My fiver on Saturday's loss to Florida.......
1. Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles, Jr. Look, Thick is able to break things down much, much better than I ever could. I don't do analytics. When I post, it's straight from my two eyes watching the game, to the keyboard (and a lot of it is straight from the heart). So, to that end, what I'm about to say could very well have a bunch of holes punched in it - and that is fine. But, If I'm Bob Huggins, I'm benching Daxter Miles Jr. and Jevon Carter right now. I'm starting Tarik Phillip and Jaysean Paige. Yes - we lose the instant impact of pulling Paige off the bench as the sixth man. But, I've had about enough of watching these guys refuse to impose their will on our opponent, and refuse to throw counter punches when they've been knocked down. We must play Carter and Paige at some point, because we need to keep pressing. But, I would keep them on the bench until Phillip and Paige need a breather, play them for a few minutes, and then reinsert Paige and Phillip back into the game. Hell, I would even give Teyvon Myers some minutes over Daxter right now. I'm not thinking about next season right now. I'm thinking about this season, where the entire national championship, let alone the Big XII title, is anyone's to win -- and we have as good a shot as anyone with certain lineups on the floor. Phillip and Paige need to stop with the fouls. But, those two get in the game and take it to the hole, or try like hell to score. On the other hand, Daxter plays 19 minutes and attempts four shots. Hell, I used to attempt four shots the first 30 seconds I played. I wasn't very good, but I was assertive. And, I admire that about Jaysean and Tarik. I'd like to see them play 30 minutes each, if possible. Play Jevon ten, Dax five, Teyvon five. Again, that is my impression given what I've seen. We got 5 total turnovers and 2 total assists from our starting guards Saturday, along with 4 total fouls and 3 total rebounds.
2. Devin Williams. We've beaten the "Devin is pressing" theme to death. So, I'm here to throw a little positive feedback his way. Yes, he is pressing. Yes, he gives up wide open 7 to 10 footers to drive into double-teams. Yes, he went 4/15 from the floor Saturday. But, he did come down with 13 rebounds in Holton's absence. We need Devin on the floor to be a Junkyard Dog. Pick up scraps, and get put-backs. Two of our first three buckets were clean-ups by Devin after airballs by our horrific starting guards. That's what we need from him. He just needs to stop pressing, get out there, be a big man- and be our Junkyard Dog. Heck, I'd take 4 points from him a game, so long as he chipped in 10+ rebounds and cut the turnovers to 1 or zero.
3. Nate Adrian is coming along. Very quietly, lost among our awful play, is a modest advancement in the play of one Nate Adrian. That could be huge down the stretch for us. Once we have a full deck of cards again, having Adrian come off the bench to scrap, play tough D, grab rebounds, and hit threes - or at least drag defenders outside to respect his ability to hit a three- will be big. Like what I'm seeing there.
4. Losing the turnover battle. If WVU loses the turnover battle against top flight competition - we will never, ever win. We don't have the offensive prowess to beat teams in a shootout. We start two guards who have zero confidence in their shot, along with a "3" man who does not yet himself believe that he is ready to play at this level. So, if we are going to give up possessions to opponents, we are not going to win. We outshot UF 58-49, and we even somehow won the rebounding battle. But, we were -4 in turnovers. No chance. We ran into a buzzsaw Saturday anyway with UF's three-point shooting. But, we can't treat the ball like it's hot garbage. Dribbling off our face. Dropping the ball when wide open for a dunk. Palming the ball on a fast break. And, Esa Ahmad's inexplicable pass directly to a UF defender in the shadow of our own basket when UF wasn't even pressing. It's just absolutely idiotic, boneheaded pee-wee league junk. Makes you want to just bury your head in your hands.
5. Get back to DEFENSE. We are at our best when we are just a harassing, in your face, physical defensive ballclub. Sometimes playing a zone makes you passive. That matchup zone we went into Saturday was awful. There were open UF shooters everywhere. ESPN froze a frame when the ball was on the wing, and we had five players sucked into one half of the court. There were two UF shooters on the opposite side standing, waving their arms. Skip pass went to their shooter, swish. Repeat, repeat, repeat, and you have UF going 12/20 from "3" - most largely uncontested. That is a recipe for disaster vs. Iowa State. We need to get back to pressing, and then getting into a harassing man defense in the half-court, trapping with or without Mr. Holton. I would rather go down hustling, then go down standing on our heels in a half court matchup zone. There are teams who can play zone effectively like Syracuse or Baylor. But, we are not one of those teams right now. Press - and man up.
1. Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles, Jr. Look, Thick is able to break things down much, much better than I ever could. I don't do analytics. When I post, it's straight from my two eyes watching the game, to the keyboard (and a lot of it is straight from the heart). So, to that end, what I'm about to say could very well have a bunch of holes punched in it - and that is fine. But, If I'm Bob Huggins, I'm benching Daxter Miles Jr. and Jevon Carter right now. I'm starting Tarik Phillip and Jaysean Paige. Yes - we lose the instant impact of pulling Paige off the bench as the sixth man. But, I've had about enough of watching these guys refuse to impose their will on our opponent, and refuse to throw counter punches when they've been knocked down. We must play Carter and Paige at some point, because we need to keep pressing. But, I would keep them on the bench until Phillip and Paige need a breather, play them for a few minutes, and then reinsert Paige and Phillip back into the game. Hell, I would even give Teyvon Myers some minutes over Daxter right now. I'm not thinking about next season right now. I'm thinking about this season, where the entire national championship, let alone the Big XII title, is anyone's to win -- and we have as good a shot as anyone with certain lineups on the floor. Phillip and Paige need to stop with the fouls. But, those two get in the game and take it to the hole, or try like hell to score. On the other hand, Daxter plays 19 minutes and attempts four shots. Hell, I used to attempt four shots the first 30 seconds I played. I wasn't very good, but I was assertive. And, I admire that about Jaysean and Tarik. I'd like to see them play 30 minutes each, if possible. Play Jevon ten, Dax five, Teyvon five. Again, that is my impression given what I've seen. We got 5 total turnovers and 2 total assists from our starting guards Saturday, along with 4 total fouls and 3 total rebounds.
2. Devin Williams. We've beaten the "Devin is pressing" theme to death. So, I'm here to throw a little positive feedback his way. Yes, he is pressing. Yes, he gives up wide open 7 to 10 footers to drive into double-teams. Yes, he went 4/15 from the floor Saturday. But, he did come down with 13 rebounds in Holton's absence. We need Devin on the floor to be a Junkyard Dog. Pick up scraps, and get put-backs. Two of our first three buckets were clean-ups by Devin after airballs by our horrific starting guards. That's what we need from him. He just needs to stop pressing, get out there, be a big man- and be our Junkyard Dog. Heck, I'd take 4 points from him a game, so long as he chipped in 10+ rebounds and cut the turnovers to 1 or zero.
3. Nate Adrian is coming along. Very quietly, lost among our awful play, is a modest advancement in the play of one Nate Adrian. That could be huge down the stretch for us. Once we have a full deck of cards again, having Adrian come off the bench to scrap, play tough D, grab rebounds, and hit threes - or at least drag defenders outside to respect his ability to hit a three- will be big. Like what I'm seeing there.
4. Losing the turnover battle. If WVU loses the turnover battle against top flight competition - we will never, ever win. We don't have the offensive prowess to beat teams in a shootout. We start two guards who have zero confidence in their shot, along with a "3" man who does not yet himself believe that he is ready to play at this level. So, if we are going to give up possessions to opponents, we are not going to win. We outshot UF 58-49, and we even somehow won the rebounding battle. But, we were -4 in turnovers. No chance. We ran into a buzzsaw Saturday anyway with UF's three-point shooting. But, we can't treat the ball like it's hot garbage. Dribbling off our face. Dropping the ball when wide open for a dunk. Palming the ball on a fast break. And, Esa Ahmad's inexplicable pass directly to a UF defender in the shadow of our own basket when UF wasn't even pressing. It's just absolutely idiotic, boneheaded pee-wee league junk. Makes you want to just bury your head in your hands.
5. Get back to DEFENSE. We are at our best when we are just a harassing, in your face, physical defensive ballclub. Sometimes playing a zone makes you passive. That matchup zone we went into Saturday was awful. There were open UF shooters everywhere. ESPN froze a frame when the ball was on the wing, and we had five players sucked into one half of the court. There were two UF shooters on the opposite side standing, waving their arms. Skip pass went to their shooter, swish. Repeat, repeat, repeat, and you have UF going 12/20 from "3" - most largely uncontested. That is a recipe for disaster vs. Iowa State. We need to get back to pressing, and then getting into a harassing man defense in the half-court, trapping with or without Mr. Holton. I would rather go down hustling, then go down standing on our heels in a half court matchup zone. There are teams who can play zone effectively like Syracuse or Baylor. But, we are not one of those teams right now. Press - and man up.
