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Ohio Basketball Topic
Topic: Laster
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bshot44
12/11/2017 10:55 AM
OU_Country wrote:expand_more
If it was (and not a hold over from JC), then kudos to SP as while he looked like he was deadweight early on, his development and style of game is much appreciated. SP needs to go back to this periodically as this isn't your prototypical Saul-Ball style player and it's nice to see an occasional wing on your squad that 1) can create their own shot; 2) can matchup with the oppositions athleticism; 3) doesn't look like fish out of water going to the basket.
I'm confused on "dead weight"? He played nearly 20 minutes a game as a freshman. As a sophomore, while it might have seemed like he regressed, its worth noting that he faced more competition for PT than he did as a freshman with the arrivals of Simmons, Dartis, Block and Gollon.
Agree. Never ever thought of him as dead weight. He was pretty raw when he came in ... especially his shot. But he's always had the ability to get to the rim and play really strong defense.

Just so happens, other guys progressed faster than him ... so he fell down the depth chart.

I agree ... he got an opportunity with some injuries the last few years ... obviously worked his ass off on his shot ... and has really blossomed into something special.

If he continues to put up around 20 ppg ... you're looking at All-MAC 1st teamer.

I was NOT expecting an Ohio win yesterday. I greatly mis-evaluated WKU. Having not seen them in person, I just thought if they beat Purdue and hung with Villanova ... this team must be talented.

That was a band of misfit, reject D1 jokesters. There might be talent in there ... but man, were they ever disjointed. Just "ole" defense all day ... made it easy for Ohio on offense to get good looks.

I give Ohio a ton of credit ... no Dartis, no problem. That was a gut-check win they needed to build a little confidence going into the MAC season.

After seeing that ... if Dartis can get healthy for Marshall ... that should be one helluva track meet on Saturday in Huntington. Take the over!

Realistically ... if Ohio can play like that in MAC play, they should challenge for a top four seed no problem. But if we see what we saw at Maryland ... yikes! This team will struggle to finish 9-9 in the league.

Saturday gave me a little hope this team can be dangerous ... which is all I was looking forward before that massive showdown with NW Ohio in late December ;-)
Last Edited: 12/11/2017 10:56:07 AM by bshot44
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Deciduous Forest Cat
12/11/2017 10:57 AM
OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
Last six games for Laster:

20.5 ppg, 3.8 reb, 49-90 FG 54.4%, 35-57 2pt 61.4%, 14-33 3pt 42.4%, 11-13 FT 84.6%
Those are impressive numbers. I knew he was playing well, but the percentages are better than I would have expected.
Yes, he really was the spark today that kept us firing on all cylinders for most of the game. Without him we would have lost. He should have had three more. I don't know what the officials saw during the review, but the shot definitely left his hand before the shot clock reached zero.
The reviews showed the shot was no good. they had a good look at it. it was close but still in his hand at 0
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BoardCat
12/11/2017 11:24 AM
This season Mike has been the best player on the team. Especially when you look at his overall play, he's the reason we're winning, the difference. Exceptional on the defensive end, he's been aggressive and outstanding on the offensive end, while also doing the intangibles. My hat's off to him, I'm glad he got an opportunity.
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OUVan
12/11/2017 12:02 PM
bshot44 wrote:expand_more
I was NOT expecting an Ohio win yesterday. I greatly mis-evaluated WKU. Having not seen them in person, I just thought if they beat Purdue and hung with Villanova ... this team must be talented.

That was a band of misfit, reject D1 jokesters. There might be talent in there ... but man, were they ever disjointed. Just "ole" defense all day ... made it easy for Ohio on offense to get good looks.
I think you can put a lot of that on Lamonte Bearden who looked like he wanted to win this one by himself and ended up taking himself out of the game. When you don't have a bench to rely on one of your top players can't do that. He was in full on dumB mode yesterday. And now he's Ofer the Convo on his career.
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bshot44
12/11/2017 12:06 PM
OUVan wrote:expand_more
I was NOT expecting an Ohio win yesterday. I greatly mis-evaluated WKU. Having not seen them in person, I just thought if they beat Purdue and hung with Villanova ... this team must be talented.

That was a band of misfit, reject D1 jokesters. There might be talent in there ... but man, were they ever disjointed. Just "ole" defense all day ... made it easy for Ohio on offense to get good looks.
I think you can put a lot of that on Lamonte Bearden who looked like he wanted to win this one by himself and ended up taking himself out of the game. When you don't have a bench to rely on one of your top players can't do that. He was in full on dumB mode yesterday. And now he's Ofer the Convo on his career.
True ... that disjointed them for sure when he got his 3rd. But even when he was back in in the 2H, they just never looked like a cohesive unit. But I guess that's what you get sometimes when you try to mold a bunch of transfers together.

It's kind of like pick-up basketball ... sometimes you get a team that just dominates ... and other times it just doesn't work out.

There's something to be said about Ohio's cohesiveness ... it showed yesterday. That a was a group you could tell had played with each other for a while
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allen
12/11/2017 1:02 PM
RSBobcat wrote:expand_more
He was on his way to Dozier land. Had Gollon not got injured along with Campbell, Laster may have never gotten his opportunity, but he did and he has run with it. He came in with no shot and now he shoots over 50%. Go Cats.
When was Dozier EVER OUr lockdown D 5 or 6 guy? Laster has performed GREAT in his ROLE from day 1......
Laster got limited minutes at the beginning of last season. Once tone got injured, laster got his opportunity and became the sixth man and shot at 52% and played excellent defense. He was on his way to bench land.
http://ohiobobcats.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/boxscores/2016...
Last Edited: 12/11/2017 1:08:50 PM by allen
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OU_Country
12/11/2017 1:26 PM
allen wrote:expand_more
He was on his way to Dozier land. Had Gollon not got injured along with Campbell, Laster may have never gotten his opportunity, but he did and he has run with it. He came in with no shot and now he shoots over 50%. Go Cats.
When was Dozier EVER OUr lockdown D 5 or 6 guy? Laster has performed GREAT in his ROLE from day 1......
Laster got limited minutes at the beginning of last season. Once tone got injured, laster got his opportunity and became the sixth man and shot at 52% and played excellent defense. He was on his way to bench land.
http://ohiobobcats.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/boxscores/2016...
The two players - Dozier and Laster - aren't comparable because of position and skill sets, and are not in comparable situations. One played a lot his freshman year, the other red-shirted.
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bornacatfan
12/12/2017 11:48 PM
OU_Country wrote:expand_more
I'm confused on "dead weight"? He played nearly 20 minutes a game as a freshman. As a sophomore, while it might have seemed like he regressed, its worth noting that he faced more competition for PT than he did as a freshman with the arrivals of Simmons, Dartis, Block and Gollon.

Wow. Don't bring actual facts to the conversation. Really gets in the way of suppositions and altered timelines
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OhioCatFan
12/13/2017 12:54 AM
bornacatfan wrote:expand_more
I'm confused on "dead weight"? He played nearly 20 minutes a game as a freshman. As a sophomore, while it might have seemed like he regressed, its worth noting that he faced more competition for PT than he did as a freshman with the arrivals of Simmons, Dartis, Block and Gollon.

Wow. Don't bring actual facts to the conversation. Really gets in the way of suppositions and altered timelines
Reality-based discussions on BA? This is a troubling development. I hope it's just a passing fancy. ;-)
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Bobcat1998
12/13/2017 8:21 AM
Someone said Laster could get First Team MAC. I absolutely think this will happen. I will go further and say he has a chance, if he can keep this up, at getting MAC POY. I know Wilder has the pub but Mike has shown he can score in as many ways as Wilder. The only thing that will keep Mike down once we get into MAC play will be the awesome ball movement and team play we have right now. While he's stepping up and scoring 20 per game right now, once Jason Carter gets healthier you know he's going to be taking some points away. And on any given night we've seen guys like Dartis, Gollon, Block, Kirk and Mickle hit for double figures.
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Alan Swank
12/13/2017 9:18 AM
Interesting Laster stats. I had forgotten how much he played his freshmen year.

Fr 18.8 minutes 99 shots
So 9.4 minutes 57 shots
Jr 15.2 minutes 115 shots
Sr 34.6 minutes 121 shots
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OU_Country
12/13/2017 9:43 AM
Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
Interesting Laster stats. I had forgotten how much he played his freshmen year.

Fr 18.8 minutes 99 shots
So 9.4 minutes 57 shots
Jr 15.2 minutes 115 shots
Sr 34.6 minutes 121 shots
He played enough his freshman year, and effectively enough defending and getting in the lane (as others said), that I've said for the last couple summers, "work on that jump shot, and he really could be a good player". I honestly didn't expect what we've seen from him this year though. This is a big jump, even from his success at the end of last year. Big kudos to him. I hope the trend continues. He's a fun guy to root for.
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allen
12/13/2017 9:46 AM
bornacatfan wrote:expand_more
I'm confused on "dead weight"? He played nearly 20 minutes a game as a freshman. As a sophomore, while it might have seemed like he regressed, its worth noting that he faced more competition for PT than he did as a freshman with the arrivals of Simmons, Dartis, Block and Gollon.

Wow. Don't bring actual facts to the conversation. Really gets in the way of suppositions and altered timelines
When he was finally used, he proved to be better than Gollon, Block and Dartis. We almost relegated him to the bench. He probably will be first team All-MAC and go to a European A league. He shot 53% last year and others still got more playing time. Facts
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Bobcat1998
12/13/2017 1:41 PM
As a "what-if," wouldn't it be interesting to see Ryan Taylor as a senior on this team? I think he would mesh really well. I actually think he would have made the last 2 teams really solid. We won 20 games the past two years and he would have definitely helped. Of course you know that if he stays someone else may not have been recruited...but it's fun to picture a starting lineup of Laster, Ryan Taylor, Carter, Dartis and Kirk with Block, Mickle, Doug, Butler and Gollon off the bench!
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allen
12/13/2017 2:38 PM
Bobcat1998 wrote:expand_more
As a "what-if," wouldn't it be interesting to see Ryan Taylor as a senior on this team? I think he would mesh really well. I actually think he would have made the last 2 teams really solid. We won 20 games the past two years and he would have definitely helped. Of course you know that if he stays someone else may not have been recruited...but it's fun to picture a starting lineup of Laster, Ryan Taylor, Carter, Dartis and Kirk with Block, Mickle, Doug, Butler and Gollon off the bench!
We would be a force.
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OU_Country
12/13/2017 2:46 PM
allen wrote:expand_more
As a "what-if," wouldn't it be interesting to see Ryan Taylor as a senior on this team? I think he would mesh really well. I actually think he would have made the last 2 teams really solid. We won 20 games the past two years and he would have definitely helped. Of course you know that if he stays someone else may not have been recruited...but it's fun to picture a starting lineup of Laster, Ryan Taylor, Carter, Dartis and Kirk with Block, Mickle, Doug, Butler and Gollon off the bench!
We would be a force.
Using that logic, that means when everyone we currently have returns to health, we should be a force. No offense to Ryan Taylor (who is having a great year), but is he really the difference between being a force in the MAC, and not being a force?
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RSBobcat
12/14/2017 12:35 AM
OU_Country wrote:expand_more
As a "what-if," wouldn't it be interesting to see Ryan Taylor as a senior on this team? I think he would mesh really well. I actually think he would have made the last 2 teams really solid. We won 20 games the past two years and he would have definitely helped. Of course you know that if he stays someone else may not have been recruited...but it's fun to picture a starting lineup of Laster, Ryan Taylor, Carter, Dartis and Kirk with Block, Mickle, Doug, Butler and Gollon off the bench!
We would be a force.
Using that logic, that means when everyone we currently have returns to health, we should be a force. No offense to Ryan Taylor (who is having a great year), but is he really the difference between being a force in the MAC, and not being a force?
Nope - as in agree. Where would Taylor's minutes go? From Laster, Gollon, Jordon, Block, Mickle, etc? And would the net result be higher? I seriously doubt it.
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