I think Kent State is a Sweet 16 caliber team. Yeah, I said it. That was UH caliber defense against UH. They have streaky shooters that clearly can get hot in the right environment.
Let’s see how Kent State looks at Gonzaga on 12/5.
Not worried about Sasser’s 3 ball. The guy has the green light until he graduates as far as I am concerned. What Kent State did that no one else has this year is they overplayed and to a large extent shut down the in-between middle distance shots.
We do need one reliable 3 ball shooter to give some spacing. Maybe it’s Sharp, maybe it’s not. Maybe we’re just going to D and rebound our way to a national title too. Loved Francis’ minutes tonight.
More times than not those offensive rebounds turn into 2nd chance points. Today we were missing within 3 feet of the cup…it happens. Not going to sweat this. I’d be willing to bet we’ll be up to snuff by the St. Mary’s game next weekend. If we’re #1 great, if not, that’s ok too. On to the next one!
Maybe we need to accept that a wholly productive Jarace won’t be seen until after Christmas. He’s still learning and looked lost when our 3’s went down the tube. Eventually he will find his sweet spot and then he’ll take off. But we didn’t get Jarace to just be a rebounder. For the time being I expect 7-9 rebounds a game and the occasional rim-rattling outburst.
When Jarace gets to double-double level we…will…not…be beaten.
Sampson mentioned in one of his past interviews that Jarrace is pretty good at everything but not great at one particular move. Hopefully as the season progresses we see him develop one aspect of his game that becomes reliable, whether it’s a fadeaway jumper, 3 pointer, or low post shot.
Personally, I’d like to see him play more down low as he’s a good passer and has the strength to score inside. However, I think Sampson likes to play four-out with one guy in the middle.
Yeah. Top 75-100, for sure. Top 50. Don’t think so.
But, like I said. We have lost to worse. And so have many top ranked teams in the past. It’s basketball. Anyone can lose on any given day.
Good thing about the dance, though, is you don’t have to be one of the best 16 in a 7 game series. Just need to be better in one particular game. Which is why college basketball is the greatest sport on earth.
This team is terrific defensively, there’s no doubt about it. Offensively, however, this team DOES have weaknesses in my opinion.
As I said, we have lots of scorers, but very few shooters at this point in time. It could be that over the course of season, we see guys like TA and Sharp become outside shooting threats. Both of these guys have the potential to be really good outside shooters. The keyword here being ‘potential’.
The flu will affect your shot. It makes your legs weaker. These guys are elite athletes. The slightest weakness will be exsposed. It was an enjoyable game. Guts
Your comment on Sasser was spot on. We were so highly ranked mainly bcoz of him coming back. It is a matter of concern to say the least. Disappointing will be an understatement at this point. I hope he becomes more aggressive and he gets out of the slump he is in.
His composure throughout the game, his defensive shutdown of his opponent, his outright leadership on the court, but yeah, he is just average.
Damn Coog fans are so jaded by football decisions and brooks/drexler/Dickey/maccullum basketball years that we can’t accept that we are really good, that we have amazing players and only 6 ncaa champions of all time did it without losing a game.
Don’t win by 43 and we have problems and pitfalls.
context is that is the standard being measured upon…
if we were a barely top 25 team and sasser was projected just a 2nd team all-aac…there wouldnt be any complaints …and Sasser’s production would be passable
but we are going to be the #1 team in the nation and sasser is a projected 1st team all-american and the best guard in the country… that is the standard we are compared upon
we just struggled with 2 passable but not great teams, and sasser is putting up horrible efficiency numbers …
you have 3 options. 1) note we are overrated, 2) note we are not playing to our capability and need to improve 3) blissful ignorance and refuse to acknowledge anything negative in a sunshine coog glasses
Jarace has to grow up. There’s too many times he gets surprised of the physicality of the other teams and he’s out of position a couple of times. Sasser and Tramon need to be more selfish. So does Jarace he makes a pass when he should be going for the basket. I appreciate their grit and how well they play together. Just need to be more dominating and not let other teams push us around.
That’s fair, but you’re also being way too hard on Sasser. His PER is higher than it was last year, so far. He also has a higher PER than Grimes did when he was an All-American, by a lot.