And granted it's just one game this year, but I've never gotten the sense (nor did last night's game do anything to change it) that Coleman or Ramey are great facilitators offensively. If Shaka continues to try to force one of them into being the offensive 'conductor' of sorts this team will continue to struggle on that side of the court again, imo. They're both better at creating shots for themselves then they are creating shots for others. Which greatly lessens their effectiveness if you're trying to run a "free-flowing" Coach K type of offense. You could probably get away with one of them if the offense was more set/play driven. But that doesn't seem like it's what Shaka's going for.
I don't want to beat the kid up but everything about Coleman suggests he's a PG (size, decent handles, etc.), but I just don't think he has a high enough Basketball IQ to run a show. His anticipation, court vision and the desire to create for others just isn't there when I watch him. It's like he's just playing the role w/o his heart really being in it.
Ramey is a hooper and you can see his versatility. You could put him in a number of different spots and he'd be effective. But forcing him to be your main ball handler I think sacrifices what he can bring in other areas of the floor offensively.
Sims is still a huge disappointment. Does he just not work on improving his Basketball skillset? He seems like the same raw unrefined athlete that he was when he first walked onto the 40.
A Jones - when he gets his strength back, watch-out! So encouraging and heart-warming to see him performing like that!
They should script a few plays in the first 8-10 minutes of each game to get Fabres at least 3/4 good looks from 3. Otherwise, he seems disengaged offensively.
And I know most of them are really young, but Hepa, Hamm & the Freshman (sans Williams) all seemed to just hoist up 3s as soon as they could. Like they were just rushing to shoot them just to shoot them. I was really hoping Hepa would settle down in his second season, but he seems to be just as jittery and lost as he was last season.
One bright spot I saw was the defensive intensity. That can carry over. And to me be very promising going forward. That's what can keep this team afloat until or if they ever find something they can go to consistently offensively.
I don't follow recruiting (basketball or football for that matter), so my exposure to Freshman come when I watch them don the burnt orange for the 1st time. Liked what I saw from Williams, the big kid from Westlake and the kid from Jamiaca. The kid from Westlake looks to lack athleticism (which means he'll be here for a few years), but doesn't lack confidence offensively. He was shooting j's like he was expecting to make them. Although a couple of them barely caught iron if any at all. Defensively he looked to 'know' where he wanted to go, but the feet just didn't get him there. He may need to stay anchored around the cup so he doesn't get too exposed.
Are you all expecting any of them to be impact contributors? One was out last night, is he gonna help and if so where?