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Username Post: Lehigh Game        (Topic#23830)
BisonRoadWarrior 
Professor
Posts: 5203
BisonRoadWarrior
Loc: Where the Bison Roam
Reg: 08-16-06
01-19-20 05:26 PM - Post#297096    
    In response to LewisburgLocal

  • LewisburgLocal Said:
I feel Spears is going to become a very exciting player to watch in the future.

With his blocks and jams, he’s bringing a lot of excitement already.

At American and last night, I was impressed with how many times he gets his hand on the ball defensively. Many pass deflections and dribble interruptions, and I think the stat-keepers may have missed a few times when he got at least a finger on a shot attempt.

 
Old Bison 
Masters Student
Posts: 619

Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
01-19-20 06:17 PM - Post#297099    
    In response to HuskyColonial

HC, not an unreasonable question. I don’t have a good answer (nor do I have any internal feedback) for you. Without the kid deciding to make some revolutionary changes in lifestyle and work ethic it doesn’t appear the program will get a high ROI.

After the 4-5 star level recruiting is a very funny thing. Bucknell has enjoyed extraordinary success in this regard. How much is attributable to prescience and judgement vs good luck is hard to assess. Kids that became tremendous players here were not highly recruited by others and it’s either a curious Malcolm Gladwell event or a phenomenal job at assessment. Kids like Lee, Badmus, Bettencourt, Muscala, Willman, Haas, Fouland, Brown, et. al. are extraordinarily hard to find and project. It’s a little bit science (kids from successful HS programs and select known competitive leagues) and a little bit art (kids like above who may be outside that profile). It’s not easy when your higher charted offers don’t matriculate.

I will offer that I said very early in the year that I thought Spear was a “wasted scholarship” as a freshman and thought he was the most improved kid in the program from freshman to sophomore year. I had the same early feeling with respect to Meeks and clearly Ellis who’s a total enigma to me but seems to have gained a little more confidence as of late. A kid like Rhodes has the energy and the body that you like with skills you need to be able to project. Will those skills eventually evolve you can only hope. If it were easy everyone would be successful and that’s not the case.

ND is running the program and needs our confidence and support and likewise with respect to the kids. I liked our effort at AU and I just have to throw out last night as a case of playing down.

Very different equation tomorrow night with little to no assurances that we will perform well. Why you have to play the games😃.

One game at a time and we see how we go. PL is proving a lot more palatable than OOC.

 
Bison137 
Professor
Posts: 16147
Bison137
Reg: 01-23-06
01-19-20 07:14 PM - Post#297101    
    In response to Old Bison

  • Old Bison Said:


The two best performing lineups right now don’t have Funk in them. He needs to pick it up. Started the year pretty well.

Best thing about taking Newman out of the mix was it got him out of Meeks way on the interior and more importantly got Bruce out of his way on the perimeter.

Now it’s up to ND to stop John from his natural propensity/talent at junk ball (fade-aways, turn-arounds, double-spin moves and whatever he does on that move in the lane that becomes an automatic travel call). He’s so much better letting the game come to him.

I would love to see a lineup where we go 2-3 with Newman and Bruce and Spear on the wings with Jimmy and Avi up top. Not sure how we would score with that lineup so you couldn’t employ for other than tactical defensive purposes. I would like to see Saeed Nelson go 90’ and get a layup in 8-9 seconds through that. Unfortunately it puts both Newman & Spear on the floor in tight games where you need to shoot fouls.

I do know however that that ball hand off from the 1 to the trailing 5 is the worst basketball play I have ever seen. It sucked when we were dropping off to Nate and Zach. Brought this up early in the year and was mortified to see we dusted it off twice last night. It produces two automatics; travel violation and a license for John to launch a 30 footer (as if we need to increase shot license) with 26 tics on the shot clock. We can do better than that.




1. Funk last night was clearly still suffering from flu symptoms. It was obvious early he had no energy, and the coaching staff shouldn't have used him nearly as much as they did. He ended up playing 22:30 and had no FG's, no rebounds, no assists, and three turnovers (all in a two minute span in the second half). After those three turnovers, they finally took him out with seven minutes remaining - never to return. But he should never have been asked to play major minutes.

Funk had one of his best games of the year versus Holy Cross a week ago - just before the flu. Had 17 points (5-11 on twos, 2-4 on threes, 1-1 on FT's, and 7 rebounds at the defensive end). Also had a good one the week before that in the win at Lafayette. So my lineup would certainly have Funk in it - once he is fully healthy.

2. Agree on the hand-offs to Spear, at least if he is going to ever attempt to put the ball to the floor. When he tries to go to the basket in that situation, it is a sure travel. Having said that, he is 7-15 this year on threes, and 9-20 (.450) in his career. He shoots them better than FT's. Hard to believe but true.

As for Meeks' three point attempt, that was something the staff wanted him to take. They are big on trying to get two-for-ones at the end of the half, and often signal to try to get a quick shot. Meeks missed - but it wasn't a terrible percentage shot - and it would have enabled them to get the ball back for the final shot of the half.

3. Having a defense with the three shot-blockers at the back of a zone would be interesting in the right situation - but as you say, it would be dangerous to use it in most situations because of the total inability of Spear and Newman to make a FT. In any event, we won't ever see it, since I don't think ND will ever play a zone again.

Even if it's not a zone with those three, I wish ND would have a zone just for a tactical change-up on one or two key possessions. Over the years, I have seen dozens of PL teams suddenly switch to zone on a key possession, with generally good results. Typically their opponent is surprised, wastes half the shot clock trying to organize their offense, and then gets a forced shot.




 
Bison137 
Professor
Posts: 16147
Bison137
Reg: 01-23-06
Lehigh Game
01-19-20 07:31 PM - Post#297103    
    In response to Old Bison

  • Old Bison Said:
HC, not an unreasonable question. I don’t have a good answer (nor do I have any internal feedback) for you. Without the kid deciding to make some revolutionary changes in lifestyle and work ethic it doesn’t appear the program will get a high ROI.






The sad thing is that he DID make a revolutionary change prior to his junior year in high school. Dropped about 45 pounds and went from being a mediocre player to a very good one.

During his junior year, a couple of articles noted the following:

1. Crystal Lake 2019 center Alex Timmerman is in the best shape of his career. The 6’8” post looks like a different person having lost a ton of weight and being much more mobile on the interior. Skilled back to the basket post that has improved his mobility.

2. Timmerman: "Everyone has been telling me you have the skills, but where you play will depend on what you do with your body. I said it was time. Got a trainer and I have been lifting and running. Really the biggest thing was changing my diet. That was what helped me lose the weight.”

3. Timmerman: “Over the years, a lot of people were saying, ‘You have the talent, you’ve just got to get your body in shape, That’s going to determine where you end up playing (in college)'. I thought it was time to focus on it.”

The 6-foot-9 junior lost 45 pounds over the offseason, slimming down to 245 pounds. Timmerman worked out at TNT in McHenry . . . There wasn’t much cardio involved, outside of the running Timmerman did on the basketball court. He said it was more of a focus on weightlifting and eating right.

“I was eating bad food,” Timmerman said. “They taught me what to eat, when to eat and helped me lift. I lifted a lot, and I ran in basketball.”


In the picture accompanying one of the articles, he looks like an entirely different person: https://www.prephoops.com/2018/05/recruiting-re por...

Or here: https://www.nwherald.com/2018/02/11/high-schoo l-bo...

Fwiw, on his HS roster, he was listed at 245 lbs as a junior and 250 as a senior. According to an article, he was 290 as a soph. And now 294 at the start of this season.




 
Old Bison 
Masters Student
Posts: 619

Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
01-19-20 08:31 PM - Post#297106    
    In response to Bison137

137, no arguments from me but as I said on many occasions prior I just go with what I see...I don’t know anything about AT’s history or even a lot about Funks statistics. Some games I actually forget to even look at the box score after a game. My only tactile sense of the game and hence my sentiments is through my eyes. HC is horrible and LC not much better. That was the worst LU team I’ve seen in decades. Our TEAM defense has been significantly better while Funk hasn’t been on the floor (that’s my sense...a +\- film breakdown may prove me totally wrong), Just like our offense improved with Bruce off it in the short term. Very tough trying to figure out who’s gonna show up today as opposed to what units look less slow, more energetic and more inclined to mud wrestle. I like Funk and if your ran the totality of my posts it would support that. I didn’t mean to count the kid out. I’ve been wrong in the past and will be wrong in the future. I will be much more impressed if we do better with him on the floor at Gate and if he plays well. In fact, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that he looked better and we now have a luxury of riches. Would make me quite happy.

 
Old Bison 
Masters Student
Posts: 619

Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
01-19-20 09:00 PM - Post#297108    
    In response to Old Bison

Didn’t realize we were going 2 for 1 on the Meeks jumper but don’t agree it’s not a bad % shot. I don’t remember one conversion this season on that option. More likely result is it comes out high and leads to a run out. It’s a crappy play

 
Scotty-14 
Sophomore
Posts: 156

Age: 31
Reg: 10-10-18
Re: Lehigh Game
01-20-20 03:07 PM - Post#297124    
    In response to Bison137

Does anyone think AT's weight could be an asset? From what we have seen this season, he has showed the ability to move well for his size and do a variety of positive things. Not saying that getting to 270 would hurt but losing so much weight can sometimes have more negative consequences than positive. I remember Charles Barkley talking about how he had to find his "right weight" and that at one point he lost too much weight and felt weak.

 
Bison137 
Professor
Posts: 16147
Bison137
Reg: 01-23-06
01-20-20 04:04 PM - Post#297125    
    In response to Scotty-14

From what I have seen, I think his weight is definitely a liability. Footwork seems very slow. Has trouble staying in front of his man any time there is a quick spin move or drop step. Commits almost 9 fouls per 40 minutes and does not have a very high rebound rate

I think it kind of speaks for itself when he admits his play was affected by his weight as a HS soph and that he got a lot better after losing 45 pounds. I think 255 would be about the right weight if he hopes to play much. He does show flashes of ability that might allow him to help the team if he got in shape.




 
MrPhillie 
Postdoc
Posts: 2757
MrPhillie
Loc: NE PA
Reg: 07-14-08
01-20-20 06:01 PM - Post#297130    
    In response to Bison137

“Move well for his size” is far different from moving well or moving well to be effective. Each person should be who they want to to be but I think there is some obligation and responsibility to be the best and most effective you can be when you are receiving almost a quarter million $ in education. If coaches believe that his current weight is his most effective playing weight, then who am I to criticize.

 
Old Bison 
Masters Student
Posts: 619

Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
01-20-20 07:13 PM - Post#297132    
    In response to MrPhillie

Guys, you can only play D1 🏀 at 294 lbs if you’re c. 7’4”. At 6’8” I would suggest dropping 50 as a potential start.

This is what can happen when you compose too wide a classification around “big guys who can shoot”

 
HuskyColonial 
PhD Student
Posts: 1976

Age: 50
Reg: 02-17-12
01-20-20 09:29 PM - Post#297144    
    In response to Old Bison

I would have rescinded his scholarship.

 
DoCtoR62 
Masters Student
Posts: 463

Reg: 05-18-08
01-21-20 04:13 PM - Post#297165    
    In response to MrPhillie

  • MrPhillie Said:
If coaches believe that his current weight is his most effective playing weight, then who am I to criticize.



You are MrPhillie.


 
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