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Message: [QUOTE="Zelda Zonk, post: 5274996, member: 966"] Game by game, I think there is incremental improvement in the intensity and effort on defense. It isn’t enough. We just don’t have a good defensive team and it is being coached primarily by a staff that was enveloped in a zone bubble. We still fail consistently in so many basic aspects—ball handling, playmaking, screens, rebounding, strategy; switching, hedging, rim defense, interrupting passing lanes…. I can’t think of a game aspect in which we seem competent. JJ was what I expected he would be. Lampkins is what I expected he‘d be, except I didn’t project injury. Freeman is what I expected, except I thought his jumper would be better/more consistent. His defense is poor. His rebounding is better than I expected. Elijah Moore is what I expected. A good shot maker. He will be streaky just because he’s a combination of talent and youth/immaturity. The other guys? Had zero expectations for Lucas. Davis is what I thought—strong but too short to play that bully game consistently against our competition. And Carlos…. I didn’t know what to think. I guess I was sold by some of our people talking up his game against Duke and the persistent denial that he wasn’t just a fallback and could be a starter. And then I hoped his 70 and 80 point HS romps actually meant he could score at our level. Wrong…. But, I think he improved a bit in this last game and he did well in the exhibitions. So, I think he has headroom. Just not enough. Losing JJ hurts. It sets the entire team’s development back and squelches wins, which also squelches confidence, and thwarts chemistry. And it allows easier exploitation of our remaining players by the opponents. In a way, it will be unfair to assess Red based on this season because we are minus an important cog for so long. That said, it‘s on the Staff to have had a better option at PG in he first place, which would somewhat have mitigated the loss of JJ. I don’t know what Red’s contract situation is like, but like when the AD had dumping JB on his timeline, I can imagine dumping Red is also going to come too late. I don’t know when that should happen. I’d like to see some improvement in those fundamentals THIS SEASON, just as a demonstration of competence, regardless of wins outcome. We have to start looking like we understand how to play basketball. And then we have to get better than #75-340 players in the portal. Which will be a tough ‘sell’ in any event. [/QUOTE]

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