Now that the roster is in place, where’s the team’s weakness(es)?

[EZPass]

Leadership of Andre Jackson.

But I think Karaban becomes the vocal leader of the team on and off the court and Tristen fills the “everything and anything you need” leadership role that Jackson gave us.

 

[mauconnfan]

We are now at the bottom of the third page, and the word "defense" has not occurred in this thread to my notice.

Yet, a slow-footed perimeter defense is certainly the most glaringly-obvious weakness this team has to overcome. A starting lineup that replaces AJ with Spencer represents a massive regression in a defense that was often exposed by perimeter shooting even last year. Also, there is no projected starter at the 2 with the agility and foot speed of Hawkins.

It is simply true to say that none of our five starters is a 5-star athlete by today's standards. Defensive quickness is a question mark at every position, Castle is an amazing stop-and-go, slide-and-shuffle offensive ball handler, and perhaps he can translate these skills to defense, but he is so far untested.

My guess? We will see changes in playing time this year that nobody is now projecting. It will be dictated by our defensive shortcomings. Ball, Stewart and Ross are going to get minutes, and one or two of our current penciled-in starters are going to end up as instant offense off the bench.

I talked about it in the Sanogo/Clingan reply I had. I think provided he stays on the court for 25-28 minutes a game we will improve in the middle. The perimeter was will be interesting. I think Tristen improved throughout the year, we’ve read that Spencer can defend while being an intelligent player the question is can the freshman pick his game up on that end? Unknown I think but we have Diarra for D when needed. I’m not afraid of replacing Andre on D as much as I’m afraid to lose all the loose balls and rebounds he came up with from his position. Will be a different team because his replacement will be able to score though.

 

[cullaville]

We have a head coach who has never won a road game against a Top 25 team; hasn't yet beaten Sean Miller; and historically has a losing record in close games. Is this really the guy we want coaching our program?

How quickly we forget.

Hopefully I am just in a dense fog today and am missing the SARCASM in this post.

I will gladly REMEMBER the wins against:

Iona
St. Mary's
Arkansas
Gonzaga
Miami
San Diego State

 

[August_West]

I think getting 30 minutes or more from Clingan if we can get it is going to make us more dangerous than last year. He’s so disruptive in defense that if he can stay out of foul trouble we are going to be really really good. Backup 5 is our weakness. What will make or break our season is ultimately how quickly Hurley can get the freshman to buy into his system. If there’s even one bad apple in that stellar recruiting class in terms of attitude it could be our Achilles. Trusting the staff can mesh the young guys in with our experience.

We can’t get 30 out of him. If we try it will end like Sanogos soph season. 26-28 min. Please

 

[Get a Job]

We are now at the bottom of the third page, and the word "defense" has not occurred in this thread to my notice.

Yet, a slow-footed perimeter defense is certainly the most glaringly-obvious weakness this team has to overcome. A starting lineup that replaces AJ with Spencer represents a massive regression in a defense that was often exposed by perimeter shooting even last year. Also, there is no projected starter at the 2 with the agility and foot speed of Hawkins.

It is simply true to say that none of our five starters is a 5-star athlete by today's standards. Defensive quickness is a question mark at every position, Castle is an amazing stop-and-go, slide-and-shuffle offensive ball handler, and perhaps he can translate these skills to defense, but he is so far untested.

My guess? We will see changes in playing time this year that nobody is now projecting. It will be dictated by our defensive shortcomings. Ball, Stewart and Ross are going to get minutes, and one or two of our current penciled-in starters are going to end up as instant offense off the bench.

Wasn't our 3-point defense elite last year? Thought someone just posted how we were top 10 in threes allowed and 3p%.

 

[navery12]

Wasn't our 3-point defense elite last year? Thought someone just posted how we were top 10 in threes allowed and 3p%.

Yeah we were 14th in 3 point defense last year so we were really good, anyone claiming otherwise was not paying attention. It's also not based in reality to act like Cam Spencer is a bad defender when Rutgers was the 6th ranked overall defense and 26th against 3's