Our next great player.

[bearcatrunner]

I just think Jizzle has the talent to be the next Steve Logan. The kid is quick, makes some of the best passes of any of our players and creates his own shot. I think if we are going to have any shot of a final four in the next few years you start building around this kid right now. That means playing him and changing up the defense if you need to so you can get him on the court.

Did you know he shoots 37.2% from three which is second on the team behind Fredrick. He shoots 42.5 from the floor which is better then Simas (38.8%), Day Day (39%) and Skilling's(41.6%), He shoots 75% from the free throw line and he has a 2 to 1 turnover to assist ratio while always trying to get into the flow of the game because he comes off the bench for short moments. Day Day for the record is 3 assists to 2 turnovers. If he turns it over its because he trying to thread the needle most times to get easy points. Unlike Skilling's who just seemingly hands the ball to the other team or Day Day who just losses his dribble.

For the record I think Skilling's and Day Day both have a lot of talent. The coaching staff just lets them play out of control.

Do any of you see a potential superstar on this team for the future? It feels like we haven't had one in so long.

[sedz]

DS, JJ, Reed, Dayday and the others need to understand how precious each possession is. Sedz gives us all these stats and they are useful but you can't score more points per possession than your opponent if you keep giving it back to them without scoring.

A turnover counts as a possession with zero points. That's why points per possession is so useful. It takes everything a team is doing - good or bad - and measures the end result in points. If you turn it over, then you've got to make up for that by averaging more points in the possessions when you get a shot up. If you're missing shots, then you've got to take care of the ball and get offensive rebounds to put up multiple shots in a possession.

The first two guys you mentioned, Skillings and Jizzle, don't turn it over much. They're both averaging under 1.5 per game in conference play (which for Skillings is really good considering how much he plays and attacks).

[leo from jersey]

Turnovers have been the bane of this team for weeks now. We had just committed twenty five of them against Iowa State and DS just attempts a lazy lob in the second half that gets intercepted after having committed four to's in the first twelve minutes the first half. There seems to be no urgency to rectify the situation. Added to this we have people driving to the basket and when the ball is dished off, the bigs ( usually ) are not aware or alert enough and it is fumbled. I know this scenario has occured at least two dozen times this season. That tells me ball possession, ball handling, and passing are not practiced or stressed. In the NIT last season when we played Utah State they burnt us at least 8-10 times with the lob to Aziz, how many times have we attempted it in conference play and turned it over or throw it away. I can count on one hand the times I recall it working this year. DS, JJ, Reed, Dayday and the others need to understand how precious each possession is. Sedz gives us all these stats and they are useful but you can't score more points per possession than your opponent if you keep giving it back to them without scoring. And when you only have three people who normally are scoring points and two of the three are committing the turnovers this becomes very problematic. Why this staff don't get up into the grill of these guys for making avoidable to's is inexcusable. DS and DayDay are good scorers but are not a basketball players until they learn how to pass with intent, pass without telegraphing it, and just being careless with the ball trying to create points. The showing of no remorse, of no frustration or anger at such a stupid costly lob when everyone knew how important that game was epitomizes the attitude of the team and is the reason I won't be watching the game today.

That is why we lost the OSU game. Both defenses were inept, so it came down to scoring. UC was up, but OSU scored and then the Cats turned it over with unforced errors during their turn. That was the difference - OSU scored UC turned it over = loss.

[Rufus]

Turnovers have been the bane of this team for weeks now. We had just committed twenty five of them against Iowa State and DS just attempts a lazy lob in the second half that gets intercepted after having committed four to's in the first twelve minutes the first half. There seems to be no urgency to rectify the situation. Added to this we have people driving to the basket and when the ball is dished off, the bigs ( usually ) are not aware or alert enough and it is fumbled. I know this scenario has occured at least two dozen times this season. That tells me ball possession, ball handling, and passing are not practiced or stressed. In the NIT last season when we played Utah State they burnt us at least 8-10 times with the lob to Aziz, how many times have we attempted it in conference play and turned it over or throw it away. I can count on one hand the times I recall it working this year. DS, JJ, Reed, Dayday and the others need to understand how precious each possession is. Sedz gives us all these stats and they are useful but you can't score more points per possession than your opponent if you keep giving it back to them without scoring. And when you only have three people who normally are scoring points and two of the three are committing the turnovers this becomes very problematic. Why this staff don't get up into the grill of these guys for making avoidable to's is inexcusable. DS and DayDay are good scorers but are not a basketball players until they learn how to pass with intent, pass without telegraphing it, and just being careless with the ball trying to create points. The showing of no remorse, of no frustration or anger at such a stupid costly lob when everyone knew how important that game was epitomizes the attitude of the team and is the reason I won't be watching the game today.

[JBB]

It’s apparent CWM has recruited great players
But they need developed. I too am frustrated with his game management and rotation selection. CWM’s biggest issue is maturity and understand he is the boss and quit worrying about feelings This team as talented as they are still lacks discipline on defense and rebounding
also, their offensive style is not conducive to winning basketball. I have been watching Mick rebuild UCLA and their young talent. Earlier in the season they looked like our current bearcats. They are now playing together with purpose and have gotten better week to week
im no Mick fan, but his approach with his young players should be a model for CWM

[leo from jersey]

It is interesting what Mick said about Titus Rubles. It reminds me of CWM and Skillings.
;He had three turnovers as well, so he joined the party. This team really has seven starters with Titus and David. He has to eliminate the turnovers. He is a very good offensive player so there are times where he is going to force the action. That is part of it. In our style, we don't run set up plays as much as we run a motion offense. It's bad for the coach because you don't get to control every pass and every dribble. They have to make decisions. I have to demand ball movement, patience, and decision making. That is hard to teach and coach. We are getting better at it. Titus is really good at it for the first time of ever doing it. At times, he is over aggressive, but he has tremendous talent. He led us in assists, and he may be our best passer.

Notice Mick complained about 3 TOs and not 4. The thing about using averages is they often don't tell the story. Let's just say in two games you average 4. You only make 1 in one of the games. That means 7 in the other. We have to look at the current game and adjust accordingly. As Leeraymond aptly stated - plans go out the door once you are punched in the mouth. You have to change something, or the punching doesn't stop.

It was also interesting that Mick had the same problems as CWM has now:
On mistakes to improve on:
We were just too sloppy, too many turnovers, and (we need to) be better at the foul line. We have worked too hard at the foul line for SK to miss two, Justin to miss three. But focus is important. And its not about today; its about where we are going. We just try to stay focused on what we've got to do to get to where we are trying to go. In the meantime, we have to win games.

On turnovers:
it's going to be the same thing. Basketball is a game of mistakes. To be a great team, you have to be like a machine and eliminate mistakes: defensive breakdowns, careless passing, and things that are controllable. For instance, we had 13 turnovers out of our starting line-up and that has to change. One statistic that changed as we built our program into a top 25 team in the last two years is that our turnovers went down. We got into the top four in turnover margin in the BIG EAST for our opponent.  Tonight, we are minus nine on that. That has to change and will change Tuesday.

I love his quote about not thinking of the past "meantime, we have to win games.'.

Mick also said " We were trying to work on our half-court defense especially our pick and roll defense. We have to get better at it. We had four or five guys that played really well, and we had four or five guys that I think could get better. It is early in the year, and that is to be expected. I was happy with our 19 assists and colossally disappointed with our 19 turnovers. Our rebounding is better that it has been, so that was a positive. I knew that would happen once Justin Jackson got some minutes because he rebounds.-- Sound familiar about the Pick & roll only this team is late and not early in the season.

We have been spoiled with Ed Jucker winning a Natty in his first season. How would those guards look good today.

[Rufus]

D.A.H. brought out that DS missed two free throws twice this season in games. Those free throws were crucial to the outcome of each game. DS is not mentally ready for the next level so I hope he stays. Jizzle is going to be a star as well but I'm not convinced that he will remain here but I hope he does. We've all discussed the lunacy of CWM's rotation and after observing this for three years now I'm convinced that he's balancing trying to win and giving playing time to players in order to keep the from entering the portal. Let's face it coaches today don't have the luxury of disciplining players like they did in the past, ( "tough love" ) because players will hit the portal. Toss in the NIL and that just exasperates the crisis. Back to DS, to's are inevitable no matter the player, but what upset me was his reaction to that lazy lob pass that was intercepted and CWM's lack of action towards it. As a coach you can't accept lackadaisical play. You can't take players out when that player is the only one provided offense. His being the players friend may have worked in the Southern conference but the big12 is a different story. In the Southern most of the time your getting players who are just happy to be playing college ball as opposed to kids who are offered thousands of dollars in NIL. This is how I see it.

[longtimefan]

As Hans and Frans would say…hear me now and believe me later!

Bookmarked. We’ll remember.

[GunSlinger]

he's not good on defense (which may be fine "at the next level", and he also sucks as a ball handler - horrible decisions with the ball. with that said, i do like him. he's just young and out of control at times.

I don’t necessarily disagree with any of that, maybe aside from his defense.

[GunSlinger]

Why would Dan be gone? He is nowhere near ready for the NBA.

As Hans and Frans would say…hear me now and believe me later!

[leo from jersey]

Who are ya thinking?

That remains to be seen. It might be the end of this year or next year or in the future. We don't have one yet and we must see how players develop or are added to the team. We knew what we had with Oscar when he was a frosh, but not with Kenyon. Heck CWM may shock the BB world with a surprise recruit/transfer.

[red_n_black_attack]

The next great player may not be on the team yet.

Who are ya thinking?

[sedz]

for a non point guard, four t/o's seems high to me.

It is. My point is that he hadn't done that all season until Wednesday. Even with that bad game he only has 18 turnovers in all of conference play, only 1.4 per game.

[Gmann]

Skillings is great at getting to the basket I'd just like to see him improve on finishing when he gets there. That being said James and Skillings are the foundation of this roster that Wes needs to retain, develop, and build around. We are lucky to have them. The top programs in the country have athletes like them that give them the edge.

[D.A.H.]

for a non point guard, four t/o's seems high to me. i'm old, but to's seem bad - he's just made some egregious throws ( i can't even call them passes). he does get to rim, but its a little iffy if he'll finish or not.- at least three games this year, where he's missed two free throws late - so, if its iffy if you can finish, and you're not good on free throws, and you're a t/o machine, all's good? again, I like DS - but he has work to do