Grad Transfer: Landon Goesling - Committed & Signed 06/08

I’m not frustrated with Galen.

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Yeah 38% is good; but we want great!! We want 90% from the 3, 95% from the floor, and 100% from the stripe. I also want to be tall, handsome, and have a full head of hair. Chances are about the same.

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he has some D1 experience playing for Appy St. If he can provide us what Van Beck did then i’ll be happy.

Don’t forget to add that we also want them to speak like Harvard graduates.

That’s why I said “most of us.” “Most of us” expect guards to at least be able to shoot a 3 if their life depended on it.

Personally, I would prefer he improve his FT percentage into the 80’s…

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That would also help.

Galen improving his 3pt % from 18 to 30 would do more for his game than improving his FT% from 70 to 80. There were many times last year we got the defense rotating into help with a drive from Rob or someone else and then the ball would swing around the perimeter but the defense could take their time closing out on Galen. Any advantage gained from Rob or whoever initially beating their man at the point of attack was lost. If Galen was any sort of threat to hit a 3 the defense would have to close out hard on him and then he could blow by. Defenses would also sag off of him and clog driving and cutting lanes from the start.

Galen is a warrior and a solid contributor but he would be exponentially more valuable if he could become a remotely credible three point threat. It’s bizarre that his 3pt shot has gotten worse every year since he’s been here.

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The injury prior to last season probably had something to do with Galen’s lack of advancement in that department last year. When the season started, he was still playing himself into shape after rehab. From what I’ve seen, he’s spending time this offseason working on his shooting. Have a feeling he’ll be better.

Hopefully, he can as I’ve seen a number of projections putting him and Jarreau in the starting lineup. Problem is Jarreau has about the same skill set as Galen does and only shot 19% from 3 at UMass 2 seasons ago. Hopefully, he’s improved on his shot since then as well.

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yeah, galens 3’s are way more essential, not just to the team, but his future. no one is looking for a 6ft point who cant shoot, even in Europe. but like pray noted, everyone is evident about that, including Galen who has nba dreams…on his insta every single day in the 1 month off period (when the kids are supposed to be on break w family) he posted stories of himself by himself in the practice facility shooting shots … i expect his shooting to improve, not just by percent but also frequency

teams really disrespected him last year by not even guarding him. the most memorable one to me is lsu and their star point guard tremont waters… he didnt even guard him at all till he got in the paint, and was playing help defense on others. and wasnt punished once, and actually benefitted from it


these have to be easy 3 points next year…a 5’10 guard giving you that much cushing

but dejon and galen are different…galen didnt take many shots and missed the few he took…dejon shoots a lot and misses a lot…galen hesitates to pull the trigger, dejon will not…
dejon is a shooter who just had a very bad year, he was shooting in the 40%-ish in high school/aau…if we can get him to about 33% that will be enough for what we need

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Since he has skill getting to the basket as opposed to shooting 3’s is why his FT percentage is more important to me.

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Part of the problem with Galen is that he just refused to shoot it from out there. Having played the game myself for a while, I can tell you that if an offensive player initiates a shooting motion, a defender is not stopping to think, “I don’t need to close out on this guy because he’s a terrible shooter.” Reflexes kick in and the defender closes out.

In Galen’s case, it wasn’t as much apathy about closing out on him as it was lagging way into the lane on him. Like someone mentioned earlier, that made it easier for defenders to cut off cuts to the basket and rotate onto real shooters like Rob, Corey and Armoni. And the reason they lagged into the lane in the first place is because Galen simply would not pull the trigger out there regardless of how wide open he was. He never made defenders think about, much less respect the possibility that he would shoot a 3. So, even if his percentage never improves, it’s probably worth it for him to shoot five 3s a game just to keep his defender out of the lane when he’s handling the ball beyond the 3 point line. And since we’re already a pretty good offensive rebounding team, throwing up almost certain misses is even less painful.

Just my lay person thoughts.

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Interesting rationale. You don’t think it would be good for him to become a better three point shooter because he doesn’t shoot threes because he is a bad three point shooter?

Maybe…the big factor here is does CKS want him shooting 3’s ??

I have no idea. We have other 3 point shooters…maybe CKS wants him the drive and dish !

I don’t think any modern coach (and CKS is definitely a modern coach) wouldn’t want his PG to shoot 3’s if he can make them. You mentioned drive and kick, which is great, but the issue is that with defenses having zero respect for his 3pt shot it’s much easier for them to sag and clog the paint creating less driving lanes and opportunities to kick the rock to better shooters. Pesik’s gif does a great job of illustrating the problem with a defense not having to respect his shot at all. When we say it would transform his game to add a respectable 3ball the actual points that come from making 3s are only part of the equation. The bigger factor is that it will create better floor spacing and cutting/driving lanes.

It’s not realistic to expect him to all of the sudden make 2 of 5 per game next year. But if he could get back to 1 of 3 like his freshman season that would really help the team out*. In any event, that’s my last word on whether it would be good for him to improve his range so you can have the last word if you want it.

Pesik/Pray, glad to hear he’s working on his shot. The injury is a decent theory for the regression. Thinking about it more he’s also improved substantially as a defender as well and maybe the extra effort on that end of the floor combined with injury-related conditioning issues could be a factor.

*EDIT: Was looking at his per 40 stat line. He hit .6 on 1.8 shots per game as a freshman. 1 out of 3 a game would be ambitious but semi-plausible and really open things up for him and the team.

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i think Galen will surprise some people
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjaQkRAgAAl/?taken-by=g_robinson1

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Apparently Galen isn’t playing Fortnite all summer.

If Galen starts shooting threes like that…oh boy, not only should the rest of the AAC take serious notice…but the rest of the nation better watch out for this team. We just might be a total offensive juggernaut full of sharpshooters.

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Thanks for the clarification on Jarreau and Galen. Knew they were both slashers with speed, but didn’t realize that Jarreau could shoot as I hadn’t found his high school stats. Makes me feel better about the projections now.

Lord, I get excited about our guards/wings this year. Davis, Jarreau, Galen, Hinton, Armoni, Goesling, and Grant. Lot of depth there with a lot of different weapons to be able to use.

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Get that muscle memory down and the confidence level up. Love it!

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https://twitter.com/lando_1_/status/1030821613057519618

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