You are correct. Perfect pass to a wide open player who botches the shot is nothing on your stat sheet. I honestly don't know the misses for his passes so I'll give you that and yes the PGs listed were driving the offense, Berry is better on D. All I'm saying is to say Great, for me personally, takes a good amount. Now he could be a great defender, but that might not equate in my eyes to a great overall PG as I agree with you there are 3 aspects and to me to be great you need to really excel in at least two. Lawson wasn't known for awesome D, but he was by no means a weak link. I may be wrong, but doesn't he have you steals record for NCAA game? Marshall wasn't good on D, but who was the last guy to average almost 10 assists (that's insane)
Joel Berry makes his return official
- Thread starter BlueKicks
- Start date
Can someone clarify this situation??? It seems there is some dispute here as his dad says nothing is definitive that JB IS coming back. It is more than a bit confusing, any more word on this that we know about.???
I understand but my point is in ALL 3 areas Joel had a great season, not just scoring. Defense is a thing that seems to get over looked a lot, really unless a kid is a lite scorer and solid defender then they talk about his defense. Ty Lawson, bless his heart but Roy nearly had strokes in every game Ty played for him, screaming for him to at least try on the defensive end. Yeah, when Ty wanted to he could defend his butt off, he just didn't get in that mood a lot.
Kendal, great passer, very good floor leader, not a scorer and at times was a defensive liability trying to guard other PGs. Ty was an offensive explosion waiting to happen, extremely quick and had a gear with the ball others could not match with out it. Solid floor general but IMO not a great leader, others on that team took that role. Ray, decent defender, very good floor leader, improved his scoring while with us to the point he was solid scorer. A guy that of gets left out of the discussion that was one of my favs was Cota, really good floor leader, sweet assist guy, not a great jump shooter or defender but not a liability at either.
I guess what I am trying to say is Joel is in constant attack mode on both ends of the court. I see lots of guys in attack mode at one end of the court or the other but to see a kid in constant attack mode on both ends of the court is very rare. Joel attacks the opponent on the defensive end not just trying to stay in front of his man but he wants the ball, it isn't as much defending to him as it is that dude has my freakin ball and I am taking it back. The kid attacks on the offensive end. Notice how often when Britt gets out on a break, notice how often the ball ends up coming back out and the defense gets set. But Notice Joel, he ain't about that, he attacks the basket like it is the only place his ball will ever be safe, very rare that Joel ever pulled the ball back out off a break. You just do not see that kind of thing, it is like the motor on Hansbourgh, it may not seem special to many but it is in fact an amazing talent. Joel's ability to be constantly in attack mode is a rare ability.
Trying to have a constructive discussion with a Dook fan about basketball is like....
Can't think of anything more painful or pointless.
Can't think of anything more painful or pointless.
Seriously... why is this dookie even here?
Shouldn't we care more about this conflicting report than some idiot Duke fan?
No use sweating who's returning. I expect some of our guys to test the waters. If what I've read is correct, players have to declare their intentions to return to college by May 25th.
My gut says they all return but it's useless to worry about it until they announce one way or another. Of course, the earlier any of them announce their return, the better I'll feel.
My gut says they all return but it's useless to worry about it until they announce one way or another. Of course, the earlier any of them announce their return, the better I'll feel.
Yep. To paraphrase Roy... I don't give a $#!+ about dook basketball.
Berry is very good with out a doubt. I am very interested in next year because now he will be expected to be great. If Berry and his plans were for 3 years then next year better be the "Berry show". Never forget Paige took the heat last year for what was sometimes the fault of the entire back court.
Yeah..but in 09' we returned everybody and added some key components..this time we're losing major components..gonna be a little tougher,but with everyone healthy..i can see another deep run at it!!
I don't believe Berry came in with any preconceived notion of being a 3 year guy. And next year's team doesn't have to be the Berry show in order to be a very good team. We do need him to be the QB of the team, lead by example, and play well. I've absolutely no doubt he will do so.
But I also expect guys like Hicks, JJ, and Pinson to take their game to the next level. And hopefully, we'll see improvement from all of our returning players. The enigma that is Meeks will be the X factor. Can he give us consistently good play? I don't have a clue at this point. I hope his inconsistency was due to a lingering injury. But we'll have to wait and see.
I think all 3 freshmen could end up playing significant minutes on a deep team. If everybody with eligibility returns, the only starting spot that's undecided is probably at SG. The battle for that spot should be epic. I think Britt continues to come off the bench. Williams was good defensively but must show the ability to knock down perimeter jumpers, something he struggled mightily with this year. Pinson makes us better defensively and really started to come on at the end of the year, but he's the natural sub for JJ at SF. Does he start at SG and slide over to SF when JJ needs a breather? Perhaps most intriguing is Woods with his insane athletic ability. I think he and Berry would form one hell of a backcourt.
A couple of keys for me:
- Can Hicks stay out of foul trouble enough that he can play 30 mpg?
- Can we shoot the three effectively? I think Berry and JJ will be solid. Can someone step up from the SG position and help them?
Needless to say, this is all predicated on everyone returning. But it's fun to speculate.
Excellent post Archer ..................... my thoughts on your "keys".
Believe Hicks has seen, you got to stay on the floor to be productive. Use that nogin!
3 ball. We know Berry and JJ can. That is also the area Theo needs the most work, his shot is UGLY! With no chance to work on it in the off season last year there was no way it was going to improve. This off season expect him to re-do it completely with the guidance of Hubert. Work on his handle, get a decent stroke and you looking at a MONSTER of a player and I have a gut feeling VOCAL TEAM LEADER.
Britt will most likely get more PT and he can hit the 3, another year under his belt after switching hands and I think he will be in 35-40% range.
Also believe Williams will be more at ease from outside and start to see some 3's fall, he has a BEAUTIFUL stroke. Maye does too.
Add in the freshmen and we going to be very good.
I'm looking forward to it.
GO HEELS!!
FWIW Joel was tweeting last night about how hard the stat test he is studying for is gonna be To me that does not sound like someone who is thinking about the NBA
I think, I hope Roy learned something late this past season, our version of small ball really worked well. We put Theo in as the 4, with Justin at the wing, with Hicks/Brice/Meeks in as the 5, well replace brice with Tony and you can see our version of it for next season.
Now it seems to be the new trend in the college game to go smaller, more & more teams are doing away with the traditional power forward and going more to a wing/stretch 4 guy. IMO Theo more than held his own in that look, seemed to me when we stretched leads it came from this look a lot more late season and thru tourney play. Most teams do this small ball for offense, getting an additional shooter on the floor to stretch defenses but we actually did it to be able to defend more than to score. And it WORKED!
Now of course we have to have someone step up and leave no doubt who our starting 2 will be, the early betting favorite may should be Britt but I am telling ya right now, I think Kenny Williams will be the better choice at the 2. I like kenny because he has better size, I think he can become a lock down defender and that kid can shoot. Yeah, I know, he hit what, 1 big trey and that was it? Yeah but I watched both Marcus and PJ struggle to jump shoot thru most of their freshman seasons as well and they both got a lot more PT than Kenny did. Don't let that throw ya, the kid dedicated to learning everything he could this past season, all reports is he was a sponge, soaking up everything Marcus had to say, learning how to play at this level. Kid knows he has a great shot at PT next season and from what I hear about his work ethic he wil not let it slip thru his grasp.
BRob IMO will be a player, especially if Justin does decide to enter and stay in the draft, Roy will find this kid and 7th some PT. I would like to see Shey Rush red shirt and learn the game a year on the practice floor but that kid has potential.
Hicks foul trouble, problem as a jr, Brice as a jr had the same problem, can the result as a senior be similar as well? I felt Hicks at times tried to do to much because he knew it was not going to be long until Brice was back in so I don't think he always stayed focused on staying out of foul trouble. But with Brice gone and so much expected from him, I do suspect he will not put himself in as many positions to pick up a foul as he did this past season similar to the way Brice did this past season.
Real keys are how ready will Tony be to step in and play back to the basket, can he hit some jump hooks and that middle of the zone mid ranger that Brice feasted on this past season? If he can then awsome, we don't have nearly the problem we thought. He is really long, should be able to play over the top and should be able to notch a few shot blocks as well. Can he defend and not get in to foul trouble may be the real concern for this frosh. Meeks, the egnima, do any of us know what to expect, I sure don't? I think he was hurt all of this season, just tried to play with the pain but no official word of that even now which is odd to me. So I just don't know, I just don't know...
What I do know is we have a whale of a floor leader PG in Joel Berry and with guys like Joel and Theo leadership should not be a problem!
Can we shoot the 3 effectively? Ya know, for most of this past season we did not shoot the 3 effectively, marcus struggled with it, Justin struggled with it, Nate started off fine but struggled shooting much of the season as well. Can we shoot it at least as good as this past season seems more reasonable question and IMO not only would I say we can but IMO I think we will. I am actually not worried about our jump shooting or anything concerning our back court frankly. I think this teams success is going to be about how well our front court can play. It will have to produce strong or Roy may well go to that small bal llook as our primary look and that may not be a bad thing, matter of fact that could be steller!
I agree about the small ball, Dave. It was arguably our most effective lineup down the stretch. It was our best defensive lineup for sure. In fact, I would have liked to see Theo in for Isaiah during the last seconds of the title game.
Can't believe I failed to mention BRob in my post. I was very impressed with his senior year. Not only because he doubled his production across the board, but he continued to shoot high percentages across the board. Being on a bad team, he was likely the focal point for opposing defenders so that's impressive. Love the fact that he hit 47% of his threes over his high school career, 47%! And at 6-5, he has nice size, length, and a quick effortless stroke. Also seems to be equally effective shooting off the dribble or the catch. He may actually be the best bet to start at SG.
Don't be surprised if he and Tony both rise in the rankings after their outstanding senior campaigns.
Can't believe I failed to mention BRob in my post. I was very impressed with his senior year. Not only because he doubled his production across the board, but he continued to shoot high percentages across the board. Being on a bad team, he was likely the focal point for opposing defenders so that's impressive. Love the fact that he hit 47% of his threes over his high school career, 47%! And at 6-5, he has nice size, length, and a quick effortless stroke. Also seems to be equally effective shooting off the dribble or the catch. He may actually be the best bet to start at SG.
Don't be surprised if he and Tony both rise in the rankings after their outstanding senior campaigns.
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Thanks Mike.....if he returns, I think he makes a big jump next year in terms of scoring, leading, and draft position. I'm a Duke fan but really like Jackson's games and he's a great kid on top of it.
I'd be surprised if JJ, hicks, and Meeks don't all test the waters. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, it will probably become very common in college ball.
Imagine if we can have Theo, JJ and Hicks at the same time consistently. Berry can sit back and fire treys all day. Those 3 guys are hard to matchup against one on one and Meeks standing under the basket like a three. Defensively we become long similar to Syracuse.
If they were testing, I'm surprised they haven't announced it yet. Most guys do it within a week of their last game.
I heard a very lofty B-Rob comparison....Buddy Heild. Completely unfair to put that on the kid now, but would love to see him develop into that type of player.
I heard a very lofty B-Rob comparison....Buddy Heild. Completely unfair to put that on the kid now, but would love to see him develop into that type of player.
Worried about our outside shooting next year! Hopefully Kenny is going to be ready to come in and hit buckets from 3!
