(01-25-2023 09:48 PM)BucFan1244 Wrote:  Someone explain to me why Strothers is on the floor so much. He does nothing adequate, let alone well.

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I think because the coaching staff did not go out and bring in a point guard out of the portal. Sad.

(01-25-2023 09:55 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  

(01-25-2023 09:48 PM)BucFan1244 Wrote:  Someone explain to me why Strothers is on the floor so much. He does nothing adequate, let alone well.

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I think because the coaching staff did not go out and bring in a point guard out of the portal. Sad.

Agreed. Turnovers and free throw shooting. We need more reliable guards.

(01-25-2023 09:55 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  

(01-25-2023 09:48 PM)BucFan1244 Wrote:  Someone explain to me why Strothers is on the floor so much. He does nothing adequate, let alone well.

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I think because the coaching staff did not go out and bring in a point guard out of the portal. Sad.

He’s a train wreck. However to be fair, guard play overall was a train wreck. And - we hit 61% from the free throw line! Truly impressive. We did everything we could to let them win. Our guys really seem to like those guys from Mercer! We give them whatever they want. However, Mercer was a decent host. They did quite a bit to let us win. Ultimately, we won that tug of war battle, and another loss. The lack of urgency and fire in between the under 8 and under 4 time outs in the 2nd half, I would argue, doomed our fate. We didn’t necessarily lose ground, but we gained nothing - and had plenty of chances to do so. No fire in the bellies of our kids, with the exception of maybe Hairston and Haynes, although Haynes made a critical mistake throwing it to the Florida - Georgia line late in regulation. Jordy King! Show up next time, will ya?

This team is just plain hard to watch.

There’s no one else on the team who is a true point guard other than strothers. That is why he plays so much. He plays really hard, which I like. He just makes freshman mistakes frequently. I truly think all the playing experience will payoff dividends if he stays with the program.

(01-25-2023 10:12 PM)Buced_Up Wrote:  There’s no one else on the team who is a true point guard other than strothers. That is why he plays so much. He plays really hard, which I like. He just makes freshman mistakes frequently. I truly think all the playing experience will payoff dividends if he stays with the program.

Finally - another statement (besides mine about a week or so ago saying the same thing) about Strothers that's closer to the truth.

(01-25-2023 10:12 PM)Buced_Up Wrote:  There’s no one else on the team who is a true point guard other than strothers. That is why he plays so much. He plays really hard, which I like. He just makes freshman mistakes frequently. I truly think all the playing experience will payoff dividends if he stays with the program.

I get what you’re saying. My question is - is he really just D2 talent? I’m not saying I know how to judge that - but he’s been a serious problem for us. If you can’t score, and you can’t get assists, then why are you on our team as a PG? Maybe that’s a brutal assessment, but we need a good PG - and he ain’t it. That’s why you saw king and smith also serve in that capacity tonight.

I just have zero confidence in this team to do much of anything consistently. Sometimes they prove me wrong. Tonight, they proved me right, and I don’t wanna be right about this bunch, but I’m thinking about watching paint dry sounds better than going to FH to watch them play Chattanooga Saturday. I’ll decide later.

(01-25-2023 10:20 PM)GoBucsGo Wrote:  

(01-25-2023 10:12 PM)Buced_Up Wrote:  There’s no one else on the team who is a true point guard other than strothers. That is why he plays so much. He plays really hard, which I like. He just makes freshman mistakes frequently. I truly think all the playing experience will payoff dividends if he stays with the program.

I get what you’re saying. My question is - is he really just D2 talent? I’m not saying I know how to judge that - but he’s been a serious problem for us. If you can’t score, and you can’t get assists, then why are you on our team as a PG? Maybe that’s a brutal assessment, but we need a good PG - and he ain’t it. That’s why you saw king and smith also serve in that capacity tonight.

I just have zero confidence in this team to do much of anything consistently. Sometimes they prove me wrong. Tonight, they proved me right, and I don’t wanna be right about this bunch, but I’m thinking about watching paint dry sounds better than going to FH to watch them play Chattanooga Saturday. I’ll decide later.

That is pretty much where we are all coming from right now. I will be at Freedom Hall Saturday but it will probably be another painful game to watch. We will most likely figure out a new way to lose to Chatt.

(01-25-2023 10:12 PM)Buced_Up Wrote:  There’s no one else on the team who is a true point guard other than strothers. That is why he plays so much. He plays really hard, which I like. He just makes freshman mistakes frequently. I truly think all the playing experience will payoff dividends if he stays with the program.

Many of the posters have been really hard on Strothers. But I think he's playing like I've seen other freshmen point guards of the past who turned out to be really solid contributors. He ought to be a bench player and getting 15-20 minutes; but there really is no one else to start and no one else to get 30 minutes a game at the guard position.

Your last sentence is the part the bugs me the most. In today's recruiting, it's possible we provide him the experience and get all the mistakes only for another school to reap the benefits when he's a junior or senior.

I listened, not saw the game. What are your observations with Smith last night? On a team needing guard minutes and offense, why does he have a box score of 20 minutes and 4 points? Jay sang his praises in the first half, but I didn't hear much in the second. He's got good size, he should have some maturity, and I thought he looked good earlier in the season once he got some minutes, both offensively and defensively. Given the bench, we need each starter to give at least high single digit offensive production to be in these games.

Smith is hot and cold and needs more experience especially with holding onto the ball. Our team plays well most of the time but loses touch when it counts. Haynes new sneakers kept him from falling all game. We just need to kept playing tough, with less mistakes. Outside of Haynes crazy pass we have stopped throwing wildly. Really bizarro frustrating game. But surely entertaining..... maybe we can sneak a couple of wins in Asheville.........Go BUCS

Unfortunately some of the players have not improved. The players go through specific drills practically every day to improve their skills. You have coaches that do individual instruction for each postion group. IMO, Smith has not improved. He poor on defense andball handling. He has no appetite to attack the rim or to aggressively rebound. He is a big guard that doesn't capitalize on his size. Smith is very passive. That's why Harrison is getting more playing time. Harrison will mix it up, fights for rebounds and loose balls, plays hard on D and still able to contribute solid offense.

(01-26-2023 12:27 PM)Buc76 Wrote:  Unfortunately some of the players have not improved. The players go through specific drills practically every day to improve their skills. You have coaches that do individual instruction for each postion group. IMO, Smith has not improved. He poor on defense andball handling. He has no appetite to attack the rim or to aggressively rebound. He is a big guard that doesn't capitalize on his size. Smith is very passive. That's why Harrison is getting more playing time. Harrison will mix it up, fights for rebounds and loose balls, plays hard on D and still able to contribute solid offense.

I wouldn't agree with you about his skills all the time; I have seen him provide good defense and ball handling. But he certainly has disappeared recently. He's frustrating since I think he's capable of doing so much more than what he's done recently.

As I said he is not improving. It's conference play now. He's facing better and more physical teams and his play has deteriorated. So far he hasn't shown a will to be aggressive.

(01-26-2023 05:48 AM)frankenheimer Wrote:  I listened, not saw the game. What are your observations with Smith last night? On a team needing guard minutes and offense, why does he have a box score of 20 minutes and 4 points? Jay sang his praises in the first half, but I didn't hear much in the second. He's got good size, he should have some maturity, and I thought he looked good earlier in the season once he got some minutes, both offensively and defensively. Given the bench, we need each starter to give at least high single digit offensive production to be in these games.

Smith was taken out with about 9 minutes to go in the 2nd half. He never got back in (including the overtime period). It's hard to see that as a strictly performance based decision. Was something else going on?

Jordan King was on the floor for every second of the game, including the overtime period, and he both looked and played tired. Short bench notwithstanding, Coach Oliver has to find a way to keep King and the rest of his key players fresh.

(01-25-2023 07:14 PM)buc nekkid Wrote:  Pardon my language but that's the same f--king guy that took out Taylor that just pushed Seymour in the back on a similar play

That kid, Walker Jr., needs to be suspended. Perhaps he gets the benefit of the doubt the first time, when he got called for the flagrant foul that broke Taylor's wrist. But there is absolutely no doubt about the dangerous and intentional flagrant foul for pushing Seymour in the back. It's pure luck that Seymour wasn't injured, too.

This kind of play cannot be tolerated at any level. I sincerely doubt the Mercer coach will do anything, but the SoCon certainly ought to. That is, if they care anything about player safety.

Junior needs to go.

These 'it was just a hard foul, no intent to harm fouls need a much stronger penalty. Hitting players with excessive force in the air to stop them from scoring with no attempt to go for the ball, should be addressed with an immediate suspension from game and for the next game.

Hard fouls in basketball are becoming like so many other things. People continually pushing or overstepping limits to the extent of inflicting harm to others, needs to be stopped.

A player gets his wrist broken, out for season. Player that fouled gets a flagrant one foul and plays on. Punishment does not fit the crime.

Missed fts, missed dunks, missed layups ridiculous turnovers, yep Oliver's fault.

King gets the opponents best perimeter defender, is consistly double teamed because he has been the only credible 3pt threat with Taylor out. King is also our best perimeter defender, best rebounding guard and best ball handler.

No team respects Smith, Struthers or Seymore for their 3pt shooting or offense.They know that Jaynes inside and King outside is our offense. Stop either King or Jaynes and the Bucs are deep trouble.

Harrison and Ilec are showing definite signs of becoming 3 pt threats and could take some of the offensive burden. Seymore is our junk yard dog, good D, good rebounder, gets points within 5 ft of goal, Smith has size and some offensive skills but poor D and lack of physical play limits his production. Harriston, after meeting with coaches, has improved his D and rebounding in practices which has led to earned playing time. Ilec is a freshmen but is improving. He is learning what it takes to play D1 ball. He has the size and skills to be a very good SoCon player. Struthers is a freshman thats being asked to be a starter at point guard. A postion that requires a lot of smarts and skills. He is quick, fast, plays decent D, rebounds,
needs to improve his shooting, shows flashes of good point guard play at times but still makes freshman mistakes. IMO, he's trying to hard. Even if you have pt guard skills it takes experience to run a D1 team and Struthers doesn't have experience. He's having to learn on the run and that's a difficult task. Can he become a reliable pt guard, maybe, maybe not.

The Bucs are a tough out and no one pencils in a win when they play them. The Bucs just simply need to play hard on both ends of the court, players have to play to their abilities, eliminate 40-50% of their unforced turnovers and make open layups and dunks. It's not rocket science.

GO BUCS

I just saw this today. So, if it has already been noted, I apologize. The link is to a segment of the Scott Van Pelt Sportscenter episode shortly after the above game. It is a recurring segment called "Bad Beats." which showcases examples of how games that one might bet on can go horribly wrong depending on how you have placed a wager, largely having to do with the point spread. The tragi-comic elements of the last few seconds of the game aside, the most telling thing about this particular segment is the comments of the co-host "Stanford Steve" as the Bucs dribble and pass the ball seemingly without purpose before the inevitable collapse occurs. His comments could be a summation of the Bucs' whole season.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket...buccaneers