Kolek planning to go pro
I don't expect this many points every game, but I hope the confidence with which he played today is the new normal. Has all the tools. Could probably initiate the offense if he had to. A bright spot on a dreary day.
Brendan has very good court awareness. Is consistently in the right spots on the floor at the right time. We saw that a little bit last year and today those tools really worked in his favor. I think he will continue to make steady improvement.
love his high effort hustle plays too. got beat, able to tip the press intended for his man, stays with it and recovers the ball. and the hustle for long offensive boards is nice too. love to see he and the team playing hard.
I think all of his shots today were with his feet set or at least facing the basket, unlike the last few games. That tends to increase the likelihood of making the shot. I hope he keeps up this footwork
Seeing him do the Sam pick and pop made me happy. If he can hit 3s near this clip, we will be in good shape.
Last year he shot 25% from 3. In the firs 6 games of this season, he shot 28%. He's not likely to replicate today's 60% rate again soon. If he even shoot 35%, that will be a significant improvement over from his first 40 games. So, while it's great to see him knock down threes with confidence today, I don't think the odds are strong that he'll continue to hit threes near today's rate. But, if he can hit them consistently enough and then know when to shoot and when to drive, he can be a dangerous player on offense.
TAMUI do know, Newsie is right on you knowing ball.
He's good in the "Sam" role. Do I dare say better than Sam? Seems longer, better D, got to some hustle balls that maybe wouldn't have been retrieved last year. If he can continue nailing the 3's and driving occasionally MU won't miss Sam.
Sam was a likely All Big East first teamer this year. He averaged 15 points and 7 boards last year. Brendan has averaged about 3.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game before today's game. Even with this big outing, his numbers won't go up too much. This was a great game by Brendan today, and it showed what his ceiling might be. But until we see this kind of outing more than once a year, it's awfully premature to say he is or could be better than Sam.
Should we start a thread for every player?
So Brendan is better than Sam and Joey sucked balls so he won't be missed. We added a C better than Theo or Morrow and a PG who's the second best player on the team in practice. Markus is a first team AA and likely POY. GE is finally healthy and Sacar is poised for that "senior leap" (see Novak, Mathews). Put it in a blender and it comes out Big East champs/3 seed. Why am I not feelin' it?
Im excited about bailey's play today. Jayces as well. But just like the Wisconsin game didn't mean the season was over, today doesn't mean they are stars or even starters going forward.And I would take Sam Hauser over Bailey every day and twice on Sunday. But that's not an option so that wish is just a fart in the wind.
It was nice to see BB breakout, but it is one game. Constitency is the key, do it once lets see him do it twice, starting Wednesday. This shouldgive him some confidence but you never know. Need at least 10-12 points a game which would be great, same from Koby. See what happens.
Agreed on the one game extrapolation. HOWEVER, he also played very efficiently in the Davidson & Robert Morris games (120 & 125 ORtg, 8 & 10 points apiece). I would take those types of numbers in a heartbeat, and 3 out of the past 4 games at good to great level leaves me cautiously optimistic. Here's hoping for him getting into a rhythm over the rest of the cupcake schedule that takes him into a nice conference season.
No...and after reading many many psosts from people on this board that do...I have to say I'm MUCH better off, if this is the type of "intelligence" a degree from MU gets you. It sure is on full display I will say that.
Wasn’t Bailey compared to Reggie Miller as a High Schooler?
Reggie averaged 5 ppg as a UCLA frosh, followed by 15, 26 and 22. If you told me today that Bailey would get to 65-75% of that, I'd take it.
There’s a reason he started at the beginning of last year. My theory is that he was better in practice then in games.
Played better defense, moved the ball better. Eventually, Joey got on a scoring streak while Brendan couldn't throw the ball in Lake Michigan. But yes, Brendan started over Joey at the start of last season.
I know was "rusty", but Bailey was also 21 as a freshman. Reggie was likely 18.
Makes no difference to me, Lenny. If he's 23 as a junior and averages 70% of what Reggie did (25 ppg), I'd take it. That's all I said, and I stand by it.
The plan was always to start Bailey and have Joey spell Sam when he needed a breather and spell Bailey when we needed more offense. But you are right, Bailey's rough start last season trashed that plan. Good chance we would have tried that plan again at the start of this season had they stayed.
I felt then and still do that giving Joey that many minutes in December and January led to him hitting the freshman wall and playing so poorly down the stretch. Wojo would have been better served getting Bailey and Cain more run.
Yeah, seriously doubt that was "the plan". Bailey started 3 games (the same number as Jamal Cain), Joey 31 0f 34. Joey played 29.2 MPG, Brendan played fewer than Joe Chartouny. BTW, Markus and Sam didn't immediately start their freshman years, either. Markus started 27-31 games and Sam 28-32. Markus played 7 mpg less than Joey as a freshman and Sam played almost 3 mpg less. Wonder who M and S were supposed to back up that year.
Down 1 w 5 seconds left. Doable.
Wasn’t Bailey compared to Reggie Miller as a High Schooler?There’s a reason he started at the beginning of last year. My theory is that he was better in practice then in games.Yesterday won’t likely be the new normal, but it should be the start of a player who is dialed in to the point that he becomes a consistent offensive threat.He always seemed to me to be close, but just a little off - like he was just a little bit short on confidence or focus. Hopefully, the corner is turned, and he’ll contribute offensively on a regular basis.Worst case scenario, he was “playing out of his head”, and he climbs back in there.
Lenny, which three games did Bailey start? The first three. Which games did Joey start? The last 31. Do you think Wojo just started Bailey for sh*ts and giggles? The plan was to start Bailey and have Joey come off the bench. Joey outplayed Bailey and took his starting spot. If Bailey had outplayed Joey, that starting lineup wasn't changing.You'll notice I'm saying "starting" not "play more minutes."
Do you think Markus didn't start the first 4 games as a freshman for "sh*ts and giggles"? Do you think Wojo planned to have Markus come off the bench that year? Or was he easing him in?
At least 2 of the games Bailey started were against cupcakes. Do you really think Wojo chucked his season's plans on that small a sample?
That would be the world's shortest leash - hard for me to believe.
Markus started the first game of his freshman year.Yes. It's not like he couldn't adjust later in the season if it didn't work.You can believe it or not but it is the truth. The plan was always to have Bailey start and have Joey come off the bench. That doesn't mean Bailey was better than Joey (he's wasn't). That doesn't mean Bailey was going to get more minutes than Joey (he probably wouldn't have). That meant that Joey and Sam together were redundant. They created elite shooting and solid rebounding but problems on defense and made the offense less diverse. The hope was that Bailey could be an athletic defensive stopper to compliment the rest of the starters. In reality, Bailey got stagefright, Joey was game ready, and Wojo adjusted as a good coach should. It worked really well until it didn't. It could be argued that Wojo should have adjusted back at the end of the season.
It worked out phenomenally. Brendan worked hard in the off-season knowing the team would need him all the more in Joey’s absence. The kid with the pouty attitude, slow feet, and high floor/low ceiling is gone and replaced by a bought-in young man who is smiling all the time, long and athletic, with a very high ceiling, who is just starting to hit his stride. Don’t be surprised if in a year , teams are game-planning to stop Brendan and an MU freshman has the kind of game Mr Bailey just had as a result of the focus on Markus.
Markus started the first game of his freshman year.You can believe it or not but it is the truth. The plan was always to have Bailey start and have Joey come off the bench.
Lenny, you can choose to believe that but you are incorrect. There was no injury. There was no reason to light a fire under any butts. The coaching staff thought that Bailey starting and Joey coming off the bench was going to give us the best chance to win. When it wasn't working they adjusted. Im nor sure why this is such an impossibility to you.
Yea. This coaching staff has been totally on point with their playing time decisions and starting lineup personnel. In fact on point is probably an understatement, Wojo has been brilliant in this department!
In 1925, a slumping Wally Pipp was replaced in the Yankees’ starting lineup by Lou Gehrig. In 1926, I wonder if some joe in the stands at a Yankees game told whoever would listen, “The plan last year, the plan you see, was to start Wally Pipp over Lou Gehrig!” If he did, I’m not sure why anyone would care or what point this joe was even trying to make. The better player ended up with more playing time. Maybe this joe was just trying to show off his insider knowledge or something. If that was his purpose, I hope someone pinned a star on him!
If only Wojo had your very large coaching brain at his disposal, Ners, we'd have won 8 of our first 7 games.I think your 64th "permanent" ban came after you spent weeks arguing that Wojo's game-tying play against Creighton was stoopid, and that anybody who pointed out that the play worked was even more stoopider.
Wojo couldn't dunk in high school.
You really didn't need to give Ners the opening to re-litigate this for the 973rd time.
How many permabans does it take to get someone legitimately permanently banned?
Not to be the pessimist because I think Bailey will deliver more consistently this season but keep in mind that Bailey "flashed" during the road Georgetown game last season when Markus went down and then never delivered that level of performance again.
not an Amoroso-at-the-Great-Alaska-Shootout abberation.