Burning Questions for Coach?

[billiken_roy]

i have only recently become a proponent of playing the two at the same time. i think ian has shown a lot of out court skills that many of us never dreamed of, and second, husak has improved quite a bit offensively and there is no denying he is a defensive force with his 17 foot wing span.

when the team comes to us that has a power forward with the ball skills to make ian a true liability defensively, i agree with david, we can react then if that negative outweighs the height advantage.

[billiken_roy]

well maybe in those instances that bryce is in the game some changes can be made defensively to allow bryce's defensive assignment to be more of one that patrols the paint and not necessarily guard a specific opponent. i am not advocating husak and ian together for 40 minutes. just short stretches each half. switch it up. go play that triangle and two for 3 minutes. or just an old fashioned box and one or god forbid, a staight zone. after 2 or 3 minutes of that, remove one and go back to the pack man to man.

[kshoe]

in my opinion is that Bryce isn't even getting all the minutes when Ian is out of the game. I'm not as high on Bryce as others on the board but we haven't really seen what he can do. Last year, Brad buried Ian on the bench until Tom get hurt and only after he started playing Ian meaningful minutes did we see the guy that averaged 10 pts and 6 boards per game last year.

Last few games with minutes not played by Ian and minutes played by Bryce.

Fordham--10--5

St. Joes--10--2

Xavier--9--9

Richmond--2--0

UMass--8--2

GW--5--2

For the year Ian has not played 167 minutes while Bryce has logged only 92. I realize not every situation calls for a 7'1 center but you would think Bryce could have played more of those 75 minutes where they both sat on the bench.

[brehms14]

Hey everyone, Reggie is doing well, he did have offers to go abroad, but decided against it. So he's working ,rehabbing and preparing for the Summer...will keep u posted.

I got my password mixed up when all the hacking went on, and we got emails to change our password, I changed it and could not remember what it was..but I've continued to read the board, just couldn't post..

[3star_recruit]

"too many things can go wrong when you are constantly fast-paced."

We've never been constantly fast paced -- how can he be so sure that the positives won't outweigh the negavtives? Wisconsin Miwaukee executes it fine with similar athletes. Bruce's Pearl's Tennessee squad seems to be managing just fine with similar athletes and worse rebounding. Or if he doesn't want to go full bore, Brad could try emulating Wichita State. Even West Virginia, who is heavily reliant on the three point shot, gets out a lot more in transition than we do.

Transition basketball requires committment and a game plan but it isn't brain surgery. We've GOT to get some easy baskets -- we're not going to coax the other team into shooting 35% every night.

[Billikan]

I am amazed at your suggestion, although I think it might be interesting to see the two of them together for a few minutes where there are two bigs on the opposing team, only because it is amazing how you have changed your attitude about these two guys. You were so negative early last year and predicted that neither would ever amount to anything and now you want them both on the court at the same time. With respect, as I said last year, it takes time for big young players to develop and they are both developing nicely! I am happy to see that you are more positive about them now.

[billiken_roy]

both have accomplished a lot physically in the last 12 months. i have no problem admitting that and it excites me to think what more can be accomplished if they continue to work hard. i want ian especially to work even harder this summer than last as while he is obviously in better shape and stronger, it is surely possible to improve even more physically. who knows what that might do for him!

[Tonka]

I am for it at least in the respect that we've seen so many other lineups. Why not these two? We've literally seen everything else. I'm not sure in theory it would work, but then again a lot of things happen that have suprised us. What's it going to hurt in certain situations?

Remember in the Georgetown days when Mourning and Mutombo were on the same team. I always wanted to see those two in the game at the same time, but seem to remember we didn't see it to often. Correct me if I am wrong, but think they both played better when being alone in the game. While our 2 don't necessarily reflect the duo of Mourning and Mutombo but just a situation that I recall. While it may not be a great comparison, I would say Husak's style is more Mutombo's and Ian's is more Mourning's.

[Quality Is Job 1]

I'm pretty sure that Mutumbo and Mourning played simultaneously for significant minutes every game. Also, don't forget Shaquille O'Neal's freshman year at LSU when he and Stanley Roberts were twin towers for that squad, which also had Chris Jackson (who changed his name to something like Mamuud Abdul-Rauf). I believe that squad played in the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight.