I would like to go back and stare at each of Smith’s turnovers and see which are the product of adventurous play that gets filed for future reference and better execution, and which simple brain farts (also possibly forgivable). A guard new to a team playing at real-time speed with a LOT of possibilities in front of him. . . guy is executing at a high level, and while Howard and co. might or might not end up asking him to play more conservatively in a late-stage NCAA game, I’m not so sure I don’t just take two or three or those as necessary to team–and his–growth, at least for now. To put it another way, I’m not sure I want to make him too self-conscious/fearful at the moment.
EDIT: I note that in both this and the NWestern game our response to the other team’s attempt to push tempo, at times, to run right past them. I’m curious what Dylan and others have to say about tempo and efficiency–maybe this has a little something to do with those turnovers.
The Big Ten is easily the best conference in college basketball, again. Only one pushover in a 14-team league is unheard of. The Big 12 has to be 2nd, with 7 of 10 teams being possibly Tournament worthy. There really isn’t another strong conference this year, from what I’ve seen.
P.S. IMO Baird should be ahead of Nunez and Howard on the depth chart.
When he went under screens late in the first half to let Carr get two open threes? Only time Carr was good was the end of the first half. Outside those two minutes, he had 6 points.
Messed up on those plays, but viciously a great night overall against Carr
The TOs from Smith that are worrisome are when he throws it over Hunter’s head on pick and rolls because of his size and need to get the pass over a defender. Against teams with length is he going to struggle to run those sets?
Perhaps he’s referring to how Eli’s teeth don’t hold up well to a hard elbow, thereby keeping Eli on the bench for a long stretch, and unable to contain Carr from there?
Yeah, I think we’ve seen about 3-4 of those this season and it hasn’t worked. It is a TOUGH pass with someone fronting him and Smith being so small. Likewise, for as amazing as Hunter is, he doesn’t have the lateral quickness or leaping ability to help out on that pass. If we are going to throw one of those (which I don’t recommend) then I’d rather it be to Franz.
One of his TOs was when he got hit by Robbins that could have been a foul. Another was when he got to the FT area and went up for a pass but was cut off and threw a short-hopper to someone. That wasn’t ideal. I can’t remember the others - feels like one was on the baseline while trying to get past someone and stepped out of bounds.
As I’ve said before - just cut down on 2 of them and its fine. They haven’t typically been open court turnovers for run outs and if this is the only negative by product of us bringing in an Ivy-league PG who’s 5’9" and playing 28-30mpg then I’ll take it. He’s been a great shooter, gets a couple of good takes to the hoop per game, great on ball screens, and a better defender than I ever thought he could be.
People have (foolishly) tried to say he’s been better than Simpson. That’s not true at all…and one way is that Simpson didn’t turn the ball over ever despite high usage. However, Smith is doing things on offense (i.e. hitting open jump shots and forcing the defense to guard him) that Simpson didn’t do. That helps compensate for his limitations.