He’s barely played recently so yes, there are fewer examples of it. Here is one from yesterday of him making a bad decision on an unnecessary rotation and giving up a wide open three. He’s definitely been better recently, but he’s not a good defender at this point.
Keep hoping at the bottomless wishing well.Add it in to my infatuations with Hawkins, Solo, and Castle
This is my new horse to ride for this year. Hopefully he follows the pattern of the others!
Shows Johnson should not be starting...we missed Liam a LOT... Jaylin is above Ross on O and D but it's a distinction without merit, and Solo 3rd in offense but 8th in defense...and finally we can say Ross is not a plus defender if his DBPR is negative.
Totally agree on Jackson having similar troubles sometimes with keeping his man in front of him, but he was also a much better athlete (not a knock on Ross, AJ was just a freak) with better timing when contesting from the backside. Jackson played very aggressive disruptive defense because of his ability to recover. Ross tends to try to play that very aggressive defense but just doesn’t have that same ability to recover and has gotten burned a lot and also left the help big in bad situations because of it. Totally agree that he has the tools to be a strong defender, he just isn’t currently and that’s clearly part of the reason he’s not playing.
It was a head scratcher. Stewart had already cut off the roller enough to let Tarris recover, and has a really short close out to his man, who is a 30% 3 point shooter, so Ross runs halfway across the court and leaves a 40% 3 point shooter wide open with no hope of recovering.
Tarris was not in position here. I’m not sure whose responsibility it was between him and Stewart but they need better communication and understanding there.
Again, I’m not sure of the examples for Ross of him having this same habit as of recently.
He’s played like 30 minutes combined over the last month…. Why do you think that is?
I don’t think it’s because guys are blowing by him like you said. I haven’t seen that. But if you have feel free to share.
Just a still to show neither Stewart or Reed were in position once the big caught the ball to cut off a drive to the rim.
Thanks for the explanation here Auror.
As previously stated one good game does not make a Star performer. What has he done since? Nothing. Let's see how he plays, if he plays, on Wednesday. Maybe he just matches up well against Marquette. Then again, it may have been a fluke in that last game.
This is how I saw it as well. He looked way more confident bringing the ball up the floor to the point where I felt more comfortable with him than AN (especially on defense) but it's just too little, too late and training time is over.
This has been a consistent issue regardless of who is playing where.
It was just a question. We once had a point guard who shot at will if you remember. Nobody says an offense can’t be deigned for a point guard to take lots of shots. Shabazz, Kemba, Khalid, Doron, Smitty.
Pork Chop was already a good defensive college big before Dan Hurley arrived - I will say he improved offensively under Dan Hurley and staff.
A coach can only do so much, they can gives a player the tools to be successful but they can't change a human being. It's the silliest argument in the world thinking you can make something bad into something good every single time. The most challenging part of coaching is the identification of how good talent can be in a future state. To minimize that risk, you then identify players that are proven at a highest level possible. That's called the portal. This is what all top coaches are or will be doing. If you wed yourself to long term development you are taking on risk you don't need to, and will be competing against programs removing that risk. Aka, dumb.
Yessir take a look at St. John's recruits for 2025 - zero. Doubt Pitino is not hitting the portal hard.
Especially when their team loses.
Although I don't think he is a great defender, I will agree that he, through no fault of his own, has been the biggest victim of his man making hard well defended shots.
Pitino will be looking to grab the best PG & CG the portal has to offer, which is EXACTLY what we are going to be in market for. He will be a savage around it with a heavily invested juice magnet backing him up. If he gets his trio back next year & a couple portal studs, Slick could easily be right back in the top 10 mix next year.
Next year is Wilcher’s year
Wilcher, Zubi & Ruis come back they're front running for BE favorites. Was thinking that losing Smith & Kadari they would need two guards, but you're right that Wilcher likely rolls into one of those roles and they backfill Scott at the 3. I guess they can swing Ayo into the 3 too. Creigton, Marquette, Nova, Xavier all losing a ton. Xavier does have Conwell & Swain back.
Marquette will do what they do every year and have new guys stepping up.
Aaron Scott is a senior so he'll be gone next year
Pitino is expecting Luis to test the NBA waters this offseason.
