Last season the efficiency numbers seem to say that we were a pretty good defensive team but one that struggled mightily to score (www.kenpom.com). We also played in 12 games that were within 1 point in the last 3 minutes of the game, and went 3-9 in those contents.
During this off-season, we lost our leading scorer (Jamal Jones) and backup PG Harris. We added Jalen Jones (who until appeals are played out we must assume will not be eligible until mid December), hopefully a healthy Davonte Fitzgerald, Alex Robinson, Tonny Trocha, and Peyton Allen. Of course assumption is House sits all year.
We also now have Stansbury and Rahim as assistant coaches instead of Cyprien and Reese.
Other news is that Alex Caruso has really physically developed over the summer, grew a little bit to about 6'6" and I saw a recent photo of him on twitter with Peyton Allen who is listed at 6'5" and Caruso looked not only definitely taller than Peyton but also pretty ripped. Been doing some good work with Darby I guess. I also had a chance to speak for a few seconds with his dad while on a lark in College Station over the summer, and Mike Caruso told me that part of Alex's summer practice agenda was making 50,000 shots. He was spending a bunch of time working on his shooting.
I feel pretty good about Alex Caruso's off-season work and physical maturity, in terms of him perhaps being able to go into 'beast mode' quite a few times next season. It seems like a reasonable expectation that we'll be at least a solid, maybe very good, defensive team next season, particularly if Tonny Trocha adds a bit more defensive rim protection presence and based on all reports that Jalen Jones is much more inclined to put in a lot of defensive effort than Jamal Jones was. I don't see any reason why we'd drop off much defensively from last year, and really seems a decent bet that we'll be even better at that end and particular with regard to rebounding (Jalen Jones and Trocha should be improvements there).
To me, the key questions are: How are we going to get better on offense and score points? And are we going to be better at closing out close games at the end?
During this off-season, we lost our leading scorer (Jamal Jones) and backup PG Harris. We added Jalen Jones (who until appeals are played out we must assume will not be eligible until mid December), hopefully a healthy Davonte Fitzgerald, Alex Robinson, Tonny Trocha, and Peyton Allen. Of course assumption is House sits all year.
We also now have Stansbury and Rahim as assistant coaches instead of Cyprien and Reese.
Other news is that Alex Caruso has really physically developed over the summer, grew a little bit to about 6'6" and I saw a recent photo of him on twitter with Peyton Allen who is listed at 6'5" and Caruso looked not only definitely taller than Peyton but also pretty ripped. Been doing some good work with Darby I guess. I also had a chance to speak for a few seconds with his dad while on a lark in College Station over the summer, and Mike Caruso told me that part of Alex's summer practice agenda was making 50,000 shots. He was spending a bunch of time working on his shooting.
I feel pretty good about Alex Caruso's off-season work and physical maturity, in terms of him perhaps being able to go into 'beast mode' quite a few times next season. It seems like a reasonable expectation that we'll be at least a solid, maybe very good, defensive team next season, particularly if Tonny Trocha adds a bit more defensive rim protection presence and based on all reports that Jalen Jones is much more inclined to put in a lot of defensive effort than Jamal Jones was. I don't see any reason why we'd drop off much defensively from last year, and really seems a decent bet that we'll be even better at that end and particular with regard to rebounding (Jalen Jones and Trocha should be improvements there).
To me, the key questions are: How are we going to get better on offense and score points? And are we going to be better at closing out close games at the end?
HoustonSportsAccess 
