Going to assume you have been at the OOC games - or watched. He can't play; he cannot give us 5 min much less 15. That said - maybe Ware will eventually be able to offer some back-up minutes. We all knew this was going to be an issue - and having no center will need to be corrected for next season.
Lineup going forward
- Thread starter Degaz-RU
- Start date
Oh I agree with you. That was my point, that we didn’t make the entry pass to the foul line until the game was basically over.
Okay - but I’m not sure why exactly you think it should be him in there taking threes over Tariq. Zrno was off the entire game and is 29% from 3 on the season. Tariq was 2 of 6 from 3 in this game and that includes the one as time was expiring in the first half. Hes 34% on the season and that’s without nearly as many open catch and shoot opportunities as Zrno.
The frustrating thing about Zrno and Badalau is you can see that the talent is there. But you can't have infinite patience with these guys either. Tough situation for Pike to manage.
I was very happy with Buchanan last night. He only took one crazy shot. After being a turnover machine in the previous game, he did a great job of playing within himself and distributing the ball. Then when OSU dared him to shoot, he took a good shot.
It seems like Lino Mark is improving with each game. The kid's energy is fantastic. I hope he likes it here and can be our point guard next year.
I was very happy with Buchanan last night. He only took one crazy shot. After being a turnover machine in the previous game, he did a great job of playing within himself and distributing the ball. Then when OSU dared him to shoot, he took a good shot.
It seems like Lino Mark is improving with each game. The kid's energy is fantastic. I hope he likes it here and can be our point guard next year.
He probably promised Badalau and Zrno certain things like play time when he once again incorrectly assessed them as players. Seems to happen every year. One bonehead idea after another…right up there with “Captain” JMike,
or the inability to run even a grammar school zone offense. It’s probably better to get Badalau’s minutes out of the way just in case we ever have a chance to win a game again. You certainly don’t want him in during any potential meaningful minutes.
The lack of a skilled center has killed us last 2 years. Has to be priority one in NIL off season. A veteran presence starting high major big man. Then, you could even bring Ogbole back for a 10-12 min backup big.
A true experienced scoring guard is priority 2.
euros will leave, they have been professionals already and that is what they do in euro leagues, new teams every season.
A true experienced scoring guard is priority 2.
euros will leave, they have been professionals already and that is what they do in euro leagues, new teams every season.
Certainly could be the case but look at GG. Hes shooting the ball well for Temple this season but it took him until his junior year to adjust to the college game. At this point - the two of them are shooting under 30% on the season from 3 and that’s the main thing they were supposed to bring to the table.
I’m not sure if your kidding or not but in reality I doubt he promised anyone playing time. My guess is they must hit some shots in practice and Pike thinks or hopes it will translate at some point.
Our fans are quick to jump on bandwagons and the Lino / Powers combo is definitely trending up. But realistically looking at the big picture, the style they have shown promise with is opportunistic. We’re not going to be able to beat everyone down the court to create transition offense using speed against every match up, nor is it a sustainable style over the course of a whole game. Powers has hit 6 threes on the season and at least half of them were deep 3s made off an inbounds play. Hes played well enough in my opinion to get a chance to show he can contribute in the traditional halfcourt offense game flow but it should be noted so far he hasn’t proven that just yet.
Yes and we’re not living in a world where potential 3 seasons down the line matters. It doesn’t matter a lick.
Why do we all know how to attack a zone but our coaches getting paid millions have no clue
I'm not so sure we all know how to attack a zone. Tell us how you would do it. Make sure to specify what type of zone since there are more than one. Thanks.
did you see who they played UTSA who are as good as Delaware St
GG went scoreless the other night in 25 minutes against Princeton, 3 points in 31 minutes against Nova earlier in December
He's a low D-1, probably D-2 talent
When a kid barely plays there is more pressure on every three he takes. Powers barely plays.
I'll go best or "most minutes" lineups:
1. Tariq
2. Kaden (Try them together)
3. Dylan
4. Keep rotating until somebody does
something good.)
5) Dortch
1. Tariq
2. Kaden (Try them together)
3. Dylan
4. Keep rotating until somebody does
something good.)
5) Dortch
Is Powers going to be this years Dylan Grant ?
Pike didn't start giving him consistent minutes last year until the middle of January
Nothing much, must be some germ that attacks both men's, and women's basketball coaches brains.
That’s very fair. Let me be clear, I’m extremely unimpressed so far with Zrno and not implying that Powers can’t perform better than him. I’m only pointing out that to date, Powers has made grand total of 6 threes on the season including garbage time and the meaningful ones were executed off a set play inbound. His other baskets outside of 2 promising midrange moves, were transition lay ups. I’m not saying these are bad things, simply that he has not provided Much halfcourt offense for us yet. That certainly doesn’t mean he can’t, but there are a number of different points sandwiched into this observation. J Mike gets in big trouble playing at a fast pace. Lino seems to be the polar opposite for now (although he looked really solid feeding Tariq in the first half when we took the 15 point lead - those possessions don’t register as assists because Francis shots were off the dribble but Lino got him in position with open space or only a need to beat one guy to get to open space which is where Tariq thrives. That was perhaps the first time though where I recall Lino has looked sharp and composed in the halfcourt game in a non garbage time situation. I’d love to see us build on that.
The thing is - I don’t think it’s realistic for this team to play more than 15 or so mpg max of an up and down style. We simply don’t have the horses across the 5 positions to sustain. And some games even our fastest line up won’t be able to beat the match up with speed period. So the real question will be - can Powers make shots in a traditional halfcourt offense better than Zrno? I do think Powers has a better handle and plays better D. There’s more of a chance Powers could be effective for spot minutes at the 3. All things we could experiment with.
Bumping this. I think my lineup proposal from this 1/2/2026 post has been reaffirmed in my mind after watching the past few games.
Zrno and Badalau should be player nos. 10 and 11 in my 9-man rotation. Zrno can get spot minutes, and if he hits a three, he can stay in to try another.
Barring that, it’s gotta be the 9 guys mentioned in my OP.
Loved the lineup we played at the end of the game and in OT til JaMichael fouled out
JaMichael
Tariq
Darren
Bryce
Dylan
Now the only caveat with that is that Northwestern didn't have a big center but that lineup was good; while we won with the 3 guard lineup against Oregon its just too small and I think we gave up 16 offensive rebounds against Oregon
Zrno has to sit for Powers (and Tariq, Jmike and Lino). I’d like to see more Lino. I just don’t see a reason to play Zrno.
Can Badalau give us anything as a stretch 5 ? I appreciate the efforts of Dortch and Eugene but our center position performance is underwhelming.
I’m not sure what he could possibly add at the 5 other than maybe better outside shooting (which he hasn’t done well of late either) He’s not a physical player.
Just because he hasn’t made his shots the last few games and the 0-6 against Northwestern was bad, the fine point is that he got 6 good looks. He has made 2 or so in other games. If you cannot see how the more 3’s we make will help us win then I am at a loss trying to explain it to you or you are just being dense.
Here’s the thing with Zrno — he hasn’t proven that he can hit shots when it really matters.
He is 15-29 from 3-pt range in the five blowouts to Tennessee, Purdue, Michigan, SHU, and Illinois — so mostly meaningless, empty calorie type success in those games.
Conversely, he is a staggering 8-48 (16.6%) in the rest of our games that were actually competitive. And he is 6-34 in our most recent six games, so he’s really slumping and hurting us with his misses.
Now you might say, you can just subtract out the five games where he shot 52%. I get that, but frankly, his overall shooting percentage is now 32%, and his 3-pt percentage is 29.9% for the year, and those are objectively bad stats even if you include the five blowout games where he hit his shots. And I would reiterate that he hit those shots in blowouts where the makes were generally meaningless.
He has a nice stroke, but he’s been off way more than he’s been on. So in my view, he should be the 10th guy off the bench, getting spot minutes, and if he hits shots, then ride him.
Yeah this. And it’s actually worse that this.
2 of his 8 made threes your grouping in the “competive game” category came against Rider (one of them with like a minute to go regulation).
See the point Degaz-RU made. For whatever reason, he just hasn’t been clutch at all with his shooting. In 7 out of our 17 games, he hit at least 2 three pointers, but 5 of those games were blow out losses and 1 of them was a blow out win. So he actually only hit 2+ threes once in a meaningful game all season so far (Oregon).
He’s also attempted the most 3 pointers of anyone on the team by a fairly wide margin despite only averaging 16.8 minutes of PT so it’s not like he hasn’t had his share of opportunities to deliver.
He's pretty much a spot up shooter and not off the bounce - most of his 3's seem to be open looks regardless of competition. It might be in his head (i.e. maybe he's rushing). Guessing that he's hitting them in practice - maybe he's not a "gamer" and lets the pressure get to him ......but not sure if I would give up just yet as technically still only a freshman.
It may not be a matter of giving up. if the TKR podcasts were accurate he was likely paid starter dollars to come here. I can’t see how you would pay 400-500k range on the hope of improvement. And cutting salary would set a bad tone, I don’t think that’s a realistic avenue for anyone. Think of the typical workforce. When you don’t perform your usually fired - not a pay cut.
It's a space issue to me. When you are up 20 or 30 points...most just don't defend as hard. Pack in the paint to avoid any freebie drives/layups. You give Zrno more space and less pressure. He'll be more than fine. You give him less space with the defensive intensity super high. He is not getting the job done and really shouldn't be playing much (if at all).
Only a frosh (old a** frosh but still a frosh) so maybe the game slows down for him in a year or two and he becomes a serviceable player. Do think he's really gotta work on his defensive footspeed too because i've never been impressed with his D.
The point is not lost on me but I look at the looks. Were the looks good? Did he move to get open? Is he coming off screens hard? Is his form good ? Is he shooting them off balance ? Most of the answers are positive and my thought that it is just a matter of time before they fall. Especially with Francis getting more attention .
You and Degaz are ridiculous saying his threes came in blowouts. He hit the 3 ‘s in the first half or early second when our opponent was playing their starters. Very few garbage points as you clam .
You and Degaz are ready to give up , I am not. I think having Powers and him gives us another offensive options and attempts that teams have to guard besides guarding Francis and maybe now Buchanan. The more offensive weapons the harder it is for the defense. He has also been trying really hard on defense and not unplayable on that end.
To win in today’s game you have to make reasonable amount of threes and cannot win on 2’s alone . Now if we had a dominant center we could get away with less threes and mostly 2’s but we do not have that at all. In fact , almost zero low post buckets.
This is where I'm at with Zrno as well. Also - we tend to want to continually throw players away but then lament when they do leave and eventually get better ......the fact that there are active threads on Woolf, GG and Simpson and some of the comments wishing we still had them supports this.
I don’t know who was playing for these teams but that wasn’t the point Degaz was making. All his shots are stop and pop open 3s - he’s not taking contested 3s where the level of defender is all that relevant to his shooting potential. Some kids perform better when the pressure is off. The point is that in his case, he’s a) hitting only 30% from 3 on the highest volume on the team which isn’t very good for a sharp shooter and b) the majority of the ones he’s made across the course of the whole season occurred in low pressure situations where regardless of whether the opponents starters were still out there, the game outcome had already been decided. Without going through all the play by plays, I’d be very surprised if even half of his 23 threes happened in situations where we were not already down 20+ points or in the final minute or so of a decisive, double digit margin game.
None of this means he can’t get hot and start hitting them in meaningful situations. I certainly hope he does, but your statement that it doesn’t matter isn’t true. It’s much harder for some kids to hit a game tying free throw than a FT in a game where the winner has been determined. Pressure is definitely a factor for many kids and there is a clear pattern here, unfortunately. I hope it’s just a coincidence as you seem to think but the more data collected, the less likely you are right.
Also he had wide open looks the other night but his misses aren’t even close
If they went in and out maybe hi would be more positive but like I said above his misses aren’t even close
I'm not "giving up" on Zrno. But given his production, or lack thereof to this point, his play must be "managed" by Pike. I have suggested managing his playing time by making him the 10th guy off the bench -- in Pike's rotation, that's typically a guy who checks into the game in the last 6 or 7 minutes of the 1st half. If he hits a shot or two, then ride him during that game. And if he stacks solid games like that, then we've managed him out of his slump and perhaps back into the starting lineup.