X thoughts

[mu-rara]

I can agree with the first paragraph and posted something similar.  However, I do think it is a little premature to jump to the conclusion that Duane Wilson is incapable of playing the PG position due to a bad 1:30 stretch last night.  I've seen Derrick throw away inbounds passes, take 5 second counts on inbounds plays etc. 

As with all young players, you have to deal with their growing pains.  They shouldn't be expected to be as trusty as the vets, BUT, when the vet is SO limited and challenged and the understudy is clearly talented and skilled - in my vote - particularly once a season is lost you make the move to get the rookie/youngster some real playing time.

This is a preview of the Ners narrative for next year.  DuWil must be the point guard or Wojo is throwing the season.

[CTWarrior]

Duane isn't a PG, especially not at this point in his career. He may be a small quick guard, but he's really not a PG.

In case people forgot, Derrick came off the bench in 5 of the team's first 8 games (including OSU and Wisconsin) and he only played 15 and 19 minutes in the first 2 games. It's reasonable to believe that Wojo was planning to have Carlino run the point along side JJJ with Derrick and Duane coming off the bench. Once it became obvious that two "volume scorers" who were below average defensively and weren't greta ball-handlers couldn't share the court for a bulk of the minutes, Wojo adjusted and after 3 games Duane replaced Sandy in the starting line-up (presumably as another ballhandler) and not long after that, Derrick was starting in place of JJJ and that's where Derrick has been since then. Wojo experimented with different PGs early in the season but it still came back to Derrick being the best of the bunch.

Good points and its easy to forget what you posted, but I think that with two dozen games now under his belt,  we can start using Duane a little at the point when Carlino gets back.  I would also argue that our prospects for this season now are much different than what they may have been in Nov/Dec.  A loss now has less potential damage to our season's prosepcts, which are dim anyway.

Maybe try it 10 minutes a game or something.  While I gree that Duane is best-suited for the 2, somebody has to play the point next year, and he is the best/only option from our returning players.  Can't guarantee any freshman can handle the position.  Hopefully we'll pull in a JUCO or grad transfer PG, but best to be prepared.  I get it that practice is where the bulk of that preparation happens, but game action against different people who don't know the offense you're running etc, is still very valuable.

[MerrittsMustache]

Good points and its easy to forget what you posted, but I think that with two dozen games now under his belt,  we can start using Duane a little at the point when Carlino gets back.  I would also argue that our prospects for this season now are much different than what they may have been in Nov/Dec.  A loss now has less potential damage to our season's prosepcts, which are dim anyway.

Maybe try it 10 minutes a game or something.  While I gree that Duane is best-suited for the 2, somebody has to play the point next year, and he is the best/only option from our returning players.  Can't guarantee any freshman can handle the position.  Hopefully we'll pull in a JUCO or grad transfer PG, but best to be prepared.  I get it that practice is where the bulk of that preparation happens, but game action against different people who don't know the offense you're running etc, is still very valuable.

Wojo could also give Sandy or JJJ 10 minutes/game at the point. Why not? If Duane isn't going to be the primary PG going forward, there's no need to force that upon him this season. If Duane is going to run the point going forward, he'll have an entire offseason to work on it, in addition to the early season cupcake games. The game experience that he's getting this season is plenty and if MU doesn't add a proven PG, Duane will have more than enough time to be prepared come November.

[bilsu]

The biggest difference in the Xavier/MU game was the fact that left open Xavier players could hit threes, while left open MU players could not. We really need some unathletic looking white guy who can hit threes.