If your team is running a six-man rotation, it means those six players are studs. That's why they win more games.
I thought this year's rotation got unwieldy at times and wondered if Kellogg wouldn't have been a little better had the guard spots been a little less crowded. We'll find out next year, I guess. Ohio really needs Kellogg to step up if they want to win 22-24 games. I've said before I think either Johnson or Hall steps up and takes that three-spot by the scruff of the neck.
Making any pronouncements about Stevie Taylor is premature. He has an entire offseason. We've been comparing him to D.J. Cooper. Compared to most point guards at this point of development, he's fine. At worst he's one of the MAC's best back-up point guards. At best, he takes that job.
I really like how Ohio plays when Jon Smith is on the floor, but I don't know if he's a five in Christian's system. It's going to be a bit of shock to see this team next year with how much it will be oriented towards the paint again.
Your post led me to think about two things: 1) What is "Christian's system"? I ask not as an insult, but because I really don't know. 2) Along the lines of a comment I made earlier in the thread, maybe we'll be more post oriented, maybe not. I like that the roster shows the ability to have multiple looks right now.
Who wouldve thought finding minutes for players would be this hard after we lost 4 great regulars.
We lost three great regulars, and one who was once really good as a sophomore/junior.
I'm dumb as a post when it comes to the X's and O's of basketball — other than I hate the continual use of the flex from an aesthetic standpoint. Tim O'Shea's system bored me to death. I felt like I was watching a square dance that happened to have a basketball involved.
As for Christian, I'd bet he considers his system a balanced one that is really flexible to whatever skillset he has on the team. I'd bet that because every coach in their mind believes that their system is totally responsive and progressive and just the best, Jerry, the best. (Reminds me of talking to Wing-T football coaches telling me it was the best system to pass out of because the defense doesn't expect it. It's ludicrous, but coaches believe in their systems like new converts to a religion.)
Honestly, I'm just going by what I saw when he was at Kent State. They were tough, scrappy almost to a fault and made sure the ball went through the post first. Maybe that was just because of his personnel at Kent, but it was like an entire roster of Anderson Varejaos or Bill Laimbeers back then. Every player was thick. Substantial. No one was particularly skilled, but they were the guy who beat you to every loose ball, talked smack about your mom and then got YOU to pick up the technical foul. I'm just assuming that's what he'd want to build here.
Maybe not. Maybe he'll stun me and run a three-guard attack. I doubt it, though. Or maybe my memory of those Kent State teams is flawed because I was too busy screaming at Nate Gerwig about his lack of personal hygiene and human decency from the OZone. I don't know.
Last Edited: 3/21/2013 10:21:36 AM by Brian Smith (No, not that one)