We have a lot to be excited about...

districtballer

districtballer

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Actually a ton. That said, if you could name one thing you are worried about this year going into the season, what would that be? I'd love to here thoughts on this one. Not everything can be about the kool-aid (which I am just as guilty of drinking sometimes). :)

Let's make this one a serious basketball thread. Where do you think we have to improve in order to be as good as a lot of us hope and want us to be by the end of the season?
 
Easily, what I (and I imagine most others) am most concerned about will be the point guard play.
 
I agree with Pav. I also think that we have to worry about a lot of roles being defined this year. Our offense last year was a lot of Eric Maynor and 4 players watching and Larry Sanders occasionally taking over. When Eric left the game, more often than not our offense was putrid. Our defense was always generally good(thanks to Larry Sanders dominant presence on that end), but the offense showed that no one really had experience stepping up and making the play outside of Eric Maynor. He made things happen and created opportunities, I didn't see that from the other guys. Most of the time they would benefit from Maynor having a defense collapse on them and then having an open shot. That happened a lot with Burgess and J-Rod. We need to have a guy that can make that happen for us this year. If that doesn't happen, we would have a tougher year than a lot of us expect.
 
Mine would be what kind of floor coach will Coach Smart be? It appears he has proven he can recruit, but he has not coached his first game ever as a head coach.
 
Pavarotti said:
Easily, what I (and I imagine most others) am most concerned about will be the point guard play.
Click to expand...

I knew it was coming! I think we'll be okay at PG with Theus/Grayson/Rodriguez. In fact, I'm looking forward to life after Maynor. I'm excited about our team chemistry this year. With Maynor gone, guys will have to step up and perform...no more standing around watching Maynor do his thing. If we're going to be a great team (like we all think we will be) it's going to take all five guys on the court this year!
 
Who will lead us at point guard and can Larry live up to his expectations and stay out of foul trouble. We have potenially three very good point guard prospects in Rodriguez, Grayson and Theus and one will emerge as our point or we may have more then one PG playing each game. Joey is a tireless worker who will give it all he can to start and I suspect the other two fit the same mold. It will be an interesting year.
 
will I be able to drive to the first round game again like I did in March???
 
Concern: Guards that can penetrate and dish without turnovers.

I believe we have potentially one of the better front-courts in recent memory, but if we can't effectively get them the rock in scoring positions off the dribble we will be prone to zones. Yes, we have strong outside shooters, but big-guards in zones that drift out must be attacked with ball-handling penetration.

The UCLA games and Oklahoma games last year exposed our overall weak guard play, and life without Eric must be addressed.
 
I hope that this is okay John, I know this was from our pm's but I think it's great information. When John was talking with Dave Hinton (our walk-on from North Carolina), he said that he was most impressed with Darius Theus of all the freshmen that played. Said the kid would be a star. It was kind of like when we had the '07 class and we were all sure Joey was going to be the star of the class (since he was highly ranked). But when we asked the players, they all said Larry Sanders was gonna be the star of this class (our least heralded recruit of all). They ended up being right.

Eric Maynor and Theus went head-to-head in the spring and played some pickup. Afterwards he was highly impressed with Theus and said the kid has game. So hopefully Theus will be a pleasant surprise for us at the PG spot.

I agree, we have big questions at the PG spot, but hopefully one or more of these guys, (including Joey) can step up and make us all look like idiots for being worried about it. I know Joey has a chip on his shoulder after all the talk about him not being able to cut it as a point guard. I hope he proves us all wrong.
 
Let me rephrase a bit, I think we have the most questions at PG. However, I'm hoping (while drinking my koolaid) that we'll love the answers.
 
Biggest concern - Leadership. I am less concerned about on the court leadership, which as noted above we have several good options at PG who can fill this role. It is more so the in the locker room/on the bench/on the floor type of person who can light a fire in his teammates and get everyone giving 120% when needed. EM could both lead by example and get his teammates going - big shoes to replace, even beyond his loaded stat line. I'm just not sure yet who will take over as emotional leader of the team. Thus far my money would be on Joey, regardless of playing time (which it appears he may have to fight for as time goes on), but this is yet to be seen. We are developing a great bunch of players - they will clearly need the right leadership and esprit de corps to become a great team.
 
Another major concern is whether Larry Sanders can stay on the floor with all the double-teams coming at him. Coaches are going to have their teams driving at Larry to draw fouls from the beginning. It's a completely different game offensively for opposing teams when Larry is not manning the middle. Will he continue his progress from last year at staying on the floor? Or will he crumble under the pressure?
 
Can't control concern: injury.

Early season [prolonged] loss of either Larry or Joey would be difficult and require incoming and returning players to grow-up very quickly.

Can control but difficult: coaching unity.

Player chemistry is important, but all the coaches are still saying hello as well.
 
I'm not really that worried about any specific position, but something more intangible -- how the team functions without having a guy who was always willing and able to make the clutch play when we absolutely had to have it. Eric was never afraid to fail and his confidence made everyone else play that much better, since they knew if the game was close in the final 2 minutes, they had the guy who could take over and win the game.

How many close games did we win over the last 3 years that we most likely would've lost without Eric's brilliance? How many of those close games did you watch with a sense of inevitability, just knowing we were gonna pull it out in the end because of Eric? Don't think for a second that most of our opponents weren't thinking the same thing.

Yes, we still have plenty of talent, but there's not one returning player who can give our team the same sense of invincibility. We can replace his points and assists, but there is no replacing the guy's ability to will his team to victory. Players like Eric only come around once in a generation -- and that's if you're lucky.
 
I'm excited that db is so excited about the Reco McCarter verbal commitment! Did you see all of those Reco posts? I don't know what you're planning to do when we get a verbal from Michael Bradley but I can't wait to find out! :lol:
 
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