After Nance and Kopp hit shots you could see the difference in their game and body language. We need those guys for depth and to hit shots for this team to make a run. They both should be very good big ten players.
Frosh
- Thread starter torque-cat
- Start date
Defense is still an issue (have no idea what Nance was thinking on that drive to the rim by Kiss), but I do agree they are improving rapidly, even on defense.
Kiss looked like he was going to pull up for the 3 so Nance was boxing out his man. When Kiss drove instead, Nance’s momentum was backward and he couldn’t recover.
i said I know what he DiD, still don't know what he was THINKING. Sorry if I wasn't clear...
But you do know what he was thinking.
1. Oh that guy has an open 3 and I can’t close him out.
2. Better box out for the rebound in case he misses.
3. Oh crap he’s gonna drive and I can’t recover in time to contest. My bad.
I agree except for the plays tough D part. maybe I'm spoiled watching Law, Pardon, Gaines and Turner, but Kopp gets beat off the dribble a whole lot more than those guys.
But he DID have time to recover. You may wonder why Kiss didn't see more time for Rutgers given his offensive production. The reason; he is SLOW. Nance just stared at him the whole way down the lane... You knew it was terrible they way he demonstratively pointed at himself (yes, Pete, the entire arena knew it was your fault...) afterward.
He'll learn; can pretty much guarantee it won't happen again. Think about Pardon would have done on that play instead; Kiss would have regretted that he didn't take the three...
It's tough to win with Freshmen playing big roles unless your are Duke or Kentucky. Look at Vandy with that highly touted Freshman class. They did lose one of those guys via injury, but they are getting hammered in an SEC that is right there with the Big Ten and ACC as the toughest leagues this year.
I like the way Kopp plays, but my question is who would you take minutes away from? Law and Pardon are obviously not options. After that, it’s a lot of players who have been good/great at times, but inconsistent. Turner seems like the most obvious option since he’s struggling a bit right now, but he’s also had some really nice games this year and is one of our best ballhandlers.
I really like Kopp, just not sure where giving him extra minutes would come from.
Except for the tough D. He is getting there but not yet. Hard to give him many more minutes when the D is not there
If he leaves his man to cover Kiss, there is a relatively easy pass to an open guy underneath for a dunk. It was a chose your poison moment. What would Pardon have done? A 4 year starter vs a Frosh off the bench that gets about 5 minutes per game?
He was also deep behind the circle line so he gets called for a foul if he takes a step forward and there is any contact at all.
Could have been waiting for the other player to elevate earlier and take an angle at blocking the shot.
Who knows?
I would take 3-5 minutes each from Turner and Taylor, and the same or more from Law for as long as he’s injured. That frees up more time for Kopp and Nance.
Agrer to disagree I guess. It was a terrible play., imo. He pointed to himself afterward as if to say "my bad". You don't do that when you made the correct decision, imo.
Ya I didn’t see it as a horrible play either. It’s the big ten so I think he wanted to box out aggressively or get yelled at for missing a rebound. He gave up a dunk which is never good so he pointed to himself, but it was pick your poison as someone else said.