Oklahoma St. 2/21 7:00 ESPN+

[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.

[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.

[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

[leo from jersey]

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

guilty as charged.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[leo from jersey]

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.

still need the floor leader

[Gmann]

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.

How would Bandaogo and Reynolds be back with them both being listed as seniors this year? Do they both have a Covid year available to use? Also this Lakhin situation is a bit wierd. Unless things change here down the stretch I could see him moving on....hope not.

[leeraymond]

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.

I am with you on this one. Miller only has small college and low mid-major coaching experience. He may have helped his career by serving as an assistant coach under a pretty good NCAA Tournament type of coach with solid defensive principles. As it is, Miller had none of those types of coaching experiences. Maybe, just maybe, that is part of the problem.

[leeraymond]

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.

This is an interesting lineup. However, this lineup may have problems rebounding against more physical teams (especially against Houston) or teams with big inside playing front lines. However, this group would perhaps be a very good scoring group. I see you favor small ball lineups. Also, this group is very very young.

[sedz]

This is an interesting lineup. However, this lineup may have problems rebounding against more physical teams (especially against Houston) or teams with big inside playing front lines. However, this group would perhaps be a very good scoring group. I see you favor small ball lineups. Also, this group is very very young.

Overall it's a pretty big lineup. It replaces size at the 5 with size on the wing. And it's athletic at every position so should be decent at rebounding.

I think of small ball as four guards, like our 2012 team with Jaquon Parker at the 4. Even though we had a true big in Yancy at the 5, it was still a small ball lineup. This lineup only has one guard with four forwards. I don't necessarily favor anything. I think we should put our best group out there regardless of what type of lineup it is. In a couple years we don't have any true bigs committed right now, and I'm just pointing out that we don't have to go out and find one. There are other ways to construct a roster.

[leeraymond]

Overall it's a pretty big lineup. It replaces size at the 5 with size on the wing. And it's athletic at every position so should be decent at rebounding.

I think of small ball as four guards, like our 2012 team with Jaquon Parker at the 4. Even though we had a true big in Yancy at the 5, it was still a small ball lineup. This lineup only has one guard with four forwards. I don't necessarily favor anything. I think we should put our best group out there regardless of what type of lineup it is. In a couple years we don't have any true bigs committed right now, and I'm just pointing out that we don't have to go out and find one. There are other ways to construct a roster.

Skillings is a guard. So, actually it would be two guards and three forwards. I kind of like that lineup. However, no matter how ballyhoo a player is coming in, you never know what that player really is until you get him in camp. Also, Betsy is listed as a power forward by 247 Sports. The problem is he is only 6"8' and weighs 185. He is not heavy enough to play power forward. He would get pushed around in the BIG 12 until he gains some weight and strength. Also, assuming the players remaining on the roster from this year will GET BETTER, the freshman coming in may have to ride the bench their first year.

You know, I have always thought that if a bunch of freshman (no matter how good) can come into a serious D-1 program and move the veterans out, that program probably did not have a lot going for itself. There is no way a bunch of freshman should be able to come into a D-1 program and take positions. The only time I know of something like that happening is at the U of Michigan with the Fab Five. As good as they were, they were not able to win a national championship. They lost the championship game twice to two different teams (Duke and North Carolina). But hey, at least they were able to play in that game; twice.

[sedz]

Skillings is playing PF for us right now at 6'6" 215 (205 in high school). If you don't like the idea of Betsey at PF, just keep Skillings there. The idea is to be positionless. Sure, bigger players can push Skillings around but he compensates for that in other ways. Betsey might not be heavy enough to play like a traditional power forward, but if we have four athletic guys in the 6'6" to 6'8", 190 to 220 pound range, we can compete on the glass.

Dana Altman had several great teams like that at Oregon. The Nevada team that beat us was built like that.

[Carin's Dad]

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.

Coach said Jizzle didn't play the last 8 minutes for defensive reasons. This after Jizzle sparked a 9 point rally. Maybe more offense could make up for a little bad defense.