Teddy G article on the season

[Medill90]

On the Sanjay eFG%....you are absolutely right Rick...his makes were primarily wide open cuts to the basket with a sprinkling of threes mixed in.

This current team has not one person....seemingly ever....making an open cut to the basket. The talent and offense cannot open that up....and I question whether the ball would be delivered. If you put Sanjay on this team nothing improves relative to offense.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I love Sanjay. Big fan. He was great. But this thread is nuts. He is not what we are missing this year. He was an excellent versatile defender and grit guy. We are pretty darned good at defense this year. It’s just that our offense is atrocious, particularly against the good B1G defenses. His grit might have helped us be tougher and pull out a tight game or two. But he would not have solved our fundamental issue of having no scorers on offense.

Someone said we lack people who can make shots... we lack that and also people who can create shots. Sanjay would not have helped that. Katatonic you must know your comparisons are silly, comparing Sanjay eFG% on very low volume when most of those were layups or open 3’s created by others.

Another person suggested that Sanjay’s ability to play the 4 would have made a difference. First of all, I loved that he could defend up and down the lineup, but he was what 6-5 or 6-6? And more importantly, it’s not like we are only losing to teams that have multiple bigs. We are losing to everyone that has a decent basketball team. It’s not matchup problems inside on D (or O) that are the issue. It’s that we cannot score.

Just to repeat, I love Sanjay, he was huge for the tournament team and we wouldn’t have made the run we did without him. But he is not what this year’s team is missing on the court. His intangibles would have helped a bit I’m sure, but they would not have overcome the glaring issues we have on offense.

I think almost everyone agrees with this, but has become a pissing contest .

I watched Taylor early, and think he has exceptional form. Law is streaky, but not what I would consider a poor shooter. Falzone, Kopp, and AJ standing alone in a gym are going to drain a ton of shoots. The problem is they rarely get the ball in a spot to shoot in rhythm and they aren’t good in creating space that puts them in the spots.

Maybe it is our offensive sets, but it’s hard to tell because I have no idea what we are trying to do on offense. I scream when I see AJ, Vic, Gaines, Taylor and Greer pointing for the pass to the guy standing at the top of the key with 7 seconds left of the clock. Too many times the ball goes backwards and we end of with someone in our grill and an off balance shot. It’s hard to score unless you shoot like Trae Young when this is your offense.

 

[Katatonic]

Lumpkin is mentioned a ridiculous amount as an irreplaceable guy. My discussion is that he's very replacable and already has been.

No one is saying that Lumpkin is an irreplaceable type of player, but no one on the team has been able to replace him (or for that matter, Tap).

Both of them are tough players who depend on defending multiple positions. I think that makes them VERY comparable.

Lumpkin could guard four positions. No, he didn't guard the one well.

Gaines is guarding four positions. He doesn't guard the five.

Lumpkin guarded all 5 positions and Gaines is not able to guard the bigger, more physical 4s (which is why the 'Cats had problems w/ teams like MSU).

And unlike Lumpkin, he's producing on both ends of the court in his sophomore year

Lumpkin was more efficient his soph year (despite really not playing his frosh year), he just didn't take as many shots as Gaines.

But that is neither here nor there; if we're talking about replacing Sanjay, then it would be replacing what Lumpkin would bring to the table now (or during his SR yr), not what he was during his Soph season.

Lumpkin was nowhere near the player in his sophomore year that he eventually became.

Again, a moot point.

We're not talking about Gaines being able to replace a Soph Lumpkin, but rather a SR Sanjay.

I love Sanjay. Big fan. He was great. But this thread is nuts. He is not what we are missing this year. He was an excellent versatile defender and grit guy. We are pretty darned good at defense this year. It’s just that our offense is atrocious, particularly against the good B1G defenses. His grit might have helped us be tougher and pull out a tight game or two. But he would not have solved our fundamental issue of having no scorers on offense.

No one is saying that Sanjay would all of sudden be a big scorer (will have his games every now and then), but this team is missing more size (bulk/physicality) up front.

Basically only have Pardon.

Someone said we lack people who can make shots... we lack that and also people who can create shots. Sanjay would not have helped that. Katatonic you must know your comparisons are silly, comparing Sanjay eFG% on very low volume when most of those were layups or open 3’s created by others.

Not that silly.

How many times have guys this year missed layups or open 3's?

Again, not saying that Sanjay would have been some big scorer, but the team being what it is this season, he would have increased his efforts on the offensive end.

Sanjay had 13 games where he scored at least 9 pts.

And had some offensive output in key games, including ones which Pardon missed.

Butler - 10 pts, 5 rbds (Pardon only played 26 mins)

No Pardon in these games.
Dayton - 14 pts, 14 rbds (Benson - 0 pts, 3 rbds)
MSU - 7 pts, 6 rbds (Benson - 0 pts, 3 rbds)

IU - 15 pts, 3 rbds (Pardon had an off game - 0 pts, but 7 rbds; IU had 2 wide-bodies in Bryant and Morgan)

PU - 9 pts, 7 rbds
- 13 pts, 7 rbds


In addition, the weakness on D for the team has been at the 4.

W/ Sanjay in the lineup, they could grind out a few more wins w/ their D (would be ugly, low scoring games, but would still be W's).