I don’t generally agree with game announcers, but one of the guys on tonight’s CBS Sports Network telecast made an interesting observation. He said that during our run that Tommy was playing point and Sears was more an off-guard. He said that that was a key to our better performance in that stretch. From my own observations in other games, I think it’s true that Sears is a better shooting guard than point guard. Therefore, I think we need to recruit (probably via transfer) a seasoned PG and let Sears go back to playing a position similar to what he did last year with Jason Preston. We won’t get a distributor as good as JP, but we can possibly get one on par with Tommy. At any rate, those are my thoughts. You guys with higher basketball IQs can tear it apart, I’m sure. Go at it! [/QUOTE]I'm just gonna put this here as a quote from the CMU game thread back on Feb 19th.
[QUOTE=Urban Bobcat] Mark Sears is going to have 25 to 30 points to keep our winning streak against crappy teams alive!!!
Yes he likely will. Call me when he does something of significance to a team in the top 100. I'll be waiting.
He scored 27 against Belmont.
Belmont is indeed a top 100 team. Though they're certainly not muttered in the same breath as a top team. Good mid major? Certainly. They didn't even win the OVC and make the tourney last year though.
The biggest reason I don't necessarily count Belmont in this group for Sears is - they only have 1 guy in their rotation over 6'6, and only 1 guy with 20 or more blocks (both Muszynski at 6'11 with 50 blocks).
Everybody knows at this point that Sears problem is against good/elite teams - and the main reason for that is they have tall, long, athletic bigs who can protect the rim in the paint and he has no idea what/how to deal with that. And he won't until he figures out a floater like Preston or a foul line pull-up jumper (which might be more his style considering he's such a prolific FT shooter).
The other problem is Sears is NOT a natural point guard. He might be in size at 6'1 and quickness (for sure) and even ball handling. But he is a pure shoot-first, scoring guard and NOT a facilitator of the offense or great passer/distributor.
I mean he currently has a 105:86 assist to turnover ratio. That's putrid for a PG. While his 105 assists leads the team, it's only 3.9 ast/gm and BVP is a close second with 83 assists. I also don't think BRod or many of our other shooters have been nearly as effective shooting the ball and PART OF IT is likely due to the fact that Sears isn't as good at finding them when they're open or have a mismatch, getting them the ball in rhythm, in the pocket and at their spots, like Preston was. Part of that is just natural because he's looking to score himself first. If he were 6'4 or 6'5 (shoot maybe even 6'3) I'd love to slide Mark over to the off-guard position - but alas he's not.
If Sears ever figures out the A:TO and facilitator thing combined with either a floater or pull-up jumper (similar to how he worked on his 3PT shot last summer) then he's probably an NBA prospect.
Until then, he's a really good MAC guard, whose deficiencies are well known and easy to stop when we play any good competition with length in the interior.