I look forward to seeing this combo in the tournament. 2 dudes that can handle the ball a bit can make shots in prime situations. We use to solely depend on Taylor, but with Phelps beside him, it's going to be fun. Then to add the rebound potential with Garcia Payne and solo, let's go

This is the year 2025
Baseball basketball and football.
Finally this is the year

warrington74 said:

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This is the year 2025
Baseball basketball and football.
Finally this is the year

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One of those is not like the other, no offense to Elko.

But I like how you're thinking.

Man I was the leader of the "Boots is actually kinda overrated" crowd but he did exist. Scored 20 and 27 in our tournament games last year.

I think Phelps makes us better defensively but it's not like Taylor was playing 1 on 5 on offense last year.

Having two guards that can score is huge in the tournament.

bobinator said:

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Man I was the leader of the "Boots is actually kinda overrated" crowd but he did exist. Scored 20 and 27 in our tournament games last year.

I think Phelps makes us better defensively but it's not like Taylor was playing 1 on 5 on offense last year.

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Boots was really good offensively in both our tournament games last year, but I wonder if Phelps would have made the difference in that UH game with his defense. Maybe not. A year older Solo probably would have helped a lot as well.

Last year we just weren't equipped, defensively, to defend multiple high-level perimeter guards. Thats probably what has me the most excited about this year (the OU game not withstanding, that looked like last year's defese).

In retrospect, to me the most impressive part of our defense has been the relative inability of the OU and tu guards to effectively penetrate our lane. It looks like our guys have been able to get in front of penetrating attempts.

The Tide and UK guards are very good as well, so we'll get a really good reading on our guard defense after the next two games.

coloradoag69 said:

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In retrospect, to me the most impressive part of our defense has been the relative inability of the OU and tu guards to effectively penetrate our lane. It looks like our guys have been able to get in front of penetrating attempts.

The Tide and UK guards are very good as well, so we'll get a really good reading on our guard defense after the next two games.

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Key for us is to not collapse too much when someone penetrates the lane because that leaves shooters open for the kickouts

That's what ou was doing to us and what has plagued us in the past

We need to help on defense but do a better job not leaving guys wide open looks from 3 on the kickout

NyAggie said:

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coloradoag69 said:

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In retrospect, to me the most impressive part of our defense has been the relative inability of the OU and tu guards to effectively penetrate our lane. It looks like our guys have been able to get in front of penetrating attempts.

The Tide and UK guards are very good as well, so we'll get a really good reading on our guard defense after the next two games.

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Key for us is to not collapse too much when someone penetrates the lane because that leaves shooters open for the kickouts

That's what ou was doing to us and what has plagued us in the past

We need to help on defense but do a better job not leaving guys wide open looks from 3 on the kickout

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There was never a more apparent game of this specific issue than the Penn st beatdown in Des Moines.

My only counter to this is that if the other team has someone you can't guard that wants to get into the lane and distribute the ball it doesn't matter what defense you're running.

The "wide open shooter" problem we've had at times is less because of how we collapse on drivers and more because we'd have some bad defenders on the court.

Against Oklahoma we just simply weren't playing good fundamental defense in the first half. We were out of position a lot, had guys doing the Savion Flagg trademark floaty dance where they're not close enough to help but also not far enough away to recover on the shooters.

And one thing that is absolutely true about this defense is if a first line defender loses their man, as long as the offense is patient, they're going to find an open shooter because once we miss our first rotation we're going to sprint out at shooters.