Seth Davis: Behind Enemy Lines

[Cheeks]

So he'd have to be lying then.  He says he went to two opposing coaches for an assessment on each team and they article is what they said, which is why they are in quotes.  He presents this as opposing coaches opinions, not his own.

Hmmm

[#UnleashSean]

The hausers are our best defenders, someone is smoking crack.

[Benny B]

So he'd have to be lying then.  He says he went to two opposing coaches for an assessment on each team and they article is what they said, which is why they are in quotes.  He presents this as opposing coaches opinions, not his own.

Exactly.  Ask yourself this... why would a coach risk publicly criticizing an opposing team, off the record on?  (Especially when he/she might have to play said team again that season.)  Listen to a post-game interview sometime.... coaches go out of their way to avoid showing anything but respect for an opponent.  Why would they confide in David and say something that could possibly be traced back to them at some point.

But Davis knows he can never get caught on this so long as he hides behind the shroud of “protecting his sources.”

[goldeneagle91114]

Neither Sam nor Joey have great lateral quickness.    It shows on defense and when they try to beat their defender in a straight line off of the dribble.    Markus is improved defensively and works hard, but is still 5'11 with a 6' arm span.    Neither Theo nor Ed are going to win games with their post offense.    I really don't disagree with the critiques of the team.

True, but the tone in which its written makes us sound like a bubble team, not Top 10 material.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

The hausers are our best defenders, someone is smoking crack.

How so? I think Joey is the worst defensive starter by far. I would say Anim and Theo are our best defenders.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

There are like 4-5 of those players in the country and they are usually 1-2 and done or rare 4 year projects.  There are only 4 high major players over 6-8 in the top 100 in scoring nationally, and one is Dedric Lawson who isn’t exactly a low post craftsman


Guys like Hachimura, Happ, and Govan don’t grow in trees.

Toyal over generalization.  Kid like Watson on Providence immediately comes to mind and tgere are many others.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

How so? I think Joey is the worst defensive starter by far. I would say Anim and Theo are our best defenders.

Yes joey is really bad.  But like his brotger he is only going to get better. With Greg, Bailey, theo , etc i think MU is only gonna continue getting better defensively. Including commits too

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Yes joey is really bad.  But like his brotger he is only going to get better. With Greg, Bailey, theo , etc i think MU is only gonna continue getting better defensively. Including commits too

100% agree. Joey is a freshman who struggles on defense, like most freshman do. I only expect him to improve from here. One thing that I have found amazing about the improvement on defense this season is that we are doing it without Greg. I'd argue that he was one of our top two defenders last season. Throw him on to this year's team and I think we would have a genuine lockdown defense.

[NickelDimer]

Exactly.  Ask yourself this... why would a coach risk publicly criticizing an opposing team, off the record on?  (Especially when he/she might have to play said team again that season.)  Listen to a post-game interview sometime.... coaches go out of their way to avoid showing anything but respect for an opponent.  Why would they confide in David and say something that could possibly be traced back to them at some point.

But Davis knows he can never get caught on this so long as he hides behind the shroud of “protecting his sources.”

This is genius and very believable

[NickelDimer]

The hausers are our best defenders, someone is smoking crack.

Sam’s pretty good. Joey’s had his moments, like defending Wade, but other times particularly recently he’s been pretty bad

[barfolomew]

Exactly.  Ask yourself this... why would a coach risk publicly criticizing an opposing team, off the record on?  (Especially when he/she might have to play said team again that season.)  Listen to a post-game interview sometime.... coaches go out of their way to avoid showing anything but respect for an opponent.  Why would they confide in David and say something that could possibly be traced back to them at some point.

But Davis knows he can never get caught on this so long as he hides behind the shroud of “protecting his sources.”

That is one possibility, Benny.
Another is that coaches or their assistants trust Davis to keep his word about protecting their anonymity and those are their actual quotes.

[shoothoops]

I can’t disagree with anything in the piece from Davis. Would like to see a little more interior scoring, and big guard/wing/small forward lateral quickness on defense especially. He was basically discussing whether or not Marquette could be a final four team, which, is high praise.

[mu03eng]

This is my one qualm about Theo..damn if he had any offense, this team would be close to unstoppable. On nights like SJU when the shots weren't falling, how nice would it be to have a big down low that you could dump it down to and it'd be almost a guaranteed 2 points??

Let's not confuse not scoring a lot with an inability to score a lot. Theo might not be Zion Williamson but he's also Mbao on the offensive end. He is a competent offensive player that happens to play on a team that has zero or next to zero interest in running the offense through the post. Look at the DePaul game when their length limited our abilities to create on the perimeter, Theo had his best scoring game of the season. If post play were an emphasis for MU, I feel comfortable saying Theo would be an average post player at worst on the offensive end.

[PGsHeroes32]

Let's not confuse not scoring a lot with an inability to score a lot. Theo might not be Zion Williamson but he's also Mbao on the offensive end. He is a competent offensive player that happens to play on a team that has zero or next to zero interest in running the offense through the post. Look at the DePaul game when their length limited our abilities to create on the perimeter, Theo had his best scoring game of the season. If post play were an emphasis for MU, I feel comfortable saying Theo would be an average post player at worst on the offensive end.

Yeah he definitely can be good down there.

He needs to limit his back downs in the post that result in a horribly forced hook shot that looks like he’s playing dodgeball tho.

I swear some of the time he’s throwing a legit fastball at the rim.

I love Theo tho

[CTWarrior]

There are like 4-5 of those players in the country and they are usually 1-2 and done or rare 4 year projects.  There are only 4 high major players over 6-8 in the top 100 in scoring nationally, and one is Dedric Lawson who isn’t exactly a low post craftsman


Guys like Hachimura, Happ, and Govan don’t grow in trees.

Its the state of the game, I think.  There aren't back to the basket big guys much anymore because that is not the way teams want to play anymore.    They want guys who can guard all positions on the switch and can shoot from three.