1/23/2024 MBB vs. Pitt.

[orientalnc]

I see another clean up with the roster after the season. I hope and feel that Nait, N, and Reeves stay. That’s the nucleus in my opinion. Kelly may very likely transfer out and that might not be the worse thing for him or us. Maintain the recruits that will be coming in and we’ll be building on a roster that CDS can mold. Need help down low in the paint.

I hope you are wrong about this. Kelly is a good kid and heckuva basketball player. Also, you forgot about Lance Terry.

I can hardly agree more about your last sentence.

What I do not understand is that we have beaten three of the best teams on our schedule and looked like the best team on the floor doing it. There is nothing drastically wrong with our talent or skills. I firmly believe it's a mental thing right now. And the need for size down low.

 

[YlJacket]

A comment about the need for size down low. Without a doubt I would love to put 15 lbs on Ndongo and keep his motor and springs. It would help him on both ends. But if you look at most of the games we had trouble containing bigs - especially last night - look to see how often we give an easy switch and end up with a guard trying to wrestle with a big. Last night in particular we gave the switch at the mere hint of a high ball screen. We started the game bringing Sacho or Reeves from the corner to pick up the roll with the guard replacing them in the corner. That lasted about 5 minutes until we got tired of it and simply left the guard stuck wrestling in the paint. That was scheme and/or lack of want to get over the screen as much or more than whether Ndongo is a good rim protector. I would fix the perimeter D first.

And if you get a big for defense that moves Ndongo to the corner on O. He may make that work but right now he is plugged in as the role in this offense.

Having said all that, Dowuona is not the answer and Claude works hard but isn't either. So I expect we will go for a transfer big unless - and maybe even if - our recruit big is ready to play at this level.

 

[orientalnc]

and maybe even if - our recruit big is ready to play at this level.

I think he weighs less than Ndongo.

 

[LargeFO]

I hope you are wrong about this. Kelly is a good kid and heckuva basketball player. Also, you forgot about Lance Terry.

I can hardly agree more about your last sentence.

What I do not understand is that we have beaten three of the best teams on our schedule and looked like the best team on the floor doing it. There is nothing drastically wrong with our talent or skills. I firmly believe it's a mental thing right now. And the need for size down low.

Kelly has been super one dimensional this year. Can’t create his own shot much at all. The season long body language hasn’t been great either.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

In an effort to show the good with the bad, here is our offensive efficiency ranking. Which I must admit, was surprising. The problem becomes very clear when looking at the two graphs and illustrates what we all knew anyways. Defense is very much contingent upon effort and desire.

View attachment 15602

Thank you. This accentuates what CDS has been suggesting in his last 3-4 press conferences. You can’t control whether your shots fall or not but you can control how much energy you play defense with.

 

[orientalnc]

Can’t create his own shot much at all.

Interesting to read this because he's been creating lots of shots this year, but they haven't been falling. Something is wrong with his shooting because his FT percentage is down 20 points. I can see his body language and facial expression has gone south recently. Something else is going on.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Interesting to read this because he's been creating lots of shots this year, but they haven't been falling. Something is wrong with his shooting because his FT percentage is down 20 points. I can see his body language and facial expression has gone south recently. Something else is going on.

Animal, vegetable, or mineral?

 

[spdrama]

Animal, vegetable, or mineral?

Animals. Ndongo, George, Reeves. He ain’t top dog any more. Maybe all emotional.

 

[alagold]

I think CDS has thrown down the gauntlet to the team. He has publicly, for the 2nd time, expressed what he expects from our players. He expects them to give the same level of effort that he gave when he played. Some kids today get that, some don't. I expect that we'll lose 6-7 players off the current roster. I think the foreign kids will be ahead of the American kids, but that's based on what I see from my kids and their friends. From my personal experience, I don't see that fire in the belly from the kids my son plays with (and he plays with elite kids). CDS has challenged our players. He's challenged Kelly to be a leader on and off the court. He's challenged Kelly to be a leader, even when he doesn't score. To my observations, Kelly's been hot and cold with this. I see that Gapare has been hot and cold. I see Abram has been ice cold. I see the younger players being inconsistent in performance and the older players being inconsistent in effort. I could easily see CDS clean house of the half-effort guys and start anew next year, building on Ndongo, George, Terry, and the new crop coming in. Those who also want to put 100% effort 100% of the time will also be welcome to stay. Half the team will be gone.

wow, quite a statement.But its true the team doesn't always bust it but youth /inexp may account for some of that.Just don't know what it takes.

 

[alagold]

I see another clean up with the roster after the season. I hope and feel that Nait, N, and Reeves stay. That’s the nucleus in my opinion. Kelly may very likely transfer out and that might not be the worse thing for him or us. Maintain the recruits that will be coming in and we’ll be building on a roster that CDS can mold. Need help down low in the paint.

I see another clean up with the roster after the season. I hope and feel that Nait, N, and Reeves stay. That’s the nucleus in my opinion. Kelly may very likely transfer out and that might not be the worse thing for him or us. Maintain the recruits that will be coming in and we’ll be building on a roster that CDS can mold. Need help down low in the paint.

The front ct problem was obvious from start.Ndongo has been a very pleasant surprise but the others have been about what was expected.

 

[Peacone36]

I don’t want Kelly to transfer. I want him to reach his potential in the GT uniform. Whether my expectations for him is realistic is unknown but I think he is really talented and capable of being a top 7ish scorer in the ACC. I am also not really buying the “we need to overhaul our roster” pitch.

Gapare is a project, we knew that. I think his upside as a defender is tremendous, but I think he projects as more of an undersized 4 than a big 3 and could benefit from us deploying some zone.

If we are able to keep Baye, NTG and Gapare, get Miles to buy in or regain his confidence, whichever the issue is, combined with our incoming guys…we have already won the offseason.

I’d LOVE to see what Abram can do, almost as much as I’d like to know what the specific issue is. If going from a USA tryout to sitting the bench on a 9-10 team hasn’t woken him up, maybe it’s good riddance

The big man free agent market has been quite plentiful in recent years, so if we are able to lure one to Atlanta, that’s a seven man rotation.

That’s not counting Lance Terry or Sacko who could make that freshman to sophomore jump. I do not think our incoming big is going to be ready to contribute immediately.

CDS has this program heading in the correct direction, he needs guys to buy in IMHO.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I don’t want Kelly to transfer. I want him to reach his potential in the GT uniform. Whether my expectations for him is realistic is unknown but I think he is really talented and capable of being a top 7ish scorer in the ACC. I am also not really buying the “we need to overhaul our roster” pitch.

Gapare is a project, we knew that. I think his upside as a defender is tremendous, but I think he projects as more of an undersized 4 than a big 3 and could benefit from us deploying some zone.

If we are able to keep Baye, NTG and Gapare, get Miles to buy in or regain his confidence, whichever the issue is, combined with our incoming guys…we have already won the offseason.

I’d LOVE to see what Abram can do, almost as much as I’d like to know what the specific issue is. If going from a USA tryout to sitting the bench on a 9-10 team hasn’t woken him up, maybe it’s good riddance

The big man free agent market has been quite plentiful in recent years, so if we are able to lure one to Atlanta, that’s a seven man rotation.

That’s not counting Lance Terry or Sacko who could make that freshman to sophomore jump. I do not think our incoming big is going to be ready to contribute immediately.

CDS has this program heading in the correct direction, he needs guys to buy in IMHO.

I hope you're not taking my post to mean that I think we need a roster overhaul. I don't. I think the talent on this team has the potential to do everything CDS wants to do. I think we've seen it periodically. If there's a roster overhaul, it'll be effort-based, not talent-driven, in my opinion. I really like this team. I see the upside in all of these guys.

 

[Peacone36]

I hope you're not taking my post to mean that I think we need a roster overhaul. I don't. I think the talent on this team has the potential to do everything CDS wants to do. I think we've seen it periodically. If there's a roster overhaul, it'll be effort-based, not talent-driven, in my opinion. I really like this team. I see the upside in all of these guys.

No that wasn’t directed at you at all. I get the feeling that’s where the consensus is heading. I said something on Twitter leaning that way as well this morning.

All of that said, I don’t think Texas Tech has more talent than we do. I don’t think Utah has more talent than we do (god damn Deivon Smith I see you). Oklahoma sure as hell doesn’t. I put Dayton, Utah State, New Mexico, Colorado State and Nebraska on my ballot this week. Those teams are not boasting superior talent when compared to this GT roster IMNSHO. But those teams have bought into what their coach is selling. Our guys need to smell what CDS is stepping in because he’s been there and done that.

 

[Root4GT]

I hope you're not taking my post to mean that I think we need a roster overhaul. I don't. I think the talent on this team has the potential to do everything CDS wants to do. I think we've seen it periodically. If there's a roster overhaul, it'll be effort-based, not talent-driven, in my opinion. I really like this team. I see the upside in all of these guys.

With the frequency of transfers and after one year with a new coach I could see several players on our current team transferring out. I would think George, Ndongo, Reeves and Terry are the least likely to transfer out with Gapare and Sacko close behind.

Sturdivant and Claude are out of eligibility.

Abram is highly likely to transfer. Dowuona, Debo and Kelly transferring would not surprise me.

Random uninformed thoughts

 

[lauraee]

I've been thrust into plenty of jobs where people want immediate results. It isn't always easy to sell "be patient". In this case, unfortunately we need to be patient. We got here over a decade, it will take longer than 10 days to get us out of this rut. I think we got our man if he doesn't sour on us and go elsewhere.

We got here over 2 decades. I do believe CDS will get us back.

 

[GaTech4ever]

Kelly played 17 minutes last night. He had 3 fouls. He did not play many minutes in the 2nd half and it had nothing to do with fouls.

He barely played in the first half because he had two fouls. Then, he played early in the second half but had no rhythm and wasn’t involved in the game because he barely played in the first half. And since he wasn’t given us anything else, we took him out. If we see Kelly getting taken out at the end of games going forward, then sure. But it’s rarely, if ever, happened until he got in foul trouble last night.

 

[Root4GT]

He barely played in the first half because he had two fouls. Then, he played early in the second half but had no rhythm and wasn’t involved in the game because he barely played in the first half. And since he wasn’t given us anything else, we took him out. If we see Kelly getting taken out at the end of games going forward, then sure. But it’s rarely, if ever, happened until he got in foul trouble last night.

Kelly is a key player for the team. He clearly is not having the year he, CDS or we hoped for. That CDS took him out in the second half for his play on the court tells me CDS does not play favorites. He plays who he thinks will give the team the best chance to win in the moment.

 

[orientalnc]

Kelly is a key player for the team. He clearly is not having the year he, CDS or we hoped for. That CDS took him out in the second half for his play on the court tells me CDS does not play favorites. He plays who he thinks will give the team the best chance to win in the moment.

This is a very timely observation and is important for many of us to reread occasionally. "CDS does not play favorites."

 

[GaTech4ever]

Kelly is a key player for the team. He clearly is not having the year he, CDS or we hoped for. That CDS took him out in the second half for his play on the court tells me CDS does not play favorites. He plays who he thinks will give the team the best chance to win in the moment.

I won’t disagree with that. I think it’s a good sign for the future that he’s willing to do it, but it’s just shocking that he’s had to do it with Miles Kelly midway through conference play.

 

[Tommy_Taylor_1972]

I think CDS has thrown down the gauntlet to the team. He has publicly, for the 2nd time, expressed what he expects from our players. He expects them to give the same level of effort that he gave when he played. Some kids today get that, some don't. I expect that we'll lose 6-7 players off the current roster. I think the foreign kids will be ahead of the American kids, but that's based on what I see from my kids and their friends. From my personal experience, I don't see that fire in the belly from the kids my son plays with (and he plays with elite kids). CDS has challenged our players. He's challenged Kelly to be a leader on and off the court. He's challenged Kelly to be a leader, even when he doesn't score. To my observations, Kelly's been hot and cold with this. I see that Gapare has been hot and cold. I see Abram has been ice cold. I see the younger players being inconsistent in performance and the older players being inconsistent in effort. I could easily see CDS clean house of the half-effort guys and start anew next year, building on Ndongo, George, Terry, and the new crop coming in. Those who also want to put 100% effort 100% of the time will also be welcome to stay. Half the team will be gone.

Needing patience and time is again essential to get where everyone's expectations are met. It seems only yesterday last century that there would be probably the same discussions (if we had online chat rooms) about a 34 year old little-heard-of coach in his second head coaching job named Cremins. The pictures below show that he had the same gritty winning attitude and love for the game...and after his first 19 games he was 5-14. But like Damen, he had beaten Duke under their new and hardly-known Coach K. He sent two starters packing off the team before February his first season. Let me know if the pictures do not come through clearly. Faith and hope are always essential elements of coaching and player changes and I am good with that. An NIT and NCAA appearance in year three and four would be good, Cremins style. The start the string again.