MarcAg said:

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Wilcher seems lost so often on defense. He also is so slow and not good at getting open. He doesn't need much space to get a shot off, but he does a really poor job of getting open. But I like he got more minutes than Jace last night.

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MarcAg said:

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Wilcher seems lost so often on defense. He also is so slow and not good at getting open. He doesn't need much space to get a shot off, but he does a really poor job of getting open. But I like he got more minutes than Jace last night.

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After last night I'm trying to think of what's worse...completely lost but just running around looking for your defensive position again, or looking back at the guy you damn well know you should be guarding, and making the conscious decision to just leave him in the corner so you can try to make a highlight steal and you whiff only for the man you should have been guarding to drain a 3 at a critical moment.

Our whole defense was like two steps slow last night. A lot of credit goes to Hubbard who had one of those "seeing through the matrix" games for them last night, but some of it was our own doing. Even live I noticed two straight possessions where Carter and Taylor weren't sure who they were guarding and the unguarded guy ended up wide open in the corner.

Hopefully just a one-game funk kind of a deal, but everyone was bad on defense last night. Fouling jump shots, out of position, not being aggressive enough when pushing baseline, it was a full system breakdown.

What I thought was interesting, and no clue if State was doing this on purpose or if it just kind of worked out for them, but almost like an "amoeba defense" blitz like we've seen in football, there were a couple of times they were just kind of standing around on offense and then they'd jump to spots and someone would be open because we'd be trying to find guys.

Would be an interesting way to throw off our defense if you could do it on purpose.

Third Son said:

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The scouting report on Manny is pretty simple, He's not going to pass and he's going to dribble on the perimeter for 10-15 seconds then he'll try to drive it into the lane. He needs to be a spark player off the bench, a role he's more comfortable in anyway.

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Drive it into the lane and try his darndest to get the ball for a shot from his left and if he can't either turn it over or miss with his right. He reminds me of this kid my son played against in soccer all the time. They would just start yelling 'no right foot, no right foot' and the kid would try to prove them wrong and flub it. Stop his left and he was useless.

Honestly at least when he drives it into the lane something is happening. Not something good necessarily, but something.

Him just standing around dribbling 30 feet from the basket would make me want to pull my hair out if I weren't already bald.

You would know better than I; but it doesn't seem like he is even drawing that many fouls when driving. You think the refs are watching his flailing and are like "Nope, not touching any part of that." ?

We talking about Manny or Wade?

Manny practically never draws fouls because he either does a jump shot in the paint or on the rare occasion he does go at the rim his arms and legs are all over the place so he's not going to get calls.

For Wade, I don't think he draws fouls on drives at the same rate because defenders have learned not foul him. He still gets some out on the perimeter with his usual shenanigans and he ramps it up when the other team is in the bonus so his FT rate is probably similar but he's just not drawing the same number of fouls, but I'm sure the top of the scounting report against us is DON'T FOUL 4. He's the best free throw shooter in school history but he's about a 40% shooter inside the arc, there's just no reason to foul him and I think teams have figured that out.

Another thing though, and I don't like complaining about officiating, but they've gone WAY too far back the other way from when freedom of movement was a big point of emphasis a couple of seasons ago, and Wade, more than maybe any other player in college basketball, needs those calls.

He's not super athletic and he's little anyway, so if the officials are going to let defenders put their hands on our guards, push on their hips, etc. then he's just not going to be anywhere close to as effective. This is actually something that might help us in the NCAA Tournament if we get some new refs. But the SEC has been extremely physical on the perimeter this year, I think it has an outsized effect on Taylor.

manny is PJ TUCKER 2.0 cuz hes still dribbling....


every time my kids watch with me and he touches the ball i tell them " watch hes about to dribble around and take a terrible shot" except that game winner...but notice he didnt dribble

As bad as everyone is trashing Manny's offense, I am more concerned with his defense.

czar_iv said:

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As bad as everyone is trashing Manny's offense, I am more concerned with his defense.

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It's both, but his defensive showing is arguably more egregious relative to his talent and skills.

His biggest problems offensively are skill-related. He's not a good enough handler to get thru traffic unscathed or under control or be able to see the floor while driving, nor a good enough shooter to force people to close out hard on him on the perimeter. It is what it is. People like to talk about his talent, but what he has is athletic ability but insufficient skill.

I've joked before that it seems like Manny starts every season like he's re-learning the game of basketball. And we are using him incorrectly too often by having him be the lead guard when he's in instead of playing off the ball, although some of that is trying to by in-game rest for our two primaries.

On the other side of the court, though, there's nothing holding him back from being a very good defender. He knows the defense and he has the athleticism and wingspan to be a + defender. He just doesn't come close to hitting that potential very often, whether that be a focus/mentality/confidence issue or whatever you want to ascribe it to.

I will say, however, that our defense in general was discombobulated last night. We had better defenders than Manny looking more lost or just a step slower than usual as well. I'm curious enough about it to do a rewatch if I have time to see if I can try to figure out if it was something State was doing or just that type of night.

bobinator said:

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I think I'd start Garcia at the 3

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And kick him in the nuts every time he shoots a 3 too flat. And kick him in the shin every time he hesitates and then shoots.


Shoot it with confidence and a little arc? Green light.

Hesitate even a little? Nah

Hits the front of the rim and the ball never flies higher than the top of the backboard? You come sit with me.

Manny's a great athlete who just never became a good basketball player in any type of structure.

Refs stopped bailing him out, and so did scouting reports.

Put him in the post. As a lot of post players, when he gets it, it ain't coming back. But at least his 'probing' is limited. Turn face and drive.

bobinator said:

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This is actually something that might help us in the NCAA Tournament if we get some new refs. But the SEC has been extremely physical on the perimeter this year, I think it has an outsized effect on Taylor.

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This will be something to come back to when the tournament begins I agree that last nights game was very physical and they were allowed to put their hands on our players. Hubbard is effective because he's allowed to use his body and off hand to shield and push defenders out of the way.

If the tournament is ref'ed the same way as the SEC, we will see a lot of SEC teams advance. If they have quick whistles, I can see some SEC teams [that lack depth] have a hard time advancing.

I'm asking this question because I don't have any data to have an opinion but I see Jaylen Lee on the roster and have wondered if he has the makings to handle the ball in the backcourt??

I don't think ball handling is the issue really. Phelps is typically good and Manny is Manny and sometimes the light goes on with him. The problem last night was that Phelps was particularly bad at handling the ball and kept getting caught up in bad locations on the court. Wade was bad at handling the ball last night too. And Manny didn't help the situation with him taking a thousand dribbles just to go two feet.

Not Wilcher but would start Hef if we are going to keep going two bigs. He was playing very well when he was starting before the ankle thing and we weren't starting so slow on offense. He's a willing shooter and is actually like the one wing/guard who is actually good at off-ball movement (not including Wade)

Manny as the third guard on the court is a problem. He doesn't move off ball at all and things get very clunky very fast. If he the 2nd guard that's fine, but all three is a problem

I'd even take Solo or Jace in there to start over manny. Just can't have him out there with the other two guards in. At least solo and Jace will stand in the corner on offense and defend

bobinator said:

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Our whole defense was like two steps slow last night. A lot of credit goes to Hubbard who had one of those "seeing through the matrix" games for them last night, but some of it was our own doing. Even live I noticed two straight possessions where Carter and Taylor weren't sure who they were guarding and the unguarded guy ended up wide open in the corner.

Hopefully just a one-game funk kind of a deal, but everyone was bad on defense last night. Fouling jump shots, out of position, not being aggressive enough when pushing baseline, it was a full system breakdown.

What I thought was interesting, and no clue if State was doing this on purpose or if it just kind of worked out for them, but almost like an "amoeba defense" blitz like we've seen in football, there were a couple of times they were just kind of standing around on offense and then they'd jump to spots and someone would be open because we'd be trying to find guys.

Would be an interesting way to throw off our defense if you could do it on purpose.

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I would definitely give credit to Jans and not say that it was by accident. I would also credit only having 2 days to prepare with travel included.

Now, if we had 3 days to prepare, who knows? It could a close loss or a close win.

TjgtAg08 said:

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Feels like once we replaced Hefner in the starting lineup with Manny we've started REALLY poorly in games. I'd try Wilcher or Hefner and just keep the ball in Wade and Phelps hands and get it to Payne down low.

Manny just grinds things to a halt.

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HELL NO. Manny may doom us on offense but Hefner's defense is way worse than Manny's offense. If you pull Manny it is for Wilcher or Garcia. That's your only options.

Solo is also an option.

Does the team keep a running +/- log? Really curious how that looks.

Aston04 said:

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Does the team keep a running +/- log? Really curious how that looks.

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According to ChatGPT:

As of February 20, 2025, the Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball team has several players with notable box plus-minus (BPM) statistics:

• Wade Taylor IV: +9.9
• Henry Coleman III: +8.6
• Andersson Garcia: +8.2
• Pharrel Payne: +8.1

But it couldn't provide lineup combinations with the highest +/-.

Our 5 best players are Payne, Garcia, Washington, Phelps, and Taylor.

Lots of combinations to play off those 5, but that's the best combination of scoring, defense, rebounding, and ball security.

Clearly, the ball has to go inside with that group. Clearly, either Washington or Garcia has to be more assertive.

I do think it somewhat depends on what the other team has in the post. A smaller faster 4 is better for Garcia but a bigger stronger one is better for Coleman.

Coleman is also a more reliable scorer than either Garcia or Washington if that's something the game flow is dictating we need.

nm

bobinator said:

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I do think it somewhat depends on what the other team has in the post. A smaller faster 4 is better for Garcia but a bigger stronger one is better for Coleman.

Coleman is also a more reliable scorer than either Garcia or Washington if that's something the game flow is dictating we need.

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Agree to all of that. Just saying that I'd rather make changes to my best lineup, rather than keeping some of them in reserve. You could have Hef or CJ in there by the first TO if you're stagnant. Or 10 other combos.

Can he play linebacker?

Had two tabs open

94chem said:

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Our 5 best players are Payne, Garcia, Washington, Phelps, and Taylor.

Lots of combinations to play off those 5, but that's the best combination of scoring, defense, rebounding, and ball security.

Clearly, the ball has to go inside with that group. Clearly, either Washington or Garcia has to be more assertive.

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And our 6th best by far is Coleman. Coleman is an underrated defensive piece for us and has been a pretty consistent producer offensively this year. Either way, Coleman in the group or one of the others, we need to be running more 3 big lineups, and we should almost never run a lineup that doesn't have at least two bigs on the floor.

If we have 200 minutes to hand out,

4, Zu, Gochi, Andy, Henry, and Solo are going to get 180 of those.

The other 20 should be split between H, Manny, Jace, and CJ.

Solo is getting less minutes this year (22.1 mpg) than last year. Baffling to me! I thought it might be foul trouble, but he's fouling less this year than last year also. Idk!

Only Wade Taylor is getting 30 minutes per game at this point

I think this is kind of just an anomaly due to his injuries. If you take out the Oregon game where he only played 5 minutes before he got hurt and the Texas game where he was out for a while after he rolled his ankle he's playing basically right at what he played last year.

bobinator said:

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I think this is kind of just an anomaly due to his injuries. If you take out the Oregon game where he only played 5 minutes before he got hurt and the Texas game where he was out for a while after he rolled his ankle he's playing basically right at what he played last year.

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That's still no bueno. Dude needs to be a 30 mpg player, imo

Eh, sometimes. But there's also games where he doesn't score at all and for a big chunk of this season he was turning the ball over at WAY too high a rate. It's gotten better recently but for a lot of this season the only player with a higher turnover rate than Solo was Phelps, and at least Phelps also scores and creates assists.

It's hard to play Solo and Garcia at the same time because the other team basically doesn't have to guard either one very closely, which then makes things even harder for Taylor, Phelps and Payne.