Can we all agree Hubbard is not a “great”’player?

Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,194
7,069
113
I don’t think we’ll ever know how great he is, because he’s going to play his entire career here without any 17ing help whatsoever.
Heck, I'd even take a true PG at this point to help get him the ball in good spots, but clearly Jans does not believe in the philosophy of having a ball handler on your team
 

maroonmania

Senior
Feb 23, 2008
11,160
833
113
It does. But that’s part of it. Q was a much better player. It’s not close.
Only brought it up because I'm not even sure most would consider Q a "great" player and I think he was better. I guess it all depends on how good you have to be to be considered "great".
 

onewoof

Heisman
Mar 4, 2008
15,210
13,405
113
I don’t think we’ll ever know how great he is, because he’s going to play his entire career here without any 17ing help whatsoever.
Epps got 23 yesterday, to Hubbard's 22

Those two shot 75% of our shots
 

Lettuce

All-Conference
Jun 24, 2024
937
1,071
93
You can’t blame Hubbard for his hight but you can absolutely criticize his game…he’s fit to be a PG and nothing else. The fact that he refused to learn the position or better his game to allow for cohesion, is on him.

In no where ever in any successful team on any continent has a SG been 5’9. It doesn’t happen.

It’s equivalent to having a left handed catcher or 2nd baseman or trying to turn two with a left handed 3rd baseman.

it’s equivalent to having a 6’7 running back or a 6’0 tackle.

We are extremely mismanaged…then add a transfer from Dwitt State and UAG Gravel State and what do we have…..we have dogshiit.

We are in the SEC. This ain’t the 17ing Bigtop tournament at Luther’s Church. Go get some 17ing players and dudes off of the streets that throw down.

All of the millions of kids out there and we can’t find 5….its bullshiit. Then the fact that we havnt had an NBA player since Damp???? Bizzaro world. And we are in a hotbed of street ballers!? Bizzaro world.

Look at the teams winning and the rosters they have…start there. Not 1 17ing person under 6’3.

We have 3 of them and they are our best scorers. It makes absolutely no sense. Very frustrating but as a MSU fan what exactly can I expect?

We are a breeding ground of incompetence
 

Baddog11

All-Conference
Aug 28, 2013
3,311
2,643
113
I’d like to see an offensive gameplan that is not 100% reliant on Hubbard. Sec network says “nobody on the team can score 30 in a game except Hubbard” prove them wrong but maybe all the eggs are in 1 basket and we have to make it work.
 
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Darryl Steight

All-American
Sep 30, 2022
3,784
6,354
113
Epps got 23 yesterday, to Hubbard's 22

Those two shot 75% of our shots
I think he meant "the RIGHT kind of help"... or at least, that's how I see it. Epps is basically the same kind of player - and in his perfect role plays the same position as Hub. I do think Jans tried to get a true PG with Clary last year, but obviously that didn't work out.

I like Epps a lot, but a true PG would have helped Hubbard more. Oh, and a center. And some defensive role players.
 

gtowndawg

Senior
Jan 23, 2007
2,230
609
113
Then the fact that we havnt had an NBA player since Damp???? Bizzaro world. And we are in a hotbed of street ballers!? Bizzaro world.
Tolu Smith plays for the Pistons. I get your point but technically we've had multiple NBA players since Damp, they just haven't had long term staying power like Damp, that's for sure.
 
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Drebin

Heisman
Aug 22, 2012
21,666
25,309
113
Has never been anything but a volume shooter and the stats back that up. Hasn’t shown up at all for multiple half’s this season, especially since the start of SEC play
I've never thought of him as more than a really good player, but that has more to do with the offense Jans is running than Hubb himself. He's very streaky but when he's on he's great. The problem is that he's undersized and has to work his arse off to get off a shot. And he's not very good on the defensive end. So you're sacrificing size and defense in hopes that he can catch a heater and carry your offense. When he really gets d'ed up, he forces shots and that's a problem.

I think he could be great if we were more imaginative on offense. We should be running offensive sets where he's off the ball and running through screens to get open shots. Instead we let him create off the dribble and it's hard to do that consistently at his size in this league. So I think he's being misused and I don't think that's fair to him.
 

Ranchdawg

All-Conference
Dec 13, 2012
4,524
3,774
113
I’d like to see an offensive gameplan that is not 100% reliant on Hubbard. Sec network says “nobody on the team can score 30 in a game except Hubbard” prove them wrong but maybe all the eggs are in 1 basket and we have to make it work.
Yes, and every team in the SEC knows as Hubbard goes, so goes State. He's constantly double teamed but we can't find the open man for some reason. Other teams pass the ball around the perimeter making our players run around chasing the ball while we drive the ball down and run a slow weave. Then the players without the ball stand in one spot flat footed while the ball handler either shoots a 3 or drives into 3 defenders under the goal.

Both the men's and women's teams at State love throwing sleepy passes that result in turnovers sometimes. I've never understood how a coach would allow that. These are professional athletes now so we should be demanding more from them.
 
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FlotownDawg

All-American
Aug 30, 2012
6,858
7,204
113
Yes, and every team in the SEC knows as Hubbard goes, so goes State. He's constantly double teamed but we can't find the open man for some reason. Other teams pass the ball around the perimeter making our players run around chasing the ball while we drive the ball down and run a slow weave. Then the players without the ball stand in one spot flat footed while the ball handler either shoots a 3 or drives into 3 defenders under the goal.

Both the men's and women's teams at State love throwing sleepy passes that result in turnovers sometimes. I've never understood how a coach would allow that. These are professional athletes now so we should be demanding more from them.
One reason they can double team him and we can't find the open man is because Sean Jones is also out there, and he cannot shoot at all. Teams don't even have to guard him on the perimeter because they know he isn't going to make any open shots. It's like we're playing 4 on 5 in half-court offense.
 

MSUDC11-2.0

Heisman
Sep 29, 2022
9,064
14,215
113
I can agree that he’s surrounded by a bunch of below average SEC players. It kinda matters less how good your best player is when he has almost nobody that can help him.
 
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Ranchdawg

All-Conference
Dec 13, 2012
4,524
3,774
113
One reason they can double team him and we can't find the open man is because Sean Jones is also out there, and he cannot shoot at all. Teams don't even have to guard him on the perimeter because they know he isn't going to make any open shots. It's like we're playing 4 on 5 in half-court offense.
Yep, Sean "turn over" Jones. A good defensive player with brick hands on offense. I had high hopes for him but he just has fumblitis on offense. I hold my breath everytime he gets the ball on offense unless he gets a snowbird. He loves the dunk.
 

onewoof

Heisman
Mar 4, 2008
15,210
13,405
113
He is better than most (anyone to ever wear a maroon and white jersey or current playing in college basketball).
At shooting and scoring when he is hot, yes, the best, like the first half last night.

Still incomplete in many other key areas, but what he does well, when he does it, he is the best at that.

There are many traits that make a complete basketball player and leader of a team of young men.
 
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She Mate Me

Heisman
Dec 7, 2008
12,823
11,001
113
Who’s better? Jeff Malone and Bailey Howell? Obviously none of us witnessed Howell play.

Bailey Howell is our best player of all time. He was a completely dominant college player.

Then he was a scoring and rebounding machine on an NBA team that needed that.

Then he was the perfect 2nd or 3rd option on some of the greatest ever NBA teams.

There's a reason he's in the Naismith HOF.
 

She Mate Me

Heisman
Dec 7, 2008
12,823
11,001
113
Can we all agree Ace Reece isn’t a great player? He doesn’t get on base half the time and the other night made a boneheaded mistake trying for a triple****

And his defense is not that great. It'll make him a Top 10 pick in the draft rather than the 1st pick.

Not good ...
 
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johnson86-1

All-Conference
Aug 22, 2012
14,373
4,875
113
If Hubbard isn't great, then we've never had a great player.
Nah. I think people saying he's not great are putting the bar too high to be considered great, but we've had several better. The best argument for Hubbard being great is that he's put up great numbers despite never being on a team that really had the complementary pieces to really fit his game. The best argument against Hubbard being great is that great players don't need complementary pieces. They have a well rounded game that can work with any decent supporting staff. Hubbard is a great scorer and pretty good facilitator (maybe not as a ball handler, but he's had plenty of assists to be surrounded by poor shooters for most of his career) and a not so great defender. But he could be the second leading scorer on a championship caliber team if you pair him with a tall point guard and at least one other deep threat so he doesn't just get double teamed all the time (maybe he could be the leading scorer depending on how teams decide to pick their poison). You have to be really good to be able to say that.
 
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aTotal360

Heisman
Nov 12, 2009
21,836
14,604
113
Nah. I think people saying he's not great are putting the bar too high to be considered great, but we've had several better. The best argument for Hubbard being great is that he's put up great numbers despite never being on a team that really had the complementary pieces to really fit his game. The best argument against Hubbard being great is that great players don't need complementary pieces. They have a well rounded game that can work with any decent supporting staff. Hubbard is a great scorer and pretty good facilitator (maybe not as a ball handler, but he's had plenty of assists to be surrounded by poor shooters for most of his career) and a not so great defender. But he could be the second leading scorer on a championship caliber team if you pair him with a tall point guard and at least one other deep threat so he doesn't just get double teamed all the time (maybe he could be the leading scorer depending on how teams decide to pick their poison). You have to be really good to be able to say that.
Translation...Hubbard is great, and the rest of the team is mediocre. It's really not that difficult to admit.
 

Perd Hapley

All-American
Sep 30, 2022
5,873
6,924
113
Translation...Hubbard is great, and the rest of the team is mediocre. It's really not that difficult to admit.
Agreed, except I think “mediocre” is the overstatement of the century for the rest of the team.

You have Hubbard, a good role player in Jones, and Epps who is currently occupying the Mr. Inconsistency role that Kugel had last year….occasionally good but not nearly often enough.

The really frustrating thing is that we’d be a legit 5-7 seed with Nwoko and Murphy still here. With those two and Clary as a true PG (which we haven’t had at all since Zimmerman), we’d be a possible Final 4 contender. Instead, we lost all 3 of them and never really even had Clary….and here we are struggling mightily in the front court and at PG.
 

POTUS

Heisman
Sep 29, 2022
3,953
10,406
113
The really frustrating thing is that we’d be a legit 5-7 seed with Nwoko and Murphy still here. With those two and Clary as a true PG (which we haven’t had at all since Zimmerman), we’d be a possible Final 4 contender. Instead, we lost all 3 of them and never really even had Clary….and here we are struggling mightily in the front court and at PG.
Here's the question no one has answered, why did we let Nwoko & Murphy walk?

Hubbard an otherworldly shooting night which was something to behold, but the second half showed that his "greatness" can be mitigated. If we had those two front court players, we are a completely different team.
 

She Mate Me

Heisman
Dec 7, 2008
12,823
11,001
113
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We have had a ton of players I would take over him. He goes off on offense every now and then, but he still can't defend. You can't call a player great because he scores a LOT every now and then.

It's always good when you pop into threads saying the opposite of what I believe.

Makes it clear that I'm thinking correctly.
 

onewoof

Heisman
Mar 4, 2008
15,210
13,405
113
I understand the thought of reducing basketball skills to the best scorer

There are more skills needed than just the ability to score.

Part of what I hate about today's game... its only about scoring and the rest is overlooked
 

She Mate Me

Heisman
Dec 7, 2008
12,823
11,001
113
I understand the thought of reducing basketball skills to the best scorer

There are more skills needed than just the ability to score.

Part of what I hate about today's game... its only about scoring and the rest is overlooked

Scoring's pretty important. They keep up with it pretty diligently and the team who does it the most gets to say they won.