how dependant on excellent PG play is Bucky's system?

Serious Lee said:

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how dependant on excellent PG play is Bucky's system?

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Lots of shooting and full court press so I would imagine super important

Agreed, and I would argue that lack of size is more a manifestation of recruiting talent to Samford than anything else. Bucky would love nothing more than a few stretch 3's and 4's to run his offense. But as bob mentions, the stress on the defensive end with the press is going to be heavily reliant on athletes with length. I'm sure he is loving getting some guys in with those traits. I'm not expecting a tourney team next year, but I am very excited to see how this all molds together and how committed we remain to the system.

It'll be 2 platoon ball to keep up the pace. Looking forward to the season and I think we make the tournament.

Good luck with Pop.

At Tech, he was a one-man turnover machine, mostly because he just was not good at distributing the ball, and then he would get frustrated and try to make every play himself.

Granted, he was a true fresh and sophomore at Tech, so maybe he's matured out of that since then. But all too often his primary point of distribution was himself, and when he did try and pass it off, he often turned it over.

Wow

Tramp96 said:

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Good luck with Pop.

At Tech, he was a one-man turnover machine, mostly because he just was not good at distributing the ball, and then he would get frustrated and try to make every play himself.

Granted, he was a true fresh and sophomore at Tech, so maybe he's matured out of that since then. But all too often his primary point of distribution was himself, and when he did try and pass it off, he often turned it over.

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He averaged 2-3 turnovers per 30 minutes at Tech & Creighton. That's not too bad if he's got the ball a lot. Averaged about 4 assists the last 2 years. Tech's main complaints on the Reddit post when he committed to Houston were that he gets hot/cold shooting the ball.. and that his defensive identity might not align with Houston's.

Stats: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/pop-isaacs-1.html

Serious Lee said:

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how dependant on excellent PG play is Bucky's system?

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Kinda depends on what you mean, but probably less dependent than most. He wants to have multiple guys who can handle and lead in transition, and playing pressure defense all game leads to more opportunities for different guys to do that and less reliance on halfcourt sets and having distribution run thru one guy.

So we won't be as dependent on a single guy being the lead guard if that's what you mean. But we need multiple guys who are all capable of initiating and handling.

Pop has some flaws for sure but he's no more of a turnover machine than Wade Taylor was and Taylor was our best player on multiple NCAA tourney teams in spite of turnovers and poor shooting efficiency.

if you have a bunch of shooters on the team, then having a streaky shooter doesn't matter that much imo. If Pop is off, then Lane or Griffen or Mgbako can shoot more. it's not like a Buzz team when Wade was off and we had nobody else on the team who could make a shot so Wade had to keep forcing it and our entire offense suffered.

Texas_Ag11 said:

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Agreed, and I would argue that lack of size is more a manifestation of recruiting talent to Samford than anything else. Bucky would love nothing more than a few stretch 3's and 4's to run his offense. But as bob mentions, the stress on the defensive end with the press is going to be heavily reliant on athletes with length. I'm sure he is loving getting some guys in with those traits. I'm not expecting a tourney team next year, but I am very excited to see how this all molds together and how committed we remain to the system.

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I think with the talent coming in you have to expect a tourney team. I know they need to play together and gel, but I think we have coaches who can teach as well as recruit. I also think if the coaching staff didn't think they could field a tourney team, they wouldn't be recruiting so many players with 1 year remaining.

Im not sure Samford was all that small either, especially at #2-#4 they appear to have been playing bigger guys than their So. Con peers.

We could have a very balanced team.

thanks. thats what i wanted to hear

Highlights from last year:



Great pickup for Bucky.

Any chance he gets an extra year? I know the rules say no but seems like anything goes since covid.

He should have 2 years left, qualifies for a medical redshirt for 2024-5

ds00 said:

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Texas_Ag11 said:

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Agreed, and I would argue that lack of size is more a manifestation of recruiting talent to Samford than anything else. Bucky would love nothing more than a few stretch 3's and 4's to run his offense. But as bob mentions, the stress on the defensive end with the press is going to be heavily reliant on athletes with length. I'm sure he is loving getting some guys in with those traits. I'm not expecting a tourney team next year, but I am very excited to see how this all molds together and how committed we remain to the system.

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I think with the talent coming in you have to expect a tourney team. I know they need to play together and gel, but I think we have coaches who can teach as well as recruit. I also think if the coaching staff didn't think they could field a tourney team, they wouldn't be recruiting so many players with 1 year remaining.

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While I agree with the talent coming in we have a shot--- I don't think that's reflective of recruiting "1 and done" players.

Basically most d1 college basketball players are 1 and done, now. Either they run out of eligibility, have a great year and want to get paid more/possibly seek a bigger stage or are somewhat of a disappointment and you encourage them to move on/cut their nil.

So with that said, you recruit the best possible players you can get for next year... Every off-season. The goal is build up the image of the program, so the reloading gets somewhat easier over time.

bobinator said:

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Also Kennedy never actually said we'd play uptempo, he said something along the lines of wanting to look to get a shot up early in the shot clock but he didn't say we'd actually take that many. But playing a pack-line defense we were always going to be pretty slow overall.

Same with Buzz and his bizarro hybrid zone defense. We were always going to be pretty slow no matter what we did on offense.

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Both said what they said to suggest more engaging offense for players and fans. Both retreated to defense.

I'm feeling weird optimism for basketball next year.

greg.w.h said:

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bobinator said:

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Also Kennedy never actually said we'd play uptempo, he said something along the lines of wanting to look to get a shot up early in the shot clock but he didn't say we'd actually take that many. But playing a pack-line defense we were always going to be pretty slow overall.

Same with Buzz and his bizarro hybrid zone defense. We were always going to be pretty slow no matter what we did on offense.

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Both said what they said to suggest more engaging offense for players and fans. Both retreated to defense.

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Bucky actually has run uptempo offense and pressure defense his entire career, to an extreme, not just talked about it.

Bucky makes me excited for basketball recruiting. The complete opposite of Buzzkill.