As always, well said, Mau. Watching the game up close live, I was extremely impressed with how hard Wagner pressured our handlers. The refs allowed a lot of bumping which allowed Wagner to defend all the harder. Compounding the problem, our guards, yeah all two of them, couldn't defend as hard as Wagner because they both knew they had to play about 35+ minutes and had to stay out of foul trouble.
Although there have been some over-the-top posts after just watching 2 games, but most of it seems like sound observations to me. I don't have a problem with someone criticizing, say, Alex, who had back-to-back bad games. Hey, even his coach is keeping him on the bench because of his dissatisfaction with his game thus far. Now that doesn't mean he's going to stuggle all season long.
There's not a player on this team that I don't have confidence in as far as developing into a very good player during some stage of this season. This team is going to need time before they hit their stride. Boatright's absense IMO is really hurting this team's chemistry. Bazz & Lamb have had to play way too many minutes and when one of them is out of the line-up, it forces at least one player if not more to play out of position. Bazz, Boat and Lamb can all play off the ball at the 2. Once you begin to take any two of them out of the line-up you end up with someone playing the 2 who's not suited for that position and in some cases you end up with replacing that player at the wing with someone who doesn't play that position as well either.
If Lamb is at the one because Bazz is on the bench, JC has to slide someone like Daniels to the 2. Now you not only have a 2 playing the 1, you have possibly your best wing at the 2 and replacing him with either Giffey or Roscoe who are very good players but probably not as good an offensive weapon as Daniels at the 3.
Don't get me wrong, Giffey had some nice moments, but has been making some mistakes that are earning JC's ire. Roscoe seems to be looking more like a 4 lately and simply lacks that ball skills to create his own shot at the 3, which is what is expected in JC's system. I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but I think many are underestimating the impact of not having Boatright. Position wise, he's arguably more important than the other two freshman. We at least have Roscoe & Giffey to man the 3 and plenty of bigs once they're all healthy. It's simply hard to execute on a consistent basis when you have just one PG and one true 2G. Boatright gives us that 3rd guard (combo guard) to keep the level of play high throughout the game.
So there's room to share critical observations, but for those who can't wait to step out on the ledge, please come back in, close the window and give it a few more games before you go back out there.
