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Message: [QUOTE="pj, post: 5144552, member: 2524"] Very impressive win, very happy to see the team finding its way so quickly after Maui. Hope Samson gets back at full strength, and Singare and Reed develop during his time off. It's not a bad thing for Singare to get on-court experience, and Reed to have more time with the other four starters so coaches can get a better read on player chemistries. I agree with Chief that the smaller lineup with Stewart or Karaban at the 5 can be a powerhouse against many teams, but I suspect there's more to be gained development-wise by getting Singare some time. We're very solid at the forward spots with McNeeley, Karaban, and Stewart. McNeeley seems like he's already maturing into a complete player. Karaban still needs to gain comfort with the less familiar parts of his game, it seems like 3 point shooting is still his go-to even when it's not working / defense has taken it away. Stewart, I'm not sure which weaknesses are limiting his minutes, but he still looks like a high-ceiling player to me and I hope he fixes those issues and gets more time soon. A more balanced 30-30-20 among McNeeley-Karaban-Stewart might help us get through the grind of the Big East regular season at full strength. It seems like Ball-Ross-Mahaney at SG and Diarra-Nowell-Mahaney at PG are where we still need improvement, especially PG. I'm still among the optimists about Mahaney. In elite competitive sports you're either rich or you're poor, a little bit better and you dominate, a little bit worse and you get dominated. Mahaney is getting dominated right now but I don't believe he's that far below the threshold of middle class. I think he can work his way through this and become a quality PG for us. We'll see. But if not, we have a high floor in Diarra and Nowell is clearly a major talent who is going to come on. Let's see where we get by March. Chief's idea of Ball as PG is surprising and intriguing, I would be happy if Ball can just develop a bit as a ballhandler and distributor and take some burden off the PG. The crazy thing is that this early in the season and with limited chemistry together and some real weaknesses and some key injuries, they've nevertheless begun beating top 10 - top 20 teams. The upside for this team is high. They won't be as good as last year's team, but they will compete for the championship. If we win it, it will be due to McNeeley emerging as a big-time star. We're very lucky fans to be able to watch this team develop. [/QUOTE]

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