Oklahoma St. 2/21 7:00 ESPN+

[sedz]

Don't forget about Rayvon.

Exactly. This lineup won't be ready next year, but looking ahead we could have four 6'6 to 6'8 forwards out there: Jizzle, Skillings, Rayvon, Betsey, McKinley. Obviously we should have a big body available when we need it, but that could be a dangerous group.

[longtimefan]

Don't forget about Rayvon.

I haven’t. We’ll have three top 100 recruits joining the roster, Rayvon and the two Tyler’s. As far as I know only two guys, Newman and Oguama, will not be back next year. That’s another reason we must finish strong, get those 2 guys to the tournament.

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

I don't think we need traditional bigs. Even at the NBA level most big centers are one dimensional. They're either scorers like Jokic/Embiid or rim protecters like Gobert/Davis. It's hard to be versatile at that size, unless you're a wiry unicorn like Wembanyama/Holmgren. And so some teams go without a big entirely.

Most of our great Bearcat teams didn't have a true center. We had frontcourts with Corie Blount & Erik Martin, Kenyon Martin & Pete Mickeal, Jason Maxiell & Eric Hicks, Justin Jackson & Tius Rubles, Kyle Washington & Gary Clark. None of those guys were over 6'9", and they could all move laterally. That lets you play a more positionless style so you can switch screens, press, and play help defense. Having big guards makes all that even easier. Of course we have also had our fair share of big, slow centers like Fortson and Yancy, but they aren't necessary to have a great team.

We've got McKinley and Betsey coming in, and I'm hoping that lets us play more positionless. Imagine the length we could have if Skillings is at the 2 instead of the 4. And hopefully more scoring options too.

Don't forget about Rayvon.

[leo from jersey]

If it was the first time he could, but not so. LOL

guilty as charged.

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

C'mon Leo, you could have invoked spellcheck or autocorrect here and been off the hook. LOL.

If it was the first time he could, but not so. LOL

[Bearcat93]

13 years as a head coach with only 2 NCAA tournament appearances and zero wins. Take a good look at what Wes accomplished at UNCG. How he landed this gig is pretty unreal. Most times when a smaller school /lower league coach gets a big time job, they have led that smaller /lower league team to some deep tournament success. While it’s not the only measure of success, it should be a key criteria
for hire.

[Lobot]

Corie was 6'11 but I get your point. It's not very often you see someone stretched across all 3 seats of an airplane with his feet hanging off in the aisle.

[sedz]

That's a question I've had on my mind. What do we think the situation will be with our "Bigs" next year. Who will be back? I don't see that we are bringing in anyone new in to this point. How do we get better? Who even works with the "Bigs" on this team? Post moves are sadly lacking with this group outside of Reynolds. Other than a dunk Aziz is a walking TO on offense.

I don't think we need traditional bigs. Even at the NBA level most big centers are one dimensional. They're either scorers like Jokic/Embiid or rim protecters like Gobert/Davis. It's hard to be versatile at that size, unless you're a wiry unicorn like Wembanyama/Holmgren. And so some teams go without a big entirely.

Most of our great Bearcat teams didn't have a true center. We had frontcourts with Corie Blount & Erik Martin, Kenyon Martin & Pete Mickeal, Jason Maxiell & Eric Hicks, Justin Jackson & Tius Rubles, Kyle Washington & Gary Clark. None of those guys were over 6'9", and they could all move laterally. That lets you play a more positionless style so you can switch screens, press, and play help defense. Having big guards makes all that even easier. Of course we have also had our fair share of big, slow centers like Fortson and Yancy, but they aren't necessary to have a great team.

We've got McKinley and Betsey coming in, and I'm hoping that lets us play more positionless. Imagine the length we could have if Skillings is at the 2 instead of the 4. And hopefully more scoring options too.

[leo from jersey]

Offensively we can't shoot. Guards can't hit threes or finish at the rim, bigs can't score outside the paint or hit free throws. Strategy can only overcome so much of that. I'm hoping more skilled players can give us more offense in coming years.

That's a question I've had on my mind. What do we think the situation will be with our "Bigs" next year. Who will be back? I don't see that we are bringing in anyone new in to this point. How do we get better? Who even works with the "Bigs" on this team? Post moves are sadly lacking with this group outside of Reynolds. Other than a dunk Aziz is a walking TO on offense. [/QUOTE]

I wish I could give you 10 upvotes. We think the same about the shooting and where will the bigs come from next year. I don't think that big Tolentino can be the one. I believe we will have room for some transfers just like last year. I have asked that question about who will work with the bigs since Chuck Machock got sick and stopped. We had Clark, Washington and a young Scott in '17. Darren Savino was good.

[leo from jersey]

Put in Ody or Reed at center when they play 5 out. Doesn't have much to do with effort. If anything Aziz was giving too much effort on the perimeter trying to block threes. Aziz and Jamille can't guard players who are essentially small forwards out there. And they're way too slow to protect the rim from out there when another player drives.

Ody and Reed are my two favorite Cats at this time. Reed has gotten more PT and has been solid except for 3 times in the last two games he was very slow in reacting going to his right and stepping into the path of the driver. The driver blew by him and our big didn't help out in time to stop the bunny. I believe that CWM can work on that, and we will see less of that. But for now, the head twitch and bye bye. The thing is he should know that is the path to the basket unless the driver is moving to his right to set the screen for the shooter. Quick decisions must be made and plenty of film work before the game.

[Gmann]

Offensively we can't shoot. Guards can't hit threes or finish at the rim, bigs can't score outside the paint or hit free throws. Strategy can only overcome so much of that. I'm hoping more skilled players can give us more offense in coming years.
[/QUOTE]

That's a question I've had on my mind. What do we think the situation will be with our "Bigs" next year. Who will be back? I don't see that we are bringing in anyone new in to this point. How do we get better? Who even works with the "Bigs" on this team? Post moves are sadly lacking with this group outside of Reynolds. Other than a dunk Aziz is a walking TO on offense.

[leo from jersey]

Put in Ody or Reed at center when they play 5 out. Doesn't have much to do with effort. If anything Aziz was giving too much effort on the perimeter trying to block threes. Aziz and Jamille can't guard players who are essentially small forwards out there. And they're way too slow to protect the rim from out there when another player drives.

was that ODY who gave up the back door and was yanked. I have poor vision and sometimes I don't see well despite a giant tv

[Lobot]

My brother listened to the game on the radio last night. Apparently Terry said coach has to stop worrying about guy's feelings and get his best lineup on the court, or something like that.

Terry is not the only one with that opinion. And there’s a little more to it than that.

[sedz]

how do we adjust in the game to win. The effort on defense wasn't there and I saw nothing to change that from the bench.

Put in Ody or Reed at center when they play 5 out. Doesn't have much to do with effort. If anything Aziz was giving too much effort on the perimeter trying to block threes. Aziz and Jamille can't guard players who are essentially small forwards out there. And they're way too slow to protect the rim from out there when another player drives.

[sedz]

Welcome to the defensive basketball world of Wes Miller. Miller's defenses have a very bad habit of NOT being able to take offenses out of what they want to do. Teams usually can run their stuff without many disruptions.

I agree, that's been my main concern with Wes this year. He has a different defensive philosophy than we got used to under Cronin and even Huggins. Cronin went to great lengths to take away the main scoring option of the opponent, with a tradeoff that we were often left scrambling to open shooters and struggling to rebound defensively. We were never good at defending the three point line or defensive rebounding under Cronin, and that came back to bite us in the postseason. Wes takes the opposite approach, choosing to play straight up man and keeping defenders in position on off ball shooters and rebounders. As a result we're really good at defending against threes and rebounding misses. I'm fine with the different philosophy, but we still need to apply scouting principles. We can still play straight man but put small quick defenders out there when the other team plays 5 out. Or stick to the screener if we're getting beat in PnR. Or force shooters to put the ball on the deck. In general our defense has been really good this year, but in several games we've been torched by easily correctable strategy mistakes.

Offensively we can't shoot. Guards can't hit threes or finish at the rim, bigs can't score outside the paint or hit free throws. Strategy can only overcome so much of that. I'm hoping more skilled players can give us more offense in coming years.