Richmond from da' MD couch ....

[Clock_Tower]

Why is it a surprise that Jim Crews restricts a player (and hinders his development) to a certain position/task to fill a need for the team and to hopefully win in the short run? What's wrong with telling a 6'8" forward he first needs to play on the interior/inside the paint if we have no one else who can do this? How is this any different than telling Malik that he needs to play the 4 this year instead of the 3? If deemed not fair among the bigs, maybe Crews allows Gillmann to shoot the 3 because he lacks the strength to play inside like Reggie does? How is this any different to telling Dwayne Evans that he needed to play the 4 last year despite being only 6'4" tall? Did it help Luke Meyer's development to play the 4 as well? For that matter, I recall Scott Highmark having to guard many an opponent who posted him up down low because we lacked bigs and would play 3 (sometimes 4 guards)? Didn't Grawer promise Julian Winfield as a condition of his recruitment/scholarship commitment that he would play PG for us so that he could develop and play that in the NBA. I don't recall that going well after we saw Julian struggle at dribbling/protecting the ball? Doesn't this happen at all programs and with all coaches?

[TheChosenOne]

I love McCaw and was begging for us to land him last year. My posts weren't a shot at him. They were more a reflection on how what some thought was a clear cut case for Milik a couple months ago really isn't that clear cut.

I didn't take it as a shot at McCaw and I agree that this argument was much different a month ago.

[slufan13]

To be fair, Milik has played the 3 the last 2-3 games and hasn't been good at all.

[billikenfan05]

To be fair, Milik has played the 3 the last 2-3 games and hasn't been good at all.

He plays he's best ball in the post imo

[hsmith19]

To be fair, Milik has played the 3 the last 2-3 games and hasn't been good at all.

His jump shot was supposed to be better than Evans', but so far I'm not seeing it. He thinks of himself as a guard, but that's looking more and more to me like a kid wanting to play the position he thinks he would on an NBA roster.

[BILLIKENSRG]

@ Chosenone

My original post was not meant to say Agbeko's perimeter skills are underutilized. He is a 6'8" 240 lb young man who can score and rebound in the paint. He should be used in that capacity. The concern is when the staff tell/order a player he absolutely cannot use a skill he has learned, you will make him overthink the game. The game is based on reading and reacting, and this comes from repetition. Last thing I would want my player doing is thinking about if the shot he is taking is outside of 6 feet of the rim instead of if it is a good and makable shot. How would we know today if Gillmann were a decent 3 point shooter or not, if he didn't take those open 3s. This is a skill that he has obviously worked hard on. If the player shows during game action that they are not ready to utilize this skill then the staff should by all means prohibit that player.

@ C-Tower

No, I meant minutes distribution; Not abandoning rotations and schemes that could work if given time to evolve in a game situation. (How many rotations or schemes have we utilized for a minute, a single breakdown occurs and we are gone away from it for the rest of the night). A player going out when they have just had a series of very solid to very good possessions only to replace them with someone who was previously struggling; As well as players playing extended minutes that aren't playing well that night. But you have others on the bench that could be tried at that point (more so troubling when there is not a whole lot of separation between the players ). From a players standpoint, this can cause separation in the locker room due to thoughts of favoritism.

[Clock_Tower]

@ Chosenone

My original post was not meant to say Agbeko's perimeter skills are underutilized. He is a 6'8" 240 lb young man who can score and rebound in the paint. He should be used in that capacity. The concern is when the staff tell/order a player he absolutely cannot use a skill he has learned, you will make him overthink the game. The game is based on reading and reacting, and this comes from repetition. Last thing I would want my player doing is thinking about if the shot he is taking is outside of 6 feet of the rim instead of if it is a good and makable shot. How would we know today if Gillmann were a decent 3 point shooter or not, if he didn't take those open 3s. This is a skill that he has obviously worked hard on. If the player shows during game action that they are not ready to utilize this skill then the staff should by all means prohibit that player.

@ C-Tower

No, I meant minutes distribution; Not abandoning rotations and schemes that could work if given time to evolve in a game situation. (How many rotations or schemes have we utilized for a minute, a single breakdown occurs and we are gone away from it for the rest of the night). A player going out when they have just had a series of very solid to very good possessions only to replace them with someone who was previously struggling; As well as players playing extended minutes that aren't playing well that night. But you have others on the bench that could be tried at that point (more so troubling when there is not a whole lot of separation between the players ). From a players standpoint, this can cause separation in the locker room due to thoughts of favoritism.

OK. But you are not the first one or only one to question the substitution patterns by the staff. Might this be confusing to the players (as well as to us fans) because the substitutions are controlled by more than one coach? Are the minutes pre-determined before tipoff regardless of how the kids are playing that day? Can you give us an good example regarding the assistant coaches pulling in different directions?

And as to Reggie, absolute prohibitions are often used by coaches trying to teach the basics. Maybe these techniques are working in that I have seen alot of improvement over the year. Personally, I am extremely disappointed at the level all three Sophs started from at the beginning of the year in that I assumed they were better/further along than they were last year, I assumed they would be ready to contribute from Day 1 this year and Crawford and Reggie have taken nearly the whole year to become decent players. Tanner? Now that's a different story.

[MB73]

Of course I question some of the moves that Crews has made, but he is with them all the time, especially at practice, meetings, film sessions, gets feedback on them from his staff, and of course played and coached for Bobby Knight and then has been a head coach for 27 years in D-1. So how do you know what the bottom line is?

If Reynolds didn't play the other night, I do not throw a hissy fit. Hell, Reynolds may have missed assignments the previous game, he might have screwed up in practice, he might have been deemed the odd man out when looking at matchups, or he might have pulled a muscle in warmups. I dunno. But neither do you.

A new poster says Agbeko has been told that he should not take outside shots... that is OK with me, that is what we need, an inside scorer and rebounder. Some here are aghast. I think Agbeko is high potential for us his jr & sr years. I wonder 1) if it is true that he has been told not to shoot outside a certain rannge, is the same coach saying it is OK for Yarbrough to throw up all of those 15-18 footers? and 2) why hasn't anyone commented on Cheaney... isn't he supposed to be the one to mentor Yarbrough and other bigs? I am not saying that it is not Crews final decision, but I've noticed that some were excited about getting Cheaney, now no one associates or mentions him as our bigs do not perform optimally. It is all Crews.

[BILLIKENSRG]

OK. But you are not the first one or only one to question the substitution patterns by the staff. Might this be confusing to the players (as well as to us fans) because the substitutions are controlled by more than one coach? Are the minutes pre-determined before tipoff regardless of how the kids are playing that day? Can you give us an good example regarding the assistant coaches pulling in different directions?

And as to Reggie, absolute prohibitions are often used by coaches trying to teach the basics. Maybe these techniques are working in that I have seen alot of improvement over the year. Personally, I am extremely disappointed at the level all three Sophs started from at the beginning of the year in that I assumed they were better/further along than they were last year, I assumed they would be ready to contribute from Day 1 this year and Crawford and Reggie have taken nearly the whole year to become decent players. Tanner? Now that's a different story.

Confusion and lack of trust amongst teammates and towards the staff has set in based on what I am understanding. Don't believe minutes are predetermined. I wish I could give a specific example but that would betray a few people so will have to stay away from that one.

I to have been disappointed with where the Sophs began the season at. I will give the staff a pass on Agbeko because he had shoulder surgery immediately after the season last year and was not cleared to do ball activity until mid September (6 months is a lifetime away from the game for an active player). Crawford and Tanner is on the staff. But one has to wonder based just on Manning, whom I have not seen any growth from in 3 years. When players regress or are slow in development as a unit, I would begin to look more at what the staff as oppose to the players. Some programs prepare players to play a specific role (I think this can be dangerous because a player can exceed, meet or fail at this and team pays the price), other programs stress versatility in skill development and throw players out there (I prefer this method, which has a greater chance of working even if players struggle early).

[hsmith19]

Crawford has been pretty much the same player all year, outside an early stretch when he was evidently sick. He's still not very good defensively, and I think that limits him more than some of his biggest fans seem to think, but he has been a "decent player" basically all year. He's really the only guy who has been consistently decent on offense all season when given opportunities. His play is basically the very last thing I can understand being disappointed about this year.