Wilcher

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bobinator
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12:26p, 10/18/24
AG
Let's talk about what we're expecting/hoping from this guy this season.

I think he's a good example of why I'm very bullish on this team and that's flexibility. Last year we just had none at all in the backcourt. The recipe for defending us was simple, guard Taylor and sag off of everyone else. That way even if Taylor got by his defender there was help and with our terrible non-Taylor three point shooting (28%) we rarely made opponents pay for this. Taylor wasn't a particularly good shooter last year but all of the other options were even worse (except for Manny, who needs to shoot more.)

Even coming off the bench at Nebraska, Wilcher not only hit threes at a high clip (39%) he got a lot of shots up. He attempted 11.1 threes per 100 possessions. That would be behind only Taylor and Hefner of guys that got significant minutes for us. Is he going to play 25 minutes a game for us? I doubt it, but I think he brings something to the table that nobody else does, and there will be a few games we win because we've got him.

The difference a team being a mid-seed and a very good one isn't much. It's a handful of games. Does having Wilcher win us games like the away Arkansas game and the home South Carolina game last year?

Against Arkansas we were 6/29 (21%) from 3 and lost by 1, against SC we were 2/17 (12%!!) and lost by 2.

You can't just flip every close loss into a win, like the Vandy game we actually shot threes fairly well) but do we win some of the games where we were just absolutely dreadful from behind the arc if we had another option to try?

On the surface he's not a huge add out of the portal when you're looking at raw stats, but I bet there's going to be a few "thank god we got that guy" moments this season.
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AgEfan
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1:13p, 10/18/24
I think he's a guy you bring off the bench and if he's hot that night he gets a lot of run that night. If he is off, then he doesn't. So I think some nights he's going to play 22 minutes. Some nights he's going to play 7
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AggByMarriage
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1:14p, 10/18/24
I agree. I think Wilchur provides us with choices on the floor. As you pointed out, the defensive scheme for playing TAMU was "Guard Taylor, the rest will work itself out".

Wilchur makes a defense more honest. Hope he produces. I would say that Jace was suppose to have a similar role, but hasn't worked out yet.

I am very pumped for this season. I find it hard to believe that we are projected to finish 5th in the conference. Hoping everyone stays healthy this should be a fun season.
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NativeAg3
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1:16p, 10/18/24
AG
I think he's a guy that can make about 2 a game at a 35-40% clip and play some quality minutes. At least that's what I'm hoping for, knowing us he'll come in and shoot like 5 threes all season for some reason.
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bobinator
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In reply to NativeAg3 • 2:24p, 10/18/24
AG
If he sucks at threes I'm going to be officially convinced that the practice gym and/or Reed are on uneven ground or something.
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taylorswift13_
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3:48p, 10/18/24
Someone to keep defenses honest so we can have more lanes to the basket would be beneficial for this team! It seemed driving lanes were so chaotic and congested last year!
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bobinator
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In reply to taylorswift13_ • 3:59p, 10/18/24
AG
Exactly. Between him and Payne you've added some tools we didn't have at all last year. They don't need to score double digits a game to have a big impact on our overall quality.

I do wonder what he'll look like in our defense.
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AggieCrew44
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4:26p, 10/18/24
AG
I'll be shocked if he plays more than like 5-8 min per game

If he does it's because teams are playing zone, and that's the thing I think he brings to this team is he will make teams think twice about playing zone
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bobinator
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In reply to AggieCrew44 • 4:29p, 10/18/24
AG
Shocked at more than 8? Hefner played 14 minutes a game last year. 5-8 puts him in Eli Lawrence territory.

I do think his minutes are going to vary a lot game to game depending on the flow but I'd bet he ends up somewhere around 10-12 at least.

It would be nice if our second wave is good enough that Taylor doesn't have to play like 33 minutes a game.
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AggieCrew44
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In reply to bobinator • 4:33p, 10/18/24
AG
Yes I would be shocked at more than 8

We have three high level guards now in Wade, Zhuric, and Manny. Last year we had two for most of the year and it caused problems. Two will be on the court at all times, if not all three together. We have a ton of front court depth and Solo being able to guard gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of playing big or small.

I'd be shocked if he isnt anything more than a situational piece barring injury

I also think Mills is going to be better than him as a true fish at basically everything but shooting
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AggieCrew44
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4:39p, 10/18/24
AG
The biggest jump I think this team can make this year is actually defensively rather than offensively. Adding Payne gives us a true rim protector. Zhuric is also a plus defender compared to Boots. Outside Wade and Hefner everyone should be at minimum an average defender. We struggled a bunch on that end of the floor last year and why we ran such gimmicky schemes
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bobinator
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In reply to AggieCrew44 • 4:42p, 10/18/24
AG
I guess I can see if if you're basing it on the assumptions that Mills is better than him and that Manny goes wire-to-wire as the player we saw late in the year. I'm not super confident in either of those, I think Manny is going to have some ups and downs and I'm never very confident in any freshmen under Buzz, but I can see it.

I do think we have three fairly similar players there with Wilcher, Carter and Hefner. If one of them could either play defense at a high level or reliably put the ball in the basket they probably eat the others minutes. But between Carter and Hefner that was 29 mins/game last year.
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bobinator
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In reply to AggieCrew44 • 4:48p, 10/18/24
AG
We've been running basically the same defense for three or four years now, I'm not all that confident that Buzz is going to change it, but we'll see.

I also think people have gone too far on Taylor being bad at defense. He's not great at it by any stretch but he does create a few extra possessions a game with his steals. Though him and Boots out there together was definitely rough. I think having Phelps out there will also make Taylor better.

But I also think our defense was often a byproduct of our offense. We had to commit a lot of resources to offensive rebounding because we were one of the worst teams in the country at putting the ball in the basket. If we're even a little better at shooting from the floor I think it would also make a big difference on our defense.
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LawHall88
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In reply to AggieCrew44 • 3:51p, 10/19/24
AG
AggieCrew44 said:
Yes I would be shocked at more than 8

We have three high level guards now in Wade, Zhuric, and Manny. Last year we had two for most of the year and it caused problems. Two will be on the court at all times, if not all three together. We have a ton of front court depth and Solo being able to guard gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of playing big or small.

I'd be shocked if he isnt anything more than a situational piece barring injury

I also think Mills is going to be better than him as a true fish at basically everything but shooting
I think we're gonna play those three together a fair amount. There will still be some minutes available, the question is whether Wilcher or Heffner get them.
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GrayMatter
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12:00a, 10/20/24
AG
I really think it will depend on he fares on the defensive end. I can't imagine Buzz putting a player on the floor that can't defend well.
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DTP02
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In reply to GrayMatter • 1:14p, 10/22/24
AG
GrayMatter said:
I really think it will depend on he fares on the defensive end. I can't imagine Buzz putting a player on the floor that can't defend well.


Defense and rebounding. Carter got more minutes than he probably earned with his offense or defense by being a productive rebounder.
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bobinator
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In reply to DTP02 • 1:18p, 10/22/24
AG
Carter had some defensive issues with quicker players, but for the most part I thought Carter would have been a pretty good all around player, in large part due to his rebounding like you mentioned, if we didn't need someone on the floor who could score.

If we can get some more reliable scoring from the post this year I think Carter is a really good piece.

But again this goes back to why I like this team so much. We have a few guys who are solid as role players but were forced into larger roles last year than they really should be playing at this level.
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halfastros81
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10:26a, 10/25/24
AG
Going to be Buzz's best A & M team imo. Lot's of options to switch gears if the initial approach is not working.
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bobinator
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In reply to halfastros81 • 10:59a, 10/25/24
AG
halfastros81 said:
Going to be Buzz's best A & M team imo. Lot's of options to switch gears if the initial approach is not working.
Not only more options on the front line but just crazy depth for a college basketball team in this era.

Last year we started, in 32 of 36 games, a center that shot 29% from 2 as sort of a minutes burn.
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rlb28
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In reply to bobinator • 1:42p, 10/25/24
AG
bobinator said:
halfastros81 said:
Going to be Buzz's best A & M team imo. Lot's of options to switch gears if the initial approach is not working.
Not only more options on the front line but just crazy depth for a college basketball team in this era.

Last year we started, in 32 of 36 games, a center that shot 29% from 2 as sort of a minutes burn.
Thought you had a typo... nope, 29% is correct. LOL!
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