The thing that frustrates me the most through 12 games is that we keep losing the same way. Bad defending, bad rebounding, and stagnant and inconsistent offense. There needs to be some change and Colombia is a perfect game to try new things. No game is an easy win for this current team, but it’s the last “buy” game before a brutal B10 stretch. I’m guilty of playing monday morning quarterback looking back at Pike’s portal additions, but the reality is we’ve got what we got and need to make the best of it.
There just has to be some change in lineups and minutes, even if it makes Pike uncomfortable. Our “good” defenders and rebounders aren’t exactly very good so what’s stopping Pike from giving Acuff 25 mins and Jmike 5 for a game. Or Hayes 23 and Derkack 6 mins. Or keeping Martini at 19 like we saw against Princeton. There’s only been 2 games this year that those 3 all played over 10 mins and it was a win vs ND and a 5 point loss to a top 10 Alabama team. Is it a coincidence that even the threat of those guys shooting provided the spacing that produced 36 and 37 point performances from Dylan? Not sure.
Imagine if I said in March after last season ended that this years team is going to be our 3 returners(2 of which were super young and inexperienced) plus Ace and Dylan? We’d all lose our minds and that’s basically what we’re getting right now. You need to get more from Acuff/Hayes/Martini and figure out how the rest fit in if we want to turn it around. Winning might look different this year compared to how it has for the last 9 years under Pike. I just really hope there’s some changes before it’s too late.
There just has to be some change in lineups and minutes, even if it makes Pike uncomfortable. Our “good” defenders and rebounders aren’t exactly very good so what’s stopping Pike from giving Acuff 25 mins and Jmike 5 for a game. Or Hayes 23 and Derkack 6 mins. Or keeping Martini at 19 like we saw against Princeton. There’s only been 2 games this year that those 3 all played over 10 mins and it was a win vs ND and a 5 point loss to a top 10 Alabama team. Is it a coincidence that even the threat of those guys shooting provided the spacing that produced 36 and 37 point performances from Dylan? Not sure.
Imagine if I said in March after last season ended that this years team is going to be our 3 returners(2 of which were super young and inexperienced) plus Ace and Dylan? We’d all lose our minds and that’s basically what we’re getting right now. You need to get more from Acuff/Hayes/Martini and figure out how the rest fit in if we want to turn it around. Winning might look different this year compared to how it has for the last 9 years under Pike. I just really hope there’s some changes before it’s too late.
