Dr. V
PhD Student
Posts: 1536
Reg: 11-21-04
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04-20-17 12:14 PM - Post#228822
In response to mrjames
Your points about the strengths of the other teams are well taken, and it's undeniable that, thus, the League will be stronger than ever in recent and more distant memory (I go back to '71-72).
Tape demonstrated flashes of unusual athleticism for a big. Our fortunes will in part depend on whether he stays static, in terms of development, gets better or gets worse. But even if he just remains static or improves, he and Faulds, an acknowledged defender who played against good competition in the Lansing area, should between the two of them be able to protect the rim for us.
A bigger question for me is the 4 slot. If Meisner is healthy we will be in good shape both offensively and defensively at that position, but that's an if, and we're thin there.
I presume that Smith will hold down the 1. He has more than shown that he can hold his own there. The addition of three players who are all good shooters, rebounders and who are athletic, and, thus, better defenders than we were last year, namely, Hanson, Bibbs and Stefanini, will either force our upper classmen to improve significantly over the summer or surrender PT to those newcomers. Now as always it's impossible to predict who will take how much time to adjust to D1 and college life in general, but it's reasonable to expect that at least one or two of them will contribute to an overall team improvement.
And this brings us to the key question, and one noted by Mr. James, namely, defense. We have to be able to learn how to play good man. Zone is OK for a change of pace, but unless you can bring in the kind of extraordinary length and agility that Saracuse used to bring in, zone can't be a staple. We have not yet demonstrated that we can play good man. I think that we may be able to do that next year, but that's obviously the biggest "if."
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