My Column: Orange Need Howard and Roberson to Get In Gear

[two3zone]

Think Roberson needs to get it together far more than Howard does.

It's not ideal to play John and Tyus 40 each but a good FH for 5-8 minutes isn't as big a factor as a good Roberson is for 15-30. Roberson gets his stuff together and we can make a run like last year.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Canyon Barry is shooting like 95% underhanded. 48% and 0-10 is almost hard to do. Out of those ten, I can only think of two that had a chance to go in. It's a major liability.

Love watching him. Good player. That team is a dark horse of mine to go on a good run in the Tourney.

 

[iommi]

Think Roberson needs to get it together far more than Howard does.

It's not ideal to play John and Tyus 40 each but a good FH for 5-8 minutes isn't as big a factor as a good Roberson is for 15-30. Roberson gets his stuff together and we can make a run like last year.

Agreed but we have more front court "depth," in that Lydon can play the 4 or 5. Roberson does/ will play more minutes than Howard but those 5-8 minutes FH plays are huge. As others said, we don't need FH to be good, we need him to not be bad.

 

[iommi]

Love watching him. Good player. That team is a dark horse of mine to go on a good run in the Tourney.

Looks like they have a hell of a young coach.

 

[two3zone]

Agreed but we have more front court "depth," in that Lydon can play the 4 or 5. Roberson does/ will play more minutes than Howard but those 5-8 minutes FH plays are huge. As others said, we don't need FH to be good, we need him to not be bad.

For sure, the depth on defense is suspect with TT in the game, if TT's out then Lydon's at the 5 and a good Roberson at the 4 we add rebounding and defense.

It's a difficult debate to have when Roberson is either a first team all ACC player or a walk on quality. There's really isn't a right answer.

 

[iommi]

Love watching him. Good player. That team is a dark horse of mine to go on a good run in the Tourney.

I was wrong. He's "only" shooting 89%. He's made at least 34 in a row.

 

[orangezen]

Frank is the BB equivalent of Madei Williams .. good athlete ,practice player but gets brain fade and indecisive in games when pressure is on ..

 

[pearl31]

well he did hit a 3 for the first time in ??? against Clemson - maybe that'll lead to more confidence and...

(and his D when he was in was actually just as good as Battle's had been that game, which of course isn't saying much at all)

 

[Trueblue25]

Really nice read.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

I’wd also like Boeheim to stop taking digs at him in nearly every post-game presser. Roberson is a quiet, sensitive guy and JB ripping him has not helped at all.

This has really been bothering me. Any good manager, coach or parent should know the person they are dealing with and how best to communicate with them. I think JB might be part of the problem with Roberson. Roberson s career has been one of the more unusual ones I can remember. I hope he finishes on a high note.

 

[Chicago44s]

Sports Psychology in real life... you don't want to have players that totally ignore pressure either. Perfect example is Andrea Bargnani.

I am sure some of you here may be familiar with the caliper test. It's a test to show how strong one is to block outside or uncontrollable forces, how strong one can handle pressure. Andrea Bargnani scored the highest grade ever by any NBA player on the test, and is a reason why Bryan Colangelo fell in love with him as a prospect. His caliper score blew him away. And Colangelo saw this as an amazing trait -- he had the "IT" factor he proclaimed.

In retrospect the reason he scored well so well on the Caliper was he didn't give a s*** about anything. Bargnani didn't give a crap what anybody else thought and felt no pressure. He played the game the way he felt like and just refused to listen to other coaches or players. He could not be motivated either positively or negatively by anybody. He was fine with being lazy and a pansy, and if someone called him lazy or a pansy he would be fine with that too.

F Bargnani and the 7 years of torture he caused me as a Raptors fan,

Wait a second, I thought Raptors fans were a myth?

 

[TheGov3304]

I would not be opposed to either of them taking gear as well...

 

[iommi]

I would not be opposed to either of them taking gear as well...

...only what they're allowed to. Don't want any violations.