That’s the problem of having four freshmen in the rotation, although McCarty is a redshirt and has been with the program a year.
Frankly, Tugler has been a disappointment this year. Hoping it clicks in for him and he can become the rebounder we all know he is capable of .
Cenac is a great talent, but really soft when it comes to playing around the rim. But the good news is Sampson will keep pushing him and Harwell to get more aggressive.
I think part of our problem has been not blocking out, but once again that will come with experience.
Sometimes I wonder if these five star freshmen spent their entire prep careers doing nothing but shooting threes lol.
We are so blessed to have experienced warriors like Sharp, Tug and Walker to help teach the youngsters on the court.
I am excited about this team, but frankly we are still not close to what we will be.
And that, folks, should put some scare in opposing teams going forth.
BTW, I left out Mercy, but I have noticed he has become more aggressive and sure of himself in his offensive game. He hustles on defense but still gets lost at times. But I think it is finally beginning to click with him and that is a good thing.
Of course everyone should know I love McCarty’s game. Him and Harwell have shown signs of being really good shooters at times and both really seem to enjoy playing defense. With experience our defense will end up really good…
I made the same observation after 2-3 games and was told that we didn’t need Chris in the paint. It was a funny rebuttal then, and even funnier now.
Braden Smith is way overrated in my opinion… I’d take Kingston AND Uzan over him any day of the week and twice on Sundays!
Cenak is our leading rebounder at 7.5/game.
Imagine what he could do, if he stopped being soft. /s
He’s probably the team’s best at rebounds per minute, as well.
The whole team could be better, but Cenac almost has as many rebounds as the next two guys on the list combined (Tugler and Flemings). This group just isn’t very good at getting a body on someone and sealing off the boards.
The things Cenac really needs to add are on defense - primarily steals and blocks. And he’s too good of a shooter to be at ~50% from the FT line. But this thing about his rebounding isn’t a thing.
Wasn’t nothing soft about some of those boards either!
It’s a fair critique that he doesn’t drive the bucket hard… but I’m sure we’re working on that…
They extrapolated some numbers during the last game on Mercy… and they would be pretty damn good with more minutes.
I can’t wait until teams have to try to take away his J at the FT line… it’s gonna be dunks for him & Tug all day!
Mercy has been better, but his rebounding per minute looks more like Kingston’s or Sharp’s.
The thing I’m most interested in is or defensive improvement last week more from our competition level or were things really starting to click in our system for the young kids?
Obviously Jackson State and UNO played a factor in how good it looked. But it absolutely looked cleaner than previously. Be interesting to see it against a high level offensive opponent.
Some of you will just have to wait until UH’s rebounding and blocking machine arrives next year in 7’1”, 290 lbs., Arafan Diane.
I know Cenac will most likely enter the NBA draft after this season but can you imagine a front line of Cenac and Diane, with possibly Harwell and Holt in the lineup?
Even their offense bogs down if you slow down Toppin…
He is really good…we were in Indianapolis for the regional finals last year and he was very impressive as a player and leader. Not saying he is the best around, but he can be a load at crunch time. That said, I would not trade our two starting guards for for Purdue’s backcourt.
And ps…I hope we get to play the Boilermakers in Indianapolis this year also, in the finals. Of course they would have a tremendous edge with the crowd, but we seem to play better under those circumstances…
The pigs will be a good test to see where UH is. Hypothetically, if we wipe them out, our players could relax and go on cruise control. If UH gets stomped, the daisies on this blog will go ballistic and call for the firing squad. If its close and we lose, the daisies will blame Sampson. If its close and we win the daisies will grudgingly credit the players, but still BMW.
Frankly, I could care less if we win or not. The EXPERIENCE of going against a fully loaded SEC team will be invaluable in March.
Tugler is doing great! Methinks he’s trying to figure out how to play hard without fouling. IMO he is going to kick some serious a** in March. What we really need is for Cenac to play to his height and get meaner.
Oh we need to win this is on CBS , national television, great exposure, but not the end of the world if we lose
They won’t make the final four…
I was in Indy last year, too… he’s better than I gave him credit for, but not nearly as good as the national media would have you believe.
It may not affect the seeding for the dance either way
winning this will help with margin of error moving forward but in terms of being a 1 seed again the games we have to win are against arizona and iowa state