RE: Jackson
marreon has clearly been trying too hard to do too much. is it to impress the pro scouts who told him, "you got a chance but we need to see a little more of this and a little more of that"? is it adjusting to playing along another good ball dominant attacking guard in rollins? was it just as simple as being really pumped up for his senior year and expecting too much of himself? did he just peak as a junior like a fair % of college players do? i think some of it was having 3 of his first 6 games against well coached teams with really good big defenders who schemed to help out or double team on marreon whenever he had the ball. he responded by taking quick mostly long shots whenever he was open instead of just getting comfortable playing good basketball within yourself and moving the ball. he also lost his best high post pick man, rebound and outlet man, the team's post passer to play through, the guy who can block shots and create fast breaks-in edu.
really, it means the team has been learning to reset, repeatedly, while trying to maintain faith in the system and their ability. the first game we play a top 100 team in bradley very well in most ways, lead most of the game, but inconsistent offense and missed shots catch up to us we fade and lose by 2. the second game we look great but edu goes down. the third game against a top50 team on their court we lead most of the way, defense looks great, but missed shots (marreon) catch up to us and we lose by 3. once we got back from cincy and realized edu wasn't gonna be back the team team reset and began looking for a new identity.
it's been patchy, imo. we play fast and fun and crisp for stretches, the hustle is solid, but we look small inside often and the team defense to compensate has been very inconsistent. that's probably a key. if the team can create a team defensive strategy to help and recover aggressively. take away the easy options with that and get more steals or deflections, becomes a pesky defense, we should be very good. the offense is on and off but there's the pieces to figure it out.
i don't see a shumate vs acunzo narrative. just another reset. ok, now the 6-7 forward who was gonna redshirt is eligible, and the key big guy is hurt. acunzo and shumate are different players. acunzo is very skilled. he's a great recruit in that he has size and he loves to ball and can anticipate. i hope he plays more. shumate was a D2 player, ok. not D1. but still 4 year college basketball. he was an all conference player and played for the D2 version of the national team one summer. like acunzo you can tell he wants to make plays and they're about the same size, but shumate is more physical and has some of that interior garbage man potential to be a scrappy guy in the paint where we are thin. he shot a good % at 3 at walsh and shot them often and eventually that accuracy will carry over to toledo but the defense is better here so it might be a good minute before his shooting form returns.
it's a good message board team. there's interesting players, prob enough victories to stay upbeat, the potential to be a good undersized fast and aggressive team that could contend for the mac title and maybe break the ncaa drought...we could be bg, with higher expectations playing worse.
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