This. Even the greatest coach can only take a player so far if they don't want to put in the necessary work/effort. At some point you have to focus the majority of your effort on the other 10 guys on the team.
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!
MBB Offseason: Boyle - "There's 5 starting spots open"
- Thread starter Buffnik
- Start date
This. Even the greatest coach can only take a player so far if they don't want to put in the necessary work/effort. At some point you have to focus the majority of your effort on the other 10 guys on the team.
And one reason I'm feeling pretty confident about next season is that I saw George King willing to sacrifice this season. When his offense wasn't going, he became one heck of a rebounder from the wing. He also showed flashes as a defensive playmaker (which I'd never thought I'd see) during that final stretch of games at the end of the year. We already knew he was a guy who was willing to put in the extra time on his shot taking 1,000 shots a day outside of practice. He's ready to step up into a leadership role next year.
With him, you've got Tory Miller who teammates considered the most improved player on the team. He plays with a nasty streak and puts in the work. Add guys like Siewert and Brown who, as freshmen, were the guys I first saw start diving for loose balls and being willing to be dogs out there this season. Plus, if guys like Peters and Tommy return then you've got a couple players who are high-energy and disruptive out there. That's a core which sets the team culture we need.
The big questions, to me, become whether Dom is ready to become a floor general, whether Wright can give a Carlon Brown type jumpstart to the offense, and whether the 4 freshmen (I include Walton in that mix) come in and perform. Can Bey give us the glue guy type +/- for winning basketball that Dre did as a freshman? Can Schwartz add offense like Alec did as a frosh? Can Battey be the matchup problem who gives plus production as a scorer and rebounder as a freshman like XJ did? Can Walton give us weakside rebounding and rim protection as a RS-frosh like Wes did? None of those comparables were consistent and none of them had it rolling in the first third of their frosh campaigns, but can they develop over the course of the year to put this team on the bubble and make it a damn tough out that final third of the year?
It's a lot of question marks, but I see the potential and I'm excited to see how it comes together in 2017-18. Would love to see a quick little PG added to this mix because I think that's the main thing that's missing from this roster -- a break-your-ankles type guard. Haven't really had that since Ski, but I want someone like that who wants to be like Chris Paul instead of like Kobe Bryant for this spot.
With him, you've got Tory Miller who teammates considered the most improved player on the team. He plays with a nasty streak and puts in the work. Add guys like Siewert and Brown who, as freshmen, were the guys I first saw start diving for loose balls and being willing to be dogs out there this season. Plus, if guys like Peters and Tommy return then you've got a couple players who are high-energy and disruptive out there. That's a core which sets the team culture we need.
The big questions, to me, become whether Dom is ready to become a floor general, whether Wright can give a Carlon Brown type jumpstart to the offense, and whether the 4 freshmen (I include Walton in that mix) come in and perform. Can Bey give us the glue guy type +/- for winning basketball that Dre did as a freshman? Can Schwartz add offense like Alec did as a frosh? Can Battey be the matchup problem who gives plus production as a scorer and rebounder as a freshman like XJ did? Can Walton give us weakside rebounding and rim protection as a RS-frosh like Wes did? None of those comparables were consistent and none of them had it rolling in the first third of their frosh campaigns, but can they develop over the course of the year to put this team on the bubble and make it a damn tough out that final third of the year?
It's a lot of question marks, but I see the potential and I'm excited to see how it comes together in 2017-18. Would love to see a quick little PG added to this mix because I think that's the main thing that's missing from this roster -- a break-your-ankles type guard. Haven't really had that since Ski, but I want someone like that who wants to be like Chris Paul instead of like Kobe Bryant for this spot.
dyemeduke
Well-Known Member
I completely agree with why you're excited, but to your questions...I really am not optimistic the answer is yes to most of them. But I think that's fine. I'm hopeful Wright can be a spark on offense, but I don't expect Bey to be Roberson and definitely do not expect Schwartz to be Burks. Those are some lofty bars you're setting imo. I don't expect to see Walton on the court for another year, just because he needs to add some bulk and give him some confidence in his knees. However, if Schwartz (or any of the freshmen really) can earn some quality minutes, I'll be happy. I'm also hopeful that Seiwart will improve and be a solid contributor. If King and Wright are shooting well, running an offense will be so much easier. I was expecting to make the tourney last year, but scared of what happened would...for next year, I'm expecting to make the NIT again, but hopeful of making the tournament.
Birch1
Well-Known Member
At this point, I'm hopeful of making the NIT next year, and expect to win at least 14 games. But without the consistency of White, I can't say the expectation should be to win more games than we did this year. And frankly, I don't think we can live in the idea of realistically making the NCAA tournament. I mean...good to start with low expectations.
Last edited:
CitizenKane
Well-Known Member
This time I have to disagree. I couldn't be less excited about King right now. Leadership? Lets have a Bill Walton flashback moment to early in the season. CU had a nice easy home game against Seattle University (or what should have been easy). GK is dribbling down the right wing, a defender runs up from the side and behind him and pokes the ball out of his hands. The defender nearly slides into the Buffs bench as the ball bounces back to center court. GK, showing all of his formidable hustle and leadership skills casually strolls the 7 feet towards the loose ball. In the mean time, the Seattle player, who had gone about ten feet in the opposite direction towards the bench, has time to stop, turn around, sprint to the ball and get there before GK is within 3 feet. The Seattle player then sprints down for an easy layup. Tad calls a time out and is so livid he actually can't even scream through his bright red face...I stand up and scream, way to be lazy George King! The stadium is quiet enough, I see people on the other side of the court looking at me (oops). Did GK start playing better at the end of the year? Sure? But this play epitomizes GK's off season attitude last year and there is no doubt this kind of work ethic is what lead to him having a down year. Sadly, this play, while sticking out in my head (Due to being embarrassed by my own comment and to being embarrassed by the effort on the court), was the norm for GK through the end of December. I can't trust a player who would make that kind of play to ever be a leader...nor can I depend on him in a game, just my opinion, but I don't see how any coach could. I think the only hope GK has to be really good next year is if someone has a video clip of that play (Tad are you listening?) and forces GK to watch it every single morning when he wakes up and every single day before he steps on the court. GK is one of the big reasons to be worried about next year, not a reason to be looking forward to it.
The only senior that I think has potential to still get better is Miller, but I don't know what the odds of that happening are. Suffice it to say I am not holding my breath.
If you want to be excited about this team next year, then you need to look at Deleon Brown, Bryce Peters, Lucas Siewert, the red-shirt freshman and the incoming freshman. Here is to hoping the freshman are as good or better than advertised, the red shirt freshman shock us all and that the soph class shows a big improvement and that the leadership of this team comes from the soph or freshman classes.
As @Buffnik said, there are a lot of question marks next year.
Really good article on Epstein and how he turned the cubs around and why that turnaround was different than the red sox. The bottom line is you take a high character top 150 player who will scrap every play, over the top 75 player who can't get along with teammates.
http://fortune.com/2017/03/23/theo-epstein-chicago-cubs-worlds-greatest-leaders/
http://fortune.com/2017/03/23/theo-epstein-chicago-cubs-worlds-greatest-leaders/
Chase Jeter is transferring from Duke, hmm.
dyemeduke
Well-Known Member
Rumor is UNLV or Nevada. If I were a school in the same tier as CU, I'd definitely keep a peripheral eye on who Duke recruits out of the west. More than a few west players have transferred out of Duke, and if you can develop a relationship with the player and family, and if he decides to transfer out of Duke, you're right there.
Chase Jeter was a great teammate at Duke. You would see him cheering his team on, even though he rarely saw the court. He is a skilled big that was grossly overwhelmed and unprepared his freshman year. He played much better as a sophomore, but since Coach K really restricts minutes to those that pass a lofty bar, Jeter didn't play too much once injured players got healthy. He played hard, was a good teammate, has skills - I'd love for him to land at CU.
But...I really don't remember seeing CU in any discussions about Chase when he was in HS. Granted, Tad still could have been expressing interest, but I'm not hopeful of Chase coming to Boulder at all. Surprises happen, but I don't think is remotely in play.
I figured but would love to have him.