The Downside

[SWC75]

- It seemed Michael Carter-Williams couldn’t have a worse game than the 3 for 17 game he had vs. Temple, but he “topped“ that with a 1 for 13 performance today. He was also 1 fore 3 from the foul line and had a 5-3 assist to turnover ratio, although that first number was partially of the result of his teammate missing some makeable shots.

- Our “bigs” play little. Coleman, Christmas and Keita played 43 minutes and got 2 points and 4 rebounds. JB is so down on Coleman that even when Christmas and Keita had four fouls, DC was glumly glued to the bench. He played only 5 minutes. Play after play I saw Christmas and Keita getting muscled away from the basket. The Big East is going to be a hard row to hoe for these guys.

- Has Trevor Cooney turned into Mookie Jones?

- And if he has, what do we do? Play MCW and Triche 80 minutes a game? Put Southerland or Fair in the backcourt against teams like Louisville?

 

[SBU72]

- It seemed Michael Carter-Williams couldn’t have a worse game than the 3 for 17 game he had vs. Temple, but he “topped“ that with a 1 for 13 performance today. He was also 1 fore 3 from the foul line and had a 5-3 assist to turnover ratio, although that first number was partially of the result of his teammate missing some makeable shots.

- Our “bigs” play little. Coleman, Christmas and Keita played 43 minutes and got 2 points and 4 rebounds. JB is so down on Coleman that even when Christmas and Keita had four fouls, DC was glumly glued to the bench. He played only 5 minutes. Play after play I saw Christmas and Keita getting muscled away from the basket. The Big East is going to be a hard row to hoe for these guys.

- Has Trevor Cooney turned into Mookie Jones?

- And if he has, what do we do? Play MCW and Triche 80 minutes a game? Put Southerland or Fair in the backcourt against teams like Louisville?

i did not think that Trevor played badly today. Did he play well? No., just not badly. I don't remember him giving up points. Or his man going wild. It's just as a freshman, JB doens't trust him yet. That's unfortunate as it looks that he is only going to play 7 with meanfull minutes. (6 1/2? if Xmas screws up) Shame because Grant looked pretty much ok and like I said, Tresvor was't bad. If he had sunk that shot would he have played another couple of mintes?

 

[SWC75]

i did not think that Trevor played badly today. Did he play well? No., just not badly. I don't remember him giving up points. Or his man going wild. It's just as a freshman, JB doens't trust him yet. That's unfortunate as it looks that he is only going to play 7 with meanfull minutes. (6 1/2? if Xmas screws up) Shame because Grant looked pretty much ok and like I said, Tresvor was't bad. If he had sunk that shot would he have played another couple of mintes?

If he had played better, he'd have gotten more minutes. We need more than two guards JB is willing to play in a close game.

 

[shermstheman]

Coleman is a major issue. You'd like him to play it out but clearly JB doesn't feel the same. We need offense down low and that SHOULD be where he can contribute. MCW loves those runners- it'd be nice to see some go in. The optimist in me thinks they they will...I just hope it's sooner rather than later. He could have a bad shooting day and still make 4 or 5 of those with his skill and height.

 

[OttoMets]

i did not think that Trevor played badly today. Did he play well? No., just not badly. I don't remember him giving up points. Or his man going wild. It's just as a freshman, JB doens't trust him yet. That's unfortunate as it looks that he is only going to play 7 with meanfull minutes. (6 1/2? if Xmas screws up) Shame because Grant looked pretty much ok and like I said, Tresvor was't bad. If he had sunk that shot would he have played another couple of mintes?

I agree - Cooney didn't play badly.

Whether he plays badly or not, though, the end result could be the same: huge minutes for the two starting guards. The team will be worse for that.

Our depth isn't great, but it's better than some of our past teams have had. We should take advantage of it.

 

[Fly Rodder]

Mookie couldn't play D. Cooney can.

Trevor just needs to get some offensive rhythm going.

 

[SoBristol]

I agree - Cooney didn't play badly.

Whether he plays badly or not, though, the end result could be the same: huge minutes for the two starting guards. The team will be worse for that.

Our depth isn't great, but it's better than some of our past teams have had. We should take advantage of it.

Depth is good in the front court, but not among the guards. Can't remember a team that had to rely so much on the two starting guards because of the fall-off to the first guard sub.
And there isn't much to do about it. CJ and James can't fill in at guard as ball handlers. James takes a lot of his shots from where SGs normally set up, but his dribbling (while improved) is still an adventure.
Have to tell BT and MCW to stay out of foul trouble, and hope neither turns an ankle or gets a bad cold at the wrong time.

 

[Solitude]

Maybe Coleman didn't get many minutes because it was Lob city for most of that game. Christmas and Keita provide better defense against the lob. I think Boeheim made the right choice because they couldn't get anything inside after the first few minutes.

 

[Gabjon]

- It seemed Michael Carter-Williams couldn’t have a worse game than the 3 for 17 game he had vs. Temple, but he “topped“ that with a 1 for 13 performance today. He was also 1 fore 3 from the foul line and had a 5-3 assist to turnover ratio, although that first number was partially of the result of his teammate missing some makeable shots.

- Our “bigs” play little. Coleman, Christmas and Keita played 43 minutes and got 2 points and 4 rebounds. JB is so down on Coleman that even when Christmas and Keita had four fouls, DC was glumly glued to the bench. He played only 5 minutes. Play after play I saw Christmas and Keita getting muscled away from the basket. The Big East is going to be a hard row to hoe for these guys.

- Has Trevor Cooney turned into Mookie Jones?

- And if he has, what do we do? Play MCW and Triche 80 minutes a game? Put Southerland or Fair in the backcourt against teams like Louisville?

Do you feel honored or offended that the PS stole your concept with their Sunny side/ Dark side write ups?

 

[SWC75]

Do you feel honored or offended that the PS stole your concept with their Sunny side/ Dark side write ups?

It's not such a complicated concept that only my superior intelligence could have thought of it.

 

[AccuRater]

It's not such a complicated concept that only my superior intelligence could have thought of it.

If you were writing your usual contributions for the Post-Standard rather than here, you would double their subscription rate.