Up Next: George Mason

[dan_beeding]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

As has been mentioned, we're a young team and these sorts of things are to be expected. I figured we'd be in the top half of the conference this year. Think of everything we lost with the seniors from last year. I trust Jake to have them firing on all cylinders to get us to at least Saturday in StL. I don't see this team making the NCAA tourney, but I'd love to be wrong about that. I hope they beat Iowa though so I can keep irritating their fans.

[CincyPanther88]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

Besides getting killed on the boards, the one thing that concerned me last night was missing so many open shots. If it were just one of those games, I'd say it was a fluke but they only shot a little better against Xavier (a top 10 team) in their arena.

[UNIGrainer]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

Wow a lot great anyalists making comments on this game and team. Yes it was a bad game and they will learn from it. We aren't at practice everyday to see how everyone performs and does their jobs. If jake isn't playing some of these players there is a reason that jake feels they aren't ready or he would give them some minutes. Jake said from the beginning it is going to be a work in progress. They just need to keep working hard and they will get there. I do give the kids that weren't expected to play as many minutes as expected a lot of credit for stepping up in a game like this especially haldeman even if we lost this game he has been stepping up when we needed it. He suppose to be playing off guard and then he is point guard the second half. We need to have the presence of a true point guard to run this team and juwan will get there. I think haldeman will continue to battle and get better and better as season goes.

That is pretty much the point of this message board existing.

[hoopfan]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

I'm starting to question rotation.

We can't win with Jordan Ashton playing 37 minutes. He's nowhere near a good enough player to be on the floor that much, even accounting for the Lohaus injury.

The big one is that you can't tell me Dahl and McDonnell can't be more effective than Friedman and, honestly, Koch at this point. Recruiting services raved about McDonnell having all Big 10 potential and Dahl was an absolute rebounding machine in high school.

I get that Jake loves sliding Carlson to the 5, but that played right into what Mason wanted to do tonight and won't be great against some of the smaller league schools.

I have no issue with Ted's minutes at this point. He seems to be the only big guy willing to go in there and play physically. He may not get a ton of rebounds, but you watch him box out and he typically clears his guy out and a guard can come in and clean up the board. He's not a threat on offense, but he's also not going to be a guy that turns the ball over. When he is setting ball screens for the guards out on the wings it opens up the lane and spreads the floor more.

[unipanther2154]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

I have no issue with Ted's minutes at this point. He seems to be the only big guy willing to go in there and play physically. He may not get a ton of rebounds, but you watch him box out and he typically clears his guy out and a guard can come in and clean up the board. He's not a threat on offense, but he's also not going to be a guy that turns the ball over. When he is setting ball screens for the guards out on the wings it opens up the lane and spreads the floor more.

I've just got to disagree. He is a big liability on offense If he gets the ball at all he can't make a jumper. If he gets doubled he's going to turn the ball over. Teams can completely sag off of him for better help D because everyone knows he provides nothing on O. His defense to me has actually been more average than good. He wasn't rebounding effectively when others were around him. I know some might disagree but I don't understand why he is getting these minutes.

[PantherAlum 2008]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

I've just got to disagree. He is a big liability on offense If he gets the ball at all he can't make a jumper. If he gets doubled he's going to turn the ball over. Teams can completely sag off of him for better help D because everyone knows he provides nothing on O. His defense to me has actually been more average than good. He wasn't rebounding effectively when others were around him. I know some might disagree but I don't understand why he is getting these minutes.

I agree with you.

I do think Ted can play physical, but I also think Dahl would be a physical presence as well, while also providing offense (the game I believe against Coe comes to mind when Dahl went up for a contested offensive rebound after I think Juwan missed a shot and dunked it in over the opposing team).

I also don't understand why Jake didn't put in Brown last night to try and get some offense going. He plays him against Xavier, but then not against George Mason when we are having the same offensive struggles. From the small amount of minutes Brown has had, he looks very athletic with the ability to score and has decent D.

[06panther10]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

I'm starting to question rotation.

We can't win with Jordan Ashton playing 37 minutes. He's nowhere near a good enough player to be on the floor that much, even accounting for the Lohaus injury.

The big one is that you can't tell me Dahl and McDonnell can't be more effective than Friedman and, honestly, Koch at this point. Recruiting services raved about McDonnell having all Big 10 potential and Dahl was an absolute rebounding machine in high school.

I get that Jake loves sliding Carlson to the 5, but that played right into what Mason wanted to do tonight and won't be great against some of the smaller league schools.

I've never been impressed by McDonnell. Way to skinny for his position and skillset and not a good athlete IMO.

More than happy to be proven wrong on this one, but I'm not the least. It surprised by his PT.

[06panther10]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

Brown should play, especially with Wyatt out, even if its just spot minutes to get other guys rest. I also think Juwan should have played more in the game. The only way he is going to get better is to play. If he's the PG, let him be the PG, don't make our 3 point shooters bring the ball up for the entire 2nd halve.

Guys were tired, we need to use our depth.

[SteinPizza]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

I agree with you.

I do think Ted can play physical, but I also think Dahl would be a physical presence as well, while also providing offense (the game I believe against Coe comes to mind when Dahl went up for a contested offensive rebound after I think Juwan missed a shot and dunked it in over the opposing team).

I also don't understand why Jake didn't put in Brown last night to try and get some offense going. He plays him against Xavier, but then not against George Mason when we are having the same offensive struggles. From the small amount of minutes Brown has had, he looks very athletic with the ability to score and has decent D.

Ted's shown he can be a presence on the defensive end. No offense to Dahl, but he did this against Coe. Again...Coe. I've seen Ted make his presence felt on the defensive end against North Carolina. Not saying Ted is the second coming of Dennis Rodman, but he can play that kind of role for us effectively in certain situations.

That said, Dahl seems to have far more all around upside than Ted. To Jake, it must not be "there" enough for him to play yet.

[95UNIGRAD]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

Ted's shown he can be a presence on the defensive end. No offense to Dahl, but he did this against Coe. Again...Coe. I've seen Ted make his presence felt on the defensive end against North Carolina. Not saying Ted is the second coming of Dennis Rodman, but he can play that kind of role for us effectively in certain situations.

That said, Dahl seems to have far more all around upside than Ted. To Jake, it must not be "there" enough for him to play yet.

This makes the most sense. Any big guy is going to look like Shaq against a small school.

However, I would say that if we're not using a redshirt on someone and they are using this year, they ought to occasionally get a shot. Not putting in McCloud when our offense isn't passing/handling the ball well, or not putting in Dahl when our inside game is non-existent doesn't make a lot of sense. How could they do any worse than what was going on last night, with our 20% shooting, lack of driving to the basket, and getting absolutely crushed on the boards? Give them a shot, and if they fail, you can pull them out and go with someone else. Same goes for putting in Brown when Morgan and others have tired legs.

[PantherAlum 2008]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

This makes the most sense. Any big guy is going to look like Shaq against a small school.

However, I would say that if we're not using a redshirt on someone and they are using this year, they ought to occasionally get a shot. Not putting in McCloud when our offense isn't passing/handling the ball well, or not putting in Dahl when our inside game is non-existent doesn't make a lot of sense. How could they do any worse than what was going on last night, with our 20% shooting, lack of driving to the basket, and getting absolutely crushed on the boards? Give them a shot, and if they fail, you can pull them out and go with someone else. Same goes for putting in Brown when Morgan and others have tired legs.

Unfortunately, I don't think we will be seeing much of Dahl this season unless these rotation changes Jake mentioned end up being drastic or we are up by 20 on someone late in the 2nd half of a game. Hopefully we will be seeing more of Brown, even if that only means 5 - 6 minutes a game.

[sevelev711]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

Unfortunately, I don't think we will be seeing much of Dahl this season unless these rotation changes Jake mentioned end up being drastic or we are up by 20 on someone late in the 2nd half of a game. Hopefully we will be seeing more of Brown, even if that only means 5 - 6 minutes a game.

I still don't have an opinion on Dahl, but I certainly want to see significantly more Brown, though. I feel that if we don't get at least 5 or more minutes per night, then I'll feel like we wasted his freshman year by not having him redshirt. He looks pretty good, he certainly wouldn't have made the team worse last night.

I'm starting to buy into the exhaustion idea, and I think Brown could certainly lessen that, and so could Dahl to a lesser extant.

[panther1]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

Not seeing McDonnell, Dahl or Brown last night leaves me puzzled. Give these guys a shot if nothing else is working or are they really not that good?!

[sivert]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

Sick? I have no idea, but you encounter a lot of stuff at Disney.

[CyCarp]

Re: Up Next: George Mason

Does it worry anybody else if fatigue was a factor? We played 2 games within 9 days. Seems a bit much to me. I'm sure the reason Brown played @ Xavier and not last night was because the size Xavier had. I still would like to see him play regularly. As for Dahl, I don't know that any of us have seen enough to say he deserves to play significant minutes. It can't really hurt though. As bad as the rebounding was last night, even if he's weak on D, it couldn't hurt. I have a hard time seeing McDonnell getting meaningful minutes all year. I think he's pretty clearly behind Brown and Dahl no matter where he plays - and those two aren't seeing the court.