thrasher31

That wasn't great, but oh well. Not a back breaker. -love Gary and what he was able to do on Sunday, but he missed 6 3 pointers. After missing 3, he needs to space out and drive vs shoot off catches. -Brice couldn't really get going due to foul trouble. J law resurgence of late helped offset that, but a long wing like him would've been helpful. -refs were bad and good. I'd say inconsistent more than anything. Let some stuff go that was then called a foul on the opposite end. Despite that, they were within 2 with 3 minutes left, so they had it right there. Needed to close, which they didn't. -cj needs to see a few go through the bucket to get going. He did today a bit, so that should help hopefully. Rutgers is an opportunity to solidify and lock our bid in. They had a good game last night, but were coming off 3 straight losses by double digits prior to that. I also think Michigan very bad. Watch the tape, turn the page, and get ready for Rutgers

Good pick. Assuming Oregon State fires their coach I assume he hits the portal too

I think that's his spot at this level. A 4 who can rotate to the 3 if needed in bigger lineups. Defense will be the factor that swings it one way or another

I am pretty impartial to will tschetter personally. Has 2 years remaining after this year. Plays super super hard, can shoot, and slide between the 4 or 5, which is a position they'll be looking to fill with allick leaving (combo big). A lot depends on what happens with Howard and how tschetter plays in these last few games with their starting 4 down and him getting the starts. A distributing lead guard is another hole, and there's going to be guards enter aplenty, just need to have the right fit without losing the defense mentality that has been established.

I think it's a double edged sword. On one hand, getting actual live PT will trump practice time he gets on the scout team. But on the other hand, getting on a college regime early, learning Fred's playbook and where he fits positionally a year early is hard to pass up (my guess is a combo wing between the 4 and 3, depending on matchup). Physically, I'd say he's pretty close to being there. Probably could work on his body a bit more and get up to 220+ from 210. Spend a year working on his shot, learn from two very experienced seniors in Gary and Brice and be ready to compete for PT in his second year once they leave. Plus, HS is not everyone's cup of tea. I know me personally, I couldn't wait to get out, but I do understand it is a time to cherish (I bounced between 5 HS in 4 states, so my perspective may be clouded).

https://247sports.com/Article/hunter-sallis-wake-forest-duke-basketball-college-basketball-march-madness-steve-forbes-227750771/ Small excerpt about Nebraska in here. Basically confirmed it was between us and WF. Really happy he's playing as well as he is though.

I guess I see what you're saying, but keisei was basically being smothered all game. I saw Brice look his way when running off screens, but no opening and moved onto the next read. Didn't knock down any of his 3s, which one or two had to have come off passes from Brice without remembering, and all of his shots were self created. They were also throwing doubles at keisei on dhos forcing him to pass to a big underneath or allick in the corner. Good gamelan by ben Johnson to shut the water off from him. Force him to create his own shot and don't give him C&S opportunities. He did have a lob pass to Brice at the rim which would've been an assist had he finished it, but got fouled. I saw keisei point in his direction afterwards as if to say "I got you" after the play. There may have been opportunities to look each other's way more often, but the gamelan they had was working, and it led to a 20 point win. I don't see much animosity between them personally, but I don't pay that close of attention to stuff like that.

My first reaction is I'm SO glad for Lawrence. He's had a very up and down season and picked a great time to figure his role out. Even though he didn't start, he played most of the second half and closed the game. Great perseverance on his part.

With Mast being able to shoot, you can get away with Kyle/mast lineups. Ideally they work on his shot a bit, but not a necessity. I would like him also honestly.

One of the things I've kept in the back of my head is the off chance that CJ and simeon go play together for cjs last year in college. My initial concern was CJ going to st John's to be close to home with simeon. Simeon has had moments this year, but it is not consistent enough, so I think him portalling out may be a legitimate option. I'm not sure I'd classify him as a natural PG here, and his stats at st John's are not something I love. I'm not sure we reached out when he left UNC either, so after a worse year at st John's, not sure. But definitely something to track. The connection with JLaw may help also.

I do think the opt for a transfer big, but one that can play the 4 or 5 like allick this year, depending on situation. In that scenario, it still gives diop room, but he needs to be ready to provide situational rim protection next year at minimum imo.

It'll be interesting if any of the current players choose to portal within the 30 day window to get a jump start in the process. There is some talent on that team, and I really like Thornton and Gayle. Their wings in Middleton and royal are solid also.

makes the game with them at the end of the month interesting.

Things are. Not great in Michigan. now, when the portal exodus inevitably happens, one guy I'd target hard (outside of dug) would be will tschuetter, stats below. Big fan of his game. Think he just does a lot of things right and impacts winning. Can play between the 4/5 and could fill the role allick filled this year (before him Wilhelm, before him lat mayen, before him Cross). https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/will-tschetter-1.html

Indifferent. At first I didn't like it, because i didn't love Brice focusing on running the offense to start games. To start games he should be focusing on scoring and finding a flow on offense imo. Now, Lawrence's struggles to shoot and with turnovers forced the hand and I support it completely. He did supposedly say he welcomed it because it helped the game flow better for him. NW that showed, as he closed that game, his first time closing a big ten game in a WHILE. Vs Michigan it was a bloodbath, so him not shooting great went under the radar a bit. I think I'd go back to the regular starting lineup (Lawrence for allick) vs PSU. Need to make sure you sub Lawrence and mast/Gary for Sam and allick. It's been mentioned, and allick/Lawrence lineups haven't looked great. Fred did some experimenting with lineups last game though, Sam and Lawrence shared the backcourt with CJ(?) For a stretch, and I am not sure the last time Sam and Lawrence played together. His season has been a struggle, which I expected it to be. Boogie offering nothing in big ten play, and ulis being suspended has left him as the only one who can do some ball handling and playmaking. He's still done some things I like playmaking wise, but the youth to the PG spot shines quite a bit. I will say, this season will be good for him as a junior/senior. Gives Fred lineup flexibility to have multiple ball handlers that have in game reps on the court, assuming they bring in a portal PG

They needed to hit some of the 3s they took to make it matter more. But it was.

Boogie was. Lloyd is reposting highlights of himself from HS lol

That's a rule that I have never heard of.

One reason I was iffy about Brice playing PG was his natural scoring mentality, and rubbing the offense takes away from that for him imo. He can do it, but naturally he's a scorer. Running the offense through mast at the high post makes sense also, but I did like Lawrence's aggressiveness today. He needs to continue to pick his spots wisely. Today may have been a wake up call for him though.

Yeah I can't get behind playing Cale before Lawrence, even through his struggles. Cale has maybe a handful of minutes of meaningful in game pt, and rolling him out in rotation minutes in a road game that you almost must win seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I don't love the idea of the lineup change, but I'll concede if that's what they end up doing.

NW doesn't play big really, as they rotate 2, maybe 3 bigs in with Brooks and 3 guards. It makes a lot more sense to start Gary to matchup with Brooks, since he was the one who killed us last time.

I couldn't get to bed until midnight because I was still reeling from last night, and I woke up at 5. Worth it still -keisei is having a bad stretch of basketball, but I trust him to figure it out. They'll need him to close this thing. -fred experimented with a super big lineup with the two bigs, Gary, Sam and Brice. Ended up being a good move and I applaud him for making that adjustment. -this game was pretty much a mirror image of the game last year. Trailed by double digits in the second half, shooter gets unconsciously hot, strap in on defense and force them to beat you in iso ball (Chucky obligated late). Close it out in OT. -brice comes and goes on defense, but when he sits down and straps in, he's a very good defender. Won't get into how this impacts the tournament chances, as there's still 9 chances left on the schedule to build upon. Let's let the guys build on this. Illinois I am not confident in, but NW is one they could find a way to steal. I wanted to get 1 out of those 3, and they're already ahead of schedule.

That's where I'm at. Could maybe get by with 20+BTT win, but you're leaving the decision in the committee hands at that point, which I'm not comfortable about. Just get to 21 and they should be comfortable

The schedule in front of them has been laid out to accomplish that. Find 1-2 road wins out of the 5 remaining, while only dropping Wisconsin at home and they're right there. Winning vs Wisconsin will make the job much easier.

So 5-5 through conference play, with a few very good wins sprinkled in. Road struggles are something to note though, specifically today obviously. They need to win 2 road games out of the remaining 5, and should be favorites in all home games except Thursday. I'll say I feel pretty confident about him being here next year.