I think Walton and Irvin are very good “program players” — give them a specific role, let them play to their strengths and they’re “plus” players. But neither Walton nor Irvin is a lead/go-to guy. I was hoping Irvin could develop into more of that heading into this year, but that’s really not his game — which really leaves this year’s team devoid of that lead offensive player.
Wagner is the most skilled/complete offensive player, but he’s the team’s center and hasn’t shown himself to be a Toni Kukoc style point-forward.
I still think Irvin is this team’s most complete player — he’s just not Burke, Hardaway, Stauskas, LeVert caliber.
And I still think Walton is a PG you can win with in the B1G — he’s just not likely the PG who carries you to many wins. Kind of like the football version of being able to win big games with Joe Flacco vs Tom Brady being the reason you win big games?
I was a bit apprehensive to say iit on here with the board sure to kill me.I can’t wait for zach in particular to transition out . Addition by subtraction.
Honestly i wish we could get a new mentality on this team. Push the focal point or go to guy away from zak and to moe.zak is not who should get the ball in big moments. He’s just not built like that. He has a low ball iq and always makes a bad decision in big moments
If I was belein I would have ripped this team a new one
My point was that someone who isn’t currently on this team should be. As of right now we don’t have any other options, which is part of the frustration.
I’m going to jump in mid conversation here, so don’t kill me, but I totally agree.
Watching this team evolve, or not, over the past two years has been really tough. Irvin has become a ball stopper and Walton just can’t seem to make things click. Personally, I think Irvin is actually hurting Walton out there and would love to see what this team would look like if Walton was really running the team.
Exactly. I don’t like how he dogs through his cuts. If he turns it over, he dogs it back on defense. He’ll go for a steal but multiple times let his guy blow by him. I about lost it when he turned it over then let his guy beat him baseline for a bucket. He’ll pound the heck out of the ball standing at the top. He’ll chuck a three off a 0 or 1 pass. He struggles to create for his teammates and/or score inside himself.
Yeah, he gets rebounds and can catch & shoot 3’s. Other than that, he’s frustrating to watch.
Our players just need to be used in the right way to maximize the teams potential over the longer term. We have nice pieces.
It is going to require tough decisions and conversations.
As irritated as we are I (think) I see frustration amongst the players, toward other players. I (thought) I was seeing it last year. Does anyone else see Wagner and Wilson’s more vocal irritation? I have always thought MAAR was concealing his irritation…How did Spike feel about not being one of the annoited ones? Maybe Spike knew he could run the offense more effectively?
Walton and Irvin have been given opportunities galore with very little to show for it…In the end it is not their fault.
The evidence is there.
Maybe this season should be treated as a rebuilding season?
I think it’s the same thing we’ve been saying for the better part of 2 years. Walton and Irvin just need to play better. Or at the very least, shoot better. They have both shown they are capable individually of a much higher level of play at different times throughout their career. They very rarely both have a good game the same night and I have never been able to understand why.
But again, I take it as a huge positive that we were able to win last night despite such an awful performance from our “leaders”…never would have happened before this year and it speaks to the improvement in the defense and frontcourt we have so desperately needed. If the offense can get back on track to a typical JB good but not elite year I think we still improve record-wise from last year
Did we really win it or did Texas lose it? If we had been playing pretty much any other team in d one we would have lost that late. That win was just as bAd as the v tech loss for my morAle.
Also to answer your question about who should be the focal point, it’s Wagner on offense. We should be feeding him on the high and low post non stop And let him work. Positive things happen when he has the ball. Even his misses are good missed.
Also I think maar is totAlky frustrated/ lacking confidence. I’m convinced once he gets more looks and touches next year or hopefully later this year you will see a different player. Either way we need to get him more involved and he needs to play better and with that killer instinct we saw at times the last two years. He will be essential to this teams success or lack there of.
It’s frustrating because I’m convinced this team has the talent and players to be very successful. CleAtly we are a solid defensive team. Our offense has potential but we squander so many possessions.
This team has a low basketball iq imo. They do not pass well at all and they make poor decisions often. Their always a second or two late with cuts, swinging it, and overall decision making.
I also believe leadership is a huge problem, Walton has not developed into the floor general we need out there. It’s a shame because he has a lot of tools to be a great player but he just isn’t a good pg/ leader. Things are often jumbled and sloppy.
I finally see that we can not run as a team and it’s not due to athletes/ finishers as we have those, it’s that Walton can’t run a break. He is slow in making decisions and doesn’t understand the spacing or how to use the numbers to get a lay up. Once yesterday we had a three on one with maar on his right and Wilson coming hard flanking him on the left. Instead of taking it up the middle to draw the defender to give Wilson the space to fill for an easy drop for a dunk, Derrick actually cut him off by dribbling in front of him, taking him out of the play, and then threw in awkward pass out to Duncan for an open three that he missed. It was bad on so many levels. He was lucky Duncan came in streaking for the shot so it hypothetically worked out but if he had just filled the middle and drew the defender he hits dj for an easy dunk. No reason we should leave empty handed. Long story I know but things happen like this a lot.
I think coach b needs to do a better job with this group. The potential is there but he has to make adjustments on the offensive end for us to be dangerous. More moe touches on the block and elbow being the starting point, I’d also have a long talk with zak on what we need and don’t need him to do.
Depending on how the season plays out, UM probably will have the best or as good a collection of nonconference wins as any team in the B1G outside of IU. Consider a team like OSU, who’s best win (by far) is against Providence at home, and who lost to FAU.
Agree, and same can be said about VT and SC. Last year what helped us sneak into tourney was the “no bad losses” column. Need those teams to finish with successful seasons in conference to keep that on the resume.
South Carolina is undefeated and beat Syracuse in NYC. They have a top-10 defense and I think they are a tourney team. Losing at USC is not a bad loss.
Home losses are never great, but I don’t think Virginia Tech qualifies as a bad loss right now. It’s not like FAU or something like that.
Definitely, the wins could be pretty good or quite good. Marquette is 35th in Kenpom and SMU is 49th (not nearly as good as last couple years), but even two neutral court top-100 wins is a pretty good nonconference haul. Generally, bubble teams don’t have that. And Texas has a lot of talent and will have the opportunity to get a big RPI bump playing in the B12.
I don’t think there’s any way Va Tech or USC become bad losses.
Didn’t mean to imply that they are bad losses. I too think South Carolina is a solid tourney team (though hopefully the Thornwell suspension isn’t long-term). Those teams just need to remain at their current status and not have a collapse in conference. Helps that VT only plays Duke, UNC, and L’Ville once during conference play.
To the question on who can be the first options if it isn’t DW/ZI, Mo is a clear candidate, but at this point it isn’t about finding the guy who is best to do it right now (b/c that answer is probably no one), it is about developing players who can be part of a higher ceiling team. Zak got the last shot again last night (which thankfully Mo was there to put back). He is a captain, but that doesn’t mean he has to take those shots, or as many shots as he took against VT/SC. If that means someone else has something designed for them and they fail, i’d rather be making that investment at this stage and developing better options/diversity in scoring.
We have had 4y of knowing what the current seniors can/can’t do. Expecting something different come March is foolish. They play good D, and when the offense is functioning find good spots to play a very valuable role, but they can’t score at the rim and make bad hero-ball decisions time and time again. When we need to stop a run, or get a critical 2 or a foul at the end of the game, it shouldn’t be predetermined that Zak has earned the right to shoot it for us anymore. Have ZI/DW earned the right to set up the best shot for the team, absolutely, but it likely won’t be them shooting that gives us the best chance to win, which is a tough conflict to resolve.
Being the captain does not necessarily mean to take the last shot but make the right play. Against V Tech he did not make the right play as Walton came to the top of the key unguarded for a wide open three. That being said he is still our best distributor on this team out of the pick and roll which is not to confused with best decision maker. Over all Walton is still the best assist maker on the team.
UCLA is going to be the test to see how tough we are. I think this team likes to play down to their competition. Excited to see how they fare on the road vs the #2 team.