I’d very surprised if Brooks and Z were not out there together a fair amount, including down the stretch in close games. We may even see lineups with Simpson, Brooks and Poole out there, with Matthews on the bench.
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Many things are a “work in progress” for a true freshman who hasn’t played a single real game yet. The depth of your criticism of Brazdeikas is a bit puzzling at this point. There is no reason to be anything but optimistic about what he’ll bring to this team.
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Lol. The hate is hilarious.
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Attacking pressuring defenses and getting to the line are beneficial for us. This is a criticism?
How his game translates is always been as yet undetermined.
“what is he’s counter (sic) going to be when better teams load up to stop his head down attacks?”
“His deep ball is not really a factor, and of course his desire to pass is only a last resort.”
THOSE are criticisms, and ridiculously overblown ones. Saying some aspect of his play is “not a factor”, or that “of course” he’s going to play a certain way when he hasn’t even played a single real game yet is just dopey.
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If Iggy had high level vision, 3-point shooting and facilitating skills he would probably be a consensus one and done prospect. It’s not the end of the world that he’s not a finished product yet, despite being one of the most college-ready freshmen we have seen in years.
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This is dead on. It’s not really a hot take (especially for those of us who have seen him as a prep) that his deep ball and vision are below average.
The potentially one and done transformative player fan hype is what I’d guard against.
I’ve always thought he was a nice prospect going forward.
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Even Dylan openly wonders about what counters his game can adjust with. This is not new.
Ok… This is starting to feel like that Dakich argument last year. Nobody is “hating” on Simpson. They’re taking game notes. They’re talking about what they saw. It’s a forum. We discuss things both good and bad.
I was at the game, this jump shot you speak of didn’t happen.
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Iggy’s ball handling looked extremely shaky during this game. Perhaps nerves, I never watched for that in the preseason stuff.
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As noted, of course you “wonder” about how a guy who’s never played a real game for us is going to progress. Is “even Dylan” wringing his hands with worry that Brazdeikis will never noticeably improve any aspects of his game that are not ideal at this point, and that what we see from him right now is as good as he’s going to be for four years? Doubt it. Really, seriously, doubt it.
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Chez and I have disagreed about Simpson’s defense, but I’m not seeing that his evaluation of Iggy is even controversial, much less “ridiculously overblown.” To be clear, Iggy was my number 1 choice as a recruit last year, I think he’s going to be extremely good, and I think he’s a plus for us right now, so I’m certainly not hating on him. However, after watching 3 games in Europe, film of open scrimmages, and last night, the fact that Iggy is, right now, a head down, straight line driver who is not confident from distance and not yet a facilitator is pretty evident. That does NOT mean those things won’t come–MAAR, Zak Irvin and Charles Matthews were largely “get theirs” guys when they arrived, and developed as facilitators and as scorers, either in ball screen and to the basket (Irvin) or away from the basket (MAAR, Matthews). It does mean that he’s going to have to make adjustments.
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lol. “Head down.” It’s amazing he manages to remain upright with such a primitive method of attack. That he continues to score as many or more points than his teammates is impressive. Beilein should advise all of his players to point their heads at their shoes and run straight at the basket, that is if they can identify the location of the basket.
I have to say that the above criticism on Iggy is largely unfounded. What if all he did in the game is what Beilein told him to do, and he was very effective doing it all night. Why should he have changed his game while it was working
Come on. Head down isn’t a literal term, it’s a basketball term used by many, including coaches, to describe someone who is driving to create for himself much more so than others because his vision is not yet complete.
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Yes, he’s going to have to “make adjustments”. Just like every player Beilein has ever recruited. Still not sure what the insightful, non-blindingly obvious point here is. And it’s one thing to criticize Simpson based on two years of actual game competition. Quite another to be wringing your hands over a guy who has yet to play a real game.
Here’s a little exercise for you and chezaroo. Give us a list of Beilein recruits who have looked more talented at this stage of their careers. Based on that, tell us why we should be concerned about Brazdeikis’ game.
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Cannot disagree more. Of course Iggy has areas that need improvement, who doesn’t, but I don’t see reasons to be concerned
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I never said we should be concerned about his game. Never. I’m not “wringing my hands” over his play. What I said was that there were things he had to work on. Period.
Virtually every player we’ve recruited under Beilein has been in this position–the only exception is Trey Burke. However, for this team to reach its potential, Iggy is going to have to adjust quicker because we have less pieces on the offensive end than we have had in the past.
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Do you understand why it’s ridiculously overblown to be leveling such sweeping and directed criticism at a guy who has nothing more wrong with his game than any other player that Beilein has recruited (and less than virtually all of them)? BEFORE he even plays a real game?
We’ve had comparable or less proven talent on offense entering a season any number of times, without a player as promising as Brazdeikis stepping in, and have done just fine. Hand-wringing that the offense won’t be good enough if Iggy doesn’t improve really quickly is, again, just silly. If our offense is sub-par this year, I’ll be willing to bet you that it won’t be because of him.
My bad the stat play by play I had on said he hit a 2 pt jumper . Must have been one of his layups or some one else. He still made 100% of his field goals even though they were more at the rim. I’ll take the 12 pts,5 boards,7 assists and 6 steals from him on most all occasions.