I think most of the Tate hate comes from his past three years of frustration. Looking at him this year vs Tejon in a vacuum, I dont see any reason to think Tejon deserves more minutes than Tate does. JT obviously has zero range, but if he can get to the basket once or twice a game, maybe draw a foul or two, why is he such a bad backup? Sans potential, I dont get why Tejon needs to be playing 20+ minutes a game and Tate get under 5. I'd be fine with a 10/10 split. Its when tate is playing 20+ minutes that concerns me.
Well yea, the Tate frustration comes from watching three years of him, obviously. I've watched 3 years of bad basketball being played by him, so has Groce, and only one of us continues to put him out there in crunch time minutes to commit turnovers, kill the offensive flow, and watch his lock down defendee break him down again and again.
Tate is just not a big ten basketball player. He's not strong with the ball, the offense stalls when he has it (which is probably 60% his problem, 40% Groce's no offball movement offense), and we're only calling him a good defender because it's relative to his offense.
Having to play 4 on 5 on offense is not possible. Go watch a full game just focusing on Tate's defender when he's off ball. The defender is able to sag off of him so far that any one else driving has another defender in there way, ruining any semblance of an offense. TJL has already shown that he can drive to the hoop just as well as Tate. Tate is not a lockdown defender; quick guards have gotten past him consistently, and anyone should be able to defend a guard who doesn't have the quickness of a, say, Keon Johnson.
It's just emblematic of Groce's failings. This kid has no business playing big ten basketball outside of Schmidt minutes and even the layman can see it. Or they can't see it, because they're not at the game
