I think or hope fans realize that the roster is moving into a transition where players who are more suited to play at a faster pace, are mixed with some players who are truly "station to station" or below the rim players.
The thread above this is loaded with horrible or inaccurate stuff, because fans aren't willing to understand that this roster is the extension of where it left off in February and March last year. It was fading then, because of a lack of athletic abilities and most of the roster up front, kinda looks the same way.
Mag is a good, complimentary player on a NCAA caliber roster. He is a battlefield player who gets junkyard points, but isn't athletic enough or has the skill sets to run, jump and elevate
to shoot and score/rebound with a roster like Illinois or Mississippi State or a good amount of the NCAA caliber teams we will see.
Hyatt is also a station to station player who is more like Mag, and plays below the rim, not a leaper....he can help you with his shooting and some postups on occasion, but not a athletic ability type of player you can ask to match up with the more complete front court rosters that typically are NCAA caliber.
We then add to those front court pieces, Oskar Palmquist who is best suited as a spot up shooter off the bench.....and then another player who I think has more upside or athletic abilities in Woolfolk, but he's asked to play a backup 5 or undersized 4, without the footspeed or hops to compete at this level.
Soooo......is the season lost?? It's far from lost, but understand that we have Jeremiah Williams on this roster for a reason....he matches up and prevents the drives into the lane that led to layups or dunks vs Illinois or Mississippi State. He isn't solving the rebounding woes, but gets some 50/50 loose balls that we don't get without a Caleb McConnell.
And caught in the crosshairs or crossfire of this roster transition, are Davis, Simpson, and Griffiths, who have abilities to create, but don't have the wings or forwards to compliment their skill sets.
I thought Gavin Griffiths took another step forward today, but fans will only look at his 3 point misses. He actually challenged the MSU defense (because he has the complete offensive game, to do so) multiple times and elevated to score and draw a foul. If the rest of the forwards played with a faster pace or had a higher playmaking ability, it opens things up for him. The pass when Gavin should have just shot the ball from the corner in the 2nd half, comes from not having other forwards who can cut/slash and playmake.
All things considered, with how this roster will look in a year, I'm hopeful that Davis is fine and not concerned about Simpson today. His shooting was woeful and not good at all, but he's another player like Davis, who's better suited in an up tempo roster, where the pieces fit.
In terms of Mississippi State, Jans, the former coach at New Mexico State, is a grinder. He clearly scouted RU very well and interrupted a lot of what we wanted to run. Hedges against our forwards on the dribble handoff for Hyatt and Mag designed to get a preferred switch or matchup, completely took both players out of rhythm.....and because neither forward is a true dribble-drive or create their own offense PF or SFs, there wasn't another answer to get the ball moving......both Mag and Hyatt played well and within their abilities, which is all you can ask for.
Most of today, had a look and feel of February last year and into March. It's going to take more time for Griffiths, Davis and Simpson to take some steps forward and we have to hope Jeremiah Williams gets cleared, if fans are more concerned with just this one season, vs looking how things should look 2024-25 and beyond
