I have seen mentioned on here and I believe that this year's team is perhaps the deepest MU team in a long time. On the other hand, this team has some weaknesses, particularly a questionable post presence and inconsistant outside shooting. The question is how will TC play to this team's strengths (which are many) but in particularl the depth this team has.
My own thought is that we will see this team play a full court game both on defense and on offense.This probaby means that some key players may actually get fewer minutes as TC may do wholesale subs to keep everyone fresh. This has the added advantage of giving talented players (not starters) more playing time than they would otherwise have.
Any thoughts?
The success of this team depends on wearing bigger teams out. That means continually pushing them on offense and defense. I do not think any player plays on an average more than 22 minutes a game. Crean talks about using a four guard line up, which is what I think he is going to do. However, I think he also believes that Fitz and Hayward are guards. The team has no center since he has Barro announced as a forward. He has no forward skills and plays center, but Crean announces him as a forward. I never really understood this, but that is Crean's mindset. It does seem to me that Barro is only effective on offense when he beats the big centers running down the floor. Imagine having to cover James for 8 minutes. perhaps the quickest guard you faced all year. You are relieved when he goes out of the game only to find that Acker is even quicker than James. Your spend a lot of time trying to keep McNeal in from diving and then Culliban or Christopherson comes in and now you have to defend the three. The big center tired from trying to keep up with Barro, now has to cover the energetic Mbakee. Power forward has to cover Hayward and then has to get out to cover Fitz. The small forward has to cover Matthews and then can get Hayward, McNeal or Trend. There are a few teams such as Louisville and Georgtown that have a lost of depth, but generally any team outside of the top 30 will not be able to stay with MU. Now Murf is going to jump in and say you cannot beat the good teams with this style. However, without a center and power forward you will not beat a good team in a half court game. We will not go undefeated, but it is going to be fun.
Quote from: bilsu on October 28, 2007, 09:24:16 AM
The success of this team depends on wearing bigger teams out. That means continually pushing them on offense and defense. I do not think any player plays on an average more than 22 minutes a game. Crean talks about using a four guard line up, which is what I think he is going to do. However, I think he also believes that Fitz and Hayward are guards. The team has no center since he has Barro announced as a forward. He has no forward skills and plays center, but Crean announces him as a forward. I never really understood this, but that is Crean's mindset. It does seem to me that Barro is only effective on offense when he beats the big centers running down the floor. Imagine having to cover James for 8 minutes. perhaps the quickest guard you faced all year. You are relieved when he goes out of the game only to find that Acker is even quicker than James. Your spend a lot of time trying to keep McNeal in from diving and then Culliban or Christopherson comes in and now you have to defend the three. The big center tired from trying to keep up with Barro, now has to cover the energetic Mbakee. Power forward has to cover Hayward and then has to get out to cover Fitz. The small forward has to cover Matthews and then can get Hayward, McNeal or Trend. There are a few teams such as Louisville and Georgtown that have a lost of depth, but generally any team outside of the top 30 will not be able to stay with MU. Now Murf is going to jump in and say you cannot beat the good teams with this style. However, without a center and power forward you will not beat a good team in a half court game. We will not go undefeated, but it is going to be fun.
Thanks for that. What do you think about the idea where you have an A team and a B team (of 5 players each) and you sub entire squads every five minutes and keep running with fresh legs. For example, team A could be James, Cubes, Matthews, Fitz and Barro. Team B could be Acker, McNeil, Trend, Hayward, and Mbakwe. Keep, Burke, SC, and PH on the bench for tactical substitutions. Would this be effective?
It would keep the floor chemistry high since then you could just have these guys on the same practice team learning together. I don't see that happening though just because it's hard to justify when there are specific matchups you may want to keep against the other team and also DJ loses a lot of his intensity when McNeal isn't on the floor. An interesting idea though.
Thank you, bilsu. Just reading that got me so pumped up. I can't wait for this season!
I think if the most anyone averages is 22 minutes you will see some very upset veterans----guys like DJ, McNeal, and Mathews didn't come here to play only 22 minutes per game!
the veterans will be upset if time is cut and also, you can't expect the young guys to just jump in and play 15 minutes a game right away. Mbakwe and Hazel will get their chances but the experience of this team is going to have to step up and guide the young guns.
Quote from: Murffieus on October 28, 2007, 02:03:14 PM
I think if the most anyone averages is 22 minutes you will see some very upset veterans----guys like DJ, McNeal, and Mathews didn't come here to play only 22 minutes per game!
That is a good point Murf. The question is what is best for the team and what generates the most wins. Players of course are not robots and have egos. Also, as a coach you want to give more minutes to your best players because they generate more points and have more stops on defense.
On the other hand, your second tier players who might be starting elsewhere need minutes or they will transfer. There goes your depth. I also presume TC knew what he was doing when he recruited a team of 80% athletic guards. I believe he intends to play them. If you're the coach and you don't have BE quality starters let alone a bench at the PF and C spots and you can easily go 3 deep at the 1,2, and 3 spots what do you do to win the most games with the talent that this team has?
I agree with bilsu that you need to use your depth and run your opponents ragged. This entails using your "stars" for fewer mintues.
One for all, all for one!
I don't like the 2 different squads. That is something my team did in middle school and I thought it was stupid then too, it just didn't seem like we could utilize our advantage as well with matchups or momentum. however, with a lot of depth i do think that a lot of substituting to keep players fresh is a good idea
I picked 22 minutes, because there will be no resting on defense or offense. Players only averge 30+ minutes a game when they have no backup. Besides that James tends to cramp up, so that would limited his playing time anyways. You also have to consider fouls. If you are pressing there are going to be more fouls. In a slow down half court game there are less possesions and less fouls. If Crean pushes this team enough no one is going to want to be out there more than 22 minutes.
I would say that TC has never been the type to limit guys minutes, especially in close games. Now, I must put a *Wade here because when he was here I always felt that the only man who could contain him in college was tom crean because he always seemed to take him outta the game, but MU usually had a big lead (maybe I just wanted to see him play all game all the time). So, I still see the big 3 getting their 25-30 mins a game, unless TC loses confidence in one or one falls out of favor for whatever reason. If they shoot a decent precentage and the team does well i dont see TC shortening their minutes, except in blowouts. Now that may be unfortunate for some of the others but they can still make a difference on limited minutes.
I see barro around 20-25mins, fitz coming in around 15-20, hayward 15-20. I know people are big on acker, but I dont see him getting more than 10 mins/game. Cubes, mbakwe, trend, burke, christopherson the same. I know these players are all worth more than 10 mins and i know someone will take offense to my suggesting thats all they will get, but this is just the way i see it if everything goes as planned. Undoubtably one of these guys will break out and play more, but its hard to tell who that might because it depends on the starters performance as well.