Just for some offseason banter, what im hoping to see from our players in offseason improvement- just for this offseason alone (ie not what I hope for them long term- just by august)
Realistic offseason development goals for everyone currently on the roster
Marcus Sasser - Not regress, Was playing at a scary elite level- simply maintaining his level of play is all we need from him at UH-- note for his Pro career (not UH) he needs to improve as a passer to show his PG skills
Jamal Shead - Improve 3pt shooting - more consistent on defense (was elite 80% of the season, not great in a few games)
Tramon Mark - a) Improve 3pt shooting, 38-40% if he is just doing catch and shoot, 33-34% if he is mixing in off the dribble- are realistic goals b) needs to be a quicker decision maker, often lets the defense reset while he is assessing what to do c) as the only projected starting guard taller than 6’1 the door for massive rebounding numbers are there
Ramon Walker- for next season- he needs a quicker trigger; when he rebounds he holds it for a few seconds and doesnt look down court or dribble (to see scoring potentials in transtition), and ouside of 2 games, he only shot the ball when wide open and even then took a few second to decide if he was going to shoot it…being a quick trigger 3 is needed as a floor spacer
J’wan Robert- add any form of offense
Reggie Chaney- needs to be a better rebounder, and a better post scorer when matched with smaller bigs
Ja’Vier Francis- less deer in the headlights , any form of offense would be nice - hopefully we add depth and dont put too much on his table
Kiyron Powell - getting to atleast 225lbs
Freshmen- hard to project what they need to get better in, you aren’t even sure the good things they did in high school/aau will translate
For all - comfortable in our defensive system by like game 7
Jarace Walker
Hope it translates - his physicality and offensive versatility (as a passer and scorer) vs D1
Things to to improve before game 1 - picking up our rebounding culture, exploit the best way to use size/mobility to score with regularity
Terrance Arceneaux
Hope it translates - his rebounding, defense and ball handling vs d1
Things to to improve before game 1 - hoping he can shoot 36%+ from 3 (which would likely be mostly open catch and shoot type shots)
Emanuel Sharp
Hope it translates - his passing and scoring ability vs d1 , hoping for 35% from 3 (will probably be taking some tough 3s)
Things to to improve before game 1 - wasn’t a good defender/rebounder pre-UH hoping for improvement there, his ball handling could also improve some
About 7 or 8 years into my coaching I started “new” free throw drill……I hesitate to call it new because there are probably multiple coaches in high school or college that do the same or similar……but know one has ever shown me so it was new to me.
We world shoot free throw after free throw in the gym before and after practice….shot pretty good, I saw improvement….until game time….then same ol’ thing.
Free throws in the gym never took into account that the kids had increased heart rates and something on the line as they do in games.
So first everything became a competition to add a little something…… then, I had guys equally dispersed ( usually about three to a goal)at each of the six goals in the gym.
The boys from each starting spot(goal they were at) has to sprint two laps around the court and back to their goal to shoot two free throws… then the next guy and so on…. By about the 3rd time through there was a little huff and puff…. At that point we could practice breathing, calming the heart rate, using there legs, etc.
We didn’t improve by 10% or anything but we did improve by a few %. What were we’re doing was more in line with game conditions.
I’m sure most programs do something like this so it feels silly to even mention it……just something I personally found did help improve free throws.
If was clear Carlton really improved at the line by the end of the season.
Harris had one of the most spectacular turn-around a at the line In have seen by the time he left
The disappointments last season at the line was Edwards. He should be better. White should also be better than he was at the line last season
Outside of that along with Roberts I wasn’t really down on our FT shooting.
I will add Roberts bit 3-4 in our last two games after going 0fer for the hat seemed like 6 weeks.
Next season our three starting guards are going to be real good FT shooters.
our fts were poor also in part because our offense ran through our bigs (and were the ones getting fouled while shooting)
with the current roster makeup (as of today) we go back to guard perimeter offense… from a ft perspective replace carlton and fabian with sasser and mark is an insane jump
I remember Guy Lewis did a deal where at the end of each practice each player had to hit two or three free throws before they could hit shower.
After every miss that player had to run up and down the Jeppesen FH stairs. Ken Spain stayed in great shape running those stairs lol.
Not sure it helped any of our players but I think coach got a big kick out of it.
Guards
I see Sasser and Shead as potential 85% shooters.
Mark and Walker are good from the line.
Sharp known for his shooting
Arceneaux not sure where he is but bet it isn’t poor
Interior
Chaney isn’t bad but had his dry spells with limited opportunities
Roberts- yeah we know where he was
Walker not sure
Francis looks awful at the line. A reason I would like to see him develop another season.
Powell don’t know
Overall guards look to be in great shape while our bigs are blah. The bigs may hinge a lot on Walker and whoever we bring in from the portal.
I wouldn’t sweat the FT stuff too much. This year’s team was a bad FT shooting team but historically we haven’t been too bad under Sampson. The only other team that shot under 70% was the 2014-2015 team, so I have faith that next year we’ll be somewhere in the low to mid 70’s.
Good stuff as always, @pesik. I think we’ll see a big leap from Francis…or at least I’m hoping. Sampson made comments this year about how Carlton couldn’t score on Francis in practice. But you’re 100% correct that he looked like a deer in headlights during games. I don’t know how smart of a kid Francis is, but I’m hoping for the same year over year jump from him that we saw with Shead this year. We could really use his rim protection abilities, especially if we don’t find a big in the portal.
