Interesting. He will be our best player all season. Tennessee has one of the fab frosh named Nate Ament. I think they will be matched up against one another
Interesting that he has been very selective taking very few 3’s this year and last year he was jacking it up the minute he got the pass. He is in full attack mode which is a tremendous mindset.
He's taken his three point rate from 40% of his shots to less than 8%. Playing a completely different game.
Fake news. Everyone on Rutgers sucks and wouldn’t be a backup at any other BIG school.
I'd like to see him find a bit of a balance. He's made two of his three attempted 3s so far, and the strong free-throw numbers are potentially predictive of him being a pretty good perimeter shooter.
He is a good 3 point shooter but his attack mode has gotten him to the line where he has been terrific. He was 9-10 against Lehigh and 7-9 against American. Getting almost double digit foul attempts bodes extremely well going forward . Would like him to spray it out to the Euros for 3 when driving and he is picked up. Yes , he can shoot more than 1 per game but scoring 28 and 22 taking only 1 three in 2 games is tremendous. Lehigh and American were a level up from Maine and Rider. He will continue to be tested. Next week in Vegas will be interesting
The coaches in the Big Ten are really grand they have a lot of good defensive players. Grant has played so well that a big part of opposing teams game plan will be how to stop him.
Really interested in seeing Ament in Vegas. He's the Ace Bailey of this class. His size and skills are very similar to Bailey's. He's expected to be a top 10 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
That may have to do with the competition and the lack of size
Thinking they will be matched up against each other
I think the jury is still out on Zrno’s 3 point shot. Badalau will become a very good player.
I agree that Francis is going to have to play for his ball handling, but think we need Zrno as well. We are getting guys into the paint, mostly Grant and DB, but too often whomever is open to kick out to is a guy we don't want shooting. Zrno seems willing to let fly. Not sure Pike will tolerate the defensive breakdowns though.
The free throw numbers and form alone are enough for me to worship at the altar of Dylan Grant.
Maybe. That’s a small lineup and will cause defensive issues. They would have to be a major plus on offense.
He hit 2 of 3 so he might have greatly improved. Last year he shot 10 of 43 from 3, so he really hasn’t shown he can hit the 3 consistently. His free throw shooting has definitely improved and his driving and plays around the basket have definitely improved, so I wouldn’t be surprised if his 3 point shooting has improved too!
The bigger thing to me is, despite actually shooting a decent percentage so far, we once again have among the lowest 3-point attempt to field goal attempt ratios in the country.
Yes - you can. But what function is that serving in place of having Francis with J Mike and DB other than to give Francis a breather? Zrno’s height isn’t helping him be better at anything than Francis right now. Francis is better than him right now at everything.
Key point is right now, against poor comp. Zrno height and strength may come in more handy on defense down the line when Francis isn't faster than the comp. Neither one of them can stay in front of someone. Defense hasn't been great, its only going to get worse as the comp heats up. Now, I think it will end up DB, not Zrno, that takes TF minutes, but that's just another non shooter.
Yes but we just have to shoot well and if that means winning the paint 40-20 that is fine. The key is the defense. If our 3 point defense doesn’t allow 8 or more threes then we do not have to jack up many more threes . We are shooting 14-20 a game which is good and not jacking. Now if we are getting killed from 3 then we have to shoot more and hit more threes . Getting to the line is really important and our team is doing that well so far.
PSAL putting too much love on Francis. He is shooting too much and his defense is not so outstanding that you elevate him above Zrno . We need Denis and Zrno to shoot , preferably kick out threes after penetration by Dylan , Buchanan or Jmike and even getting passes from Francis. If Pike insists on letting Francis run high pick and roll , he has to look to pass without shooting every single time and preferably a good pass that gets kicked out for a three or a corner three. Francis is going to challenged in conference much more.
I tend to agree with you, despite TF showing a little more ability/smarts/lack of selfishness than I expected. We do need his ball handling at times, so hes definitely a rotation guy, and I dont mind a guy w his confidence off the bench.
Not enough of a sample size and leaving no room for improvement. I think both Euros will help us a lot come conference time or against better competition.
If that moves to DBJr playing 28 and TF 20, hes taking the minutes, unless Badalau starts to lose time too. Zrno probably isn't a 2, but we dont have any, so it would be by default that's where he plays.
