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Starting 5 vs BU ?

Same lineup, Simpson Griffiths, Hyatt, Cliff and Fernandes.

You don't make panic moves with your starting lineup based off of 1 game.

After 10 games or so.....?? Different amount of evidence and data to look at, not one.

The starting lineup even if it changes, means very little anyway. The overall team performance from Cliff, all the way down to Oskar and Austin Williams, has to be better. This is not a situation this year, where there's going to be a large dropoff in talent, skill and ability, when we go to the bench.

The strength of the team (if it's going to win games over a 4 month period), is going to come down to how productive the players are off the bench. There's not a big difference in talent or ability in Simpson/Davis or Mag/Woolfolk. I can easily argue for any of these 4 of these players being in the starting lineup.

The question is how much are we really relying on production from Palmquist and Austin Williams for a combined 12 to 15 points or so off the bench each game. From what I can see, it looks like until Mag gets going, we'll be reliant on Oskar to deliver shots and Austin to score off the bench.

The only variable that I think may ultimately help the overall bench strength and structure of the roster, would be to bring Hyatt off the bench and keep his role as the designated scorer or 6th man. It's a role he's good at and allows him the freedom to know he's being brought into the game to shoot/score. Until he shows an overall ability to consistently thrive as a starter and become more assertive early in games, I would consider starting Woolfolk or Mag to be the gritty/5th starter that doesn't need the ball and attacks the glass. It would make Gavins life more difficult without another shooter on the floor to help, but it wouldn't be the end of the world either.
 
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Best guess is same lineup.

Would not be shocked though to see any of the 3 starters benched for D not be in the starting 5.

I personally think Pike should be avoiding playing both Gavin and Hyatt at the same time.
 
Not concerned about who starts but at some point I’d love to see these five on the court together: Cliff, Woolf, Oskar, Gavin, JMike
Gavin and Oskar together will look like an AAU game. Might as well throw Hyatt in there and go full blown LIU
 
Huh? Pike started Gavin with Hyatt. Based on what I saw in game one, Oskar outplayed Hyatt on both ends of the floor.
Oskar with Gavin together will kill you on D vs a decent team.

vs BU, sure
 
Huh? Pike started Gavin with Hyatt. Based on what I saw in game one, Oskar outplayed Hyatt on both ends of the floor.

I rewatched the game last night. Hyatt had a horrific game on offense and especially on defense.
Hyatt brought down the entire starting unit to begin the game.

Oskar was good on offense - hit two very contested 3s (maybe that's not a positive he's taking contested 3s but he it them).
Defense he was fine. He did get attacked and beat a couple times - specifically end of 1st half.

Mag needs to be back ASAP.
 
tempted to take Rutgers over 75.5

with so many guys fighting for playing time ,even with 15-20 pt lead might see lot of different guys trying to score and giving a lot in garbage time
 
Cliff, Wolf, Oscar, Noah, and Williams. Reward the guys who played well last game. Force Noah to be a leader, and Cliff to be the scoring focus. Lessen the pressure on the inexperienced guys and have them and Hyatt get a feel for the game and then put them in.
 
There's no real reason to assume Gavin won't play better defense and Hyatt won't play better than what we saw Monday night. Both players likely make up 60 to 70% of our 3 point shot attempts this season. They have to play together for extended stretches of time.

Gavin isn't going to improve his defense by sitting vs Howard and Bryant and certainly not Georgetown. A player can only get better by actually playing.

What I find somewhat ironic is looking back on the posts from 3+ years ago on Mawot Mag and how lost his looked on the court and was out of position etc.....Pike kept throwing him out on the floor off the bench as a freshman and sophomore and eventually, the light switches on and the player goes from liability to asset.

Every year we see the same panic postings about newcomers in the 1st 2 months of the year. No one wants to apparently give anyone a grace period and base things off of how someone is removed from the lineup.

Gavin, Austin Williams, Davis, Fernandes will all improve month to month, as they get used to playing. We all also had some of the same fans complaining about recruiting back on 2018, 2019 and 2020, and after a few quality showings by Palmquist last year, fans suddenly want to elevate Oskar to starting status. Before the Minnesota game at the RAC, 90% of the fans were upset that we didn't attack the portal to replace Jalen Miller, Palmquist or Reiber. Now Oskar is deserving to start??

Just pick a lane on the highway and stick with it......or at least wait a dozen or so games before declaring anything.
 
tempted to take Rutgers over 75.5

with so many guys fighting for playing time ,even with 15-20 pt lead might see lot of different guys trying to score and giving a lot in garbage time
BU allowed 67 in 67 possessions vs Northeastern.
I am going to guess that Pike isn't abandoning up tempo play after 1 game.
We average 72 possessions last year vs 6 cupcakes.

I'd guess 74 possessions tonight. really hope we can eclipse 1.02 PPP on offense.
 
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There's no real reason to assume Gavin won't play better defense and Hyatt won't play better than what we saw Monday night. Both players likely make up 60 to 70% of our 3 point shot attempts this season. They have to play together for extended stretches of time.

Gavin isn't going to improve his defense by sitting vs Howard and Bryant and certainly not Georgetown. A player can only get better by actually playing.

What I find somewhat ironic is looking back on the posts from 3+ years ago on Mawot Mag and how lost his looked on the court and was out of position etc.....Pike kept throwing him out on the floor off the bench as a freshman and sophomore and eventually, the light switches on and the player goes from liability to asset.

Every year we see the same panic postings about newcomers in the 1st 2 months of the year. No one wants to apparently give anyone a grace period and base things off of how someone is removed from the lineup.

Gavin, Austin Williams, Davis, Fernandes will all improve month to month, as they get used to playing. We all also had some of the same fans complaining about recruiting back on 2018, 2019 and 2020, and after a few quality showings by Palmquist last year, fans suddenly want to elevate Oskar to starting status. Before the Minnesota game at the RAC, 90% of the fans were upset that we didn't attack the portal to replace Jalen Miller, Palmquist or Reiber. Now Oskar is deserving to start??

Just pick a lane on the highway and stick with it......or at least wait a dozen or so games before declaring anything.
I don't think there is anyone on Earth, other than Oskar and his family and a select few friends, that want to see him start.
 
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Cliff, Wolf, Oscar, Noah, and Williams. Reward the guys who played well last game. Force Noah to be a leader, and Cliff to be the scoring focus. Lessen the pressure on the inexperienced guys and have them and Hyatt get a feel for the game and then put them in.
This is the lineup that deserves it. Thing is I would
Start Gavin over Oskar here. Give the guy some confidence and he is surrounded by a better defensive team which may elevate him.
Hyatt and Simpson should be coming off the bench as Hyatt is a streaky player and simpson(until he learns to take over) needs to get more confidence built
 
This is the lineup that deserves it. Thing is I would
Start Gavin over Oskar here. Give the guy some confidence and he is surrounded by a better defensive team which may elevate him.
Hyatt and Simpson should be coming off the bench as Hyatt is a streaky player and simpson(until he learns to take over) needs to get more confidence built
you can't sit Hyatt and Simpson and not Gavin. That wouldnt be right
 
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you can't sit Hyatt and Simpson and not Gavin. That wouldnt be right
Hyatt and Gavin may both be a liability on defense, but Gavin is a better shooter.

Plus Hyatt is in his 6th year and still can’t defend. Let’s see how Gavin responds after his first real collegiate game.

In the end it will likely come down to the effort Pike sees in practice.
 
Hyatt and Gavin may both be a liability on defense, but Gavin is a better shooter.

Plus Hyatt is in his 6th year and still can’t defend. Let’s see how Gavin responds after his first real collegiate game.

In the end it will likely come down to the effort Pike sees in practice.
^^^this and why I said Gavin in starting lineup
 
Eventually (and once Mag gets back), this is a starting five we might see:

JMike
Austin
Gavin
Mag
Cliff

I think this would be a strong defensive team that can also play fast (as needed) and score.

Our bench in that case would be: Noah, Derek, Hyatt, Oskar, Woolf. And Chol.

Obviously once the status of Ogbole and JW are updated, the lineups will change somewhat.
 
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Same lineup, Simpson Griffiths, Hyatt, Cliff and Fernandes.

You don't make panic moves with your starting lineup based off of 1 game.

After 10 games or so.....?? Different amount of evidence and data to look at, not one.

The starting lineup even if it changes, means very little anyway. The overall team performance from Cliff, all the way down to Oskar and Austin Williams, has to be better. This is not a situation this year, where there's going to be a large dropoff in talent, skill and ability, when we go to the bench.

The strength of the team (if it's going to win games over a 4 month period), is going to come down to how productive the players are off the bench. There's not a big difference in talent or ability in Simpson/Davis or Mag/Woolfolk. I can easily argue for any of these 4 of these players being in the starting lineup.

The question is how much are we really relying on production from Palmquist and Austin Williams for a combined 12 to 15 points or so off the bench each game. From what I can see, it looks like until Mag gets going, we'll be reliant on Oskar to deliver shots and Austin to score off the bench.

The only variable that I think may ultimately help the overall bench strength and structure of the roster, would be to bring Hyatt off the bench and keep his role as the designated scorer or 6th man. It's a role he's good at and allows him the freedom to know he's being brought into the game to shoot/score. Until he shows an overall ability to consistently thrive as a starter and become more assertive early in games, I would consider starting Woolfolk or Mag to be the gritty/5th starter that doesn't need the ball and attacks the glass. It would make Gavins life more difficult without another shooter on the floor to help, but it wouldn't be the end of the world either.
I said ALL last year NOT to have Hyatt start. Some guys THRIVE as the 6th man and he is definitely one of them IMHO.
 
Guys....move on....we faced the WRONG team to start the season. Period. Too experienced and too good for a team with so many new moving parts/roles/minutes/etc.. Lets' see what happens tonight. Hopefully A LOT more of what we were expecting to see.
 
Needs to reduce the number in the rotation. Maybe not in the early OOC games, but once we get to Big 10 I would have a rotation of 8 with the 9th be situational sub. Just not enough minutes to play more effectively.
 
Eventually (and once Mag gets back), this is a starting five we might see:

JMike
Austin
Gavin
Mag
Cliff

I think this would be a strong defensive team that can also play fast (as needed) and score.

Our bench in that case would be: Noah, Derek, Hyatt, Oskar, Woolf.

Obviously once the status of Ogbole and JW are updated, the lineups will change somewhat.
I love JMike and he needs to play a lot but we NEED Noah to be the senior leader at PG. this team is going to struggle without some leadership.
 
I love JMike and he needs to play a lot but we NEED Noah to be the senior leader at PG. this team is going to struggle without some leadership.
Agreed. I was careful to couch my comment with “eventually” for that reason. I don’t expect it to happen for a few weeks at least.
 
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I love my defense!!!.....but you also need to score. Can JMike shoot? How about Derek? Williams?

Figuring who gets the minutes at PG needs to come down to who can knock down shots and who will get the ball to others at the right time.

All 3 point guards failed when it came to making the right plays after beating their man off the dribble.

I am going to make an educated guess Noah Fernandes will be your 24-32 MPG point guard. I think ultimately 1 of the 3 PGs are going to struggle to find minutes in the rotation if Mag is healthy and Austin Williams earns minutes.
 
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I love my defense!!!.....but you also need to score. Can JMike shoot? How about Derek? Williams?

Figuring who gets the minutes at PG needs to come down to who can knock down shots and who will get the ball to others at the right time.

All 3 point guards failed when it came to making the right plays after beating their man off the dribble.

I am going to make an educated guess Noah Fernandes will be your 24-32 MPG point guard. I think ultimately 1 of the 3 PGs are going to struggle to find minutes in the rotation if Mag is healthy and Austin Williams earns minutes.
JMike can score. I found this from his profile article when he committed to RU:

At McEachern in 20 games played last season, he averaged 22 points, 13.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. He added 2.5 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. Davis was awarded first-team all-region for his performance in high school last season.

Against Princeton he took two shots from beyond the arc. One was an airball where he was surprised to get the ball back quickly from Oskar who passed up an open look. The other miss was on target but hit the front of the rim. Otherwise he was 2-8 on 2-pointers which is not unexpected in game one from a freshman.

We do need Noah’s maturity and leadership, but man, JMike can ball, and he can defend.
 
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