Gaines has been our best defender in recent games. Law may be better at his peak, but he's been hurt and also carries more load on offense. Gaines being able to guard the #1 guy lets Vic put energy elsewhere. I feel the same way watching Gaines guard now as I did with Sanjay--which is this guy is a beast who will hang with anyone you throw his way.
Gaines is our best defender
- Thread starter torque-cat
- Start date
Yep, he pretty much neutralized Langford. By the way, am I the only one who thinks Romeo is not NBA ready. He is not much of a threat from outside the arc. He is great in transition game and driving the ball, but he was shutdown against Purdue, didn't play all that well tonight, and took a couple bad shots late in the game.
Ya I don’t see Langford ready for NBA. Athletes like him are a dime a dozen in NBA and without a perimeter shot he won’t get on the floor. I think he’d be a mid second round pick and could drop out altogether if he doesn’t show more. I mean he’s very good for a frosh and definitely a talent but not NBA ready.
He is hitting the freshman wall, imo. Doesn't help that he is getting very little help outside of Morgan. Can't anyone on that team make 3s? Jeez...
IU basketball is a few decades down, a few decades away from becoming Minnesota football. At some point your titles are in the 1940s and no one cares anymore.
Their titles will never be in the 40s cause they had some in the 80s. But I hear ya—except Indy still supports b-ball more than Minny supports football.
This was an ongoing discussion with us tonight. For me, the real question is what does Romeo excel at that would translate to as pretty good at the next level?
With that said, Gar Forman was there tonight with Doug Collins and one if the Valentine brothers (I guess it was Denzel).
I assume Gar fell in love with Romeo tonight.
Going forward, having Gaines guard elite point guards like Langford hopefully will keep Vic Law fresher because we will need him to get his offensive game back in order to make any kind of run at the postseason.
I love watching him play. You can see his improvement almost game by game. I almost hope he doesn't get too good at shooting threes and abandon his driving and post-ups.
Agree I think he'd be pre-season all big ten going into next year. So would be happy for him to move on.
I think he has an attacking mentality so if people need to close out on his 3s he will have much more room to drive. He could be all big ten next year if develops a 35% 3 pt shot and improves his finishing a bit.
If I had to guess I would say something like late 1st round. He's not "NBA ready" per se, but honestly how many of the 1 and dones are polished athletes when they go pro? Jaren Jackson was maybe the 3rd best player on MSU last year and got picked #4. Mo Bamba was 6, Kevin Knox 9, Shai Gilgeous Alexander 11, you can go on, all had lots to improve... even the presumptive #1 next year (Zion) doesn't have a good perimeter shot right now.
I do agree that he needs to improve his 3 to have success in the NBA, I just don't think that'll stop a team from taking him sometime in the first round due to his athleticism and ability to score. Development doesn't stop when you get drafted. He could / should be a pretty good defender in the NBA too if he puts in the effort.
I do not understand why they have him bringing the ball up the court. While he is an OK ball handler,I think others are potentially better and it expends a lot of energy for a guy you need a lot of other things from. In the game against RUT he had at least 6 turnovers of his own
Remember the guy from Oklahoma last year? HE too hit the wall but was still able to parlay his early season into being a high first round pick
agree, but many of those guys you mentioned are freaks--Zion, Mo, Jaren etc.. Romeo doesn't have freakish size or athleticism, he's just a very smooth athlete and talent. He's competing against a much larger pool of good but not freakish talents.
He had moved into ESPN's top 5 in their rankings last week. He's struggled the past couple of games but he's been pretty consistent throughout the year. Agree that he needs to improve his 3-point shot and I definitely was not impressed with him yesterday. But he can improve his outside shooting in the off-season. And Jaren Jackson is having a really good rookie year. He did average 3 blocks a game playing 20 minutes a game last year while shooting almost 40% from 3-point range. Hard to find that skill set. He's a better pro than Miles Bridges or Denzel Valentine and he's only 19.
Kevin Knox and Shai though? The Bulls took Chandler Hutchison at #22 last year... Romeo is prob a better athlete than him, and a better scorer? Maybe not a better 3pt shooter but NBA teams often think they can fix that if their shooting mechanics and style are decent.
I just googled after seeing clarification's post and yeah, it seems NBA scouts are higher on him than what I said. Most mock drafts have him outside of the top 5, but in the lottery right now. That seems a bit aggressive, but he's got a plenty of upside if someone can fix his shot.
Agree surprised to see him as lottery, particularly with all the international guys now to compete with. I thought Ayo played us better and he doesn't even project to go NBA this year. Romeo is more filled out though. I thought Gary Harris was over-rated for NBA and was wrong about that so who knows.
A funny aspect of Gaines game: for such a fundamentally sound player, he is *awful* at feeding the post.
gaines had 2 turnovers against rutgers
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=401082539
I’m still really proud of myself for selecting Gaines as the breakout player this year over on InsideNU’s preview:
“I’m going with Anthony Gaines, who came on strong at the end of last year and seems to be often forgotten on this year’s squad, since he’s a one-man class. I think he becomes a vital sixth-man who can slash, draw fouls, and be the other defensive star alongside Vic.”
Pretty, pretty, pretty good.
“I’m going with Anthony Gaines, who came on strong at the end of last year and seems to be often forgotten on this year’s squad, since he’s a one-man class. I think he becomes a vital sixth-man who can slash, draw fouls, and be the other defensive star alongside Vic.”
Pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Ya, but that kid was a freak shooter, scorer, passer and put up numbers nobody had seen before in college.
Gaines usually has the weakest defender on him and if you want to rest anyone it's Law. Turner brings it up quite a bit too so I think the way they mix it up makes sense.