The Official Beat the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City in the NIT Quarterfinals Thread

[Mr X]

I think Wheeler was oversold in the Adidas John Marshall machine. He's never shown high major or good mid major potential. Probably a lot of coaches hoping he'd be this or that than actually showing it. Personally, I think it would be best for him to transfer out and go down the street to Barco. The game is just a little to fast for him at this level. Judging by his demeanor at times, I think it's wearing on him to be this highly rated out of HS and never seeing the floor in both places.

Easy to dominate when you are 6'11 playing against 6'4 guys in high school.

 

[Mr X]

Agreed! I believe, if Bam would have started during the Duquesne game, VCU would have won. I get bringing him off the bench for a few games but Bam should have been starting after all of those big games. IMHO Bam was the best player on the team. Odom showed loyalty to Bairstow, because he should have came off the bench instead of Bam.

Odom's best off-season move would be to add you to his staff.

 

[Mistachill]

Don't forget the play where he just fell on his ass while guarding nobody resulting in a bucket for Utah. He is now officially entering his 4th year of college basketball.

The thing about Wheeler, we have people here constantly calling for him to play...then he plays and people question why he was put in the game.

 

[Mistachill]

Bam could be an off the bench microwave player on a better team. But on this lesser team, he should have started. We can not afford to lose Bam and not starting him on this squad by late January was a poor decision. Some people here preach starting doesnt matter. To better players -it certainly does. Moves like that will cause players to enter the portal.

Starting over whom?

 

[Rams4Life]

The thing about Wheeler, we have people here constantly calling for him to play...then he plays and people question why he was put in the game.

I think the only time it was really worth it would’ve been the following scenario:
-Late 2nd half in a close game that’s been a foul fest. Both teams in double bonus.
-All of our other bigs in foul trouble
-Other team has a big like MSS who rebounds everything but can’t hit a FT
-Insert Wheeler to “hack-a-Shaq” on the kid every time he touches the ball to keep the game close

 

[Mistachill]

The problem is that in our losses down the stretch our issues were on the defensive side of the ball. We gave up >70 points in 5 of our 7 conference losses. That isn't a problem Fats would have solved.

If anyone needed more minutes in A10 play is was Michael Belle.

I agree. A lot of folks only concentrate on the 3s he hits. If you focus on watching Fats exclusively when he's in the game people would have a better sense of why he doesn't play. If you were to say, "well he can't get better if he doesn't play" that's a fair point. However, this team had very little margin for error so I get why Odom felt he couldn't afford to potentially sacrifice games to develop Fats.

Let's see what the kid does this off season. I'm sure Odom has given him very specific details on areas he needs to improve to get on the court. If he comes back the same player and still doesn't play, that's on Fats.

 

[TampaKAP]

Well as someone who wanted Rose to be successful, I have concerns that it may never be. The final straw if you will is fairly or unfairly based on a couple seconds of what a TVV camera captured. When RO took him out of the game, it was clear RO was having an exchange/teaching moment with him. Unfortunately, looking at it on TV, it appears Rose didn’t want to listen but provide his own feedback and never really appeared to even stop long enough to allow RO to finish his thoughts. I can imagine Rose is frustrated but that at least in appearance was not helpful to his cause

 

[Ramaholic]

Starting over whom?

Nelson. Then switch Zeb or Shulga to the point. Sure, its not ideal. But IMO Nelson was a defensive liability and posed no offensive threat to the other teams.

 

[Mistachill]

I think Wheeler was oversold in the Adidas John Marshall machine. He's never shown high major or good mid major potential. Probably a lot of coaches hoping he'd be this or that than actually showing it. Personally, I think it would be best for him to transfer out and go down the street to Barco. The game is just a little to fast for him at this level. Judging by his demeanor at times, I think it's wearing on him to be this highly rated out of HS and never seeing the floor in both places.

This isn't the 1970s where teams would blindly offer scholarships to players based on a write up in Street & Smith magazine. I guarantee the teams that offered Wheeler watched him play, saw video and determined that he had the potential to be a P5 big. John Marshall didn't talk Louisville, DePaul, NC State, Wake, Georgetown, LSU, Miami, Providence, Texas A&M into offering Wheeler. In fact, there's a school down the street from him who got to see him more than anybody else who decided to offer him out of high school...VCU.

What you really can't scout is a player's desire to get better, his heart, his coachability, his basketball IQ, etc.

If anything, perhaps blame John Marshall for instilling a mentality in Wheeler that he was destined for stardom and all he had to do was show up.

 

[Mistachill]

Nelson. Then switch Zeb or Shulga to the point. Sure, its not ideal. But IMO Nelson was a defensive liability and posed no offensive threat to the other teams.

Nelson started 7 games this season. 7 out of 37 games.

 

[lamplighter]

Did anyone see Wheeler when he went to the bench. Odom was talking to him which seemed to tick Wheeler off even more. At least that is how I interpreted it.

Odom looked him (not a happy face) and said, “what are you doing?”

 

[Mercury]

I think Wheeler was oversold in the Adidas John Marshall machine. He's never shown high major or good mid major potential. Probably a lot of coaches hoping he'd be this or that than actually showing it. Personally, I think it would be best for him to transfer out and go down the street to Barco. The game is just a little to fast for him at this level. Judging by his demeanor at times, I think it's wearing on him to be this highly rated out of HS and never seeing the floor in both places.

The achilles injury might have taken away whatever juice he had.

 

[share the ball]

Let’s not act like we didn’t have a problem down low. I think it’s completely fair to wonder why a 4 star big man was riding pine while we were getting or crap pushed in down low game in and game out. I could point to plenty of moments questioning why Fermin was getting any PT. Rose’s attitude is what I was more referring to (although his play last night was dreadful) where he completely dismissed whatever Odom said to him shaking his head as he came back to the sideline and walked away.

rating high school kids with the stars (4 or 5 star) is an imprecise effort for big men
often the rating is influenced by how good the team is they play on and the competition they face (good or bad)

I would estimate there are more misses on rating bigs 4 or 5 then you will see at any position
the college game is so different for a big than the high school game is because every night in college they face a talented player of their size or close to their size - in high school rarely do they ever play more than 1 or 2 games against a comparable big during a whole season

and before you say AAU- let me say that is nothing more than defenseless basketball in most tournaments and a whole slew of guys firing from long range - the team he played on was one of the few that played together

Yes we need a big that can defend and rebound and bang and can shoot from 10 feet in

 

[Ramdog]

Seems like a good teammate and looks good in a suit

But we need a bit more than that

 

[Mr X]

Seems like a good teammate and looks good in a suit

But we need a bit more than that

He is making $1 every time that commercial is up on the scoreboard during the game.