Gaston or Bakary

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UpAndUnder43

UpAndUnder43

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So I realize it was against a very weak opponent but it looks like Gaston might be a more viable option than BK to backup our usual bigs. He caught a pass in transition and finished, seems to hedge ball screens well and looks more athletic. I think he is a little smaller though.

BK provides basically nothing offensively and 5 fouls defensively. I’d like to see Gaston more in the non-conf to see if he can give meaningful minutes in the conference.
 

If I never have to see Konate try and get back to basket after he hedges to help on pick and roll and be 4 steps too late getting back I will be ok with that...should never play man to man with him in game
 

Konate or Gaston

Sid Hartman said:
If I never have to see Konate try and get back to basket after he hedges to help on pick and roll and be 4 steps too late getting back I will be ok with that...should never play man to man with him in game
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It is funny that I was thinking the same thing on my drive home and this was one of the first threads. Konate is a little better rebounder but Gaston definitely has better hands.

I'm sure if Gaston was better Pitino would make that change. Tough to say Gaston is better when they are playing the sisters of the poor.
 

I think as fans we should appreciate we have both these guys off the bench this season. Are they great Big 10 big men? No. But they are serviceable and will both help us at some point this season
 

Konate by a mile. Not even close. This was #351 out of 352, folks. God, you guys have short memories. BK was hugely important last year when Lynch was in foul trouble (every other game).
 


I’d like to see more of Gas for no other reason than it would be interesting. Of course only in garbage time. Tonight he looked better than Konate. I’m sure coach knows best, though.


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Gaston is better offensively, just makes to many mistakes on defense.
 

I don't understand why it's a binary choice. Use Konate when size is needed. But it doesn't have to be all or nothing.
 

This was Gaston's most notable performance in a long time, possibly in his entire career. I do think it's notable (and mentioned it in the game thread) that Pitino clearly put him in because he was upset with Bakary's defense and it wasn't due to the game being out of hand. The nice thing about having a good team is that Pitino can afford to try Gaston (or Jamir Harris who got a DNP against Providence) in new roles against the tougher non-conference foes without feeling like he's really risking a tourney berth if they flop and it leads to a loss.

Even if Gaston passes Bakary (which I am not sure is realistic), we will still need Bakary's size against teams like Purdue.
 



GopherJake said:
Konate by a mile. Not even close. This was #351 out of 352, folks. God, you guys have short memories. BK was hugely important last year when Lynch was in foul trouble (every other game).
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This. Jay Joo had a nice game though
 

I like to see Gaston because it means we are ahead by 30 points with only a couple minutes left in the game
 

Everyone looks good against a team ranked #351. Have Gas face off against most any starting Big10 center for a game and the other guy would have a career night triple double. Agree with GopherJake - BK has limitations but he did have 3-4 very good games last year, lets hope he doubles it. He does seem to have the same stupid foul disease as our starting center which for BK more often than not negates any positives he adds when he's on the floor.
 

If BK is a better rebounder, does that also take into account him loosing half those rebounds by someone swiping the ball away because he can't hold on to it?
 




DLguy said:
If BK is a better rebounder, does that also take into account him loosing half those rebounds by someone swiping the ball away because he can't hold on to it?
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I want Konate to be better because I just like the guy. He's got heart and I like his effort. But his coordination is a minus 1000 and his basketball IQ seems to be about 10.
 

My guess is that Pitino will limit Bakary against actual competition, as shown in the Providence game. There will be some Big Ten teams that will force us to go with BK for short stints due to size (MSU, Purdue, Wisconsin), but whenever possible we should go small with Fitzgerald and Murphy. Bakary gives us next to nothing on both ends of the floor anyway. He might get his hands on more rebounds than Fitzgerald on the defensive end, but those balls end up clanking out of bounds anyway. If crap buckets are going to be given up on the defensive end, I'd rather have Fitzgerald on the floor when we bring it back down on offense.

Now if we could only combine the skills of BK and The Gas Man - we'd have a serviceable backup 5.
 

jovs said:
Gaston is better offensively, just makes to many mistakes on defense.
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In the first couple of minutes he did look completely lost on defense but he improved a bit after that. He did have three blocks and a steal in 8 minutes.

My problem with Bakary this year (other than his inability to hold onto the ball in traffic) is that he's appears to have lost all confidence on the offensive end. As a soph, he was starting to develop a pretty fair hook shot but he's abandoned that since. He appears not to want to put a shot up unless he's unguarded and gets a perfect feed (or offensive rebound) right next to the basket.

Although he's clogging the lane pretty well against drivers and his size is still a factor in altering shots, he's not blocking shots so far this season like he did last year.

I know Bakary backed up Lynch fairly well at times last year but, given the amount of minutes he's played over his career, he should be more developed than he is now. I know Gaston has been God awful in the past but maybe he deserves a few more opportunities this year to see if anything has changed.
 

cjbfbp said:
In the first couple of minutes he did look completely lost on defense but he improved a bit after that. He did have three blocks and a steal in 8 minutes.

My problem with Bakary this year (other than his inability to hold onto the ball in traffic) is that he's appears to have lost all confidence on the offensive end. As a soph, he was starting to develop a pretty fair hook shot but he's abandoned that since. He appears not to want to put a shot up unless he's unguarded and gets a perfect feed (or offensive rebound) right next to the basket.

Although he's clogging the lane pretty well against drivers and his size is still a factor in altering shots, he's not blocking shots so far this season like he did last year.

I know Bakary backed up Lynch fairly well at times last year but, given the amount of minutes he's played over his career, he should be more developed than he is now. I know Gaston has been God awful in the past but maybe he deserves a few more opportunities this year to see if anything has changed.
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Probably gets swatted by Lynch all the time in practice. That would affect my confidence too lol.


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It was good to see Gas out there and do some nice things. It looked like he was enjoying it. Maybe we will see some more down the road.
 


How much bigger is BK than Gas?

One of the better things about Gas is that you can send your friends the gas pump emoji every time he gets in the game.

I was impressed by his hands and athleticism. I realize he isn't great but I'd like to see him get more run.
 


GopherJake said:
(Most of) you guys are nuts. Last year, JayJew played 9 minutes in 4 games FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON. Nine. He made one FG and had 2 Reb. BK played in 33 games, averaging 9.7 minutes per game. The team had the best season since 1997. But yeah, it's a toss up. Pitino just didn't see it.

Get real.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/minn/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/2016-17/stats/season_stats.pdf
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With all due respect, the reason we’re even having this discussion is because Bakary has looked like hot garbage. The minutes he’s on the floor have been a disaster. It was frequently the same last year. We aren’t going to win a Big Ten championship with Konate having to play 10-15 minutes per game. And you know we’re generally not going to get more than 25 minutes from Lynch. So some combination of Konate,Diedhou, Fitzgerald or Hurt has to step into that void.
 

Bryce Webster said:
My guess is that Pitino will limit Bakary against actual competition, as shown in the Providence game. There will be some Big Ten teams that will force us to go with BK for short stints due to size (MSU, Purdue, Wisconsin), but whenever possible we should go small with Fitzgerald and Murphy. Bakary gives us next to nothing on both ends of the floor anyway. He might get his hands on more rebounds than Fitzgerald on the defensive end, but those balls end up clanking out of bounds anyway. If crap buckets are going to be given up on the defensive end, I'd rather have Fitzgerald on the floor when we bring it back down on offense.

Now if we could only combine the skills of BK and The Gas Man - we'd have a serviceable backup 5.
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Strongly disagree. The rim protection is much worse better when Fitz is playing the 5 on defense than when Konate is. Konate hasn't been getting a ton of blocks this year, but his size is at least somewhat of a deterrent for opponents that try take it in the paint and he has been altering a few shots a game. Fitz hasn't done either of those things when he has played the 5 so far.
 

WanderingGopher said:
With all due respect, the reason we’re even having this discussion is because Bakary has looked like hot garbage. The minutes he’s on the floor have been a disaster. It was frequently the same last year. We aren’t going to win a Big Ten championship with Konate having to play 10-15 minutes per game. And you know we’re generally not going to get more than 25 minutes from Lynch. So some combination of Konate,Diedhou, Fitzgerald or Hurt has to step into that void.
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I agree with most of this. But it will not be JayJew.
 

WanderingGopher said:
With all due respect, the reason we’re even having this discussion is because Bakary has looked like hot garbage. The minutes he’s on the floor have been a disaster. It was frequently the same last year. We aren’t going to win a Big Ten championship with Konate having to play 10-15 minutes per game. And you know we’re generally not going to get more than 25 minutes from Lynch. So some combination of Konate,Diedhou, Fitzgerald or Hurt has to step into that void.
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We can only hope that Gas' nice outing either inspires Konate to focus on simply grasping the basketball when it comes his way or it inspires Gas to think he could play more if he could learn where to be on defense. Konate is much better on defense than Gas. Coaches will live with bench players that can't play offense well but they won't live with bench guys that can't play defense.
 

die hard gopher said:
Strongly disagree. The rim protection is much worse better when Fitz is playing the 5 on defense than when Konate is. Konate hasn't been getting a ton of blocks this year, but his size is at least somewhat of a deterrent for opponents that try take it in the paint and he has been altering a few shots a game. Fitz hasn't done either of those things when he has played the 5 so far.
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Konate has 1 block this season, and that's against trash competition. He simply leans his arms over the defender and gets called for obvious fouls. He's incapable of simply moving his hand 6 inches to block a shot. He will play as little as Pitino can possibly get away with.
 

GopherJake said:
(Most of) you guys are nuts. Last year, JayJew played 9 minutes in 4 games FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON. Nine. He made one FG and had 2 Reb. BK played in 33 games, averaging 9.7 minutes per game. The team had the best season since 1997. But yeah, it's a toss up. Pitino just didn't see it.

Get real.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/minn/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/2016-17/stats/season_stats.pdf
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There's nothing wrong with my memory of Gas' historical performance and no one said anything about Pitino's judgement of talent. Sometimes people improve and some later than others. Gas isn't likely to become good but he might be better this year than he was before.
 

Bryce Webster said:
Konate has 1 block this season, and that's against trash competition. He simply leans his arms over the defender and gets called for obvious fouls. He's incapable of simply moving his hand 6 inches to block a shot. He will play as little as Pitino can possibly get away with.
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I'm well aware of that but there is more to being a rim protector than shot blocking ability. Konate's presence in the paint is still much better than having Fitz play the 5. Konate actually played well against Western Carolina on defense and altered quite a few shots and deterred others from shooting it. Pitino even gave him credit in the post game conference in regards to that. When Fitz has played the 5 against Providence as well as this last game, the opponents got whatever they wanted in the paint. It was bad. That hasn't necessarily been the case when Konate has played even though he fouls a lot and isn't the most fluid player.
 


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