Kyle Smith

[etowncoug]

Coach Smith and players are saying all the right stuff early on. The primary focuses of the team have been defense and conditioning. No talk of offense except shot selection. All these factors we can control.

The team seems bought in, let's see how they react when they get punched in the mouth. Bones teams (especially at the end) never had fight, Kent's had false bravado and folded when things got hard, let's see how hard Smith's teams fight when adversity strikes.

 

[KingTrump]

I gave the last coaching staff plenty of time before I lost my patience and confidence in them.

I will give Coach Smith the same treatment. However, I am looking forward to seeing a new product on the court and I really do think that they will be a better coached team.

 

[SaveFerris]

Focus is in the right spot. We haven't really ever found success without team toughness (however you measure it) and good defense. We are still going to struggle upfront but having Elleby back and adding Shead helps.

It looks like Deion James is moving well and recovered from his injuries. He's definitely the 4 and maybe some 5? I doubt Volodymyr Markovetskyy is ready to play a lot of minutes but he looks like he moves ok for the size and length he brings. Looks like he needs to get stronger. We really need a healthy season from Pollard but Henson and even Tony Miller probably end up in the mix at the 4.

We really need to find some inside pieces and a point guard in this cycle.

 

[Glad Cougar]

I read on the other site that Smith would like to always have one big guy on the court, which leads me to believe that Markovetskyy gets more playing time than I thought he would. Certainly Pollard will be playing a lot of minutes. Not sure what Smith would consider "a big guy", but those two qualify. Maybe James can be considered big as well?

Glad Cougar

 

[SaveFerris]

Pollard, James, and Markovetskyy really are the only players on the roster that qualify as "bigs". Pollard's definitely a stretch at the 5 but I'm glad he came back and that we picked up James. Markovetskyy's definitely going to need to play minutes this year. He's not very pretty running in transition but he seems to move pretty well once he gets down the court. He's a legit 7-footer, seems to know the game, good touch. At least a solid piece down the road.

Smith does seem to like bigs with length and some size. More of "throwbacks" at center although who knows how things play out at WSU. He talked a lot about the recruitment of Omar Samhan (St. Mary's) in one of the interviews when discussing his recruiting philosophy.

 

[avabob1]

They have the athleticism to be good defenders if they buy in. Key is going to be finding shooters. I could see Henson and Bonton getting plenty of minutes

 

[SaveFerris]

I would assume Henson and Bonton will get plenty of minutes as well. About half of Henson's shots were 3s but he didn't shoot exceptionally well from that range. Bonton shot around the same percentage as Henson from 3.

It will be interesting to see how Smith's impact on shot selection and the new 3-point line distance plays out over the next couple of seasons.