SRP
Postdoc
Posts: 4911
Reg: 02-04-06
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11-02-17 07:14 PM - Post#235382
In response to bradley
According to MH post-season, the guy who called the players' meeting after the loss of Caruso (and the constant losing) was Miller. That was when they decided to slow it down and try to grind a lot harder on defense, with subsequent improvement. So Cook and Weisz aren't the only missing leaders.
Very interesting discussion here overall. Considering that Bruner looked to me like he was greatly limited by injury last season, Yale could be a lot better. And with their style of play, I could visualize them getting to the FT line a lot, which might compensate for a lower-than-Ivy-average trey rate.
If Mason has extended his range a bit (at least in terms of where he feels comfortable, if not in accuracy, as he was pretty accurate already if I recall), then they could score a lot of points. Jones's guys usually look like they play within the envelope of what they have mastered in practice and they trust one another, so some of that "anomalous" two-point shooting may be from spots that are very favorable for them. By eye, Mason's elbow pull-ups certainly looked about as good as a contested layup would have been for him.
Princeton has a ton of upside, I think, but a championship scenario will need one or more freshmen and/or Gladson or Brennan to step it up, as well as good health and no drop-off from the big three. Stephens could actually be better this year, which could be scary for everybody, and Cannady may be able to return more to his free-shooting freshman campaign.
But as usual, the big question is whether the Tigers will be consistently able to get stops. Neither their big nor small lineups last year were able to stop strong post scorers from BYU and Notre Dame, although they did better against an injured guy from Cal and against Brodeur and Downey. They played better when they were able to force a few more turnovers, but they wouldn't have been athletic enough to be able to sell out for steals without creating too many easy shots and ORs for the opponent. That's a big reason for missing Weisz--he got a lot of steals without gambling just by anticipating and sticking his hand in the way of a pass.
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