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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 1978959, member: 837"] I think the scary thing is that for all the excitement on the board about this group, none of what we saw vs. South Carolina is necessarily shocking, right? Now before anyone gets fired up and accuses me of burying this team I'll lay this disclaimer out there -- this is still a very talented team that will get better as the year moves along and should give many teams nightmares this season. But consider what got exposed Saturday: [B]Gillon was out-of-control and not nearly as effective as he had been in earlier games.[/B] Not shocking, right? I like Gillon and believe he will be a major asset this season overall but how he fares against better, more talented, bigger athletes is a question that still needs to be answered. [B]White had trouble creating[/B] Yup -- there were some that were talking about how White should be in the NBA right now and others talking about how it was impressive that he had put the ball on the deck at times in the first few games. Against good teams, shots will need to be created for White. This is a fact. The good news is he doesn't need much space and he can shoot from halfcourt, but the reality is that he isn't going to create a lot for himself or, potentially more troubling, for others. White had 20 assists all of last season. He's certainly going to best that but this is a guy who is a shooter first and foremost and to expect too much creating from him is setting him up for failure, IMO. [B]Battle was non-existent[/B] It's funny b/c I know he dominated the scrimmages but for those of us who have only seen battle in regular season games he's flashed big potential but spent a lot of his time shooting 3s. The good news is he seems like a better shooter than was reported. The bad news is that a big, really athletic dude has shot 3s on 15 of his 24 FG attempts and, worse, has made just two shots all season inside the arc. That is crazy. Now again, the good news is he's young and likely to improve, get more comfortable, etc. and we'll see that inherent talent. The bad news is that right now he's playing extremely passively on offense (1 FT attempt in the past four games). [B]We will end up with roughly a 7.5-man rotation[/B] I don't know if this game proves it per se, but it shouldn't be shocking. Chukwu will get minutes b/c obviously if he figures something out (and you have to give him a chance to do so) he's a big asset. But in games that matter and especially at key moments in those games -- this team will have howard/gillon/white/lydon/roberson with thompson and Battle fitting in depending on how they play. Coleman is a great kid and great story but is unlikely to log huge minutes outside of desperation. Chukwu may have something but he's a work in progress and that's probably being kind. The idea that we were really exceptionally deep this year was always a bit overblown, IMO. [B]Lydon was solid but still looked a little out of sorts offensively[/B] Most of this is probably SC's style combined with the struggles of others, but Lydon is still clearly trying to figure out his identity this year. The good news is he's a great player even on his bad nights. [B]Howard wasn't great[/B] I actually think people are killing Howard a bit unfairly -- I mean, 10 points, 1 turnover which was a BS charge call and 3 assists in 24 minutes isn't awesome but it's hardly our biggest issue in that game. That said, this is a kid that still needs to be able to put consistent games together. We know what he can do but I think JB is still waiting for him to grab the reigns of this team and just be a consistent factor at all times every game. Obviously he's still going to have turnovers and missed shots, but mentally he needs to be engaged. The only real surprise to me was the ugly performance Roberson put together. Really hope he rebounds (figuratively and literally) against Wisc along with everyone else. [/QUOTE]

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