How's Our MOTOR for 2025-26?

[What Would Jesus Do?]

We lost several of our top motor guys to graduation or the portal:

RJ​

Ian​

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JWit​

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Drake​

We also lost our lowest motor guy in JWash.

Our only returning top motor guy is Seth - although Zayden High looked like he had a good motor the last time we saw him. That's not a knock on Brown or Lubin (if he returns), but they didn't stand out on this measure. Lubin always struck me as a steady player who seldom got out of 3rd gear. But that could be an illusion. Sometimes steadiness can give the impression of slowness. Just as grace can sometimes mask quickness. Hard to tell about Brown, but I've seen no reason to be worried about him.

All I know about our portal guys is what I saw in highlight clips. Low-motor moments seldom appear in those videos. The only video that left me wondering a little was Jarin's. The other guys looked good but, again, those were highlight tapes. Then again, I didn't see anyone with an RJ or Ian motor in those clips.

What do our gurus have to say about the newcomers? And the team as a whole?

 

[DSouthr]

When you say motor to me in reference to the team as a whole, I flash to a defensive perspective. I think great defense really amps teams up,gets their juices going, creates turn overs that many times lead to nice breaks and easy flushes. Do that and the other team begins to panic, take more risks which results in more bad shots and deficits that are hard to dig out from, as we saw in far to many of our first halves last season. Play solid defense, control the boards on both ends, take care of the ball so you don't have so many un-forced TOs leads to a lot of wins.

 

[DSouthr]

The new comers, I assume that includes the freshmen. Freshmen always have a transition period where they have to get adjusted to the level of college athletes. One hint as to how a kid's motor may look is how is he noted as a defender coming out of high school (applies as well to the portal guys). Typically your better defenders are as well good motor guys, guys that move their feet. Caleb is considered to be a strong defender so there is that. Dixon is more a smooth operator, his defense may take some work. Denis, to me is a nice rangy 6'5" guy with really good reach, don't know what it is but looks like really long arms and the kid seems to be very active, has the look of a solid defender.

The portal guys, well Jarin is considered to be an excellent defender, at 6'11" and defending wings, should tell you something about his motor. JPow is considered a near lock down defender, more of in the Drake mold, loves to get out and run, and knows he will have to fight for minutes, no problem with his motor that I can see. Veesaar, compared to either Lubin or Jwash looks like a big time motor guy but maybe those 2 are not the best guage, in either event that should be motor upgrade. We already know Seth's motor, Evans, well Cadeau had a big time motor so Evans may not match that but Cadeau struggled with controlling that motor, it was to often out of control, I think Evans will improve on that. And Young, pretty much all motor, he is a guy you can put in and tell him he has 5 fouls to give so play extra hard and don't worry about foul trouble, jut get in a guys jock and stay there.