Like to see Walker get more minutes

#51
#51
HeadVol77 said:
He maybe a fantastic young man, great teammate and student.

However every time he is on the court he looks lost. As if he can’t figure out if he should scratch his watch or wind his butt.
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Do you think he will work harder in practice if he knows Barnes won’t hesitate to put him in when it counts? Do you think the feeling of being lost on a big stage might provide some motivation?

This just seems part of the Barnes’ player development strategy.

Playing the long game so to speak.
 
#52
#52
walkenvol said:
Do you expect to have a 12 deep lineup of starting caliber players? Walker's our last post option and gets minutes accordingly. Hopefully next season when Alexander is gone he with be improved with additional playing time
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This is the crap our fan base just doesn’t get, people complaining about our 8-12 guys
 
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#53
#53
bleedingTNorange said:
This is the crap our fan base just doesn’t get, people complaining about our 8-12 guys
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Barnes specifically mentioned that Fulk, Walker, and Johnson going in accomplished what they had hoped. He said that they played well burning some minutes and keeping TN from collapsing as the first half wound down. 6 guys aren't going to 32-35 minutes each and be effective down the stretch. Our fans are ignorant. Obviously the 3rd and 4th players off of the bench aren't going to compare to the best and second best players on the roster. That's not their role.
 
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#55
#55
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Barnes specifically mentioned that Fulk, Walker, and Johnson going in accomplished what they had hoped. He said that they played well burning some minutes and keeping TN from collapsing as the first half wound down. 6 guys aren't going to 32-35 minutes each and be effective down the stretch. Our fans are ignorant. Obviously the 3rd and 4th players off of the bench aren't going to compare to the best and second best players on the roster. That's not their role.
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Nope it’s not...Barnes obviously went to his bench in the first half knowing Zags didn’t have that luxury, because of this our 5 looked much better in the final 5 minutes than their 5.
 
#56
#56
bleedingTNorange said:
Nope it’s not...Barnes obviously went to his bench in the first half knowing Zags didn’t have that luxury, because of this our 5 looked much better in the final 5 minutes than their 5.
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It was also a benefit in getting their feet wet instead of being forced to throw one or more into the game at a critical, late in the game moment for their initial playing time. Plus he got to see who was ready to contribute and who wasn't ready.
 
#57
#57
LibertyVol said:
Dumb post. Fulkerson does a lot of good things almost every time he plays. Rebounds, blocks shots, passes well and will score some. He will continue to get better.
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I keep forgetting that Fulkerson is a Soph. He's Basketball smart, just not as athletic as we would hope.
 
#60
#60
bleedingTNorange said:
Nope it’s not...Barnes obviously went to his bench in the first half knowing Zags didn’t have that luxury, because of this our 5 looked much better in the final 5 minutes than their 5.
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This. It speaks volumes to the benefit of us building an early 9 pt lead. At one point, we had Bowden, Johnson, Fulkerson, Walker, and Pons on the floor together. The lead quickly evaporated, but our 4 missing starters got about 5-7 minutes of real time to rest. Gonzaga didn’t have that luxury. Barnes played the long game knowing this would like bounce back and forth and be a 1 possession game. He kept his team fresh when he could and it paid off.
 
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#61
#61
OrangeDog said:
I keep forgetting that Fulkerson is a Soph. He's Basketball smart, just not as athletic as we would hope.
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He’s actually extremely athletic. Coordinated? Eehh...not really. He is still like a baby gazelle learning to walk at times. But he has athleticism in spades for a 6-9 kid. He can jump out of the gym.
 
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#62
#62
ClockworkOrange said:
I think he has a lot of upside, just needs more experience. We need another threat down low on offense. Can't expect Grant and Admiral to do it all.
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Agreed. But he's young, immature physically and still learning. He'll get more minutes, just not against top ranked teams. Not yet. But then second year Admiral wasn't this year's Admiral was he? He took the hard coaching and he put in unreal effort and look at him now! Barnes is a demanding, but very patient coach.
 
#63
#63
OrangeDog said:
I keep forgetting that Fulkerson is a Soph. He's Basketball smart, just not as athletic as we would hope.
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I think Fulk is fairly athletic. He’s a good rebounder. Needs to learn to defend under control as he’s a foul machine. He hustles, which is more than I can say for Walker.
 
#64
#64
Strangely enough, according to reports, Walker was the most dominant player last summer on the European trip the team took before his freshman season. Not sure what happened. He showed great flashes last year during the reg season at times. He just hasn’t taken another step to this point. Hopefully it comes because we will need him.
 
#65
#65
LibertyVol said:
Dumb post. Fulkerson does a lot of good things almost every time he plays. Rebounds, blocks shots, passes well and will score some. He will continue to get better.
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I thought the same thing when reading it. Because he doesnt have the athletic ability of Williams, Schofield, or Alexander. I think people overlook the fact he uses physicality and hustle and times his jumps right to play post defense. Is he likely a starter for team with Deep tournament aspirations? Probably not. But is he a piece of the puzzle to get there. Absolutely.
 
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#66
#66
Johnson, Walker, Fulkerson all struggled to some degree against Gonzaga. Of course, that was competition at the highest level of NCAA basketball. They will be better for the lessons they learned.
 
#67
#67
There's nothing wrong with Walker other than having almost no game experience against big-time competition. Of course, he looked lost...his eyes were wide, wide open and he was trying desperately to not make a mistake. Suffered from analysis paralysis and got blown by a couple of times, which further shook him up. Get him some more playing time against quality competition and he'll be fine after he loses the "bug eye look," stops thinking and just plays. The kids got serious potential as we saw in flashes last year. Be patient for christ sakes.
 
#68
#68
Fulkerson played well yesterday. Scored a little, blocked a couple of shots, deflected some passes, etc. A lot of little things, he obviously still isn't big enough to guard bigger Centers, he fared decently against the Zags bigs. Kyle wasn't great yesterday, but he did limit Azubuike to 9 points and 4 rebounds with 4 turnovers and obviously he fouled out, but he picked up most of those fouls trying to guard Kyle. He was the only one on our team that could even remotely match him physically, which he wasn't perfect at, but you can't say he is too weak going against the strongest guy in College basketball. That isn't fair.

As for Walker, he's isn't particularly good on offense or defense. Doesn't have great length for a 5 like Kyle, doesn't have the lateral quickness to guard most 4s either. He is big and strong, but he has to learn how to use that strength as well, like Jarnell Stokes did. I guess he is most likely our backup 5 next year, though Zach Kent, if healthy, will have something to say about that.
 
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#69
#69
DNBVOL said:
And fulkerson little to no minutes. Dude is awful
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Fulk will set records at TN. Dude is very quick and really put out the effort. Fulk is much quicker than the other big men. Barns will make a superstar out of him.
 
#71
#71
Walker hasn't played enough for the game to start slowing down for him. give him time. He'll eventually be one of our best rebounders. Fulk has already started showing signs of catching up to the speed of the game. Walker will too.
 
#72
#72
calban said:
Walker hasn't played enough for the game to start slowing down for him. give him time. He'll eventually be one of our best rebounders. Fulk has already started showing signs of catching up to the speed of the game. Walker will too.
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From the presser yesterday, it sounds like Barnes is going to give Walker and Johnson as many chances as he can this season.
 
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