Ran into psu's coach. He said Rutgers is going to be very good this year despite geo and Ron graduating. Said Cliff is going to bust wide open this year and sky is the limit. Luvs Caleb and Paul. Said Hyatt may be the breakout player we need. Seems like a very nice guy.
Micah Shrewsbury Encounter
- Thread starter ImBadRU
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Or he builds them into a big-time program. Outstanding background and skills, he's sure to be successful either way.
Harper and Baker were the go to scorers at crunch time .The returning players will now get the defensive attention and must show that they can create and make shots with the game on the line.Nobody knows what will happen and that is the challenge that Pikiell faces next season.
His team last year had shades of early Pike teams. That team was a pain in the *** but just missed a few pieces to be a serious B10 contender.
Does he rest his players enough or rotate them correctly? My impression of his team the few games I watched was that they couldn’t close out games. Could be strategy, exhausted players, the wrong five on the floor, or no go-to players.
I have thought of this issue and what it means to Mulcahy's dumps to Cliff. Instead of having to pass past his man and Cliff's.. it may mean more defenders collapsing on him (we saw a lot of this at the very end of the season.. they played Mulcahy to pass). Someone else needs to learn the 2-man game with Cliff... McConnel maybe? But he exerts so much effort on D he may not be up to it. Hyatt will likely show some "me time" bad habits but might be the guy to pull this off.
Want to add.. Cliff has to hit FTs this season because he will be getting a lot of them.
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We gotta get his agent to take more phone calls from ADs!!
Cliff is the best 60% FT shooter I've ever seen - his stroke looks good, smooth release, seems to hit them in clutch situations. I would not be shocked if he took a huge leap in that department this season.
The physics of a ball shot by a very tall man with high release point seems to me to be the main issue. The ball has to travel higher to be at the optimal 45 degree angle towards the basket and thus travels faster on the way down. Very hard to get "shooters roll" as the ball travels faster than that of the smaller guys. So he should be like Juwan Howard and just shoot near-perfect FTs that do not touch the rim.
https://secretsofshooting.com/physics-based-basketball-shooting/
His team handled us at PSU and was a bounce away from ruining our season on senior day.