He did do well in that game. But his games after were inconsistent. And when we needed someone to close out in the championship, nobody could step up.
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we will struggle at easy 2s next year, and that is becuase we have no post scorer on rosterā¦
when jojo is your likely best post scorerā¦that was always going to be an issue ā¦ thats not on pop
but watch the video i posted in the last postā¦ it talks about pop as a playmaker ā¦ pop is actually great at getting the ball to post playersā¦ some of his plays are actually extremely creative ā¦ it has like 5mins of his playmakingā¦ add the context that it was only 8 gamesā¦ and only on plays the person he tried too assist to scored
flemming give us the best chance to drive and score himself/draw a foulā¦ but i dont think there will be a notable difference between either if the goal is drive and dish
pop would hold any assist to TO ratio records like uzanā¦ itll look more like dejon, weāll see some more creative passes, but might lead to some turnoversā¦ but those turnovers wont kill us
im 100% percent with you on the sizeā¦ isaacs is not a good defensive player and that is my issue, with him (his size plays into that)ā¦ i think having him on the floor destroys a huge edge we would have had in positional size for defenseā¦ and adds a player we have to hide on Dā¦
but im not going to act like playmaking is an issue; if pop was 2inches taller, 20lbs heavier and great on Dā¦ everything else the EXACT same (passing, scoring etc.) id be insufferable talking about us winning the title next year
why?
No, youāre talking about being THE PG, not āPG skills.ā Cryer didnāt come here to be THE PG - he came to work on ball-handling and distribution, which are āPG skills.ā And he did handle PG duties quite a bit this season and last - Mylik wasnāt serviceable there until some point this year, and even then, he didnāt run the point solo all that much. Youāre getting too hung up on a guyās āstarting positionā instead of looking at how the guard duties were shared.
Pop isnāt āprovenā here any more than Uzan was or any other guy who didnāt play for us last year - thatās obvious enough. But every guard who has transferred here has improved his ATO numbers, and nobody is playing extended PG minutes here with a bad ATO.
If Uzan leaves, Kingston will get a shot at starter PG minutes because heās more of a true PG than Pop, imo. Whether heās ready to take that step remains to be seen. Even if Pop stays healthy, Iād be surprised if he leads the team in assists at the end of the season, because I anticipate his role to be more on the scoring side.
Cryer averaged 2.0 ast/gm last season with a 1.8 ast/to ratio. If he was trying to develop pg skills, then he failed.
i meant dejon overlaped, with galenā¦and dejon was also on roster with jamal
we can remove dejon/shead if we are talking how they were that seasonā¦
but if we are adding how they were that season sr galen/rs soph dejon were more talented if we are talking full gameā¦ not just scoring
galen came in as of the best perimeter defenders in the nation as a Srā¦ and huge assists leaderā¦ and dejon was a 6ā6 4star pg as a RS sophā¦ the most we leaned on dejon as a scorer was actually his 1st year
from the year they played together
Idk I donāt think Galen wouldāve been perceived as more talented than Pop entering his senior year and Iām not sure Dejon wouldāve been perceived as more talented than Kingston entering that year either. Weāll see how it plays out, because thatās just perception. Pop/Kingston will still have to realize their potential.
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Galen was the fastest PG weāve had under Sampson, he could get from one end of the court to the other in no time and he scored many times in transition that way. Donāt know how he ranked in assists, but he has to be up there. And although he didnāt score much until his senior year, he made that leap and became an x factor for other teams to consider and defend against. I would take him in our current squad in a heartbeat.
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We donāt have a true post up player but Cenac does have a nice turnaround from the block. That should be an additon that we havenāt had.
Have to disagree about Flemings and Pop being close in drive and dish. Flemings sees the floor incredibly well and his athleticism forces defenders to pick him up when he gets into the lane. Check out his highlights from the Top 100 where he averaged 8.6 ast/gm. Heās also really good at pushing the ball. Letās use some of our athleticism and take the easy hoops when we can.
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how you define talent is subjectiveā¦ galen was a seen as a major reason as to why we were winningā¦ most deep basketball folks consider pop a liabiltyā¦ being honest i think galen would probably bee seen as a more talented (speed is natural talent)ā¦ and pop with less talent but more skill (shooting isnt a natural talent)
most folks see kingston as a multiyear college players, who will later seasons become dominant ā¦ dejon came in with the expectation to be the next rob gray year 1 (obviously not how it played out)ā¦ dejon had more expectation entering his 1st year than kingston doesā¦ you keep jumping between their overall and how they are perceived for that specific season ā¦
objectively you take senior galen/rs soph dejonā¦ over Rs Jr pop/freshmen Kingston
Hereās a better and certainly a more credible description of Flemings than I can give. Itās from Facebook, so apologies to those who canāt see it.
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by pure positional size and starter and bench balance, I think Pop would be better suited as the microwave 6th man and have Sharp and Tugler start with the 3 freshmen at some point in December/January.
Even if Uzan comes back, I would have harwell at the 3 and Pop come off the bench at some point during the season
I just think that rotation would be the best bang for productivity
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Agree to disagree. But I do agree that talent is subjective. Hopefully after the season weāre all looking back on the Pop/Kingston tandem as the best PG duo weāve had. Again though definitely a sign of where our program is at that we could lose a PG to the NBA and still be this talented at the position. Sure you can agree with that. 
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Did Galen start as a freshman? It seems to me he started all 4 years, but I donāt know for sure.
in the span of a game, he rarely does that turnaround from the block for cenac
also i think you are talking more theoretical than you are judging by their game filmā¦ . you put a vision of what a athletic passer should be able to do and said that was flemingsā¦ kingston does alot of passing but mostly to the curley haired shooter on his team on the perimeter, on most of his game film ā¦
heāll do some drive and dish stuff ā¦ but its not that common in his filmā¦
(ps the nbpa top100 most of the assist were full court passes on fast breaks)
you stated why you think he is a great drive and dish post passer, but it is actually why he isntā¦he is athletic enough to go to the postā¦ and scoreā¦ when he drives he is looking to scoreā¦
its more prominent is pops actual film, because pop was never in any delusion that it wont get swatted, from the start he was never looking to score, just to draw defenders
a kingston short assist tapeā¦ and kingston describing his own playmaking in the end
https://x.com/SportsStarsTV/status/1863709784194564571/video/1
says he drives to the basket, if the defenders tries to collapse on him he will get the ball to the shooters outside
Iirc he shared PG duties w Ronnie Johnson in his first year. Johnson then transferred to Purdue n GR was starting PG his last 3 yrs at UH.
That seems pretty self-serving to root for him to return to college instead of make it to the league and do similar to what Shead didā¦as a rookie.
Nate
I will yield to your take on that., since I didnāt know for sure and that was a long time ago.
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