All Things Rakeem Buckles Thread

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shickmyjanski said:
Hope it works out for next year. We def need some more size. EE has had his problems with foul trouble and Mo is a big question mark.
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I think he's become a much smaller question mark, pun intended. I'm feeling good about him giving us at least 15 quality minutes per game. Would be awesome to have Buckles too though.
 

GophersOnTheRise said:
I think he's become a much smaller question mark, pun intended. I'm feeling good about him giving us at least 15 quality minutes per game. Would be awesome to have Buckles too though.
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They don't even play the same postion, so not sure Mo's minutes would be based of Buckles' playing time.
 

GameDay said:
They don't even play the same postion, so not sure Mo's minutes would be based of Buckles' playing time.
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I wasn't saying they were. Just saying I think Mo will probably be able to give us 15 quality minutes and it would be nice to have Buckles on the roster too. If Mo wasn't losing weight like he is and hypothetically wasn't able to contribute in Pitino's system, Buckles might have been used as a 5 here though out of need. With Mo losing weight, that would no longer be a necessity, but it would still be nice to have him to play the 4 (and possibly some 5 if needed).
 

Mo and Buckles will compete for minutes. Don't get so stuck on positions 4 or 5 it makes little difference. At times we will play small and Buckles and say Buggs would be on the floor together. Too small? well let the other team worry about matching up with our quickness and hopefully as Pitino gets his players three point shooters.
 




Awesome. My guess the depth chart will likely look something like this...

PG-Dre/Dre/Maverick
SG-Malik/Wally/McNeil
SF-Austin/King/Oto
PF-Buckles/Buggs
C-EE/Mo

Seems like Buggs and King could play both forward spots.
 


MadtownGopher said:
Awesome. My guess the depth chart will likely look something like this...

PG-Dre/Dre/Maverick
SG-Malik/Wally/McNeil
SF-Austin/King/Oto
PF-Buckles/Buggs
C-EE/Mo

Seems like Buggs and King could play both forward spots.
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I'd put Austin as the starter at SG. I don't see switching our second best player's position right before his Senior year as a smart move. Austin's a great defender at the SG spot (Smith is...ahem, not.) & all that would be lost if he was having to guard SF's next year. I think Smith is perfectly suited to the 6th man position coming off the bench to shoot the ball & be the go-to scorer when Dre's cold or sitting down.

I think both King & Oto will be mostly playing the PF position unless we get Buckles (Hope, hope!).

Buggs doesn't have a PF bone in his body. He doesn't rebound & he isn't physical. He's a jump shooter/3 point shooter, who finishes well in transition & blocks shots on D.
 



Costa Rican Gopher said:
I'd put Austin as the starter at SG. I don't see switching our second best player's position right before his Senior year as a smart move. Austin's a great defender at the SG spot (Smith is...ahem, not.) & all that would be lost if he was having to guard SF's next year. I think Smith is perfectly suited to the 6th man position coming off the bench to shoot the ball & be the go-to scorer when Dre's cold or sitting down.

I think both King & Oto will be mostly playing the PF position unless we get Buckles (Hope, hope!).

Buggs doesn't have a PF bone in his body. He doesn't rebound & he isn't physical. He's a jump shooter/3 point shooter, who finishes well in transition & blocks shots on D.
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The 2 and 3 will be interchangeable. So put Smith at the 3 and Austin at the 2 if you like. You didn't say who you think should start if Smith comes off the bench. I don't see any way Smith doesn't start given his experience in Pitino's system, his seniority, and high praise so far. How do you know what kind of defender he is?
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
I'd put Austin as the starter at SG. I don't see switching our second best player's position right before his Senior year as a smart move. Austin's a great defender at the SG spot (Smith is...ahem, not.) & all that would be lost if he was having to guard SF's next year. I think Smith is perfectly suited to the 6th man position coming off the bench to shoot the ball & be the go-to scorer when Dre's cold or sitting down.

I think both King & Oto will be mostly playing the PF position unless we get Buckles (Hope, hope!).

Buggs doesn't have a PF bone in his body. He doesn't rebound & he isn't physical. He's a jump shooter/3 point shooter, who finishes well in transition & blocks shots on D.
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If Austin is our 2guard, who is our small forward? We have a bunch of minature guards.

In reality, Pitino has a 3-guard offense. So we are good. However, if the gophers had a more traditional offense, Austin would have to start at the 3. There is nobody else.

And you sure know a lot about Buggs' game. I must have missed all the playing time he got last year while he was redshirting.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
If Austin is our 2guard, who is our small forward? We have a bunch of minature guards.

In reality, Pitino has a 3-guard offense. So we are good. However, if the gophers had a more traditional offense, Austin would have to start at the 3. There is nobody else.

And you sure know a lot about Buggs' game. I must have missed all the playing time he got last year while he was redshirting.
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I've only seen Buggs play in the exhibition game last year, but he has good size, inch or two taller than Mbakwe, with some strength I though PF would be his natural position, not sure that he is athletic enough to guard a 3 in the B1G, I also thought he had a ways to go in playing the PF position, I thought this year would be a development year with the following year getting significant minutes.
 

MadtownGopher said:
The 2 and 3 will be interchangeable. So put Smith at the 3 and Austin at the 2 if you like. You didn't say who you think should start if Smith comes off the bench. I don't see any way Smith doesn't start given his experience in Pitino's system, his seniority, and high praise so far. How do you know what kind of defender he is?
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I'd bet on Dre, Smith and Austin.
 



jovs said:
I've only seen Buggs play in the exhibition game last year, but he has good size, inch or two taller than Mbakwe, with some strength I though PF would be his natural position, not sure that he is athletic enough to guard a 3 in the B1G, I also thought he had a ways to go in playing the PF position, I thought this year would be a development year with the following year getting significant minutes.
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I only remember film and what his coach said last year. Buggs said in his first interview he was recruited as a SF. Definitely looks 6-9 and has the wingspan of a 7 footer. I was very impressed with his mid-range game and he has 3 point range. His coach said he got a lot of deflections, which I had never heard a prep coach say before, and is a good free throw shooter. In other words, I'm glad he's going to be wearing the maroon and gold, but have no idea how good he is. Also, I did correctly predict he would be redshirted!!!
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
We have a bunch of minature guards.
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YD2GSPl.jpg
 


JimmyJamesMD said:
If Austin is our 2guard, who is our small forward? We have a bunch of minature guards.

In reality, Pitino has a 3-guard offense. So we are good. However, if the gophers had a more traditional offense, Austin would have to start at the 3. There is nobody else.

And you sure know a lot about Buggs' game. I must have missed all the playing time he got last year while he was redshirting.
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Why not use Buggs at his natural position of SF or Oto/King?

I don't know where this talk of a 3 guard offense came from because the only thing I've read Pitino say about it is that "We'll even play 3 guards at times", which is a far cry from a 3 guard offense as his standard line-up. Ryan James said the same basically (paraphrasing) "I'm not sure Pitino has the personnel to run a 3 guard system this year, even if he wanted to. That might be something we see more of next year & beyond.". The two glaring problems we had last year were 1) the lack of a second ball handler, which hopefully will be solved with the addition of Mathieu to play some minutes behind Dre & 2) lack of a go-to scorer when Dre was out of the game. Instead of Dre & Smith having a competition to see who can shoot more often, why not bring Smith off the bench as the scorer for the second unit or when Dre's gone cold? I think our returning back court is very solid & I don't necessarily see Smith as an upgrade over Austin. What does Smith give us, 3 extra points a game? How many points does he cost us defensively or in terms of upsetting the chemistry between the Hollins'?

I watched Buggs play a game in High School where he drained 5 three pointers + a couple 2 pt jumpers. I was able to watch him enough to realize he's a jump shooter, shot blocker & transition athlete, not a bruiser. Then there was the article in the Strib last year that profiled Buggs where he said he'd never played PF in his life until working there in practice last year. He said Rodney was showing him his post moves (insert joke here!). People who've watched him practice say the same thing, that he's a talented player (a future star perhaps) but that he's not a PF. Last week jaymil (who's opinion I respect) posted this after watching Buggs play at Pulley which seems to confirm what I've seen & heard...

"Buggs has so many things going for him. Great athleticism, great length, he's putting on some weight, and he's got a pure shot. He's still raw though. He doesn't rebound at all. He shies away from contact. On D, though he's quick to catch up, he can still get beat with a first step and he gets lost on screens. And he fades around on every shot. At Pulley yesterday he trailed a play, got a pass, shot an open three in rhythm, and was still fading away. Not ideal. I'm not sure he'll be able to contribute as much as I'd previously hoped."
 

MadtownGopher said:
The 2 and 3 will be interchangeable. So put Smith at the 3 and Austin at the 2 if you like. You didn't say who you think should start if Smith comes off the bench. I don't see any way Smith doesn't start given his experience in Pitino's system, his seniority, and high praise so far. How do you know what kind of defender he is?
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I'd probably go with....

Starters...
PG- Dre Hollins
SG- Austin Hollins
SF- Charles Buggs/Oto/King (If he's eligible)
PF- Rakeem Buckles (If he's here), Oto/King/Buggs if he's not
C- Elliot Eliason

Reserves...
6) SG Malik Smith (Go-to-guy for the second unit. I think of him like a Lawrence Westbrook & what I thought the perfect role for him would have been.)
7) PG Dre Mathieu (I'm not expecting an upgrade, just a guy who can competently handle enough minutes to give Dre a breather)
8) C Mo Walker (Will get his minutes)
9/10) F Oto Oseaniks/F Joey King (Position still in flux as we don't know if Buckles or King will be eligible)
11) G Maverick Ahanmisi (Mav will get minutes over McNeil imo. He's bigger, stronger, more experienced.)
12) G Daquan McNeil (I never expect too much from true Freshmen.)
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
I'd probably go with....

Starters...
PG- Dre Hollins
SG- Austin Hollins
SF- Charles Buggs/Oto/King (If he's eligible)
PF- Rakeem Buckles (If he's here), Oto/King/Buggs if he's not
C- Elliot Eliason

Reserves...
6) SG Malik Smith (Go-to-guy for the second unit. I think of him like a Lawrence Westbrook & what I thought the perfect role for him would have been.)
7) PG Dre Mathieu (I'm not expecting an upgrade, just a guy who can competently handle enough minutes to give Dre a breather)
8) C Mo Walker (Will get his minutes)
9/10) F Oto Oseaniks/F Joey King (Position still in flux as we don't know if Buckles or King will be eligible)
11) G Maverick Ahanmisi (Mav will get minutes over McNeil imo. He's bigger, stronger, more experienced.)
12) G Daquan McNeil (I never expect too much from true Freshmen.)
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Why can't Wally play SF? Or at all?
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
"Buggs has so many things going for him. Great athleticism, great length, he's putting on some weight, and he's got a pure shot. He's still raw though. He doesn't rebound at all. He shies away from contact. On D, though he's quick to catch up, he can still get beat with a first step and he gets lost on screens. And he fades around on every shot. At Pulley yesterday he trailed a play, got a pass, shot an open three in rhythm, and was still fading away. Not ideal. I'm not sure he'll be able to contribute as much as I'd previously hoped."
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You know, I've heard that too, but what little video I've seen of Buggs from the Pulley games (mainly in Mo's highlight video) included Buggs playing a lot of body on Big(ish) Mo. I know it's a tiny sample size, but if he's willing to bang around with Mo, it gives me some hope that he'll be able to improve on that part of the game.
 


I think we are all hoping Buckles can play. I am also unsure of why everyone insists we need a 6'9" sf. Look at the sf in the big ten last year, they are basically 6'4" to 6'7" guards: Oladipo, Marble, Stauskus, thompson, Byrd, R. Davis, Evans, etc. I guess Thompson has the closest build to Buggs. I am not sold that just because someone can shoot the 3 makes them an ideal sf. Can they guard one of the players mentioned above? Can they dribble against pressure, etc? I think we are all of agreement if we don't have Buckles at pf, pf could be a big weakness.
 

march madness said:
I think we are all hoping Buckles can play. I am also unsure of why everyone insists we need a 6'9" sf. Look at the sf in the big ten last year, they are basically 6'4" to 6'7" guards: Oladipo, Marble, Stauskus, thompson, Byrd, R. Davis, Evans, etc. I guess Thompson has the closest build to Buggs. I am not sold that just because someone can shoot the 3 makes them an ideal sf. Can they guard one of the players mentioned above? Can they dribble against pressure, etc? I think we are all of agreement if we don't have Buckles at pf, pf could be a big weakness.
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Also bear in mind Buckles is 6'7" and coming off two knee surgeries. Any way you look at it, rebounding and interior defense is going to be a big challenge for next year's team. We need a major leap from Elliott in those areas as he might be the one guy we have who's capable of it.
 

WanderingGopher said:
Also bear in mind Buckles is 6'7" and coming off two knee surgeries. Any way you look at it, rebounding and interior defense is going to be a big challenge for next year's team. We need a major leap from Elliott in those areas as he might be the one guy we have who's capable of it.
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Walker can rebound. His defense was horrid when he was 50 pounds heavier- maybe he can fix that as well.
 

Having a full court trapping and up tempo game might be the only thing that saves us from teams killing us inside and on the boards.
 

march madness said:
Having a full court trapping and up tempo game might be the only thing that saves us from teams killing us inside and on the boards.
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I think EE and Mo will save us from getting killed inside and on the boards. It's not like those dudes are small and the way they've reportedly been working out this off season, i think we'll see them have their best season yet. They are both going into their 4th year.
 

MadtownGopher said:
I think EE and Mo will save us from getting killed inside and on the boards. It's not like those dudes are small and the way they've reportedly been working out this off season, i think we'll see them have their best season yet. They are both going into their 4th year.
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Agreed. I'm optimistic about them, especially EE. To me his biggest problem last year was confidence, and I think he'll flourish under Pitino.
 

Buckles coming here and playing well is the key to a possible NCCA bid.
 


I doubt we will see MO and EE, at the same time--on the court together, very often.
 

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