Losing Cliff cost us the NCAA Tournament

[RUChoppin]

The main concern with Lathan is that it appears he can't shoot (for now?)
1/8 from 3 (13%)
6/34 from outside the paint/inside the 3pt line (17%)

This leads to a couple issues for next year:

1. He can't be moved out of the post (PF/Wing) because he isn't a scoring or playmaking threat.
He's a non threat away from the basket.

2. If he's your center, then he isn't the defensive presence it appears HC Pike needs for his defense (why can't a defensive mind like Pike adjust if needed?).

3. If a better defensive center is brought in, wouldn't that player likely start and play most minutes? Likely can't play them together - see #1.

Either HC Pike needs to figure out a defensive scheme that accommodates Lathan or Lathan will primarily be a bench player because of defensive limitations.

Or, Sommerville needs to improve defensively, as so many freshman bigs have done since time immemorial.

Sommerville is 41.0% on twos away from the rim (34/83) per bart.... if he's 6/34 outside the paint per your source, that means he's 28/49 (57%) in the painted area away from the rim, in additional to being 69.6% (48/69) at the rim or on dunks.

Decision making is something he needs to work on in the offseason - instead of pulling up from 15 feet, taking a dribble or two toward the rim, to either get a closer shot or pick up a foul (where he's 86% from the FT line).

Sommerville can be that athletic, below-the-rim big like OSU tends to use.

 

[seansherm]

Or, Sommerville needs to improve defensively, as so many freshman bigs have done since time immemorial.

Sommerville is 41.0% on twos away from the rim (34/83) per bart.... if he's 6/34 outside the paint per your source, that means he's 28/49 (57%) in the painted area away from the rim, in additional to being 69.6% (48/69) at the rim or on dunks.

Decision making is something he needs to work on in the offseason - instead of pulling up from 15 feet, taking a dribble or two toward the rim, to either get a closer shot or pick up a foul (where he's 86% from the FT line).

Sommerville can be that athletic, below-the-rim big like OSU tends to use.

He'd need to get stronger and much smarter defensively. I'm interested to see how he develops, having to have depended on him so much this year really hurt.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

At least Lathan gives us some us offense, and can be counted on for roughly 10 pts per game, and will likely be our #1 option at the 5, unless he leaves. Sure we will add other players, but they will be complementary. We’ll have to work with what we have.

The problem is we need to get better at D. Do you disagree that anything close to 115th best isn’t going to cut it? This year, perhaps we could’ve targeting Mag / Caleb types from the portal and compensated for the lack of post presence. We can’t do that next year otherwise our offense will be as bad as it was last season with worse defense because we won’t have a Cliff. You yourself acknowledged we won’t be able to afford players that excel at everything. We will have to prioritize.

It’s possible to win with a center who defends well but only really scores on put backs. Very few teams outside of the top 75 on D are successful in the BIG and the ones that are almost always have top 25 offenses which is highly unlikely next season.