Lineups

[94Horn]

Does anybody think we'll be seeing much of Balbay and Mason playing together next year? It seems to me that we can't afford to have 2 players who absolutely won't/can't shoot out on the court at the same time. It sucks when the defense can play 5 on 3 against you. Also, does anybody have a theory on what happened to Mason's shot? He was 43% from the 3 point line his freshman year, but his shooting percentage has plummeted since. Weird.... A theory on what happened to Conner this year would also be appreciated. I think he must have been playing sick/injured to have regressed as he did.

 

[TheFied]

I could not understand why we had Balbay when we had Ward towards the end of the game. And I preferred Ward solo out there....

 

[linkdapimp]

i honestly think conner just layed an egg, before the season started nba scouts said he could be a lottery pick, so he probably felt a lot of pressure from that. plus the absence of DJ doesnt help his game either... he had trouble getting a shot of so yeah, without dj he wasn't open has much as he was last year

 

[ToxicShock]

I don't know that anyone said he'd be a lotto pick. I think some speculated that he could be drafted.

 

[GoHornsGo90]

NBADraft.net had him as a lotto or near lotto pick.

 

[orangecat]

In the final two minutes, we could have had a lineup of:

DJames
Zaver Ward
DPittman
AJ
GJohnson

now that's two guys who can shoot and drive, another one who thinks he can shoot a three(James) who can drive(sometimes) and rebound extremely well, a fairly strong utility player(screens, rebounding, GJohnson), and a dominant player down low, who just happens to have 4 fouls. (tell him to be careful, don't go out of your way to block shots, just concentrate on solid D and getting rebounds.)

But we didn't. I just don't get it. Zaver-hot, Dogus-not, Pittman-hot, Connor-not.

And if you're Duke who do you double with that lineup?

If Duke faces that lineup, I don't think they double anybody.

AJ can strike any time, Zaver's hot, Pittman is hot except from the free throw line, but remember Duke is running out of big men. They're fouling out pretty quickly at this point.

?? What am I missing?

 

[Horns11]

His name? It's Varez.

And Johnson fouled out, that's why Conner was in.

 

[wadster]

Dexter was really having a hard time not being played the last 2 minutes. Not sure the reasoning, except his free throws had sucked a bit earlier.

 

[orangecat]

I thought Johnson fouled out at 11.7 seconds.

 

[orangecat]

found it, yep 11.7

0:11 Foul on Gary Johnson 69-72

 

[orangecat]

at 11.7, I guess Rick felt like he could depend on James and Atchley to rebound, and he knew Connor was a better three point threat than Pittman. But, he still had two timeouts left. He could have easily inserted Pittman after the first free throw, catch the rebound immediately push the ball to halfcourt, call a timeout. You've got 5-6 seconds left, you put Connor in, and run your desperation three point play.

You may not believe this, but I really was thinking we need Pittman in there to get this rebound. Then when I heard we had two TOs, I couldn't believe he didn't use at least one of them.

I know it doesn't matter. we lose because of missed FTs, Turnovers, etc. It just gets me that a coach is in a game that close and doesn't use all of his timeouts.

 

[Hu_Fan]

Near the end of regular season, it hit me that Balbay and Mason should never be on the floor at the same time. If you follow that rule, the rest of the lineup would seem to work.

I also would have consider Ward a starter after Big 12 tournament time, and Chapman my strong #6 man off the bench and relied on him more heavily.

 

[TexanWolv]

I just have to say that Chapman and the word "strong" don't fit at the moment. I really hope we can say that in the future.