Really worried about Geo…
- Thread starter Scarlet Shack
- Start date
His road record is actually not that bad over the last season of games. But its the inexplicable crappiness of the losses that confound. Why do we see efforts like Wisconsin and then tonight? Such disparities. I think it goes back to under recruited players. Guys with less talent need to play their A+ game to win on the road. Guys with NBA talent can win with their C+ or B games on the road.
That's it. Its pretty simple.
Face it, Geo has always been streaky. Yes, he's been off, but he could easily come alive on Saturday against the Badgers and win the game. What we need is Ron to be consistent this Saturday and get Paul back to being Paul and we'll be fine.
Bad time of year for Geo to come up small. Last night they all seemed to lose trust in each other to get good shots and reverted to trying to do too much on their own. They were also downright sloppy at times. I do think Geo allows a bad shooting night to impact other parts of his game. If he was assigned to guarding #12 early on there is no wonder why Pike put Mag in because the guy was getting open looks and driving unimpeded to the basket most of the time. Again it is about the effort and cohesion and last night was a clear step back for Geo and the team.
Is it really home vs. away or RU playing up and down to the competition all year? The minute I heard Michigan wasn’t playing at full strength I felt like we weren’t going to bring our A game. The only time all season I’ve felt we brought our best in a game you felt like we “should win” was home against Nebraska and to a lesser degree Central Connecticut. Think about it - we looked like complete garbage in every other “lesser / non-ranked” opponent - home or away. It’s like we turn the engine on with that number next to the team name or something. So weird.
My opinion is that Geo likes being a star. Sees Paul getting a ton of attention and trying too hard to out-do him. There is plenty of praise to go around. He needs to chill and just play. He is very talented.
As for wins on the road, Home wins are good for business and the league knows it. Think $ and things will become more clear on the home cooking dished out by officials (all games not just us). Get used to it. Not changing. We are still new kids on the block and won't be getting any favors vs a blue blood. In fact just the opposite. You have to soundly out play a team on the road to overcome it. Simple as that.
As for wins on the road, Home wins are good for business and the league knows it. Think $ and things will become more clear on the home cooking dished out by officials (all games not just us). Get used to it. Not changing. We are still new kids on the block and won't be getting any favors vs a blue blood. In fact just the opposite. You have to soundly out play a team on the road to overcome it. Simple as that.
It’s just easier to shoot better when your not in a hostile environment. When your just “on” that factor goes away. See Wisconsin road win - we shot over 58% from 3 and 88% from charity. Meanwhile they shot 21% from 3 and under 53% from charity. That’s the kind of effort it takes to win on the road against a good team.
He had better come alive on Saturday . In truth the entire team better play like the season ends if they don’t win against Wisconsin. Knowing it’s home at the friendly confines of the JMRAC is no guarantee we can sweep the series from Wisconsin .
We need Geo to score because he’s not a good perimeter defender.
We just need Geo to be comfortable in his role. Him and Ron love talking about needing the other guys to know their role, and for Ron it holds true, but Geo doesn’t know his. Pike needs to update Geo.
He’s gotta play his average off ball defense, move the ball on offense, and when he’s on the floor without Paul and especially without Paul/Ron that’s when he becomes more involved as a scorer in the offense.
As bad as Geo played the last 2 games he was actually only a tad less than 3 made fgs off his normal performance so it’s not like he’s playing much different than normal.
Athletic teams are tough matchups for him. A lot of his big performances come against Northwestern, Nebby, etc. with a few more athletic backcourts only sprinkled in. High volume shooting Geo is not ideal. But I realize we can’t funnel all the shots through Ron and Cliff, and Paul to a lesser extent in the new PnR heavy offense.
Correction - on a relative basis - he’s a very good perimeter defender. Consider our options. Under no circumstances is Hyatt better than him and certainly not at guarding a 1 or a 2. Mag is better at defending 3s and 4s too but he can defend the 2 for stretches. Unfortunately he’s already the first guy in for Caleb and Paul though - sometimes Ron too. Basically when Geo sits - Miller is going in and that means no chance at offense. We can live with that when Paul is scoring but it’s much harder to overcome when he’s not.
That’s not a correction I see your point though. Which is all to say Geo needs to score efficiently if he’s a hurting us vs the average replacement. Our particular replacements not being average is another discussion entirely.
Stars don't put up goose eggs vs NW. Guy is just maddeningly inconsistent. As for home wins being good for business especially vs a blue blood on the bubble, the B1G better return the favor at the RAC on Saturday. Give Wisconsin the strictest whistle possible as getting as many teams in the NCAA Tourney is good for business, IMO.
Geo's legacy can take a hit or a bump depending on how he and the team finish out this season.
If Geo comes up small and we don't make it.... its going to be a blemish for sure
If he comes up big and we make the dance and a sweet 16 run... the inconsistencies and poor games will be remembered less
If Geo comes up small and we don't make it.... its going to be a blemish for sure
If he comes up big and we make the dance and a sweet 16 run... the inconsistencies and poor games will be remembered less
I meant clarification in the sense that your post (even if not intended) implies that we need his offense more than his defense and that’s unfortunately not true. He’s arguably our next best perimeter defender after Caleb.
Hmm curious to hear others chime in. I’d have him further down the list
Miller is a good defender for a frosh. He is not an overall better defensive player than Geo.
Paul’s perimeter defense has improved to where he’s no longer a massive liability on defense, but Geo is still a better overall defender. Especially where asked to guard a 1 or a 2.
Not sure what you mean by Geo doesn’t know his role? What do you mean by this?
I don’t think that’s the problem at all. The problem was his shot was off (which happens on and off) and he wasn’t aggressive enough (especially when Paul was out).
I think Pike would disagree with you as far as Miller is concerned
I don’t mean this to knock the kid. Miller does what’s asked of him. Fill a few minutes here and there without making mistakes or letting the other team score. He’s the best defensive guard on our bench. Just curious what part of his defensive game you feel is superior to Geo’s.
I doubt it. If so, Miller would play way more than he’s playing in games where Geo is 2-11 from the floor.
So is Paul though. I feel like the 2 of them are good at different things on defense. Anyway it doesn’t matter. They don’t sub for each other. I really don’t see it as debatable that our guys on the bench are worse perimeter defenders than Geo. He’s the best we’ve got.
Yes he’s better than our other guys were as frosh. But he’s not better than Geo is now. He fouls at an extremely high rate which is sort of fine for a guy who plays only a few minutes. As long as he doesn’t put people on the line. The style he’s playing would not be sustainable for big minutes.
Exactly. Thank you. He had a bad shooting day. He’s still the best ball handler (Paul is a better distributor, but Geo is hands down the best on the team at taking care of the BB when pressured) and one of the best defenders at the guard positions (1-2). My intended point was that these things suffer when Geo sits - Miller is the option to replace them the best (and it’s not even close) but I wouldn’t say Miller is overall better than him at these things at this stage in his career. He’s done nothing that stands out to demonstrate he is. He’s filled a role - killing time while a starter sits without hurting us too much.
He would likely dial it back if he was playing big minutes. He knows he has zero concern about foul trouble.
Exactly - and then his intensity or whatever it is some folks seem to think he’s better at than Geo on defense wouldn’t appear as such. He’s a frosh. Geo’s a super senior. It’s relative and Miller has potential to develop into a very good defensive player. For now he’s serving a purpose - but it’s not like he’s been stealing the ball or doing anything that stands out - what he’s doing is not hurting us on defense.
Teams pay a lot of attention to Geo and RHJ. His legs being tired does affect the 3 ball and we saw that with Davison during his slump. Not sure why this and everything else are always such big issues when we lose. We didn’t have our floor general on the court last night and when we did he wasn’t on either. Tired legs. Every year same conversation. Yaaawn.
I think that’s the thing, he doesn’t know when he needs to be aggressive and when we’re fine with him being option 3 or 4.
I think he definitely knows what role is…the problem is that sometimes he lets his play on the court have way too much of an impact on his confidence and aggressiveness, especially when he’s not shooting well.
We’ve seen it happen with Ron too. Just not sure why you’re singling Baker out saying he doesn’t know what his role is.
