I hope to see that Leron again, who showed flashes his freshmen year. A non-hurt and improved Leron will go a long way in improving our toughness, rebounding, and interior defense. Hope all our big men are healthy, if they are Thorne, Black, Finke, and Mav are a talented group.
Illini Basketball 2016-2017
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I hope to see that Leron again, who showed flashes his freshmen year. A non-hurt and improved Leron will go a long way in improving our toughness, rebounding, and interior defense. Hope all our big men are healthy, if they are Thorne, Black, Finke, and Mav are a talented group.
Powell could shoot the ball from outside, and you're right, he was a 3 playing the 4 spot. And he's a terrific athlete.
That's not Leron.
Roger could shoot it from outside, but he couldn't shoot it like his daddy.
. Roger, Sr. was a shooter.Leron is a four.
Powell was a good outside shooter going back to his High School days. Plus better handles and quicker than Black. He was a 3 that could comfortably play the 4 in college ball. In the last 15 years, you see lots of very similar guys play the 4 even though they are "natural" SFs.
Anthony Welch may have played SF in the 80s, but in today's game, he'd be a PF all the way.
It's always amusing to see casual fans want to put the biggest team on the court. I think there may be a size complex at work.
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The Powell I saw that day for about 45 minutes doing drills with McClain was raw, and I think Black was further ahead. That being said Powell did a major jump from his freshmen year to his sophomore year and kept on improving.
In the end that is what really separates the top players, those that can adapt to the higher level and continue to improve via hard work/effort.
In the end that is what really separates the top players, those that can adapt to the higher level and continue to improve via hard work/effort.
I agree with the overall premise of hard work/effort, but I did see Roger in HS and was a different player than Leron, style-wise. No, he was not really a top recruit in HS (not ranked higher than Leron) but he was more of a SF type who learned to play PF in college, mostly out of necessity. And did it effectively on that team. The difference is that Leron has always been more of a PF in HS and college so far, so it is a different transition to move to SF.
Lots of talk about Black, and I think he has the potential to be a really good player...but I think he is going to have a tough time breaking into the starting lineup.
I think Groce has shown that it takes a whole lot for him to move someone out of the lineup. With Black sitting out some games in the beginning of the year, I think he is going to have to string together quite a few good games in a row off the bench to have a chance to start.
More than that, I think Finke is a better complement to Thorne. That's why I think he'll start. Black is a better complement with Mav. Having said that, I think Finke and Black split the minutes at the 4, regardless of who starts.
I only saw Powell play in games, but it was pretty clear to me even as a freshman that he could play on the perimeter. Haven't seen that from Black.
They were pretty similar level recruits - Powell was RSCI 62, Black 46.
Sure, presses have been used in the past. As I had pointed out in my previous post, the very big difference these days is the 3 point line and the resulting emphasis in getting more shooters and ball handlers on the court.
What was effective in the 70s/80s doesn't work as well today. Some coaches still do play high pressure defenses, like Pitino and Huggins at WVa, but they are very much the exception these days.
Schedule has been updated with BTN TV info. 14 of our conference games are slated for BTN. Also looks like both exhibition games and 2 non-con games are on the streaming BTN Plus service that everyone loves.
One other thing on pressing, many teams will "press" but it's not really a press trying to force turnovers, it's a soft press just designed to get the other team to spend some time and run down the shot clock.
This. With a 30 second shot clock, forcing a team to take 8 seconds to get it across and another 2 to set up in the half court after they break it is much more beneficial to your defense. A slow 2-2-1 doesnt take much out of your players and then they only have to half court guard for around 20 seconds. Groce likes to do this after free throws.
If you wanna run a havoc style press, you need the athletes, attitude, and then you gotta practice it, A LOT. We don't have the athletes, Tracy and Leron are probably the only two with a havoc attitude, and it's not something we practice a whole lot based on reports. For those of you who want to press, we'd be down 30 real quick against real teams.
Yes, but my point was a little different. Top recruits give you more flexibility due to their talent in terms of ability. So it was not that Roger was a top recruit who was able to make that transition due to superior talent. Roger was highly regarded although lower ranked than Black.
But it was a different kind of transition. Roger was a SF at Joliet who occasionally played PF, whereas Black has been really a PF both in HS and college. Style-wise, it is a totally different transition, one that Black may not be able to make. I do agree with the poster's introduction, I did watch Powell in practice on a few occasions his first years and he was indeed raw. But his skill-set was different than Black's.
I would take that bet.
My original point was just to add another type of press that had not been mentioned and give some examples of teams that had successful runs using the press. I intended to add the fact that presses such as this one can be used to force the offensive team to run time off the clock before getting into their offense.
Starting 4/5: Finke, Thorne (Spacing, just seems like a perfect fit imo)
4/5 off bench: Black/Mav (A classic B1G bench mob with 2 brutes that aren't afraid to pick up a foul....or 4)
Starting 5: Abrams-JCL-Malcolm-Finke-Thorne
I'm telling you this team could do some things this year. We have some grown men on this squad....literally. That's a quality that I don't think people are talking enough about.
4/5 off bench: Black/Mav (A classic B1G bench mob with 2 brutes that aren't afraid to pick up a foul....or 4)
Starting 5: Abrams-JCL-Malcolm-Finke-Thorne
I'm telling you this team could do some things this year. We have some grown men on this squad....literally. That's a quality that I don't think people are talking enough about.
first game starting 5 will be TA,MH,DJW,MF and Thorne AJ could very well start in DJ's spot just cause we will have no Black and Dj fits the 4 spot better
if we are healthy the starting 5 for the big 10 will be TA,JCL,Hill,LB and Thorne I guess like they say who starts isn't what maters its who finishes but I still see this as our best 5
and all the Leron talk just gave us something to talk about things been pretty boring here and on the recruiting part, as well as on the football side
Schedule has been updated with BTN TV info. 14 of our conference games are slated for BTN. Also looks like both exhibition games and 2 non-con games are on the streaming BTN Plus service that everyone loves.
The BTN Plus story is even more exciting this year. The fourth game is more than thirty days after the first game. That means we have to pay for two months of the service that we love if we want to watch all four. And that means we have to remember to cancel. Previously, we could subscribe and cancel all at once and still see all the BTN Plus games.
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