I've been struggling to describe how I feel about Reed.
He should have had 28 and 18 tonight. Creighton plays a 6'8 230 pound PF at center and we stretch the floor from the other 4 spots on the court. Their backup center is a bad player from Turkey who'd have the Elezaj role on UConn, and has grabbed 15 total rebounds in their 12 games in the New Year.
Reed is a senior, and he just has absolutely no savvy. He has decent touch, but he doesn't know when to go aggressively to the rim (most of the time probably) and when to counter away with the hook.
He should have had 10 FT attempts and 8 offensive rebounds tonight, but just didn't. He knocked the ball out of bounds when trying to grab a board something like 6 times tonight. Don't get me started on the front ends of 1 and 1s. Teams should be hack-a-shaqing him.
We got a couple easy baskets attacking their drop coverage early, and then just nothing the rest of the game. He's got a 7'4" wingspan and very good athleticism but can't dunk lobs likely because he's too heavy, but he's also somehow not strong enough to seal to get easy buckets more than once or twice a game (despite running a ton of plays with this as the intent and goal).
Just... no savvy.
This nails it pretty good.
2023 - i think Hurley probably assuming we were going to get Sanogo-lite with Reed. Watch Sanogo NCAA highlights, good Lord we attacked the paint about a half dozen* different ways with Adama. Impossible to guard, and downright scary to defend against to be honest.
2024 - the pairing of Clingan/Samson was just lob city all the time. Again, scary and impossible.
Last two years, we had Samson who helped our dunk numbers. But TR is just too one dimensional that doesn't open up possibilites for others because he chooses to be stationary without the ball.
2023 - 5th in the country on Dunk attempts [160]
2024 - 1st in the country [196]
2025 - 32nd in the country [124]
2026 - 55th so far [92]
"Good offense gets dunks". With a PG like Silas we should be top 20. But we just don't have that until Riebe gets the majority minutes. Unfortunately, I don't think that's the right move either. We are either stuck with a clunky, inconsistent offense or TR better get comfortable rollin downhill with the guards.
*Sanogo was incredible. PNR, Seals, patient footwork, drives from the 3pt line (!!), trash put backs. Not to mention he dropped those back to back 3s against Miami to open the game. That's the sort of dynamic post this offense requires.
