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Message: [QUOTE="OrangeZeus, post: 1951309, member: 4174"] Coleman played 17.5 mpg last season. I expect him to play somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 mpg this season. Maybe more, maybe less. But that's about half the game right there for Coleman. A lot still depends on how Chukwu performs. Is he going to only spell minutes at C or is he actually going to be more than a body to throw on the court and provide us with quality minutes. If it's the latter, I think he gets at least 10 mpg, maybe up to 15 mpg. That would leave about 5-10 mpg left to split between Thompson and Lydon at the center position. If Chukwu turns out to be a liability by the time we get to ACC play, then I'd definitely expect Lydon to eat into Chukwu's minutes. But it's still too early to write off Chukwu just yet. We also have to take into account the opponent. Against some teams we can afford to play smaller with Lydon at center. Maybe a team like Pitt since their best big, Michael Young, is 6'9 235. Lydon can compete against that size. Now if it's someone like BeeJay Anya, I'd much rather see a bigger body on him than Lydon. Lydon got pushed around too much last year. Granted he gained more strength, so maybe he'd do a little better this season, but I'm not sold on Lydon getting minutes at center like he did last year. Last year he played center out of necessity. Hopefully it doesn't have to be that way this year. I also wouldn't put Lydon at center to make our offense better if it just makes our defense worse. We'll be fine offensively no matter which defensive position Lydon is playing. White and Battle can fill it up. Roberson will clean up the glass for easy put backs. Howard and Gillon could breakout any given game. My main concern this year is defense. A lot of new faces will be getting minutes in the zone this year. We have the length, but not the experience. Last year's zone was great because of Gbinije and Cooney being experienced at the top of the zone. We don't have the luxury of experienced guards in the 2-3 zone this year. Tl;dr I expect Lydon to play some center just about every game. But depending on how Chukwu performs before ACC play, hopefully Lydon doesn't have to play center unless it's against an opponent where we can afford to play small. [/QUOTE]

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