That’s so awesome for someone like him to get the chance to play at his dream school. Hard work definitely pays off.
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@MattD yes he been working on his game or body like that for a couple of years now. It will be hard to find somebody that out works him. He works out like that cause he dont feel like he the tallest or Athletics but his determination and his will to win, he gone keep everything he can get out of his body
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He jumps pretty well for a six footer. Is he nate Robinson in the air? No But he’s not lacking imo.
Also did you say caris was a bad defender? I thought and still think he’s a nice defender. Two way player that’s why I preferred him to nik.
Caris had all the tools to be a great defender and had many games displaying it but given the system and coaching, he was more likely to be a non-physical on-ball defender who often fell asleep off-ball. Interested to see how he grows in that regard with Brooklyn with a coach who will light him up after mistakes and allow him to use his physical tools to dig into guys.
He’s already playing good D with the Nets. His +/- is always +, he has a lot of steals given the minutes played. He was matched up with Lebron at times when they played the Cavs and held his own. Given the he hadn’t played for a full year when he came back a few weeks ago, he’s been impressive.
Yeah, he has looked great to start but I want to see it in extended minutes over a course of a season. Definitely think he can sustain it.
I think you need at least one of two things to be good on defense - toughness or athleticism. Right now, this team has zero toughness and little athleticism.
Wisconsin has been a great defensive team for a long time, and they do it without recruiting great athletes. But they do recruit tough, strong guys, and you can obviously see they work hard on the way they defend.
Athletes alone won’t do it, without a coach committed to defense. Our 2012 team was plenty athletic, but pretty mediocre on defense. UCLA right now is awful on defense, but has very good athletes and offensive players. As much as ever, I still think you can win big by focusing on offense, but you better be great at it. Right now, we have a good offense and a terrible defense - a recipe for disaster.
That’s why those first few games, IMO, were so encouraging. It’s probably true that SMU and Marquette are not special, but we beat those teams handily and more importantly, they got nothing on offense. Even against Texas - a scattershot offense if there ever was one - we still held them to 50.
It seems weird to say, but I do recall Donnal blocking some shots and taking some charges in those early games, and also scoring a bit. It seems absurd to suggest his presence on the court would really help our defense, but after Wagner last night, maybe it would. At this rate, Swanigan, Bryant, and Nick Ward are going to average 30 a game against us.
Osborn’s coach isn’t a fan of Dave, and their defense reflected that if you catch my drift. To give you a feel for the concern level, the game was moved from Osborn (designated home team) to Mumford for safety reasons
Gotcha. Is Holloway a D1 prospect?
Didn’t really watch him close enough. Would have to see more
Long drive to GR today. Have a safe journey. Hope they both show out!!
Thanks. That’s just the beginning of it…Steve plays at noon. Should be fun
They were concerned enough about the safety of a game to move it because a coach really hates a high school kid???
Ummmmm. That’s…
Reegs you attended school in Detroit, although UofD isn’t really Detroit since its essentially a gated community…so you should know what Detroit proper is like. The game wasn’t moved to Mumford solely for that reason, but when a coach is actively encouraging physical defense (for lack of other terms) against an individual player publicly in an environment that is already hostile it becomes cause for concern. While any of us can walk into the UDJ gym without issue, most people on this forum couldn’t last a single day in the Osborn area (E. 7 mile and Hoover area)…its tough. So the PSL moved the game for ‘gang violence’ reasons
Yeah I get what you mean. 7 mile and Livernois versus Catholic league teams isn’t the same.
Why doesn’t he like Dave?
Not gonna get into that
Just left the game in grand rapids. He had a good game won mvp could have played better in the 4th.
Gotta love Unc with the high standards lol. Dave dropped 28