First of all,
I’d like to say I believe in capitalism. When Muskieman received approval to sell his line of CBD products, I was thrilled for him. However, after reading this article, and finding out one of his customers are the folks from Broken Anchor (BA), I now feel he should have to put a disclaimer: No one should drive or write opinions within four hours of consuming his products. I had no idea who BA was prior to reading this article. Now I see that they are just college kids who are forwarding an opinion which is great, but the quality pales in comparison to Dana & Victory, who I don’t always agree with. Some whoppers of BA are as follows:
“Kyky Tandy has a chance to be one of the best scorers in the conference.” Kyky is a talented deep shooter, but he scored 7 points a game primarily by shooting treys, with the occasional downhill burst to the basket. He is a defensive dribbler who has difficulty going to his left. He lacks confidence dribbling the ball w/o the aid of screens, and often stopped his dribble 35 feet from the basket. Unfortunately, the pandemic limited his ability to work on this skill this summer. He will score more, because his minutes will increase, but I would be stunned if he ended up as one of the best scorers in the league, much less the team (Scruggs, Free, will lead). I think he’ll be in the mix with Carter, Johnson, & Stanley for being the 3rd leading scorer.
“Paul Scruggs is currently the most slept on player in the Big East, but he should be getting 15-20 a night.” The league knew how talented PS was, and I would bet if you polled the coaches, they would have named him as the most polished and capable offensive player on the team last year. I think the game against Nova at the end of 19’ among others showed it. I remember Jay Wright even saying the latter, as well as many commentators. PS is the most talented player on the team, and scored 13ppg last yr, but now he will be the focus of the offense. We saw how that worked for Marshall. His 16ppg per game was great on paper for X, but better for opponents on the court. He had a very high usage rate for someone with clear deficits in his offensive skill set: Poor shooter, high turnover rate, and mind boggling decision making. PS is a better shooter, but also had a high turnover rate. His bball IQ is better than Marshall’s; I’ll leave it at that. He scores well in the post, mid-range, and also from three point land, though needs time to get his shot off. However, he dribbles too high and wide, and like most X guards in recent memory, has difficulty dribbling in traffic without losing control. I think 15ppg is possible, but only if Free, Stanley, and Carter provide consistent low post scoring, Odom develops into a very effective facilitator (Kyky did not show that ability last year, and like Scruggs, is better off the ball), and the likes of Kyky, Wilcher, and others provide consistent outside shooting to balance out the scoring threats.
“I haven’t even mentioned other straight-up scorers like Dwon Odom, CJ Wilcher, and Jason Carter.” What? Odom is strictly a facilitator, who scored a lot because he blew by his high school defenders in the half court, and was unstoppable on the break. He was not recruited by anyone due to his shooting. The hope is that he can blow by players and get to the hole and score, or dish out like Sumner could. If he sits back and takes jumpers, the league will certainly accommodate him as they did with Marshall and Goodin last year.
Wilcher is known as a great shooter, but I think he will play Kyky’s role from last year: Provide an offensive spark off the bench as a three point shooter. He is not nearly as effective off the dribble, but hopefully will develop this part of his game. I hope I’m wrong, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened very often, especially since becoming a moderator.
Carter is a straight up scorer? I like Carter, but nah baby nah. To his defense, it is a hard transition going from being the alpha male to a role player, against much better competition. However, he missed more point blank shots than I can ever remember from an X player, and had no consistent shot (unlike Free, who was money with the short corner jumper). I’m still a fan, and expect a better year, but the bar ain’t high.
I’ve always said last year as the pitchforks came out that it was way too early to make any judgements on Steele. Clearly, he was hamstrung with two teams who lacked shooting prowess. However, you would have thought he still had Bluiett, Macura, and Gates on the team, with the “shoot when you pass half court” mentality the players had, including two of the worst shooters in the league in Goodin and Marshall. His recruiting has been exceptional, and this year, the team seems to have the balanced talent needed to compete for a top four spot in the BE. Assuming no injuries to critical players or other unusual circumstances, this and a safe tourney bid should be the expectation this year.
Seacrest Out.