This schedule was put together by CJD because he knew we were going to be very young and wanted to grow up the team slowly. We are playing 5-6 games against teams that are good enough to get into the big dance. We aren’t fully healthy yet but the key injured guys are back and the team will trend upward IMO.
i agree with wex and don't buy the position this is a very young team especially when you consider college basketball is a guard dominated sport and tcu's returning experience is centered at the guard position.
robinson is a senior with over 100 games played and is a multi-year starter
bane is a junior with over 70 games played and is a multi-year starter
fisher is a junior with over 50 games played and is a multi-year starter
miller is a senior with over 100 games played and is a multi-year starter
yes, you do need more than 4 guys to play, but the only 2 players who have seen action this year that haven't been in college at least a year in some capacity are davis and archie and kendric shows more court awareness than damn near anyone else other than jaylen and jd.
what i see is a team on the offensive end struggling to find an identity. last year they knew if people singled up on vlad he was going to drop 16-20 on them from the low post and up at the free throw line on the pick and roll.
williams was going to get you points off the offensive glass so you had to have a body on him at all time. pretty simple in that drawing the focus on the defenses inside opened up the wing players such as bane and noi.
this year right now who can they count on for points? not knocking anyone, but bane is struggling, noi is rounding back to form, fisher has shown to be effective from behind the arc, and alex is alex.
tcu's offense in football got much better when they could run the ball and wasn't trying to solely live throwing the football. tcu's basketball team is going to continue to struggle living and die trying to run a 3-man weave 24-ft from the basket and high pick and rolls. they need an inside presence and they need a big man who can hang up by the free throw line and hit that free throw jumper to prevent his defender from collapsing back on alex on the drive.
who can do that? i really think they hoped alok could provide some of that and he just looks lost and seems to get more frustrated each game. samuel can give you the low post, but not the up high pnr threat and as smu showed he is a defensive liability away from the basketball. chris just isn't a big guy who can guard 15 feet out.
the answer to me might be to ask samuel and alok to play the role of williams in offensive put backs, feeds off drives, and some low post game and use miller in the role of vlad. he isn't as big, but can play face up to the basket at the free throw line and showed some nice low post game against fresno.
agree the schedule was set for a reason, but i don't accept the youth angle. too many teams can incorporate new players into their systems and be effective and as i pointed out davis has shown a better understanding than some of the more experienced players.
i see it as finding roles and they have to find some type of inside threat to create opportunities on the perimeter for bane, noi, and others.