Early Observations, Maybe Too Early

[WSUfan4ever]

Weber has had unprecedented recruiting the past few years. Only problem is that these kids are mostly underclassmen, and don't really have a lot of experience. At Weber's level we don't necessarily get recruits who can immediately play, very often. Lillard was a complete anomaly. Senglin is in the same boat. A total aberration, who was ready to play immediately. Is he a PG? Slowly he is becoming one, but he isn't fully one yet, but he will get there. Last Saturday was a break out game for Jeremy. Only issue is that he doesn't have a lot of help around him. Weber really, desperately, needs Golden to start hitting his shots and Gittens to become far more consistent. Weber needs 10pts from him ever night. Lastly, the Cats DESPERATELY need more of an inside presence. Bolomboy is not enough. I really feel the best possible route would be to start a true center. I might be crazy here, but is Hajek can't do it. Might as well see what Van Pelt can do. Same with Richardson. If one of the other guards isn't playing well, might as well give the kid more than 2mins. He has confidence and can really shot. His defense isn't bad. He just needs time. Hill, to me, is lost. I'm sorry 3Wildcats...he just isn't comfortable moving back and forth between the 4 and 3. He is getting there, but at times, to me, he looks lost and confused. I think coming in off the bench at the 6th man is a great spot for Hill. He can observe the game a bit and get a feel for the style of play before coming in. He could be quite the Spark for the Cats. I really feel that Rahe should post him up as a 3. Have Joel and the other big pull out their men and let Hill go to work against a smaller 3. Hill is bigger than a lot of the 3's in the conference and a lot of the 3's he has faced. They are faster, but he is stronger. Might as well use his size against them. Post him up as a 3.

Great post and couldn't agree more. What little we have seen of Richardson he looks comfortable and confident, and he has some size. Joel is better at the 4 and Hill seems to be much better at the 3. I think everyone wants Hayek to have a great senior year but he is just not getting it done. How about starting him at the 5, moving Joel to the 4 and Hill to the 3. James will not feel the pressure to score as much and can do a great job just rebounding and playing defense. Perhaps Van Pelt can give us 10 minutes a game as a back up 5? He played 2 minutes in PC game, had one steal and one assist. I know he has had challenges getting back in shape and I have no idea what he is looking like in practice right now but we could certainly use another 6'10" player in the rotation.

Why not mix things up? The chemistry for the group right now is just not happening and doesn't seem to be improving.

 

[catscratched]

Two really good posts. I couldn't agree more. Rebounding and interior defense have been huge problems.

Bring on the JUMBO lineup! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[n.ogdencat]

Sounds like someone needs to attend a coaches luncheon and ask some of these questions. Then, come back here and let us know what the answers are. :twocents:

Coaches luncheon!! :rofl: :rofl: They are in the middle of BFE and rarely happen. It is too hard to make the effort to attend. Coaches luncheon's have become an absolute joke. One in a series of many for our distinguished athletics department. I'm wondering what our marketing guru is spinning this week. How much FREE can we give away. :kisswink:

 

[n.ogdencat]

But seriously catscratched, we need more coming from our bench. Our starters are going to be absolutely wasted by the time conference starts. There are five guys on our bench who should be getting more mins, and from what I can tell, there are options to support our starters from the bench if they just got some mins to prove themselves. 35mins a game, right now, is way to much. In February...well that is one thing, but right now?

 

[WSUfan4ever]

Joel takes a beating every time we play. If he were to go down with an injury where would we be?

There is a reason why most programs play 12 - 16 players before conference starts. Some of the best cinderella stories in recent years are doing things very different than Weber. Wichita State has 15 players getting minutes, VCU 14, Davidson 16, George Mason 12, and Gonzaga 13. Other programs of mention are IL State 12, BYU 16, Utah 13 ... just to name a few. We really only have 8 players. Granted we are unique this year because of our very young team but still if we have a key injury we are in trouble.

 

[WSUProf]

I'm not convinced that we have had "unprecedented recruiting of late." I can't say that this year's class is really anything special.

2014-15 class: 6 players (2 are redshirting) and so far only one (Golden) is contributing much. None of the freshman compare to Senglin and Gittens as freshmen (so far).

2013-14: 4 players: Senglin and Gittens have done well. Fuller saw limited action and lasted one year. We'll see about Cannon when he gets here.

2012-13: 5 players: Two are still here - Bolomboy and Hill. Bolomboy has been very good. Still waiting on Hill to develop into a top player. Of the other 3, only Williams saw action and he didn't last more than 2 years.

2011-2: While none of the HS recruits turned out well, although Wheelwright did have a decent freshman year, Berry was part of this recruiting class.

2010-1: Best class in the last 5 years. Richardson, Bamforth, Tresnak and Otis were all part of this class, plus Hajek. Maybe this year's class will develop and challenge the 2010-11 class, but in their 1st year, this class put up 19 points per game (and that was just 3 of them as Otis had to sit out a year and Hajek redshirted)

So, has our recruiting been unprecedented of late? I'd be happy to see another class of the caliber of 2010-1.

 

[Itiger]

Great post Prof....... I'm not sure what's impacting our program, but we've lost some players over the years and I'm not sure if it's player or coach initiated. Transfers as a whole are up throughout the NCAA. I know some on this board feel that every player should red shirt, but I'm confident players come here to play. I'm still disappointed that we redshirted players this year that could be helping us now!

The OOC season is going to be a major bust! I'd love to start conference play at .500, but that doesn't look likely. I can't be here for the BYU game. I hope we put up a fight. I'm thinking Haws and Collingsworth will put up 50 between the two of them. I hate BYU...... But they play to win and could do well as they potentially head to a better conference. As this discussions take place Weber should be reaching out and showing interest in the WCC! Football can stay in the BSC! I know..... No guts no glory!

 

[catscratched]

We don't fit the WCC. They are all small religious schools, with the exception of one big one, BYU.

With a little work, the BSC can over take the WCC in basketball. It's really only a couple of their programs that are superior right now. The BSC is close. Football is the big stumbling block for most potential moves. We would have a long ways to go to get to the MWC and there really aren't any other options if we are going to keep football.

For the foreseeable future, we are where we are.