You "basketballs" as you call yourself still clamoring for the great flame thrower Dontaie Allen to get Brooks minutes ?
I mean his shooting splits of 35.7% / 27.3% / 64.3% and a +/- of -1.47 if just off the charts. Meanwhile poor ole Brooks is scoring over 14 per game and grabbing 5.5 rebounds, while shooting over 50% from the filed and 85% from the line had a team leading +30 last night. 7/11 had 8 boards (8,8,7 last three games) and 2 blocks last night. Allen has 5 rebounds all YEAR, ZERO offensive. He has to versify his game, he just doesn't do ANYTHING other than hunt 3's. People say he 'sneaky' does this, does that, but 5 rebounds all year, 3 assist all year, 1 steal says different. I really like the kid, but he just doesn't bring much if he is not dropping daggers (27%), so he doesn't even have the sniper argument. Hope he stays and graduates, but if I am him, WKU looks pretty damn good.
Since you continue to make this point I’m going to respond.
Oscar must play, Wheeler must play. That gives you 2 nonshooters…offensive space, especially in modern basketball, is really difficult to find if you have 3 or more people on the floor you don’t have to guard more than 12 feet from the basket.
Despite his limited sample size of poor shooting this year, Allen has gravity because opposing coaches know if he gets hot he can swing games. You can’t leave him.
It’s not so much a Brooks v Allen thing, its more of a frustration with Cal that his lineups don’t mix and match with a thought to offensive spacing. If Brooks is playing with TyTy running point, Grady and Mintz the wings and Oscar or whoever else then I’m good, no complaints.
Basketball, at least smart basketball, is more than just counting stats because all counting stats aren’t created equal…it’s finding lineups that make sense spacing and chemistry wise to give guys the best opportunity to succeed.
I think a lot of what we are seeing with Grady is that he gets face guarded and help defended off of our nonshooters. His life is hard right now.
Cal has never seemingly cared about this with his sub patterns, I’m not sure he ever will but when you don’t have guys like Wall, Davis, Randle or Fox who are so talented that spacing almost doesn’t matter (at least in college) it becomes more important.
Plus, Allen is a Kentucky boy who has a good attitude and got s raw deal last year so I naturally overlook some of his flaws.
Playoff top 6:
