7 replies to this topic

[BSLChrisStoner]

Guards: Young, Harris-Smith, Long, Lamothe, Stephens (injured)

Wings: Batchelor, Kaiser, Geronimo

Bigs: Reese, Scott, Swanton-Rodger, Traore, Pierce

Last year: 

Hart played 32.8 minutes per, and averaged 11.4 ppg

Carey played 24.9 minutes per, and averaged 7.4 ppg

Martinez played 17.8 minutes per

Emilien played 17.6 minutes per

 

Hart and Martinez were typically MD's best perimeter defenders. 

Emilien was undersized, but had lot of experience, and was a very solid rotation big by year end. 

 

 

This year: 

 

- Obviously Young, Reese, and Scott are 3 of the starters and going get huge minutes.  Young and Reese have to perform like all Big Ten types. 

 

- Counting on Harris-Smith and Kaiser to play major minutes, provide some regular scoring, show they can shoot from 3, and they also have to provide perimeter defense. 

 

- Out of Long, Batchelor, Geronimo, Swanton-Rodger, and Lamothe...  you've got to get productive and dependable minutes from 3 of them. 

 

 

Long - Senior, been with Willard for 4 years
 

Batchelor - Soph, finished HS at IMG Academy, 3 star per 247

Geronimo - Senior, 4 star, back end Top 100 HS recruit
 

Swanton-Rodger - Soph, got into 21 games last year, unranked per 247 composite, was on the U16 Canadian National Team, was on a high end AAU team

 

Lamothe - Freshman, 3 to 4 star guy depending on the site, Top 120-140 recruit

 

 

Long, and Geronimo are the ones with extended experience. They figure to get plenty of time, and they have to give you something.  Not even talking about scoring. But positive minutes.   

Swanton-Rodger will get time being in his 2nd year in the program, and the need for his size (will be interesting to hear if Traore or Pierce push him in practice)...

Batchelor will get time too, and MD needs him to make shots. He's currently averaging 3.7 attempts from 3 in 14 minutes per game (and he's only shooting 18% from 3 after making 26% of his attempts last year). Every time he's in, he's looking to shoot, and his teammates seem to look for him from 3... which makes me think he knocks down shots in practice, but that hasn't carried over into games. 

 

The last two years I wanted to see Ike Cornish get more time. Didn't happen.
We will see if Lamothe does enough in practice (imagine he has to show out defensively first) to get into the rotation. For a team that looks like they have some offensive limitations, you'd think there would be some minutes potentially available. 

[Mackus]

Zero confidence in anyone after Harris-Smith to be anything more than borderline playable.

That Geronimo, Long and Batchelor got so much run in contested games is a big problem.

Hope they can deliver, but early looks are as negative as possible across the board.

[BSLChrisStoner]

Zero confidence in anyone after Harris-Smith to be anything more than borderline playable.

That Geronimo, Long and Batchelor got so much run in contested games is a big problem.

Hope they can deliver, but early looks are as negative as possible across the board.

Young, Reese, and Scott need to be good enough on their own to beat Davidson, and UAB. 
Losing both is crazy.

 

Can't just go 5 deep... but maybe Willard keeps a tight 7-8 rotation.... that still means a lot of Long, Geronimo, and either Batchelor or Swanton-Rodger depending on the match-up.  

If you can't get any positive contributions from that group, that's really limiting. 

 

So then you go back to the starters and it's really: 

 

- How good and how consistent can Reese be?

- Are Harris-Smith and Kaiser ready to provide something nightly? 

 

If those answers wind-up being negative, nothing else matters.

[BaltBird 24]

Have a feeling this is going to be a terrible year. Not much depth at all behind the big 3, and even Reese and Scott are very limited. Tough to rely so much on a freshman like Harris-Smith.

Basically zero depth behind Reese unless you want to consider Scott an undersized 4/5.

Geronimo, Long, Swanton-Rodgers, Batchelor off the bench as your go to guys is terrible.

Just terrible roster construction. How can you go into a season with Reese as your only legit big?

[BSLZackKiesel]

Before the season started, Willard said they might look rough to start the year given the new pieces and the fact that they'd be relying heavily on at least two freshmen. Obviously never expected performances like this, though.

 

To an extent, you assume they figure things out and don't look this bad all year. As Harris-Smith and Kaiser get more comfortable, they should be able to be major contributors come January.

 

The most concerning thing to me is what's been happening on the defensive end. I know Willard says he expected them to struggle with small lineups, but that doesn't excuse experienced players like Scott looking completely lost on that end of the court.

 

Also, I said it in the game thread yesterday, but the offensive tempo makes absolutely no sense to me. Willard was brought in to run the up-tempo transition system he's run his whole career. Damon Evans specifically mentioned that during his introductory press conference as a reason they hired him. Second year in the system they're one of the slowest offensive teams in the country, and Willard's comments about playing a "Big Ten style" make me think it's by design which again, makes no sense.

[BSLMikeLowe]

I say this without having watched any of their games so far, but the key to an up-tempo offense is forcing missed shots and turnovers on defense. If they are getting those and simply passing on the opportunity to push the pace, then that’s not great. Doesn’t look like they have the shooters to be relying heavily on half court sets.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Have a feeling this is going to be a terrible year. Not much depth at all behind the big 3, and even Reese and Scott are very limited. Tough to rely so much on a freshman like Harris-Smith.

Basically zero depth behind Reese unless you want to consider Scott an undersized 4/5.

Geronimo, Long, Swanton-Rodgers, Batchelor off the bench as your go to guys is terrible.

Just terrible roster construction. How can you go into a season with Reese as your only legit big?

I’m absolutely shocked by the bolded.

[BaltBird 24]

I’m absolutely shocked by the bolded.

I'm actually still fairly optimistic about the Ravens and Orioles. Terps basketball about the only other sports team I have an interest in and, unfortunately, their chances of success look rather bleak.