Kerb Hohl wrote:I implore you to watch some of the early season games against decent teams. Watch the moment Essegian checks in. Watch the ball happen to go to the guy he is guarding 90% of the time and they immediately go to the basket because he's not a good enough athlete to defend.
It's not a "mistake" - it's that he cannot defend at the high major D1 level. Blackwell and Storr - even with mistakes or lack of effort - can do so most of the time.
The guy had a pretty significant back injury, should not have even been out there the first two months. He looked fine on defense in BT play. No worse, probably better than Storr if we are being honest. Clearly at that point Storr was their best finisher at the rim. Storr cant shoot. I'd take Essegian all day and Sunday if that's a competition. Storr was a better option though, but the 42% shooting and the amount of turnover he resulted in, plus the sieve defense didnt inspire much confidence out of me either. He will need to improve his ballhandling, shot, and defense if he wants to be a 3 and D wing on the next level. Can he make it, of course. Will he... a lot of work needs be done.
Next season, Frietag will cut into Blackwell's minutes at a guard spot. Blackwell will have to play more wing. If storr comes back, that is a lot of shared minutes.
If Gard's contract wasnt so long, we'd be talking about who the new coach will be here. He'll be given one last season to see what he can do with potentially 7 or more seniors. If he cant go deep in both tournaments and finish top 3... we got a problem. I guess it just depends how this transfer portal season and who stays/goes. All i know is they need a massive upgrade at the 4 and someone to challenge Crowl for minutes (he is tissue soft and a zero shotblocking presence).
Khris Middleton - Beating up on Trash Can Teams since 1943. Invisible Man status otherwise.