Nobody is happier to see UT playing so well as of late, but I have to ask the question: can the Rockets win with Marreon Jackson shooting so poorly?

MJ is shooting just 33% from the floor and 35% from beyond the arc. Isn’t a point guard supposed to do more to get his teammates involved? I grant that he is averaging 4.9 assists, but is he shooting too much? I understand that part of his game is improvising, but I just can’t get past how poorly he’s shooting. And Ryan Rollins isn’t exactly light it up, either (38% FG, 35% 3FG).

Can UT win with two of its top scorers shooting so poorly?

Bench Jackson and start Acunzo at point guard. Matteo is hitting 70% from beyond the arc.

He's also playing better defense than I have ever seen before. The whole team seems more focused on defense than teams of the past. Very balanced team without a solid post player and not much overall height. I'd rather see a guy get hot at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year and then taper off. It's about confidence. I have a feeling once he gets the shots to fall, it will not be an issue.. He's pressing, he's trying to get noticed - and that is hurting him.

As I said in the previous post about the NIU game, teams are running 2 players at MJ defensively to try to get the ball out of his hands. He just needs to let the game come to him and not try to force things. Unlike last season where there was a big reliance on him scoring a lot of points for Toledo to be successful each game, we have better offensive balance on this team with the likes of Rollins, Littleson, Milner, Saunders and Acunzo. Hopefully as Toledo gets into MAC play in January he learns to trust his teammates more as the Rockets will need him to play at a higher level than he currently is to have a real chance at a MAC Title. It isn't because of a lack of effort, I just think he is trying to do to much on the offensive end. On a positive note, he has played excellent defense so far this season, and along with his sidekick Rollins, have done a great job rebounding as guards which is needed with playing a smaller lineup. Like last week's overtime victory at Marshall, we are going to need MJ to take over some games, but overall we just need him to play within himself for Toledo to be successful.

the fact we are 7-3 (and only a couple buckets away from 9-1) with our best scorer having a slump is kind of a good thing. he's not gonna play worse on offense, so, if he plays average to good then we are even better. as Jones said above, learning to trust this new group of teammates more as the season goes on will help. as far as rollins, we are gonna have to live w some freshman year inconsistency. he's still in show and prove mode, which is good from a competitiveness standpoint but also means he will try too hard at times. i hope (and expect) he will mature over time and learn how to be most efficient. then again, he could be like jonjon williams and never really get his judgement to the level of his talent, but I think he's gonna make a big jump soph yr.

(12-23-2020 06:16 PM)nworocket Wrote:  Nobody is happier to see UT playing so well as of late, but I have to ask the question: can the Rockets win with Marreon Jackson shooting so poorly?

MJ is shooting just 33% from the floor and 35% from beyond the arc. Isn’t a point guard supposed to do more to get his teammates involved? I grant that he is averaging 4.9 assists, but is he shooting too much? I understand that part of his game is improvising, but I just can’t get past how poorly he’s shooting. And Ryan Rollins isn’t exactly light it up, either (38% FG, 35% 3FG).

Can UT win with two of its top scorers shooting so poorly?

Is Jackson shooting too much????? He only took 9 shots against NIU and made 4. He's made 35% from behind the arc for the season, which translates to around 50% from the 2 pt. range.
Jackson does so much more for this team that the average fan doesn't see or understand: He's solid when pressured and handling the basketball. He's averaging 5 assists and is the leader in 5 statical areas. He's a senior, a leader and "understands" what needs to be done to run the offense. He's also rebounding more than last year. I'm glad he's starting and running the show. We should feel fortunate we have a point guard that is so confident and experienced! Go Rockets!!

Agree 100%

3 of the next 5 games are akron, ohio and kent who might be the top 3 contenders to us in the league. so, we'll find out soon. there's some talk about adding a mid year transfer big which would add a new wrinkle. there's a few good ones out there. detroit just signed a skinny 7-1 kid who went P5 then HBCU and is now finishing at UDM w immediate eligibility. there's a really good big who left texas, rated about like stevie taylor out of HS, but was sort of a bust as a frosh in the B12. probably out of our league but TK has brought in a few kids like that (fletcher, witherspoon, taylor) who flourished at UT so there's a recruiting narrative to pitch. there's a solid stretch 4 from Harvard in the portal, grad transfer. several other guys who have been at big schools and bounced around in the portal too, but I don't see us signing someone with that much inconsistency in their background.

Talking about MJ, the following are random stats:

Has 50 assists this season , for 5/game, at the same time has 28 turnovers, 2.8 per game.
Averaging 1.6 steals per game.
2 point range, averaging 14.5 attempts per game
3 point range, averaging 8.1 attempts per game,
FT shooting, has not missed one yet, averaging 3.6 attempts per game.
Averaging 33 minutes a game I believe.