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Abbreviated KP Report on Valpo - Sunday 10:30 am ESPNU

Sarr had one 2-point bucket in the entire tournament. He had 5 defensive rebounds and 3 of them were uncontested.

Might as well just start Mucius and let Hoard play the Draymond role. Play more matchup zone. I still think Sarr will be good, just not until next year...
 
Sarr had one 2-point bucket in the entire tournament. He had 5 defensive rebounds and 3 of them were uncontested.

Might as well just start Mucius and let Hoard play the Draymond role. Play more matchup zone. I still think Sarr will be good, just not until next year...

I am very surprised, shocked really, that Sarr is contributing almost nothing, especially after his hard work to get bigger/stronger and having a year of experience. Very strange.
I'm not a basketball player, but I think even I could get rebound or two and maybe a free throw is I played.
 
Sarr had one 2-point bucket in the entire tournament. He had 5 defensive rebounds and 3 of them were uncontested.

Might as well just start Mucius and let Hoard play the Draymond role. Play more matchup zone. I still think Sarr will be good, just not until next year...

Hoard cannot play the Draymond role. He's not physically strong enough to do so, nor is he anywhere near the defender he would need to be.

This isn't saying Hoard saying isn't a top level player. It's just not the player he is any way.
 
I am very surprised, shocked really, that Sarr is contributing almost nothing, especially after his hard work to get bigger/stronger and having a year of experience. Very strange.
I'm not a basketball player, but I think even I could get rebound or two and maybe a free throw is I played.

Really? Did yall not see Sarr at the end of last season? He was completely unplayable.
 
Hoard cannot play the Draymond role. He's not physically strong enough to do so, nor is he anywhere near the defender he would need to be.

This isn't saying Hoard saying isn't a top level player. It's just not the player he is any way.

Meh. This ain't the NBA. He's ripped and has the height. I mean, it's not even really an argument. He's more than doubling up anyone else on the team in rebounds. We had to pull Sarr off Smits and let Hoard play him anyway last game.

If last year didn't teach everyone that you can't have a position in college basketball that gives you nothing every night, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe the light comes on for Sarr in the near-term, but I doubt it.

The best 5 we can put on the court is far and away Chill/Wright/Brown/Mucius/Hoard. They should start and it shouldn't even be much of a discussion.
 
To restate my above observations about our talent a different way -- I think our offensive strategy is wrong based on our strengths and weaknesses.

We currently play needing a bunch of guys who can dominate their man 1:1 from the perimeter and get to the rim. But that's (perhaps surprisingly) not the strength of most of our guys. Instead what we've got are guys who have good size. are good shooters and are generally strong on the offensive glass. I haven't seen Mucius, Wright, Brown or Johnson show the ability to beat their man off the dribble. Even a guy like Hoard seems much more effective facing up from the mid-post than he is trying to slash from the wing.
 
Meh. This ain't the NBA. He's ripped and has the height. I mean, it's not even really an argument. He's more than doubling up anyone else on the team in rebounds. We had to pull Sarr off Smits and let Hoard play him anyway last game.

If last year didn't teach everyone that you can't have a position in college basketball that gives you nothing every night, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe the light comes on for Sarr in the near-term, but I doubt it.

The best 5 we can put on the court is far and away Chill/Wright/Brown/Mucius/Hoard. They should start and it shouldn't even be much of a discussion.

That's not at all what I'm saying. But the reality is without the strength he would need, he would commit more fouls and play less. Being ripped doesn't help if you are 3-5" shorter and 30 pounds lighter. He would need help which would open up other opponents.

Bill Walton was one of the best passers ever. That doesn't mean he could play PG.

As to your laughable concept that I don't understand positionless basketball, I've been posting about this for decades. But don't let get in the way of your erroneous post.
 
That's not at all what I'm saying. But the reality is without the strength he would need, he would commit more fouls and play less. Being ripped doesn't help if you are 3-5" shorter and 30 pounds lighter. He would need help which would open up other opponents.

Bill Walton was one of the best passers ever. That doesn't mean he could play PG.

As to your laughable concept that I don't understand positionless basketball, I've been posting about this for decades. But don't let get in the way of your erroneous post.

I don't think he said you don't understand positionless basketball. He said "If last year didn't teach everyone that you can't have a position in college basketball that gives you nothing every night, I don't know what to tell you." I also don't think he was calling you out specifically, even though he was responding to your post.
 
A couple of other things about Hoard playing the opposition's post are that being physically overmatched his rebounding numbers will go down dramatically and by having to box out so close to the basket he won't be as accessible on the break (which is an important part of his game).
 
Yeah I didn't say you didn't understand positionless basketball - where'd that come from?

I agree he'd need help, I agree it's not ideal. For the sake of argument - let's say we want Hoard out on the break, not being our #1 rebounder, not defending bigs. Sarr doesn't fix that. He plays smaller and weaker than Hoard. I guess option B is you start Smart or Okeke at the 5. Is that team better than Mucius/Hoard down low? I think it's obviously not.

Hey, if the point of this season is to prep Hoard for the League and lose a ton of games in the process, fine. Leave Sarr starting all year, putting up 5 and 5, giving up double that to his man. I'm just saying it's plain as day who our best 5 on the court are right now. Sarr is obviously working his ass off, but last year it was pretty clear he was 2 years away. If anything he's developing slower than that. He can't start for a decent-to-good ACC team making 1 bucket every 3 games. He just can't.
 
Sarr leads WF in blocks per defensive possession. He is 184th in the nation in that stat. Even though he should rebound better (he rebounded well on the offensive glass; #57 in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage), without him, teams will go the basket against WF at will (even more than they already do). Last year, Manning was justifiably crushed for going small to often which killed WF on defense. Seems weird that people want to do that again. Agree with the criticism of Sarr's offense as 4 two points FGs in 4 games for a starting 7 foot player is shocking, but he is hard to shoot over, and he is also a decent passer. Got to keep playing him, but pretty clear that he will not be an inside scoring presence.
 
It's way too soon to give up on any player. By merely being on the court, Sarr gives more space for Hoard, Chaundee and Mucius to get rebounds and get out on breaks. By not having to cover a big, Hoard will commit fewer fouls and play more minutes.

As mediocre as Danny's coaching has been, the one thing that has been consistent is how out post players have cleared areas for our wings and guards to get rebounds and start breaks.

Playing a zone is not a solution if your team is small. Decently coached opponents will simply throw passes over it. Additionally, it's much harder to rebound out of a zone. If you have to help/double in a zone, you will be creating wide open threes for the opponent.
 
I finally got to watch a recording of the game... my first visual of the team this year, and the good news (or bad, depending on your view) is that i don't think we have ONE player ready to test the draft waters. We may lose a half dozen, or so to transfer, etc... but we shouldn't be worried about anyone looking to get paid next year.
 
Meh. This ain't the NBA. He's ripped and has the height. I mean, it's not even really an argument. He's more than doubling up anyone else on the team in rebounds. We had to pull Sarr off Smits and let Hoard play him anyway last game.

If last year didn't teach everyone that you can't have a position in college basketball that gives you nothing every night, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe the light comes on for Sarr in the near-term, but I doubt it.

The best 5 we can put on the court is far and away Chill/Wright/Brown/Mucius/Hoard. They should start and it shouldn't even be much of a discussion.

Agree with this.
 
Sarr leads WF in blocks per defensive possession. He is 184th in the nation in that stat. Even though he should rebound better (he rebounded well on the offensive glass; #57 in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage), without him, teams will go the basket against WF at will (even more than they already do). Last year, Manning was justifiably crushed for going small to often which killed WF on defense. Seems weird that people want to do that again. Agree with the criticism of Sarr's offense as 4 two points FGs in 4 games for a starting 7 foot player is shocking, but he is hard to shoot over, and he is also a decent passer. Got to keep playing him, but pretty clear that he will not be an inside scoring presence.

I generally believe you need to play your height but Sarr is not good. Play your best 5 and if Hoard is getting in foul trouble bring in Smart or Sunday. They bring more to the table.

The difference in the "small" lineup this year is that you have some good size (other than Chill) from your small players. May not work but would allow you to be quick and potent offensively.
 
I finally got to watch a recording of the game... my first visual of the team this year, and the good news (or bad, depending on your view) is that i don't think we have ONE player ready to test the draft waters. We may lose a half dozen, or so to transfer, etc... but we shouldn't be worried about anyone looking to get paid next year.

I will be surprised if this post ages well during next years NBA draft.
 
I definitely think we should play small for 5-10 minutes a game depending on matchups. I don't like our chances of mounting a comeback with Sarr on the floor, so a small lineup may be a better option at the end of games.
 
Plus I think a great game by Sarr against a good team would mean he gets hot from outside, tosses in a few offensive putbacks, has a nice night on the boards. He can get to 15 and 10 that way, but I just described a stretch 4, not a center.

I really don't think flipping Mucius for Sarr makes us much "smaller" based on their play so far. It's not "if we take Sarr out, we won't have a center." We already don't have a center with Sarr playing. So start our best players, keep the bench short, but play Sarr as the stretch 4 he is right now and let Smart/Okeke give some minutes when we need a 5.

He's 6th in minutes anyway. I don't know maybe everyone else loved starting Terrence Thompson for no reason all last year.
 
This is hugely different than starting Terrence Thompson. It would have been good not to start him, because we had Doral on the back line. But we don't have a big or tall body if Hoard is our biggest guy. Mucius' skill set and physical traits are much closer to a SG than to a PF.

Plus, both guys are young. It's hard enough to learn your natural slots but to ask them to do so much more, and mostly against people who are experienced and talented at they do, is too much of an ask.

It's one thing to play one guy in a position where is physically mismatched. It's much more difficult to have two. More importantly, it's much more harmful to your team to have your two best players (yes, Mucius is #2) playing out of position and in places that don't support their talent.

This is much different than having a big, a ball handler and three wings alternating playing different roles.
 
BTW, who starts really is not relevant unless WF is getting blown out in the first 4 minutes which has not happened. Total minutes is the key.

Mucius is currently 4th on the team in minutes. So far the minute distribution is as follows:

1. Childress (by necessity) 36 min/game
2. Hoard 32
3. Wright 25
4. Mucius 24
5. Brown 23
6. Sarr 20
7. Johnson 19
8. Smart 8
9. Lewis 6
10. Sunday 5


So, the 5 guys that are considered WF's best players have been given the most minutes. Also, matchups play a role. Valpo had 7-1 240 Center. Would make no sense to match up Hoard against him unless you want Hoard to foul out. When WF plays teams without a strong inside player, Sarr may see his minutes decline. Considering that WF had to play 3 games and 4 days which dictates using more of your bench, WF played the right combinations considering foul trouble and the strengths of the opponent.
 
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