Target RayJ Dennis is not likely…

[palos_verdes_ute]

Bad news is that shooting guard RayJ Dennis is likely not going to sign with us. My crystal ball sees him at Michigan or Illinois. The good news is that Craig Smith is finally seeing Rollie is not an answer to our point guard needs.

The fact that we have Devion Smith and CS went after RayJ means he is willing to let someone run the Point.

[Ute Dub]

My thoughts: Rollie is like a rich man’s Rudy Rutiger. Tons of heart, tons of hustle, listens to coaches, good teammate, rebounds, plays defense, etc. Difficult for a coach not to reward a kid like that. But if you want go on a run in the tourney, or even get there, you need a backcourt that’s at least top 3 in the conference and typically 1 of the two guards needs to be able to create some offense. And for that tourney run, one of the two guards needs to have NBA potential. Love the kid, but we need to match the athleticism of the top guards in the conference.  

[Utesby1]

Last year Rollie went from “why do we play him” to “he is doing some nice things out there.” If he continues to improve, he can be a legitimate Pac-12 point guard this year. Sadly, many players never show the year-to-year improvement that Rollie has shown.

[//r00t4Utes]

My biggest and really only problem that I had with Rollie is just how many minutes he got, both him and Anthony.

Loved the heart and hustle and all those little things coaches like but at a certain point there’s diminishing returns on that (their weaknesses get more exposed) their talent just didn’t justify playing almost the entire game and being the leaders in minutes played.

[palos_verdes_ute]

It’s really simple – Rollie is a great player in a mid major conference.  Doesn’t cut it in the PAC12.   Craig needs to know that you can only go so far in coaching up a player.  Bottom line is we need talent, we need at leat 2 or 3 professional caliber players (Euro or NBA) to be competitive.