OT: Andrew Wiggins Discussion Thread

[sweetcity]

this guy is a stud

[Ragnar0k]

Yeah it's hard to slash when they're packing the paint with the zone too. That's why having 3 point shooters is really important, it's a zone buster.

As a team that's what I'd be focusing on heavily over the next little while, and addressing the press.

Exactly. Also, when you factor in how smaller the court is it leaves very little spacing for driving lanes. One way to remedy a zone defense besides 3-point shooting is to reverse the ball quickly because that will force the defense to stay home on their man rather than jumping to the ball to overload the strong side. KU doesn't reverse the ball fast enough so that when Wiggins catches the ball he can attack immediately off the dribble.

That's true too. They're not playing as a cohesive unit just yet (weird because they looked better in the first few games this season) so hopefully it's something they'll improve on over time.

Hopefully today's game got the attention of his guards who think they're superstars. They need to get him the rock more often.

Selden was noticeably absent/invisible this game too. Did he even play more than 5 minutes?

Edit: Speaking of noticeable absences, what the hell is going on with Perry Ellis? He has totally vanished in the last few games.

[Ragnar0k]

I think these types of games early on in the season are good for this team because it helps expose what they need to work on. Rock Chalk it up to growing pains.

[fredericklove]

Damn I've missed the epic game, can someone recap for me?

[Randle McMurphy]

Edit: Speaking of noticeable absences, what the hell is going on with Perry Ellis? He has totally vanished in the last few games.

Getting pushed around by guys bigger and tougher than he is.

[fredericklove]

26 points (7/14, 4/8 3P, 8/8 FT), 11 rebounds, 0 assists, 5 turnovers, 2 blocks

Missed the game, but nice to see him shooting perfect from the line and 50% from three. I read he shot in the 60s from the FT line in high school, seemed really low to me.

0 assists/5 TOs though not great, seems to show he's just not much of a playmaker. Hopefully I can find a torrent of this game and rewatch it.

Someone will upload this game on youtube in two days.

[mirrornick]

Damn I've missed the epic game, can someone recap for me?

Wiggins was balling in the second half. He brought his team back. He nailed 3 contested threes to bring his team close. At a certain point, he got the ball, and he wanted to shoot again, but his teammate turned it over. Wiggy played well overall.

[Undefeated]

Damn I've missed the epic game, can someone recap for me?

After starting cold (1-for-5) from the field Wiggins was much more aggressive with his drives although he lost the ball and the second time he was whistled with an offensive foul, but it was nice to see him stop settling for jumpers because it shows good alertness to change the way he attacks when something isn’t working for him. Second half, he had a few transition buckets on leak outs with a D-Wade like windmill where he brought the ball over the top from his shot pocket to opposite side to avoid getting stripped, but he stood out most when he drained 3 shots from downtown in a row to keep Kansas alive in the game after trailing big.

Tried to go coast-to-coast a few times first trying to wrap the ball around but lost it. Second time he did a spin move on Scottie Wilbekin which he drew a foul. Overall, he's not yet comfortable with leading a break by himself often losing the ball or gets bailed out.

More importantly, he has to work on getting low on his dribble to improve ball security because too often he loses the ball when he drives into traffic. There’s just too much ground to cover with his dribble from the floor back to his hand when he dribbles in an upright position and the defense can easily take a swipe at the ball when he exposes it forcing him to lose his handle.

I wouldn’t blame the slow start by Wiggins on himself since Kansas really struggled to attack against Florida’s 2-3 and 1-2-2 zone defense. For anyone that watched the Colorado game you know what that was like. Kansas’ guard play was disorganized not reversing the ball side to side quickly enough to create driving lanes. And the 5 turnovers isn't an indication of poor passing. Most of it were drives when he tried to break down Florida's 2-3, 1-2-2 zone defense when KU just kept jacking up shots from deep with time on the shot clock despite that shot being there at the end.

[22haytham22]

Damn I've missed the epic game, can someone recap for me?

Wiggins took over in the second half brought the team back, to bad anytime his teammates try to pass to him they turn the ball over...his three was on fire since it was needed because Florida played zone....it truly showed how effortless it is for wiggins to score....another note the broadcasters were talking about how the team "north of the border" would love to have him and vice versa....people know we coming for him now lol.

[DeadHorse]

26 points (7/14, 4/8 3P, 8/8 FT), 11 rebounds, 0 assists, 5 turnovers, 2 blocks

Missed the game, but nice to see him shooting perfect from the line and 50% from three. I read he shot in the 60s from the FT line in high school, seemed really low to me.

0 assists/5 TOs though not great, seems to show he's just not much of a playmaker. Hopefully I can find a torrent of this game and rewatch it.

About the 0 asts and 5 TOs, he had almost half their points. His whole team was ice cold, leading to a crazy 20+ to nothing run in the first half by florida

[Homer Jay]

Just watched the whole thing, and that second half is a real statement game (finally) from him. He finally realized he's by far the best scorer on his team and put it on his back and ran with it.

I don't care about the 0 assists. He tried to involved others and they flat out bricked shyte. Unfortunately he might have been too generous in letting Florida get out to that lead. It's harder to evaluate perimeter defense in NCAA with all the zones being played.

I'm not worried too much about him becoming a big black hole on offense. He tried to give up shots to his team mates. Only took over when he needed to.

[galeon110]

Just watched the whole thing, and that second half is a real statement game (finally) from him. He finally realized he's by far the best scorer on his team and put it on his back and ran with it.

I don't care about the 0 assists. He tried to involved others and they flat out bricked shyte. Unfortunately he might have been too generous in letting Florida get out to that lead. It's harder to evaluate perimeter defense in NCAA with all the zones being played.

I'm not worried too much about him becoming a big black hole on offense. He tried to give up shots to his team mates. Only took over when he needed to.

How'd you watch it? Replay? TiVo?

[andyo]

I think the most impressive thing about Wiggins is the way he can almost score at will when he asserts himself. I actually think with the way he's been playing in the context of Kansas's system is impressive enough. They don't run much high screen and rolls for him. He's the type of talent where you'd want to be running many plays off of him in this regard.

The most impressive thing about him is the first-step he has at his size.

[fredericklove]

Thx for the recap guys.

Just a few more requests because from the stat it looks like Embiid was hammered by foul trouble? How was his game against the size of Young and how did the defense played him down low? And how was Kasey Hill's first game back from his injury?

[Undefeated]

Thx for the recap guys.

Just a few more requests because from the stat it looks like Embiid was hammered by foul trouble? How was his game against the size of Young and how did the defense played him down low? And Kasey Hill came back from a long injury, how was his game tonight?

Embiid played well. I thought he would struggled battling to get deep post position against Patric Young, but he did surprisingly well. He had a nice drop step to the baseline, sweet spin move where he drew the foul on Young when he had his forearm on his back knowing immediately to spin which I see as a great feel for the game, and even tried doing a dream shake with a step-through as a counter to that. Unfortunately, his couldn't get his man bite on his last move, but the move was very crisp and smooth with the fakes and leans using his body. He got caught buried underneath the basket not giving himself a clean angle of the backboard, but he was smart to recognize the situation and passed the ball back out. Defensively, he kind of struggled to keep Patric Young off the glass. Had a sick block to erase a play in transition after he had a dunk the other end.

Kasey Hill didn't play much. In the limited minutes he looked very sharp for his first game back after the ankle sprain and showed no signs of still recovering to re-gain his explosion. After a rebound he went coast-to-coast in only 6 dribble which is some unbelievable end to end speed. Most of his assists were from high screen-and-rolls. Just think of those dimes CP3 would dish when he occupies the screener defender on him as the ball-defender attempts to get back and at that split second the big pops and Hill found them for a wide open jumper. Best play of the game had to be his Rondo behind-the-back fake completely dekeing his man.

[Clementine9]

Just watched the game now (had it recorded). Amazing. It's a shame Kansas lost but Wiggins was fantastic to watch. Over the last few games for Kansas they've slowly started to get Wiggins the ball more with the expectation that he try to score. Before this brief stretch Kansas's offense was really shared.

I think the difference has been that teams are playing the zone a lot more on them now. Wiggins isn't a great three point shooter (tonight he was great from 3) but Kansas doesn't seem to have anyone who can do the job very well. But they give it to him because he seems to be able to do the most with the ball against any defense and they've realized that now when teams have begun to shut them down. Give it to Wiggins.

We'll see how the next few games goes but if they continue to trend in this direction then Wiggins will finish the season easily over 20ppg I think. If he can start to hit the 3 point shot at a decent clip then Kansas is going to be super dominant because I don't think anyone can play man against them.

[Ragnar0k]

As for Kansas picking up their 3rd loss this early in the season, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

They've had 4 "neutral" games (3-1), 2 away games (0-2) and 3 home games (3-0) out of the 9 they've played.

Compare that to Duke (7-2) having 0 away games, and 3 neutral games (1-2 in those games). They are 6-0 at home

Kentucky (8-2) also 0 away games thus far, 1-2 in neutral games, and 7-0 at home.

And it being this early in the season, with that young of a roster, that's not too shabby at all.

[Randle McMurphy]

Should also mention that Wiggins has played his 2 best games in hostile road environments. It's a telling sign of his maturity and mental toughness that he's able to handle that kind of pressure.

[Ragnar0k]

Should also mention that Wiggins has played his 2 best games in hostile road environments. It's a telling sign of his maturity and mental toughness that he's able to handle that kind of pressure.

True. I've actually been pretty impressed with that, it's a pleasant surprise - considering all the talk of him being too nice or not assertive enough. It seems the more hostile environment gets, the more he wants to quiet the building by doing something about it on the court. He loves it.

One of the psychological traits that separates the great ones from the wannabe's.

[Ragnar0k]

From The Sporting News (updated yesterday at 1:30pm)

Why he’s No. 1 this week:

Wiggins matched his career high with 22 points against Colorado, on an efficient 7-of-11 showing from the floor (and 7-of-9 effort from the free-throw line). He had six points in the final 3:13, though he wasn’t happy to have missed one of three free throws that could have tied the game with 13 seconds left. For all the criticism of his offensive approach this year, he has the best kenpom.com offensive rating of the Big Four.

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basket ... on/slide/1