Myron blog: Tubby Smith says he might change starting lineup

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Good article. I agree that Blake is our best PG option at this time, but he is also our best shooter by far, and with our dearth of relaible shooters, to me it would be priority one to move Blake back to the 2 guard so that he can concentrate on shooting and scoring and hopefully getting to the line as opposed to being the distributor and facilitator and the guy moving the ball up the floor.

It's a tough call either way. It's an intimidating prospect to think about letting a true freshman man the PG position in B10 play, but in my opinion Blake's shooting and scoring ability trump every other consideration at this time.
 

Seany said:
It's a tough call either way. It's an intimidating prospect to think about letting a true freshman man the PG position in B10 play, but in my opinion Blake's shooting and scoring ability trump every other consideration at this time.
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I completely agree w/ that. At this point, IMO, we have to take the risk of starting Mav in order to get Hoff some shots. This team just doesn't have enough scorers for it to have its best one handling the ball.
 

I go with option 4 as it allows ration of the bigs from the bench to get some rest and the same with the back court, a Purdue they really wore down in the first half and never fully recovered in the second. Better to get the frosh fully involved to have any chance of avancement in the NCAAs
 

Option No. 2


PG Williams, SG Hoffarber, F Mbakwe, F/C Sampson and C Iverson-Before you call me crazy, read what Tubby Smith told me about Williams Friday: "He's probably the guy that's gotta get in better shape than anybody on the team because ... we play him at four, we play him at three, we play him at two. He may end up at point guard some." I think this lineup is a long shot. Williams isn't a point guard, either. But Smith threw out the possibility playing him there. Would it work? Not sure. He was an inside guy in high school. And he's had his struggles in a transition to the wing. But he has a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in the last five games. Plus, Smith mentioned the slim possibility. He's long. Maybe he'd be more aggressive if the controlled the ball. I know it's a reach. I doubt it will ever happen.


Are you kidding me?
 


Glad to see this. Purdue is a smart club, and they exploited the downside of having Hoff at the point. It's clear now that it's not a real solution. Tubby's a good coach and making good adjustments. That said, we have to be realistic about what this depleted squad will be able to accomplish. I think we can still hope big, but we have to temper our expectations.
 

To me, Mav is the only other option. I think anything else is turn-over city waiting to happen and Blake will end up doing 80% of the ball handling anyway.
 

although it wont happen and i wouldnt want it to, rodney at point would do wonders for his game. He needs to learn how to handle the ball.
 




Option 8

Armelin, Hoff, Williams, Mbakwe, Sampson

Armelin almost never turns the ball over from pressure- his problem is being too aggressive at the wrong time. This would have ot be cured. Otherwise he is capable. He makes things happen.

My second choice is Maverick -who has shown he can hit an outside shot which is rare on this team.
 

I agree with most, that it is time to throw Mav to the wolves and let everyone else play their regualar position. It doesn't have to be that way for 40 minutes a game, but Blake has to play the 2 some.
 

The problem is that Hoffarber is a poor man's 2 (outside of raw shooting ability) who knows the game and, more importantly, his game to be effective. I don't want to seem like I'm bashing him, but he has a lot of games where he plays his natural position yet is very quiet. There's no guarantee that him playing the 2 is going to open up a lot of scoring in any given game. Too bad we don't have Joseph & Joseph.
 

This is why Tubby is aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each of his players so as to put together the best combination for various games and situations within each game. All I ask is that he put millions2spare in when our opponent goes to the foul line because then even he could get a simple rebound off missedfreethrows.
 



Another terrible Myron article.

Armelin isn't an option as a starter? Rodney at PG? :eek:
 


Zeppelin Gopher said:
Another terrible Myron article.

Armelin isn't an option as a starter? Rodney at PG? :eek:
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And there it is. Myron's been doing pretty good as of late. Normally someone says this within the first 2 or 3 posts.
 

panndder said:
The problem is that Hoffarber is a poor man's 2 (outside of raw shooting ability) who knows the game and, more importantly, his game to be effective. I don't want to seem like I'm bashing him, but he has a lot of games where he plays his natural position yet is very quiet.
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You do realize Blake is the 16th ranked team's leading scorer, right?
 

What, like 3 out of 21 games he's been quiet? Man, he's so inconsistent. I hate having a top 5 three point shooter in the country who's scored in double figures almost every single game. He also passes the ball too well.

panndder said:
I don't want to seem like I'm bashing him, but he has a lot of games where he plays his natural position yet is very quiet.
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I really dislike the idea of putting Maverick in the starting lineup. When he was in the game against Purdue with Blake, Blake still did the majority of the ball handling. To put it bluntly, I don't think Maverick is a Big Ten player and I think we need to limit his minutes.

I really don't know what the solution is, as our best option to handle the ball (and admittedly it's not a great one) is also our best option to shoot from the perimeter. If Blake was a better perimeter shooter off the bounce, it wouldn't be as big a deal to have him handling the ball, but he's far more effective as a catch and shoot guy. It would really, really be helpful if Rodney, Austin, or Chip could be even a mediocre perimeter shooter.
 

Mav is the only pg on the team and he played 6 min vs Purdue, Hoff played 40. That tells the tale.

The point guard position is weakened w/o Nolen and or Devoe. Yes Hoff has done an admirable job, but he is not a pg. There is also no one to play pg defense like Nolen.

The shooting guard position is basiclly a black hole without Hoff being there. We've gone from one 3pt threat to basiclly zero and there is no one that is even a decent ball handler.

The bench has gone from short to shorter.

Sorry to sound negative but I have concerns going forward. Teams will use the Purdue model and have at least one guy 'glued' to Hoff for most of 40 miniutes.

I think our best chance is if Hollins can step up.
 

Hoffarber is the leading scorer, yet he plays 5.5mpg more than Mbakwe and leads him by 0.1ppg. Furthermore Mbakwe has been sharing spacewith two other veterans, whereas Hoffarber has been playing with 1 for most of the year (and 0 now) at guard. Trust me, I want him to be playing 38-40 minutes per game until Nolen comes back (and probably even after), but he's not a guard who scores at will so moving him to his natural position does not guarantee an extra x number of points per game from him.
 

We still need Blake at point. He scored 20 against NU. I think it is more likely that chip/mav/hollins start scoring than playing a solid PG. Chip also could play 2 and run the transition offense which could give Hoff some looks.
 

Keep the lineup as is or make it Mav, Hoffarber, Mbakwe, Sampson, Colton. Putting Rodney at point would be absolutely insane :eek: !!! I would rather have Saul Smith out there playing point than Rodney!
 

RoyalGopher said:
Keep the lineup as is or make it Mav, Hoffarber, Mbakwe, Sampson, Colton. Putting Rodney at point would be absolutely insane :eek: !!! I would rather have Saul Smith out there playing point than Rodney!
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Just thinking of another possibility. It is possible that Tubby may take a look at replacing Williams with Armelin, slide Maverick in at the point and move Hoff to the 3 to go three guards periodically. With Mbakwe and Sampson we still have plenty of size- especially against the Hoosiers. Williams is very effective on defense, but on offense, other than the occasional off the charts dunks, he adds almost zero threat on the offensive side.
 


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