BTO’s Missouri Postgame Report

[cncchris33]

No, this is his actual senior year.

*Redshirt senior year

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Red shirt senior year so he would be in his 6th year if he plays next season

Correct, the COVID year.

 

[cncchris33]

It might be a worthwhile experiment to have our posts take it strong to the hole until waived off. You never know how the game will be called and getting their bigs in foul trouble might be a plan. I mean take it all the way to the rim strong looking for contact. The young guys have shown pretty good hands and handles so you never know, especially in transition as KC and ZZ are getting the ball up court so quick the defense is still in transition too. Kessler is a special player but it might be worth risking some player possession fouls to test him. JJJ and Fulky could give it a go too. Sometimes they follow the play really hard and a jump stop instead of an immediate shot might get them some cheapies. Late in the half court might not work out though. Will be interesting to see how the staff deals with these guys down low.

I guess if we are going to test that theory and try to get Kessler in foul trouble, I'd rather it be Chandler driving to the hole that any of our current bigs trying to muscle one up in traffic. Maybe Aidoo, but he is still so raw, offensively. The rest are just too slow-reacting to throw off an athletic 7-footer like Kessler. See Uros last night. He got blocked twice in the same possession (second block was probably a foul, but still). Fulk can maybe shoot over the defense with his little high-release fade, but I don't trust any of them going right at the rim with Kessler in the vicinity.

 

[walkenvol]

We’re not really getting much scoring from low post sets anyway so I’m not sure if Kessler will affect the game there. It’s his ability to get blocks as a help defender (much like Pons did for us except Kessler is getting 2X the blocks) is where Kessler is making hay. Driving straight at him maybe but your banking on the refs to bail you out

 

[JCP201]

I've heard a few posters mention this. Do people actually believe JJJ is leaving for the NBA or any pro league?

Santi could go pro overseas, but I don't see him leaving early

Only thing now, with NIL, he could actually make money playing college ball. I hope he stays. He seems to really love everyone here.

 

[Volfansince1980]

There was a question if Santi was coming back this year or not. Supposed he was leaning towards pursuing a pro contract overseas but his family convinced him to come back. He has probably played himself into having more pro options following this season.
And JJJ could come back for another year and I think he will, but he has played four years, will presumably be graduating, and may look to make some money overseas as well.

JJJ has only played 3 years in college.

Josiah-Jordan James Stats | ESPN

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Finally, I don't mean this to sound harsh, but it's time to change the starting rotation. We struggle mightily to get a hot start with the current 5 we begin a game with. I find myself just waiting for the first TV timeout when rotations change, because Uros just provides nothing offensively. Teams aren't even guarding him, and how can you blame them when he can't finish inside 3-4 feet. We get off to some really slow starts before the U16.

I know that "it's not how you start, it's how you finish" but it sure would be nice to find a spark in the first 4:00 minutes of a game before the U16 instead of waiting for Ziegler/Aidoo/Fulky to rotate in. I don't think Barnes will change anything this late, but I'd really like to see us play with the lineup a bit and try and get some extra juice out of those first four minutes.

I’m with you on your general premise, but it’s a tough deal…to me it really looks like Barnes knows small ball is his best lineup most nights, it’s what he uses to close games and of late he’s gone to it just about like clockwork at the 10min mark of the 1st half if we aren’t in foul trouble, but that is the issue, we’ve had lots of foul trouble. To go small you really need the guards to stay out of foul trouble, especially Vescovi and James, you can maybe get away with one of ZZ/KC but to be at your best neither of those guys are in foul trouble either.

Right now ZZ is the spark off the bench and Barnes absolutely loves having that and it’s a great luxury to have, if you move him to the starting lineup what happens if we start sluggish and now you don’t have that spark to bring in? Dane mentioned it last night, he enters the game and is just an immediate jolt, so you risk losing that?

Last night Barnes went small at the 10min mark of the first half in a 17-17 game and went went into halftime up 37-26. In the second half he went small at 15min mark in a 44-34 game, won it 80-61.

So +18 from small ball in a 19 point win, that means your 2 big lineups were essentially net 0. That also means that the small ball group put up 57 points in roughly 25 minutes, which translates to 90 points over an entire 40 minute game. That also means defensively small ball group held Missouri to 36 points in 25 minutes, which translates to 58 points over an entire 40 minute game…so had that held for 40 minutes you were looking at a 90-58 game?!

Now 2 things…1-that probably wouldn’t have been sustainable 2-BHH/Aidoo played together some late with the game in hand and I didn’t exclude that, so if you want to remove that it would impact it some. Jury can be out on that 2 man post group but they didn’t play together at all earlier, so doesn’t change that any 2 post combo of BHH or Aidoo with Fulk or Plav (or those 2 together) wasn’t good.

All that to say…I think Barnes knows it’s his best, and I think it’s probably even his preferred grouping, but I think avoiding early foul trouble and ruining that lineup for the whole game is why he doesn’t make the move. He likes being able to have it for 25 of 30 minutes to close out a game, now maybe come tourney time he goes to it even sooner, that could be something to watch, but I get the move.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

*Redshirt senior year

What I meant, just meant non-COVID senior, could’ve been more clear.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I’m with you on your general premise, but it’s a tough deal…to me it really looks like Barnes knows small ball is his best lineup most nights, it’s what he uses to close games and of late he’s gone to it just about like clockwork at the 10min mark of the 1st half if we aren’t in foul trouble, but that is the issue, we’ve had lots of foul trouble. To go small you really need the guards to stay out of foul trouble, especially Vescovi and James, you can maybe get away with one of ZZ/KC but to be at your best neither of those guys are in foul trouble either.

Right now ZZ is the spark off the bench and Barnes absolutely loves having that and it’s a great luxury to have, if you move him to the starting lineup what happens if we start sluggish and now you don’t have that spark to bring in? Dane mentioned it last night, he enters the game and is just an immediate jolt, so you risk losing that?

Last night Barnes went small at the 10min mark of the first half in a 17-17 game and went went into halftime up 37-26. In the second half he went small at 15min mark in a 44-34 game, won it 80-61.

So +18 from small ball in a 19 point win, that means your 2 big lineups were essentially net 0. That also means that the small ball group put up 57 points in roughly 25 minutes, which translates to 90 points over an entire 40 minute game. That also means defensively small ball group held Missouri to 36 points in 25 minutes, which translates to 58 points over an entire 40 minute game…so had that held for 40 minutes you were looking at a 90-58 game?!

Now 2 things…1-that probably wouldn’t have been sustainable 2-BHH/Aidoo played together some late with the game in hand and I didn’t exclude that, so if you want to remove that it would impact it some. Jury can be out on that 2 man post group but they didn’t play together at all earlier, so doesn’t change that any 2 post combo of BHH or Aidoo with Fulk or Plav (or those 2 together) wasn’t good.

All that to say…I think Barnes knows it’s his best, and I think it’s probably even his preferred grouping, but I think avoiding early foul trouble and ruining that lineup for the whole game is why he doesn’t make the move. He likes being able to have it for 25 of 30 minutes to close out a game, now maybe come tourney time he goes to it even sooner, that could be something to watch, but I get the move.

Oh, I agree with most of what you said. I don’t want ZZ in the starting rotation either. I’m not sure what changes I would make. Maybe if Fulky is healthy you go BHH/Fulky. Maybe even BHH/Aidoo. I don’t know. I just have some concerns that in March that a slow start against a underdog type team could bite us a bit. We seem to never really get off the mat until we make our first substitution. Uros is just too limited.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Oh, I agree with most of what you said. I don’t want ZZ in the starting rotation either. I’m not sure what changes I would make. Maybe if Fulky is healthy you go BHH/Fulky. Maybe even BHH/Aidoo. I don’t know. I just have some concerns that in March that a slow start against a underdog type team could bite us a bit. We seem to never really get off the mat until we make our first substitution. Uros is just too limited.

I don’t remember what game it was semi recently but we had a great start with those 2 guys starting in the post against a quality team…Fulk has stated he wants to keep coming off the bench, so I’m not making that move. I also don’t think going with 2 freshman big guys is the best idea either, if you aren’t gonna go small out the gate I think this is what you gotta stick with.

 

[i2amavol]

I’m not sure it’d be the worst. I would test Kessler early and let aidoo go at him a few times. Might as well see if we can get him in foul trouble. If aidoo hasn’t scored or drawn a foul in the first 2-3 tries, maybe stop trying it. But trying to get kessler in foul trouble early wouldn’t be bad at all.

I agree with this.

I see two reasons for optimism in this game (just like I do before each Florida game in football, fwiw). Number one, it is a home game. Number two, we can put Aidoo/Uros on Kessler and BHH/Fulky on Jabari Smith. Those seem look good matchups, to me. Simply hold them to decent numbers, and we should be able to play with Auburn.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

I’m not sure it’d be the worst. I would test Kessler early and let aidoo go at him a few times. Might as well see if we can get him in foul trouble. If aidoo hasn’t scored or drawn a foul in the first 2-3 tries, maybe stop trying it. But trying to get kessler in foul trouble early wouldn’t be bad at all.

Agree on Kessler, Watched AU several times and he is a big part of their inside game. Guards are great driving the paint and dumping off to him for a dunk and he is good shot blocker. Getting him foul trouble would be a big help. I would use all 3 of our bigs to hack on him, push him and do everything to get him in foul trouble..

 

[walkenvol]

I agree with this.

I see two reasons for optimism in this game (just like I do before each Florida game in football, fwiw). Number one, it is a home game. Number two, we can put Aidoo/Uros on Kessler and BHH/Fulky on Jabari Smith. Those seem look good matchups, to me. Simply hold them to decent numbers, and we should be able to play with Auburn.

JJJ is the only guy on our team with a chance to guard Smith. Mashack might be able to help a few minutes

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

I guess if we are going to test that theory and try to get Kessler in foul trouble, I'd rather it be Chandler driving to the hole that any of our current bigs trying to muscle one up in traffic. Maybe Aidoo, but he is still so raw, offensively. The rest are just too slow-reacting to throw off an athletic 7-footer like Kessler. See Uros last night. He got blocked twice in the same possession (second block was probably a foul, but still). Fulk can maybe shoot over the defense with his little high-release fade, but I don't trust any of them going right at the rim with Kessler in the vicinity.

He is really good coming from off the ball but has gotten into trouble when drivers went at him and then did not complete the play till after changing the timing of the play with pumps or stops.

 

[i2amavol]

JJJ is the only guy on our team with a chance to guard Smith. Mashack might be able to help a few minutes

After I wrote that, I wondered if that is who would be guarding him. It just seems that Smith is able to get his shot at any time, against shorter players. Now, I know that JJJ is not exactly short, but it just seems like BHH and Fulky could provide at least a semblance of defense against his 3 point attempts, which appear to be almost unstoppable against most defenses.

Some players, I guess you just hope for an off night. That probably goes for Smith AND Kessler.

 

[cncchris33]

After I wrote that, I wondered if that is who would be guarding him. It just seems that Smith is able to get his shot at any time, against shorter players. Now, I know that JJJ is not exactly short, but it just seems like BHH and Fulky could provide at least a semblance of defense against his 3 point attempts, which appear to be almost unstoppable against most defenses.

Some players, I guess you just hope for an off night. That probably goes for Smith AND Kessler.

BHH is one of our worst defenders. Jabari Smith would eat him alive.

 

[johnfnkelly]

The few he got last night did not go well at all…

He's the best (healthy) back to the basket player on the team, imo. Last night was a good opportunity to get him going. He has the ability to bang down low and bully- needs to be more consistent with it.

 

[cardvolfan]

BHH is one of our worst defenders. Jabari Smith would eat him alive.

Brown diced up BHH in the lane 3-4 times last night. I can’t imagine what Kessler would do with his footwork.

 

[walkenvol]

He's the best (healthy) back to the basket player on the team, imo. Last night was a good opportunity to get him going. He has the ability to bang down low and bully- needs to be more consistent with it.

So the tallest midget in the room then?

 

[RockyTop140]

What has Aidoo done to make you think he could go at Kessler? Aidoo’s work in the post has been his worst thing to date. He looks comfortable shooting facing up from the free throw line but unsure with his back to the basket.

Is it not worth to at least try a couple times early to see if Kessler can get some fouls? I’m not saying I think aidoo can tear him apart in the post, but trying a few times early to see if he can get some fouls isn’t a bad idea.

 

[walkenvol]

Is it not worth to at least try a couple times early to see if Kessler can get some fouls? I’m not saying I think aidoo can tear him apart in the post, but trying a few times early to see if he can get some fouls isn’t a bad idea.

I’m no coaching savant, but if it leads to empty trips down the court then that’s not a good thing. Maybe your right and CRB will do as you suggest?

 

[johnfnkelly]

So the tallest midget in the room then?

If you can't acknowledge his ability then that's on you.

 

[walkenvol]

If you can't acknowledge his ability then that's on you.

Zero knock on his ability to develop into a quality post presence. 100% that he is currently not there based on his performances to date. Maybe the mythical switch will flip Saturday, who knows.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I agree with this.

I see two reasons for optimism in this game (just like I do before each Florida game in football, fwiw). Number one, it is a home game. Number two, we can put Aidoo/Uros on Kessler and BHH/Fulky on Jabari Smith. Those seem look good matchups, to me. Simply hold them to decent numbers, and we should be able to play with Auburn.

Man, if you think BHH guarding Smith is a good matchup I’m not sure what you’ve been watching this year.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

JJJ is the only guy on our team with a chance to guard Smith. Mashack might be able to help a few minutes

Smith loves the pull up J, which at 6’10” and with a 7’1” wingspan I’m afraid he will get whenever he wants on JJJ…I agree JJJ is likely our best option on him, I’m just worried we don’t have anyone that if he’s on is really gonna be able to bother him much.