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What is wrong with our guards....

CougEd

Hall Of Fame
Dec 22, 2002
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don't they realize when they drive and dish for a slam duck they are taking away shots from themselves?

I think Smith's biggest mistake was last year taking on both Roberts and Flowers. I would have never let Roberts start. Bring him off the bench. If he is hot, let him stay in. Between Flowers and Roberts they would beat the ball into the court. Then jack something up. If I was Efe and Jackson I would have been so pissed trying to get position down loa only to have them jack up a three. They didn't even know how to throw an entry pass. I would image either Smith asked Roberts to leave or he was exited to go in a different direction,

All this talk about Darling. He has the footwork to play man defense in the Pac 12. He wants to pass. Where he will either make it or break it this year is when someone presses us. That has been the achilles heal since Smith has taken over. Why we can't handle the press is beyond me. We have enough players with height to get the ball in and up court. Why Smith believes he has to dribble through a press is beyond me.

I have to say I do like the two freshman and how much they have improved in the last month.
 
don't they realize when they drive and dish for a slam duck they are taking away shots from themselves?

I think Smith's biggest mistake was last year taking on both Roberts and Flowers. I would have never let Roberts start. Bring him off the bench. If he is hot, let him stay in. Between Flowers and Roberts they would beat the ball into the court. Then jack something up. If I was Efe and Jackson I would have been so pissed trying to get position down loa only to have them jack up a three. They didn't even know how to throw an entry pass. I would image either Smith asked Roberts to leave or he was exited to go in a different direction,

All this talk about Darling. He has the footwork to play man defense in the Pac 12. He wants to pass. Where he will either make it or break it this year is when someone presses us. That has been the achilles heal since Smith has taken over. Why we can't handle the press is beyond me. We have enough players with height to get the ball in and up court. Why Smith believes he has to dribble through a press is beyond me.

I have to say I do like the two freshman and how much they have improved in the last month.
There are 3 freshmen playing. Darling not on your list of those improving?
 
There are 3 freshmen playing. Darling not on your list of those improving?
The centers improvment is monumental as I am not sure he knew if the jock went under the shorts or over them.

Darling- he will be one of those kids you wont be able to judge by points, or assists probably. But he will get a finger on a ball that would have led to a fast break. He will make the other teams PG disappear and we really don't notice. I think he will be that player.

So I wasn't trying to forget about darling, but rather, he came in more ready at his position I believe, and the things that will be important to wsu to help them win will go mostly unnoticed.
 
don't they realize when they drive and dish for a slam duck they are taking away shots from themselves?

I think Smith's biggest mistake was last year taking on both Roberts and Flowers. I would have never let Roberts start. Bring him off the bench. If he is hot, let him stay in. Between Flowers and Roberts they would beat the ball into the court. Then jack something up. If I was Efe and Jackson I would have been so pissed trying to get position down loa only to have them jack up a three. They didn't even know how to throw an entry pass. I would image either Smith asked Roberts to leave or he was exited to go in a different direction,

All this talk about Darling. He has the footwork to play man defense in the Pac 12. He wants to pass. Where he will either make it or break it this year is when someone presses us. That has been the achilles heal since Smith has taken over. Why we can't handle the press is beyond me. We have enough players with height to get the ball in and up court. Why Smith believes he has to dribble through a press is beyond me.

I have to say I do like the two freshman and how much they have improved in the last month.
Things could 't have panned out the way they hoped heading into last season. Noah was vocal but not a leader, had the off-court MIP/bar deal, and was injured. Flowers was much more of an off-the-ball guard than PG. Koulibaly wasn't ready and then whatever happened off-the-court happened and that was that for him. That left Roberts who was more scorer in terms of mentality but gave them quickness. Roberts had to adjust his game and seemed to as the season went on.

I think it's established Noah was ready to leave December timeframe. I don't think they wanted Roberts to leave. If they did, they waited a long time. He didn't enter the portal until the final day. I also all the "jack up a 3" started to calm down as the season went on.

I have no inside knowledge to prove it but seems like there was a lot of "drama" last season. This year things seem more cohesive. I wonder if they are looking at the piece a bit more tightly during the last recruiting cycle and moving forward. You have to wonder if last year might have been an impact for Efe moving to the G-League even if just a slight nudge.
 
Things could 't have panned out the way they hoped heading into last season. Noah was vocal but not a leader, had the off-court MIP/bar deal, and was injured. Flowers was much more of an off-the-ball guard than PG. Koulibaly wasn't ready and then whatever happened off-the-court happened and that was that for him. That left Roberts who was more scorer in terms of mentality but gave them quickness. Roberts had to adjust his game and seemed to as the season went on.

I think it's established Noah was ready to leave December timeframe. I don't think they wanted Roberts to leave. If they did, they waited a long time. He didn't enter the portal until the final day. I also all the "jack up a 3" started to calm down as the season went on.

I have no inside knowledge to prove it but seems like there was a lot of "drama" last season. This year things seem more cohesive. I wonder if they are looking at the piece a bit more tightly during the last recruiting cycle and moving forward. You have to wonder if last year might have been an impact for Efe moving to the G-League even if just a slight nudge.
Flowers and Roberts were the most selfish players I have seen since World B Free …

How many assists did they have ? Couldn’t play defense a lick . You are being way too kind in regards to their play

And yes Noah checked out early .
 
Flowers and Roberts were the most selfish players I have seen since World B Free …

How many assists did they have ? Couldn’t play defense a lick . You are being way too kind in regards to their play

And yes Noah checked out early .
To answer your question, Flowers was 10th in the conference in assists averaging 3.38 per game. By comparison, Cougar's leader this year is Justin Powell at 2.9 assists per game. I wasn't a fan of last year's offense but I never considered Flowers to be selfish and thought he was a quality player. I thought Noah was selfish and I wasn't a huge fan of Roberts.
 
Flowers and Roberts were the most selfish players I have seen since World B Free …

How many assists did they have ? Couldn’t play defense a lick . You are being way too kind in regards to their play

And yes Noah checked out early .
I hated all the pounding, but Flowers wasn't gunning. He was bailing us out of bad offense a lot of the time. Roberts was doing a Steph impression early in the season but calmed down as well. No question he has a lot of gunner in him though.

I guess my point is October through December seemed like a bit of a stinker on and off the court and it seemed to take well into conference before we started to have some semblance of chemistry (still seemed poor).

I definitely like the perimeter roster a lot more this year, but the staff seemed to want Roberts back.
 
To answer your question, Flowers was 10th in the conference in assists averaging 3.38 per game. By comparison, Cougar's leader this year is Justin Powell at 2.9 assists per game. I wasn't a fan of last year's offense but I never considered Flowers to be selfish and thought he was a quality player. I thought Noah was selfish and I wasn't a huge fan of Roberts.
Stats are misleading . You have Efe and Jackson to get the ball into and couldn’t do it last year .

You only get an assist whe someone scores . I watched flowers pound the ball on the floor and efe or Jackson flashed to the past and no entry pass.

And Roberts made Flowers look like Jason Kidd .

They bailed out a bad offense because they pounded the ball and no ball movement , then after a post had to reposition themselves they still pounded and by that time the shot clock was low .

I think you would be hard pressed to show me where either Roberts or Fkowers drove to the hoop and dished for a. Slam dunk instead of shooting the rock themselves in traffic contested .
 
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Imo our posts didn’t work without the ball, they were fine when they got the ball but stood around until then. It’s a problem in all of college basketball, players don’t learn to move or position themselves without the ball. Everybody stands around watching the ball until it comes to them before they decide to play. Guards aren’t going to pass the ball inside to the post or to a cutter if that player is just going through the motions and not moving with a purpose. Of course other players aren’t going to continue to work if the guards are dribbling around looking for their shot. I don’t like dribble drive offenses that have become so popular these days because they rely on having superior talent. It seems like the days of a solid team running a solid system with solid but not spectacular players areas gone.
It’s also a problem on defense, players don’t start to play until the player they are guarding gets the ball. It’s probably a by product of AAU one on one basketball. I’ve always coached players the importance of playing without the ball on both offense and defense but most no longer show up with those skills/mindset.
 
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