Wrinkle
Tyrolian Cat Eater
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- Nov 11, 2019
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I'm of the thinking that in the college game, the keys to building a roster that is a threat to any team are relatively simple, and more predicated on mixing the right archetypes than obtaining elite talent.
If you can field a team with three solid perimeter playmakers at positions 1-3, you are already on the way to being a dangerous offensive team. And I'm not talking about elite passers and creators -- just guards and wings who can take their man off the dribble and make something happen. At the 2 and 3, really just a guy who can get to the rim and finish and shoot the ball a little bit. When you can threaten this kind of penetration from multiple positions (haha), you become very difficult to consistently defend at the college level. Round out the roster with shooters and athletes, and a single solid big who can finish, defend and rebound.
I look back on the Flynn-era teams as a great example of this concept. Those teams were not stocked with elite talent, and nor were they elite teams. But they were pretty goddamn good, and could go toe-to-toe with any opponent on any night. Most mid-majors we see do well in March are like this as well; they surely do not have great talent, but they almost always have a couple no name guards who are simply solid, all-around offensive threats. Usually they have a very workmanlike big man or two who gets the basics done. Just a Big *ick Rick Jackson.
We have the shooters right now, in Girard, Buddy and Hughes. And Hughes also is pretty much exactly the sort of solid, multi-faceted offense player I'm discussing here.
We don't need world beaters (and we're not getting them, right now), just the right sort of pieces. And this is indeed a failure of recruiting, but just not the sort of failure that most seem to think. We don't need elite talent, we need the staff to identify the right kinds of players.
By the way, I think this team can still be good.
If you can field a team with three solid perimeter playmakers at positions 1-3, you are already on the way to being a dangerous offensive team. And I'm not talking about elite passers and creators -- just guards and wings who can take their man off the dribble and make something happen. At the 2 and 3, really just a guy who can get to the rim and finish and shoot the ball a little bit. When you can threaten this kind of penetration from multiple positions (haha), you become very difficult to consistently defend at the college level. Round out the roster with shooters and athletes, and a single solid big who can finish, defend and rebound.
I look back on the Flynn-era teams as a great example of this concept. Those teams were not stocked with elite talent, and nor were they elite teams. But they were pretty goddamn good, and could go toe-to-toe with any opponent on any night. Most mid-majors we see do well in March are like this as well; they surely do not have great talent, but they almost always have a couple no name guards who are simply solid, all-around offensive threats. Usually they have a very workmanlike big man or two who gets the basics done. Just a Big *ick Rick Jackson.
We have the shooters right now, in Girard, Buddy and Hughes. And Hughes also is pretty much exactly the sort of solid, multi-faceted offense player I'm discussing here.
We don't need world beaters (and we're not getting them, right now), just the right sort of pieces. And this is indeed a failure of recruiting, but just not the sort of failure that most seem to think. We don't need elite talent, we need the staff to identify the right kinds of players.
By the way, I think this team can still be good.
