and turnovers to be able to stay in the game for long periods. But it took AO most of his four years to develop his game and it may take DC2, as he’s being called, (DC1 being Derrick Coleman), as long. He did show promise in the game against Ottawa, hitting 10 of 13 shots to score 26 points. Against Ryerson he had only 2 field goals but got to the line 10 times and made 7 to go with 10 rebounds in 23 minutes. When the college game starts making sense to him, watch out!
The fourth center is another Senegalize who played his high school ball in Rochester, Chinonso Obokoh. He’s also 6-10 and 210 and will red-shirt his year, meaning he won’t get to play with his countryman, Keita, who is a senior. From the few clips I’ve seen, Obokoh may turn out to be a more complete player than Keita, one who can help us on both ends. But that’s a story for another year.
FORWARDS
Many of our best teams have been very strong at the forward position: Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens. John Wallace and Todd Burgan, Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick. Forwards are the players who do everything: they handle the ball, pass it, shoot it, rebound, block shots, make steals, play defense. I still remember when we went down to Georgetown in 1990 and Coleman and Owens took on Mourning and Motumbo and we blew them out of their own place 95-76. Their dominance at the center position was no match for our domination of both forward positions. We could have that again this year with C.J. Fair and Jerami Grant. There may not be a better pair of forwards in the country.
C. J. FAIR was an unknown quantity when he came here. He’d injured a knee in his junior year in high school and recruiters backed off. But Syracuse stayed with him and he came here. He was kind of an afterthought in a class that included Fab Melo and Dion Waiters. But people who had seen him play said “You’re going to like this guy” and we did. His instincts for playing the game were great. He seemed to know where the ball was or will be on play after play. He found ways to slip through the defense and score. He became our best pound for pound rebounder and a good defender. Everything he did seemed smooth and effortless because he did it so efficiently. Yet he was capable of very athletic plays, including rim-rattling dunks. He’s not a muscle man but at 6-8 215 he has a wiry strength and gets a lot of loose balls. He had a nice medium range jump shot. The one real weakness was the lack of three point range. But he’s worked hard on that and improved from a 25% three point shooter as a sophomore to 47% last year, (30 for 64). This year he’ll be relied on more to provide an outside game as James Southerland is no longer there and he probably won’t shoot 47%. But he still is as complete a player as you’lll see and is the pre-season pick for ACC player of the year. He makes the game look so easy that that seems a stretch to some but people who look at the box scores know better. One thing he isn’t is a player who is at his best when he’s dominating the ball. Early last year he seemed to be struggling a bit in his new role as one of the team’s stars. His whole emphasis seemed to be setting up his own shot and he was a bit of a “black hole”. He’s best when he moves without the ball and lets the game come to him.
But C.J. , as good as he is, might not be the best forward on this team. JERAMI GRANT came here with an outstanding pedigree. He’s the son of Harvey Grant, a 6-8 195 pound forward for Oklahoma during the Billy Tubbs years who played 11 years in the NBA for Washington, Portland and Philadelphia, averaging 18 points and 7 rebounds a game in his best years. Jerami’s uncle is Horace Grant, a 6-10 215 pound forward for Clemson who went on to play with Michael Jordan’s Bulls during their glory era, as well as Orlando, Seattle and the Lakers for 17 years, averaging as much as 15 points and 11 rebounds in a season. Jerami is listed at 6-8 210 but with the wingspan of a 7 footer, he seems much bigger and may still be growing. His first season, he showed flashes as a reserve behind Southerland and Fair and when Southerland got suspended for 6 games, Grant was playing starter’s minutes and he looked like a coming star, going up over people to score, hitting jumpers, grabbing rebounds and blocking shots. Then Southerland came back and Grant seemed to go into a shell. He wasn’t much of a factor down the stretch and people wondered which direction he was going in. But in the four exhibitions, he’s looked like a guy already ready for the NBA. All the moves were there and all the shots, too. He gets to the line and makes free throws. He seemed like a man among boys. Other than Carleton, the level of completion was not strong but Grant played so well, it didn’t seem to matter. In six games he averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds per 40 minutes of play, shot 51% from the field and had games where he made 10 of 14 and 7 of 9 free throws. We still need to see him do it against quality opposition but I have a strong feeling that Jerami is going to “blow up” this year and be in the NBA next year. But he needs to play, not get stuck behind a Rakeem Christmas as a forward experiment.
TYLER ROBERSON will be the leading reserve forward. He’s a good-looking freshman prospect who was unable to play in the Canadian tour while the NCAA reviewed his academic situation. He’s been cleared now and played in the two exhibitions in the Dome. He’s 6-8 212 and plays tough. He’s a good rebounder and could help us on “D”. I like his form with the jump shot. He didn’t make very many of them, 3 for 13) but I think he’ll be able to score as well.
B. J. JOHNSON facially looks like C. J. Fair and may someday replace him in the line-up. He’s a 6-7 185 pound jumping jack who also has a good outside shot. He may see some time at the “2” as well as playing some forward. His best chance at playing time is if the guys at the 2 don’t provide the outside shooting we need. I think any team needs at least a couple guys on the floor who are three point threats to stretch the defense in more than one direction.
GUARDS
TYLER ENNIS is our latest in a long line of talented point guards. He’s from Canada, which is becoming a significant source of basketball talent. Ennis is a good friend of Andrew Wiggins, the Kansas recruit who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated but could not convince him to wear Orange. Tyler is different from Michael Carter-Williams. MCW was 6-6 and had a 7 foot wingspan. He had an average outside shot but was very good at driving to the basket and was a creative passer and strong defender. But on last year’s team, with the lack of inside AND outside scoring, he felt they had to do things by himself and he wasn’t a dynamic enough scorer to carry the team by himself. He had a lot of good plays but some bad plays mixed in with them because he was trying to do a bit too much. Ennis is 6-2 and thus much less imposing as a defensive guard. He’s also a mediocre outside shooter at best. But he’s a great distributor of the ball and gets everyone involved. He’s quick enough to take advantage of scoring opportunities but never seems to be forcing anything. He, too, will need to have some teammates who can score so he doesn’t have to do too much but he’s so smooth in everything he does I think his teammates will find scoring easier than it was last year. We have a history of great freshman point guards- Pearl Washington, Adrian Autry, (who is on the coaching staff), Jason Hart, Gerry McNamara, (also on the staff) and Jonny Flynn. Ennis will be another.
TREVOR COONEY was supposed to be a phenomenal outside shooter. He’s also an under-rated athlete and defender. He can dunk with both hands, (he’s 6-4) and plays the passing lanes very well. But he’s out there to shoot and last year he got off to a bad start and never really broke out of his slump. He missed 99 of his 146 three point attempts. That’s 32% and it seemed worse. Your “shooting guard” needs to do better than that and his playing time this year will depend on his ability to improve that. In the six exhibitions he’s been 13 for 34 (38%), which is more like it but I think he can do better than that. He’s not a creative ball-handler. In the national semi-finals against Michigan last year, both our starting guards, MCW and Triche, had fouled out and Cooney wound up running the team. The results were not pretty. A final drive to the basket when the game could still be tied was pretty much of a disaster. Trevor is involved in trying to answer two of the big questions on this team: Who will be the “2” guard and who will back up Ennis at the point? He’s much more likely to be the answer to the first question than the second.
MICHAEL GBINIJE is a transfer from Duke who practiced with the team last year but could not play under the transfer rule. He’s thus been coached by the two winningest coaches in college basketball history, so he should know how to play the game. He looked great in his high school highlight tapes- there are several on You-Tube. He can hit three point shots, can pull up for jumpers, (a lost art), pass the ball, rebound it and play defense. His tape had several steals and a block where he slipped around his man, scooped up the ball and dribbled the length of the court to score. Nobody is quite sure why he didn’t work out at Duke but the hope here was that he could become our 2 guard and also back up Ennis at the point. He’s essentially a forward (6-7 200) but a jack of all trades who can give you whatever you need. I call him an “Alice’s Restaurant Player”, (“You can get anything you want…”). But in the exhibitions, something seemed to be missing. “G” seemed to play without emotions, sort of going through the motions. His shot was AWOL: 7 for 23 overall, (30%) and 1 for 10 from the arc. He had a 12-14 assist to turnover ratio. I don’t know what the problem is, (I have yet to see him smile), but this guy could contribute a lot more than we’ve seen. Maybe that’s why he’s not a Duke anymore.
RON PATTERSON is an intriguing freshman guard who originally committed to Indiana but changed his mind and came here. He’ll get a chance to show the Hoosiers what they are missing on December 3rd. Ron is a long-armed tenacious defender with a football player’s build, (6-3, 200). He also loves to shoot the ball from all angles and is either way off or right on. He’s had a 1 for 12 games and a 4 for 7 game with 3 treys. That makes him an exciting player but it also makes him another dubious candidate to be the back-up point guard. If Cooney isn’t hitting and Gbinije isn’t trying, Patterson could see some time at the 2 guard spot.
I love having a good point guard to go with two terrific forwards. I’d like to see more progress from the centers and I don’t know what the solution is at the 2 or for Ennis’ back-up. If Coleman doesn’t get it going, we will again be without a reliable inside scorer and if nobody takes charge at the 2, we will again be without a reliable outside game. I do think we’ll again be a strong defensive team and that will keep us in games. Hopefully the zone will be a mystery to our new conference brethren.
