*** I have no idea what this team is going to look like when they are up against good competition. ACU might be decent, they might be bad. I have no idea.***
First of all. I was at least partially wrong about this team, and Smith. He did a great job replacing all those dopes that left last year. Seeing all the names of guys that left last year really emphasised to me the amazing work Smith had to do to get a respectable team together. Jantunen, Martinez, Jones, Allen, Plummer, Pelle. That’s a lot to replace, and Smith may have done that and more.
Coaching: Smith is clearly a better coach at this point in his career than K was last year. It’s not even a little bit close. The offense moves the ball SOOOOO much quicker. Seemingly gone are the days of multiple shot clock violations in a half, and generally terrible offensive possesions where we don’t even attempt to get the ball inside the three point line.
PG: I love Jones since his father had a huge impact on my life, but Worster is easily better. He’s a step down from Pelle athletically, but is a more polished product, and still a freshman. Gach will give us added athleticism if/when he’s allowed to play.
Wing: Jenkins is a good scorer. Him vs plummer is a wash IMO. Plummer gave minimal effort on defense at times, Jenkins seems to do the same. Marco Anthony does the stuff that Jenkins doesn’t. I think this group brings a more total package to the table than last year’s SG group. Didn’t really see anything of note with Brenchley, Madsen, or stefanovic. My guess is those guys won’t get regular minutes.
Bigs: Battin does not, and has never belonged on a D1 roster. His only valuable skill is an incredibly unreliable three point shot, and he hardly ever pulls the trigger. He tries hard, there I said something nice about him. Mahorcic was a HUGE get for Smith. He is exactly what we needed. He’s mature, he’s angry, he’s strong, he is relatively smart with the ball in his hands. I REALLY like him, and would honeslty not be upset to see him start over Carlson, or in some cases start him alongside Carlson. If he is slower than Battin at all, it’s not by much. Carlson showed increased toughness down low on offense, but was surprisingly useless defensively. He really struggled to keep up with ACU’s smaller players. He had a really nifty post move or two which was a welcome sight. I don’t want to see him bringing the ball up the floor. NO THANK YOU! I really wish we had held onto either Allen or Jantunen TBH. I think this group is a slight step down from last year’s group because Battin will inevitably get more playing time than he has any right to have.
Overall I actually think this team has a chance to be better than last year’s mediocre team, but not by much. I wasn’t wrong about this team not having a single NBA caliber player on the roster. There are no stand-out athletes on this team. Anthony is decently athletic, but isn’t very skilled offensively. Worster is BARELY athletic enough to be a good D1 point guard, but his size helps there. I think we will compete very well with the non-elites of the pac12, and may even finish in the top half of the conference. We will struggle mightily to to compete against teams that have superior athletes. I don’t see us being able to create shots against long athletic teams like Oregon.
While this team doesn’t have the potential that it would have had some of our young guys from last year stayed, I think this year’s team is actually better than last year’s team. If we had held onto Larsson or Jantunen to take Battin’s minutes, I think we would actually have a decent shot at making the tourney this year. Unfortunately, we will likely be forced to play a massive waste of space for significant chunks of time every game, and that will cost us dearly.
Also, I think Carlson will benefit from having a coach who actually wants to help him be better.
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