- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 22,572
- Reaction Score
- 7,712
For all the deserved talk about how good the freshman are playing and how much better we looked with our starting guards letting the game come to them, one point that I haven't seen made enough. For all the frustrations of his lack of explosiveness inside and stretches where he not just disappears but kills us, this team is much, much, much better offensively when Josh Carlton is playing well. Period. Even yesterday, it's easy to focus on the one time he got blocked from behind leading to a fast break the other way than it is to focus on how few shots he missed and his sudden ability to locate an open man out of a double team.
We can play around Vital or Polley having a bad shooting night, or Gilbert forcing the ball, or Akok disappearing or getting hurt. We have depth and we can play with different types of lineups. But we have no second option for Josh Carlton being the player he was the end of last season and yesterday. He doesn't need to get better than he is when he's playing well. He just needs to play well from the start of games and consistently. That, as much as any other single factor, will determine if this team can challenge for a conference title this year.
We can play around Vital or Polley having a bad shooting night, or Gilbert forcing the ball, or Akok disappearing or getting hurt. We have depth and we can play with different types of lineups. But we have no second option for Josh Carlton being the player he was the end of last season and yesterday. He doesn't need to get better than he is when he's playing well. He just needs to play well from the start of games and consistently. That, as much as any other single factor, will determine if this team can challenge for a conference title this year.