Yeah, and I wasn't trying to say there was anything wrong with that. What I'm saying is that Kruger's flexibility allows him to be more consistent from year to year when he doesn't get the recruits he wants.Originally Posted by Eielson
Yeah, and I wasn't trying to say there was anything wrong with that. What I'm saying is that Kruger's flexibility allows him to be more consistent from year to year when he doesn't get the recruits he wants.
Bennett isn't a world-beater, that's for sure. But his size and length allows him to be serviceable on the interior, at least defensively. He had his moments this year on defense, and defense is also a very teachable skill (it's mostly about positioning and how you move your feet). As for Spangler, the guy is definitely more of a workhorse than he is an athlete. Yeah, he's not an outside threat (though earlier this year his 15 foot jumper was pretty good). But I'm 99.999% positive that he's ideal at the 4 with another big man as a complement. You don't just replace a guy like Spangler with someone else. He's too good as a rebounder, particularly on the offensive end. Guys that can consistently pull offensive rebounds are irreplaceable.
Ideally we'll probably start Spangler and whoever steps up at the 5 spot. My guess is that we'll rotate Bennett, McNeace, and occasionally Lattin/Spangler at the 5 spot. At the 4, we'll probably rotate Spangler with Lattin and occasionally someone like Buford. Whatever the scenario, what I do know is that assuming these recruits are as good as their rankings suggest, we'll have enough depth on the interior to do things that we weren't capable of this year...on both sides of the ball.
I'd like to see a rotation like this next year (again, assuming the new guys can step up):
C/F: Bennett/McNeace/Lattin
F: Spangler/Lattin/Buford
G/F: Buford/Cousins/Hield
G: Hield/Booker/Cousins
G: Woodard/Hornbeak
That's starting to look like a decent lineup, IMO. We probably won't be an interior powerhouse like KU, but at least we won't be badly over-matched in most games.
My guess is that next year we'll start pressing the guards a little more and shooting the passing lanes to get cheap steals. You saw some of that this year with guys like Hield and Cousins whenever we were guarding well on the inside. But most of the season our guards had to come down and double team and scrounge for rebounds. I think that's why we allowed open 3-pointers and drives that got deep into the paint. We just spent too much effort on double-teaming and recovery.
Anyway, that's just my opinion, for what it's worth. I guess I look at it a little more positively based on the fact that so far Kruger has taken guys that were 2/3-star players and for much of the season had them playing well above what everyone thought they were capable of. That and the vast improvement we saw from guys like Neal, Clark, Hield, and Cousins...and now we have some guys coming in that potentially have even more talent...so it makes me wonder what Kruger will do with it. I find it encouraging, that's all.
Total bunk!
Strange, this was much closer to a Billy Tubbs team than a Calvin Simpson team.
Not a big NCAA bball fan, though I'll school most in regards to the NBA... so I DO know basketball. I also know who Lon is.
He's a program building coach... nothing more. He gets teams on the map, or returns them to respectability.
0-5 in OT games is a huge indicator, that several have pointed out, yet just gets ignored, or glossed over. We got worked in both the Big XII tourney and the NCAA.
His record tells me, he can get guys to play at or above their level... but he's weak on X's and O's.
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