3 things can salvage the season

#27
#27
Bowden played well today, imo.

I agree on the other two, but I want to see more rebounding effort from people other than James and Fulky.
Bowden did play well, can he string together a good season. He could be the difference maker.
 
#28
#28
Vescovi should shoot the technicals - zero questions about that. Bowden still gets rattled at times. Vescovi is ice. Fascinated to watch how CRB develops him into the O as well as his D.

The issue holding them back over the full season is and will be the energy and physical play of the bigs. Fulky is a 3/4 and has an unused outside shot because he has to always work around the basket. He runs the floor so well he's underutilized as a 5 that has to stay under the bucket and cannot release. Which is the issue with Pember in addition to his inexperience. They will never be free to be their best selves until the C and true PF thing is solved.

Hopefully they will win at least 8 SEC games and get an NIT bid. That is all that is reasonable at this point because there are too many unknowns and questions to resolve.
 
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#30
#30
Agree... and we don't have a chief right now...
We desperately need a chief, and that was one of my concerns heading into this year. I posted it in the game thread, but I thought James showed flashes of being that guy last night. He had a stretch of big shots and a couple of defensive plays after Missouri made that run to erase our 10-point lead.
 
#34
#34
No doubt he is the most talented player on the team, but he doesn’t want to be the team leader and has demonstrated zero qualities of someone who can lead a team. He is just most comfortable being in the background. Nothing wrong with that. Some people are leaders and others aren’t. You have to have both chiefs and Indians. Bowden just isn’t a chief.
You all are delusional thinking Bowden is “ the most talented” player on the team. I would put, Vescovi, Pons and even JJJ ahead of him
 
#35
#35
You all are delusional thinking Bowden is “ the most talented” player on the team. I would put, Vescovi, Pons and even JJJ ahead of him
Oh, okay...well, since you said so. 🙄

You have seen a total of 16 games combined from two of those guys, and the other couldn’t wipe his own butt for the last two years.

Recency bias is strong with your opinion, but what do I know? I’m apparently delusional.
 
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#36
#36
Nope, he missed FT,s vs, L SU as well. He’s missed several this season


And you are jumping off the deep end wanting a guy that has 4 career attempts shooting them

Btw it’s a good thing you aren’t a coach because VS has never been a great free throw shooting. In fact he’s surprising been a below average average one for a guard as a youngster.
 
#41
#41
No matter how they do it Bowden, Pons,and Vescovi seems to be the guys along with James as to where the majority of our points are to be found. We probably need about 55 from those four guys and hope Fulkerson, Johnson, and the other two can chip in around 20. 75 seems to be the magic number to win most of the games we play.
 
#42
#42
One change I like already is letting JJJ bring the ball up especially against the press. It really helped with his height and can see over the press and effectively pass over it as well. That was going to be really hard for SV. As he develops and adjust to the speed and talent level of the SEC I think SV will be fine bringing it up.
 
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#43
#43
We have no one that can drive to the hoop, to collapse the defense and create open shots. We just pass the ball around until someone jacks up a contested shot with the shot clock winding down. Do they just not have confidence, or ability?
 
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#44
#44
We have no one that can drive to the hoop, to collapse the defense and create open shots. We just pass the ball around until someone jacks up a contested shot with the shot clock winding down. Do they just not have confidence, or ability?
This is a legit issue. We have no one that can start at the top of the key, break their man down, get to the hoop and finish at the rim. Jordan Bone and Admiral could both do that, and that in combination with GW’s ability to score in that paint are two things we are really missing. Quite honestly, and this may surprise some people, but we aren’t shooting much worse from the perimeter this year than we did as a team last year (33% to 35.8%). However, our 2-pt FG%, there is a huge difference (49.2% to 56.4%), for an overall total FG% difference of 43.2% in 2019-20 to 49.8% in 2018-19.

That is an enormous difference. We are currently tied for 203rd nationally in FG%, and 212th in 2-pt FG%. Last year, we were 6th and 16th in the nation, is n those respective categories.
 
#45
#45
Bowden needs to start and be the team leader. He is the best player.
So far, Bowden is not even close to the best player this season. He's probably our worst starter. He's shooting 34% from the field, 20% in conference play. Our best player at this point in time is Fulky, and it's not even close. If we had one more like him, we would be a pretty good team. Right now, we're in the bottom 3 of the SEC. I think we'll get better as Vescovi gets more comfortable in the offense, but right now, we are not very good.
 
#46
#46
He's just that kind of smooth and controlled player. I doubt that changes a lot. Similar to Allan Houston. Just not emotional and up/down much. I would like to see him get that "urgency" to attack the rim regularly tho. .

Agreed. When he takes it to the hoop, it looks like he's trying to avoid contact, and ends up getting his shot blocked. He needs to create contact and draw the foul when taking it to the hole.
 
#47
#47
So far, Bowden is not even close to the best player this season. He's probably our worst starter. He's shooting 34% from the field, 20% in conference play. Our best player at this point in time is Fulky, and it's not even close. If we had one more like him, we would be a pretty good team. Right now, we're in the bottom 3 of the SEC. I think we'll get better as Vescovi gets more comfortable in the offense, but right now, we are not very good.
How are we definitively bottom 3 in the SEC right now if we’re 2-0? I know we got a little lucky, but I think we’re better than SC generally and probably better than Mizzou. There are several other teams that look pretty uninspiring.

You may not like winning ugly, but that doesn’t necessarily make us worse than, say, A&M
 
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