Comments on: I.T. is Key, But This is Venoy’s Team Next Year

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:06:47 +0000

While I LOVE what VO brings, in terms of intensity, I would hardly call him our best penetrator. So many times, VO drives, ignores the open man on the wing, and instead A) takes an ugly, off-balance shot which misses badly, or B) gets a charge called. Isiah is far more athletic in the air, and is able to make these off-balance shots.

By: oldtacomadawg

oldtacomadawg — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:52:08 +0000

Josh,

Excellent points about V.O. Ditto what RJ said about different home & road starting lineups.

Did you see Percy Allen’s blog on Enes Kanter today? His high school coach said he’s being recruited by other schools, yet “Thornton said. “I just haven’t heard from them (the Huskies). I know he likes Washington. Maybe I’m confused. They could be calling him directly or calling his parents. I don’t know. They had a relationship with the kid before I entered the picture. So maybe that’s it. But I haven’t seen them or heard from them.” Thornton said it’s been nearly a month since he’s talked to anybody from Washington.

Sounds like our coaches need to communicate better with Kanter’s coach. I’d love to have this kid in purple and gold. I hope the coaches don’t get complacent and let him slip away.

By: RJ_31

RJ_31 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:57:57 +0000

I firmly believe in a home/road concept to the starting lineup. If baseball can frequently exercise right/left platoons with success, there’s no reason a college hoops coach couldn’t do the same. Here, it appears to almost be a no-brainer. You have a freshman (Gaddy) who has all the talent in the world, but needs a little time to develop before he can truly take over the Pac 10 — which I believe he will do.

Then you have a junior (I would say the team’s de-facto second senior), who brings intensity, defense and a solid BballIQ.
You start the freshman at home and let Venoy use the DawgPack to feed his mania coming off the bench.

On the road, you let the veteran, and the defensive specialist, set the tone early and let Gaddy come off the bench once the early-game mania has worn off (as it does in all but the best student sections).

This does, however, require Venoy to rein in his fouls as discussed in the link
but.

Either way it’s clear that what we are doing at home isn’t broken, and shouldn’t be fixed. Meanwhile, what we are doing on the road DEFINITELY doesn’t work, so change is probably in order.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:39:00 +0000

I think it”s a bit too soon to tell. It seems previously, leaders are forged in the fires of trial. If this season ends as it has been shaping up for, I will be very interested to see how the players respond. I would give a lot of credit to Dentmon and Brockman for responding to the debilitating 2008 season. I’m sure Jon spent his summer of freethrow shooting thinking about the two he missed to lose to Valpo at home. Justin reworked his entire shot and severely improved decision making. Quincy also exercised his demons by 2 AM shoot arounds in the gym and spend time with Appleby in the offseason.

If things don’t work out for the team this season. I wonder who will come back in fall with renewed vigor. Honestly, that seems more of IT’s personality than any of the seniors-to-be. If he is gonna lead, he’s gotta come out swinging next season.