Different Perspecitve on Steele/X

[Anti-Homer]

so we lose Welage, Hankins and Castlin. i can't imagine anyone else leaves but after what Gates did, who knows. however, IF no one leaves and we bring back the core of Goodin, Marshall, Scruggs, and Jones - that's a pretty good core 4 right there (with another year of improvement under their belt) and add on next year's class, i think the future is bright.

let's hope this team can get it together THIS year but i'm not so sure. gonna be some rough sledding.

The guy i'd worry about not returning is Jones. He looks frustrated in the half court offense. Some of it may be his fault, but there is an awful lot going on out on the perimeter and his touches are often not very consistent.

if i was him, i'd be frustrated as well. the offense should RUN through him. does that mean he shoots inside every time? no. but we need to make more of a concerted effort to enter the ball into the post, cut, spot up, etc. our offense runs so much better when we do that.

Seriously? He is an undersized center with exactly one post move. He can't even make a shot jumper. He has a nice 4 foot half hook, against 6'6" centers. When fouled he only hits half of them. Compared to him, CJ Anderson's range is that of Trae Young's. I agree they need to give him looks in the post, but he is indecisive when he catches it, and does not pass well outside of the post. He is a tenacious rebounder, and solid defender though.

However, I think Hankins is clearly the better overall center on this team.

[skyhops]

He is good against smaller crappier teams. Hankins range is not much better. James must really be behind schedule to not get minutes on this front line.

[Anti-Homer]

He is good against smaller crappier teams. Hankins range is not much better. James must really be behind schedule to not get minutes on this front line.

James is more of a hybrid stretch 3-4. They'll need a good grad transfer post player next year. BTW, anyone know why our sharpshooting 3 point specialist Hardin didn't play?

[MOSQUETERO]

So if we were to have a punchers chance to make the big dance is the Mizzou game a must win? We would probably need to go 10-8 in the BE as well.

[thecoach]

I'm not sure I want the offense running thru Jones considering most of the time he gets the ball he shoots it and his range is about 4' and in. He and Hankins got schooled and I wouldn't consider UC's front court as intimidating.

His body "transformation" isn't consistent with playing with your back to the basket. He doesn't really appear to me to be a face up guy with his skill set, and i think that's part of why they throw the ball around a lot on the perimeter. In a lot of these bigger games(and losses), he seems to struggle to establish position consistently. Uc didn't have a big name stopper underneath, but to me they look better with the kids they have underneath defensively now vs. the Washington kid who was not very good defensively. It helps to have some weight behind you playing on the block. I don't care how ripped you get. It doesn't help that he has been getting in foul trouble in these games against better opponents. It's one thing to establish position against Mac teams, etc. but bigger/better schools it's a lot harder. Speaking of establishing position on the block, here's a bullet X dodged, kid has some issues:

https://www.wlwt.com/article/former-nky ... s/25491769

[XavierRunningMan]

We need to give Steele a break...we’d be playing WALK ONS if he didn’t recruit so well!! Everyone knew Mack was leaving and a player was even quoted saying he could play for him no matter where he was coaching...

I truly think Goodins dislocated shoulder and the entire team having the flu has played a huge impact early on. It’s hard to play D1 basketball and compete for 40 minutes when multiple players are sick.

Will we be great this season...no. Next season? Probably not. I have FAITH in coach Steele and so did a ton of former players when the position came open. They know more about his coaching abilities than any of us do. Give him a few years to do the job he was hired to do and I have no doubt we will be a top tier program again.

[madness31]

The original post is correct that Steele doesn't have the players to do much this year. The poster suggesting we miss anything about Mack is just silly. Mack was a mediocre coach with no clue how to get the team to play legit defense. Even more crazy is anyone thinking the answer is to run the offense through Jones. He is a good rebounder but has very little offensive ability. The big adjustment needed is simply to figure out how to get Q and Marshall to take fewer shots from the perimeter. That won't necessarily win more games but gets us closer. Better defense and fewer turnovers gets us in the winning conversation.

If the team doesn't play better in the 2nd half, the returning core seems more like a nightmare than an encouraging sign for next year. Scruggs is the only 1 that has shown any improvement from last year. The others have regressed or plateaued.