RE: 2018-19 Roster
It's really early, with a month of practice to go. One thing every athlete learns in high school is that there is a big difference between practice stars and game stars. So many guys look strong in drills, but when the lights go on, the whistle blows and there's an angry opponent in your face, a different set of guys sometimes rises to the top. But an early guess from the open practice.
POINT GUARD: here's the biggest change so far. Pun Tisdale and Daivien Williamson seem to be the guys FOR NOW. Seeing these two face off was one of the exciting things about the open practice. The edge goes to Pun, who is more mature, physical and in command. With 2 trips deep in the JUCO tournament, he's been there and done that. Don't know how Daivien is competitive at 155, but he is. Long and wiry at 6-2 plus, he has the energy, joy and excitement of a young man finding himself. A big "Yes, I'm at home here" confidence. His long range shooting rivals the Tray Boyd's and Patrick Good's of the team. And as Bucfaithful says, poise, intuition and a great feel for the game. Expect him to get Petey McClain, Jermaine Long minutes, maybe more. Big question that practice can not fully answer: is he a big time defender in a league with Francis Alonso's and Fletcher Magee's, some of the best shooters in D1? Forbes demands that defense. Patrick Good is a little behind because of practice time missed to injury, but most Buc teams of the last 15 years would have been happy to have him at point. His shooting, work ethic and leadership are undeniable.
SHOOTING GUARD: Alonso and Magee, make room for 6-4 185 Tray Boyd. The words everyone associates with him: "effortless", "scores with ease", "a natural". As a reviewer once said of the great pianist Horowitz at age 90: "the notes just seem to fall out of his sleeve". Or as Bucfaithful said, for Boyd it all seems like "a walk in the park". I don't mean to belittle the lifetime of work and repetition that has clearly gone into developing those abilities, but some people just seem to be gifted. The skills are there - but things like defense, toughness, physicality, the ability to hold up to D1 pounding, will have to be demonstrated, first in 'friendly' scrimmages, and then in D1 games. A little behind him, Patrick Good is a terrific shooter who has clearly improved and muscled up from his first rate Appy State freshman year where he shot .410 from 3 with 1.9 makes a game. He's already proved himself in D1 and under real game conditions. He's the kind of guy who WANTS to lead, to have the ball in his hand when it's all on the line. If we need a more physical approach there is 6-3 200 Kevon Tucker, whose shooting is almost as good, both inside and out (.433 from 3). Or rugged, skilled 6-2 185 freshman Carlos Curtis, slowed a bit with a broken nose and a mask right now, but for whom the word 'fearless' keeps coming up. Competition is really stiff at this slot. The difference may be who gives Forbes the toughness and defense that he wants. Remember how Jermaine Long and Petey McClain carved out spots against much better shooters?
WING: whatever his injury problems, 6-4 200 Bo Hodges seemed healthy and joyful in the drills. He is a different player than last year. Last year the best comparison was a scrapper like Ben Rhoda, a tough as nails, smart player who made a good living on rebounds, loose balls and put backs, without a strong outside shot. This year Bo is a completely different player. It's the kind of radical transformation that we saw in Tommy Hubbard who kept reinventing himself from freshman to sophomore, and again from sophomore to junior years. Now there is a set of guard skills, shooting and range that we did not fully see last year. Of course Bo always had much more athleticism than Rhoda, but this year he's got a completely different skill set. We just caught an inkling of it at this practice since he sat out the scrimmage. But it seems to really be there for him. And Bo is exactly the kind of player who not only looks good in practice, but becomes even better in the 'live fire' of real games. Behind him you have 6-3 200 Kevon Tucker, a physical scrapper with 108 made 3's on .433 and 5.3 rebounds in JUCO. How much do you think he wants to show Mike Young what a mistake he made with him? And you know, 6-7 225 Jeromy Rodriguez has guard level ballhandling, passing and speed if not shooting if we want to go big. Forbes did call him "one of the most skilled guys I have ever coached at any level at his position".
POWER FORWARD: Like Patrick Good, 6-7 Jeromy has spent a year aching to get off the bench and into the action. Like Good (and Armus and Hodges) he has been a hardworking weight room star. Nobody on the squad has a higher motor. A 9.7 per game rebounder and 14.7 per game on .603 from the field JUCO scorer, with what Forbes calls "great" passing and ballhandling. There is not another front court player quite like him in the SoCon. And he's another fighter who is likely to look even better in real game conditions than in drills. Do we need more shooting to stretch the defense? There is 6-8+ 190 D'Andre Bernard who nailed 3 three's in a row in the scrimmage, a David Burrell type with 3 more inches. Is a UNCG fielding a bruiser front line? There's 6-8 230 James Harrison, who looks even bigger than that.
CENTER: 6-10 240 Mladen Ar-moosh (as he says it) has got more muscle, mobility and shooting touch than last year. And is playing with more enthusiasm and confidence. Last year was "only" 18.1 minutes, 6.3 ppg on .627 FG%, no 3's, and 5.5 rebounds. I'd expect all those numbers to go up 50% or more. The shooting touch is the most obvious radical improvement. He CAN hit 3's in a meaningful way now. R.J. White and Jody Kuiper showed us how valuable that can sometimes be the last couple years. If we miss Peter's length and shot blocking, 7-0 195 Octavion Corley can give us some of that (Lucas N'Guessan could give us a LOT of that - next year). He's learning how to play against big D1 competition every day in practice against Armus, N'Guessan and Harrison. He will get better as time goes on. If we want to go small and FAST - Rodriguez or Bernard might give us an interesting look. If we need a muscled substitute with solid 'back to the basket' scoring, 6-8 230 James Harrison is there.
Two and three deep at every position. We haven't seen such depth in 25 years. We haven't seen such length EVER. Forbes is building the kind of team that he was a part of at Wichita State, with so much depth that even the transfers become mid major stars for other teams. Think Tevin Glass for the Bucs, R'ian Holland for Mercer, maybe Eric Hamilton for UNCG. All guys who had difficulty getting time for the Shockers.
Yes, defense must improve. Toughness must be demonstrated. Leaders must step forward to do it under game pressure, when you're hurting or tired, when the other guys have a hot hand. First rate, experienced opponents like UNCG and Wofford loom ahead. Guess who the right coach to demand such things is? He seems to have a team that is eager to learn.
(This post was last modified: 10-08-2018 02:37 PM by swvabucsfan.)
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