Any rational person gives Ray a total pass this year. Events have transpired beyond anyone’s worst case scenario and he started with very little talent to being with. if you look at the big picture we don’t really have anybody outside of Steele and maybe Ware that would get meaningful minutes on a top half SEC team – and they wouldn’t start. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do some sort of evaluation. Next year is when we’ll really know what we have.
GOOD:
He has certainly set the discipline standard and the players appear to play hard and listen to him. The attitude change will play dividends down the road hopefully. Just watching guys play harder and listen during timeouts in refreshing. It’s also clear he’s just trying hard despite the struggles he’s had to face. At this point I’m not concerned about long term effects of his more rigid set of rules like some are.
CONCERNING:
Our offense is abysmal and while not having a point guard is a large part of it, it doesn’t totally explain why we look lost in half court sets. Some of that is playing so many freshman, many of which are lagging in all key fundamental skills. But it doesn’t totally excuse the fact that we look lost. I watched the Vandy game a little closer and we move around a lot, but rarely with a purpose or with anything that creates an open shot. We don’t get anything off pick and rolls and don’t get open jump shots from off-ball screens. Compared to good teams, just our movement and spacing is terrible. I’m concerned Ray’s offense requires one or two guards that can create off the dribble along with some guys with natural high basketball IQs. That’s going to be tough to recruit in this area.
Defensively we’ve really slipped lately, but I think some of that is the freshman hitting a physical and mental wall. However our pick and roll defense needs a lot of work and we're not blocking out well. Teams are figuring out the zone and getting good open looks. Having the man-power to go hard man to man is what he wants to do so we'll see how that play out. Ray is going to have to find a way to install a belief in this team that they can win next year.
I’m also concerned about recruiting. This year Ray had tons of PT to sell and I’m don't feel we landed much in the way of impact players. His best recruit (Ready) came on a silver platter from Flanigan. I think Daniels will be a solid bench guy, but he’s limited offensively it appears from his stat line. Ndoye looks like a major project to me and I think he’s going to be useless offensively for maybe his entire career. I’m not even sure how much of a factor he’ll be defensively but he’s so raw it’s hard to make a final judgment. How he recruits next year will make or break him I think.
EXPECTATIONS FOR NEXT YEAR
I don’t see an NIT team right now. Guard play will need to greatly improve and we’re still woefully outmanned inside. If Lewis comes back it helps, but only because the other options are worse. He’ll have a good game here and there but he is what he is at this point. We just don’t have depth there. The only reason we might push for .500 is how bad the SEC is overall.
I am hopeful that a lot of off-season work will be spent on Thomas and Sword really working on their mid-range and outside shooting. Sword’s biggest strength is his first step so he needs a good pull-up jumper. I think Thomas can be a reasonable scorer but he’s got some stuff to work on with his form as well. Getting Davis and Ready in at PG should really help with overall ball-handling. Steele needs to work on catch and shoot off screens because he’s our best shooter but will never create his own shot off the dribble. Ware also needs to work hard on positioning and finishing. Borchert needs to learn how to block-out.
We’ll get better b/c the big jump for players is between their freshman and sophomore year. Couple that with hopefully better practicing since we’ll have a full roster and hoefully good coaching on how to space the floor and move with a purpose and I think we’ll push for 14 wins with an outside chance to hit 17.
GOOD:
He has certainly set the discipline standard and the players appear to play hard and listen to him. The attitude change will play dividends down the road hopefully. Just watching guys play harder and listen during timeouts in refreshing. It’s also clear he’s just trying hard despite the struggles he’s had to face. At this point I’m not concerned about long term effects of his more rigid set of rules like some are.
CONCERNING:
Our offense is abysmal and while not having a point guard is a large part of it, it doesn’t totally explain why we look lost in half court sets. Some of that is playing so many freshman, many of which are lagging in all key fundamental skills. But it doesn’t totally excuse the fact that we look lost. I watched the Vandy game a little closer and we move around a lot, but rarely with a purpose or with anything that creates an open shot. We don’t get anything off pick and rolls and don’t get open jump shots from off-ball screens. Compared to good teams, just our movement and spacing is terrible. I’m concerned Ray’s offense requires one or two guards that can create off the dribble along with some guys with natural high basketball IQs. That’s going to be tough to recruit in this area.
Defensively we’ve really slipped lately, but I think some of that is the freshman hitting a physical and mental wall. However our pick and roll defense needs a lot of work and we're not blocking out well. Teams are figuring out the zone and getting good open looks. Having the man-power to go hard man to man is what he wants to do so we'll see how that play out. Ray is going to have to find a way to install a belief in this team that they can win next year.
I’m also concerned about recruiting. This year Ray had tons of PT to sell and I’m don't feel we landed much in the way of impact players. His best recruit (Ready) came on a silver platter from Flanigan. I think Daniels will be a solid bench guy, but he’s limited offensively it appears from his stat line. Ndoye looks like a major project to me and I think he’s going to be useless offensively for maybe his entire career. I’m not even sure how much of a factor he’ll be defensively but he’s so raw it’s hard to make a final judgment. How he recruits next year will make or break him I think.
EXPECTATIONS FOR NEXT YEAR
I don’t see an NIT team right now. Guard play will need to greatly improve and we’re still woefully outmanned inside. If Lewis comes back it helps, but only because the other options are worse. He’ll have a good game here and there but he is what he is at this point. We just don’t have depth there. The only reason we might push for .500 is how bad the SEC is overall.
I am hopeful that a lot of off-season work will be spent on Thomas and Sword really working on their mid-range and outside shooting. Sword’s biggest strength is his first step so he needs a good pull-up jumper. I think Thomas can be a reasonable scorer but he’s got some stuff to work on with his form as well. Getting Davis and Ready in at PG should really help with overall ball-handling. Steele needs to work on catch and shoot off screens because he’s our best shooter but will never create his own shot off the dribble. Ware also needs to work hard on positioning and finishing. Borchert needs to learn how to block-out.
We’ll get better b/c the big jump for players is between their freshman and sophomore year. Couple that with hopefully better practicing since we’ll have a full roster and hoefully good coaching on how to space the floor and move with a purpose and I think we’ll push for 14 wins with an outside chance to hit 17.
