Who Do You Want On the Floor at the End of Close Games?

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Obviously there are a lot of variables, but one is FT%. With all the new faces, I thought I'll look that up.

First thought: Some of these guys really need to work on their free throw shooting. Hard.

Second thought: I didn't realize Ingram was so bad. It's rare for someone that bad from the strip to be a good 3pt shooter. My hope that he might be a better 3pt shooter with us may be wishful thinking. He was better as a freshman, but still not great.

Last year, we could load the floor with decent-to-great FT shooters. Leaky was the "worst" at 70.2%.

Player	FT% Last Year	3pt% Last Year
RJ Davis	88.1 (111-126)	36.2 (63-174)
Cormac Ryan	82.7 (62-75)	34.4 (63-183)
Jae'Lyn Withers	73.5 (50-68)	41.7 (40-96)
Paxson Wojcik	68.9 (71-103)	38.0 (57-150)
Armando Bacot	66.5 (139-209)	0 (0-6)
Jalen Washington	64.7 (11-17)	0 (0-3)
D'Marco Dunn	60.0 (6-10)	32.4 (12-27)
Harrison Ingram	59.8 (61-102)	31.9 (36-113)
Seth Trimble	54.8 (17-31)	16.7 (1-6)
Simeon Wilcher	freshman
Zayden High	freshman

 

[DSouthr]

That is situational, I need to know a good bit more to answer this. The situation dictates if I want to go defensive or offensive, do I put 5 shooters on the floor , do I expect to be fouled so I need to go with better free throw shooters, are we trying to protect a lead or catch up? To many variables for me to answer this without a more clear situation.

 

[Mrs.Jeans15]

Need to see everyone play first.

 

[DSouthr]

So, let me give you a situation and let's use what it looks like to YOU the incoming players should play like, realizing that others may see individual players differently.

So, lets say we are up by 5, there is 3mins left in the game, we were just up by 15 but the other team just went on a 10-0 run. Neither team is in real foul trouble, we are on the road in front of a crazy rabid crowd cheering on the come back by their favorite team, crowd is absolutely in to it and the refs start calling things tighter and kind of cater to the crowds energy, momentum is NOT on our side.

Who do you have on the court? I have Cadeau at the point, RJ at the 2, Ryan at the 3, Withers at the 4, and Bacot. I have Cadeau at the point because he is my best ball handler, they try to press him and he wil pass over the pressure and likely find us an easy basket behind the defense. I have RJ for his jump shooting and especially his free throw shooting. I have Ryan for the same reason I have RJ, I want a shooter that also hits free throws. I have Withers for free throw shooting as well as a guy that will run the court and maybe catch that Cadeau outlet for the easy flush. I have Bacot for rebounding but I don't want him going to the free throw line if I can prevent it, if we maintain that margin, I pull Bacot when the clocks goes under 1minute and replace him with a shooter like maybe Wojic.

 

[DaveChapelle]

Need to see everyone play first.

And having the full roster would be helpful too.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

So, let me give you a situation and let's use what it looks like to YOU the incoming players should play like, realizing that others may see individual players differently.

So, lets say we are up by 5, there is 3mins left in the game, we were just up by 15 but the other team just went on a 10-0 run. Neither team is in real foul trouble, we are on the road in front of a crazy rabid crowd cheering on the come back by their favorite team, crowd is absolutely in to it and the refs start calling things tighter and kind of cater to the crowds energy, momentum is NOT on our side.

Who do you have on the court? I have Cadeau at the point, RJ at the 2, Ryan at the 3, Withers at the 4, and Bacot. I have Cadeau at the point because he is my best ball handler, they try to press him and he wil pass over the pressure and likely find us an easy basket behind the defense. I have RJ for his jump shooting and especially his free throw shooting. I have Ryan for the same reason I have RJ, I want a shooter that also hits free throws. I have Withers for free throw shooting as well as a guy that will run the court and maybe catch that Cadeau outlet for the easy flush. I have Bacot for rebounding but I don't want him going to the free throw line if I can prevent it, if we maintain that margin, I pull Bacot when the clocks goes under 1minute and replace him with a shooter like maybe Wojic.

I have to chuckle that you start off with the obligatory ~"nobody could possibly answer such an open-ended question"~ and then you immediately give a very good answer to that question.

One of these days I hope people will feel free to skip the obligatory disclaimers and just dig in. But the truth is I did exactly the same thing by prefacing my comments with "Obviously there are a lot of variables...."

 

[TPFKAPFS]

Even though it is virtually impossible to answer such an open ended question , I would make the decision based on who has shown the most poise, defensive intensity, and grit during the game in question!

I assume it might be:
Cadeau,
RJ,
Ryan/Ingram (do I need D or FTs?)
Withers/Washington (Do I need scoring/rebounding or the ability to guard the perimeter?)
Bacot

 

[DSouthr]

I have to chuckle that you start off with the obligatory ~"nobody could possibly answer such an open-ended question"~ and then you immediately give a very good answer to that question.

One of these days I hope people will feel free to skip the obligatory disclaimers and just dig in. But the truth is I did exactly the same thing by prefacing my comments with "Obviously there are a lot of variables...."

Only reason I did that WW was there are so many different scenarios that would change my pick of who I want on the court in that particular situation, so I made up just one of what could be many situations to use as my basis. Did that because I wanted to try to answer your question, was in no way looking to throw shade at your question. Example, say we are down 3 with a minute left, I may put Washington in at the 4, his length gives him the advantage getting his shot off clean and we need points.

In fact, this brings up something that has infuriated me now for a few years but was especially a thing that drove me crazy with the RJ/Caleb back court. Tight game, we are behind by 3-5pts, you need points, you do not have to get 3, 2 is fine, what you can not have is the empty possession nor do you have time to waste on the clock. The defense does NOT want to foul in that situation because they don't want to give you free points. Go take the easy inside bucket and that 2points rather than a rushed well defender prayer from 3, what have we watched far to much of, Caleb or RJ but mostly Caleb launch that prayer 3. Yeah, every now and then that prayer will go in but more likely it doesn't and we have the 1 thing you can not have, the empty possession. Then we foul, they go to the line and cash in, rather than cut the lead we let them expand it. Watched that play out way to much!

 

[ChiShankCity]

I do wonder what our best plus/minus lineup will be. Which combination of players will work best together?

Will we have a death lineup? Something we can go to for a knockout punch? Or to get back into a game?

End of game lineup is situational but in general, I like having 2 ball handlers in late game situations.

 

[WhatTheHeel?]

So, let me give you a situation and let's use what it looks like to YOU the incoming players should play like, realizing that others may see individual players differently.

So, lets say we are up by 5, there is 3mins left in the game, we were just up by 15 but the other team just went on a 10-0 run. Neither team is in real foul trouble, we are on the road in front of a crazy rabid crowd cheering on the come back by their favorite team, crowd is absolutely in to it and the refs start calling things tighter and kind of cater to the crowds energy, momentum is NOT on our side.

Who do you have on the court? I have Cadeau at the point, RJ at the 2, Ryan at the 3, Withers at the 4, and Bacot. I have Cadeau at the point because he is my best ball handler, they try to press him and he wil pass over the pressure and likely find us an easy basket behind the defense. I have RJ for his jump shooting and especially his free throw shooting. I have Ryan for the same reason I have RJ, I want a shooter that also hits free throws. I have Withers for free throw shooting as well as a guy that will run the court and maybe catch that Cadeau outlet for the easy flush. I have Bacot for rebounding but I don't want him going to the free throw line if I can prevent it, if we maintain that margin, I pull Bacot when the clocks goes under 1minute and replace him with a shooter like maybe Wojic.

I'd call a time out 😄

 

[gauchoheel]

Cadeau
RJ
The wing were seeking to add
Ingram
Bacot

Closing 5 IMO. Maybe Ryan starts in front of Cadeau. 🤠

 

[Ozheelfan]

I may defer from this discussion until next January-February.

 

[DSouthr]

I do wonder what our best plus/minus lineup will be. Which combination of players will work best together?

Will we have a death lineup? Something we can go to for a knockout punch? Or to get back into a game?

End of game lineup is situational but in general, I like having 2 ball handlers in late game situations.

I think your best scoring line up, you have to factor in how Hubert wants them to play, is having 4 shooters around Bacot. 4 shooters means 4 guys that must be guarded, that defenders can not leave to double someone else, floor balance. I think you also have to factor in things like ability to play with intenseness and physicality, defensive play that many times leads to easy scores, free throw shooting, and decisions making. I think that line up should start for you. Mine would be Cadeau, Wilcher/RJ/Ryan, Ingram, Withers, Bacot.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I updated the chart to include 3pt percentage, and also to include the actual number of shots taken and made for both FTs and treys.

Should make it a little easier to decide your game ending squad, depending on whether you are protecting a small lead or need to come from behind.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Cadeau
RJ
The wing were seeking to add
Ingram
Bacot

Closing 5 IMO. Maybe Ryan starts in front of Cadeau. 🤠

This makes sense considering you don't expect Withers to be a starting-caliber player.

If you are right, I'm hoping Washington will have improved a lot. Well, I want him to have improved a lot in any case, but if Withers isn't as good as hoped, the need for him to be ready increases.

I'm not saying Ingram can't play PF. He gives up height, but is strong-like-bull and can handle himself. I expect him to play some at PF in any case, but he isn't my first choice to start - unless, of course, we need him to.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I read somewhere that Ryan can play point in a pinch. Not the best use of him, I assume, but he apparently has adequate skills, and a high basketball IQ.

In some recent broadcast, AJ and Fisk opined that Withers might be decent at SF for short stretches. Adequate quickness and a good outside threat who will draw the D away from Armando.

I don't imagine we'll see either of those switches happen much, if at all. But if we want to go big for some reason, how about this lineup

6'5 - Ryan
6'5 - Wojcik
6'9 - Withers
6'10 - Washington
6'11 - Bacot

I know, I know, that leaves off RJ and Ingram. But they won't be playing 40 minutes, so....

 

[gauchoheel]

This makes sense considering you don't expect Withers to be a starting-caliber player.

If you are right, I'm hoping Washington will have improved a lot. Well, I want him to have improved a lot in any case, but if Withers isn't as good as hoped, the need for him to be ready increases.

I'm not saying Ingram can't play PF. He gives up height, but is strong-like-bull and can handle himself. I expect him to play some at PF in any case, but he isn't my first choice to start - unless, of course, we need him to.

I don't think Washington can play the 5 personally. So I can't really see any way he'd start absent Bacot injury.

I think RJ, Ryan, Ingram, Wilcher, Withers, Bacot are the realistic candidates to start from the current roster (Wilcher less than the others, but we don't know if he could be a guy who plays above his recruiting rankings). I just expect two more guys above Withers' talent level to be added.

Don't see why we'd have an issue with Ingram at PF; I think he fits better there than SF. He's a good rebounder, strong like you said, and not a great shooter. He's not the quickest guy so will have a harder time staying with SFs, but can outmaneuver a lot of PFs and not get bullied by them.