A few thoughts on some of the bigger questions and themes for this program now that the roster is set (or appears to be until something completely unforeseen happens in the next couple months ...)
Reason No. 1 it's great to have Battle back: Experience and continuity matter
Outside of the couple blue bloods who are pulling in entire classes full of one-and-dones, there are only a few programs that have maintained a high level of play the past five years or so. I'm not claiming this to be a comprehensive list but the Novas, UNCs, Kansases, Gonzagas -- they've all had good core players returning to their roster and then sprinkled in some contributions from younger players.
Blame it on whatever but we haven't been there. Battle returning gives us a starting backcourt with seven years combined experience. Additionally, we have a fifth-year center a two returnees who logged a ton of big minutes (Brissett and Dolezaj) and Sidibe did more than get his feet wet, logging close to 400 minutes. I'd even include a guy like Hughes in the sense that he's two years removed from high school and practiced with the team for an entire year.
Compare that to this season where we had Battle (11 ppg as a frosh) and then Howard who was a junior and logged a bunch of minutes then whatever we were going to get from Thorpe and chuckwu. Hard to quantify that difference.
Reason No. 2 it's great to have Battle back: Battle the person
Said this in another thread but I think a huge thing about Battle coming back is that your best player is your hardest worker and a really, really solid kid. Seems to be huge in the lockerroom, takes fitness extremely seriously (4% body fat), plays 40 mpg, kills it in the classroom, seems to love being orange ... the list goes on. Don't think this stuff is just fluff. It matters and it hopefully helps us change the culture just a bit to encourage more kids to hang around or sign on with us.
What does Dolezaj look like in Year 2?
So I'm a huge fan of players like Dolezaj (guys who can make a big impact without needing the ball in their hands), but we saw him start to emerge as more of a factor on offense at the end of the year (something like 10 a game in his last six or seven games). We saw that mid-range jumper fall a bit more and he was stroking it from the line, which is a good indication that he's at least able to shoot.
So I don't know exactly what we'll see here, but if Dolezaj is a legit threat to score 15 on any night, then this offense should dramatically improve. Which brings up the next point ...
How much better ... really ... is the offense in '18-'19?
This to me is really the key question when we talk about top 25, top 10, final four contender types of discussions. What we know is that JB's offense (and I love the guy) is unlikely to change dramatically or be particularly progressive. We know he's unlikely to tinker a ton with lineups. We could see Battle at the 3 if Carey is ready to make an impact or Hughes at the 3 if he's ready to play, which could mean some stretches of Dolezaj at the 5. But ultimately we'll see a lot of the basic lineup of Howard/Battle/Brissett/Dolezaj/Chuckwu, if I had to guess.
We scored 66.6 ppg (317th) last season and just 64.5 in ACC play. Our offensive rating was brutal (240th overall). Will we really get that much better with the same players back and, for all intents and purposes, the same system? My answer is yes. I think the biggest thing is not so much that we will miraculously play at a faster pace and put up 80 ppg, but more that if all we do is go from ugly and brutal at times, to solid (let's say 72 ppg and 70 ppg in ACC play) that gives us so much more wiggle room. We won't have to be perfect to win games b/c of our defense, but we should be able to win some of those games when opponents are able to do a bit more on the offensive end.
By the end of the year we saw Chuckwu at least doing a little better job of finishing alley-oops and bunnies, we saw Dolezaj start to hit that mid-range jumper and we saw Battle doing a little more creating for others. Add to that that we won't need to rely quite so heavily on Howard and potentially have a healthy Sidibe and we go from playing 3-on-5 at most times last season to at least playing 4-on-5 and should be able to go with some lineups that make it 5-on-5.
I'll add more to this later but just wanted to get a start before the weekend. It's nice to be excited for a season again.
Reason No. 1 it's great to have Battle back: Experience and continuity matter
Outside of the couple blue bloods who are pulling in entire classes full of one-and-dones, there are only a few programs that have maintained a high level of play the past five years or so. I'm not claiming this to be a comprehensive list but the Novas, UNCs, Kansases, Gonzagas -- they've all had good core players returning to their roster and then sprinkled in some contributions from younger players.
Blame it on whatever but we haven't been there. Battle returning gives us a starting backcourt with seven years combined experience. Additionally, we have a fifth-year center a two returnees who logged a ton of big minutes (Brissett and Dolezaj) and Sidibe did more than get his feet wet, logging close to 400 minutes. I'd even include a guy like Hughes in the sense that he's two years removed from high school and practiced with the team for an entire year.
Compare that to this season where we had Battle (11 ppg as a frosh) and then Howard who was a junior and logged a bunch of minutes then whatever we were going to get from Thorpe and chuckwu. Hard to quantify that difference.
Reason No. 2 it's great to have Battle back: Battle the person
Said this in another thread but I think a huge thing about Battle coming back is that your best player is your hardest worker and a really, really solid kid. Seems to be huge in the lockerroom, takes fitness extremely seriously (4% body fat), plays 40 mpg, kills it in the classroom, seems to love being orange ... the list goes on. Don't think this stuff is just fluff. It matters and it hopefully helps us change the culture just a bit to encourage more kids to hang around or sign on with us.
What does Dolezaj look like in Year 2?
So I'm a huge fan of players like Dolezaj (guys who can make a big impact without needing the ball in their hands), but we saw him start to emerge as more of a factor on offense at the end of the year (something like 10 a game in his last six or seven games). We saw that mid-range jumper fall a bit more and he was stroking it from the line, which is a good indication that he's at least able to shoot.
So I don't know exactly what we'll see here, but if Dolezaj is a legit threat to score 15 on any night, then this offense should dramatically improve. Which brings up the next point ...
How much better ... really ... is the offense in '18-'19?
This to me is really the key question when we talk about top 25, top 10, final four contender types of discussions. What we know is that JB's offense (and I love the guy) is unlikely to change dramatically or be particularly progressive. We know he's unlikely to tinker a ton with lineups. We could see Battle at the 3 if Carey is ready to make an impact or Hughes at the 3 if he's ready to play, which could mean some stretches of Dolezaj at the 5. But ultimately we'll see a lot of the basic lineup of Howard/Battle/Brissett/Dolezaj/Chuckwu, if I had to guess.
We scored 66.6 ppg (317th) last season and just 64.5 in ACC play. Our offensive rating was brutal (240th overall). Will we really get that much better with the same players back and, for all intents and purposes, the same system? My answer is yes. I think the biggest thing is not so much that we will miraculously play at a faster pace and put up 80 ppg, but more that if all we do is go from ugly and brutal at times, to solid (let's say 72 ppg and 70 ppg in ACC play) that gives us so much more wiggle room. We won't have to be perfect to win games b/c of our defense, but we should be able to win some of those games when opponents are able to do a bit more on the offensive end.
By the end of the year we saw Chuckwu at least doing a little better job of finishing alley-oops and bunnies, we saw Dolezaj start to hit that mid-range jumper and we saw Battle doing a little more creating for others. Add to that that we won't need to rely quite so heavily on Howard and potentially have a healthy Sidibe and we go from playing 3-on-5 at most times last season to at least playing 4-on-5 and should be able to go with some lineups that make it 5-on-5.
I'll add more to this later but just wanted to get a start before the weekend. It's nice to be excited for a season again.
