I think the issue is roster construction. As you state, Davis really isn't a guard, so in actuality, there are only 4 guards on the roster; one of which is a true freshman, and another that hadn't played basketball in 18 months due to injury. The Pettigrew miss was significant, but he would still have only been your 5th guard. In the MVC (a guard league), I think you need 6 or 7 guards to provide depth and development.
Yes, construction is the issue. I’ve said this since the offseason. These players aren’t bad together, but they’re in the wrong roles.
I also would disagree that Davis and Deen are not D1, they just are being expected to do more than they should on a good D1 team. I think Deen would be a great bench spark plug ala Ben Gordon on the 2000s Bulls. Davis is a do a little of it all 5th/6th man kind of player. But they’re expected to lead this team, especially in Deen’s case.
Let’s look at optimum position versus actual for this year’s team:
Hannah - a more traditional inside four man, not a five. He mainly plays the five. He doesn’t have the beef for that, even in the MVC.
Leons - a stretch four. He plays the three a lot.
Jonovic - a traditional five man. These guys don’t exist a ton in the MVC. Whereas Hannah is too thin to be a five in the MVC, Jonovic is too far the other way. He’s not athletic enough, yet at least.
Davis - a traditional small forward, which doesn’t really exist anymore in college. The stretch four is probably where he’d be best in the Valley. He’d be an awesome bench weapon. He plays the 3 guard for us. So now we already have three 4 men in Leons, Hannah, and Davis. Different styles for sure and all good players, but all best used as fours, maybe occasionally a 3 in Davis’s case.
Deen - I like him as a player, but he’s overmatched my a lot of taller players, it’s just what it is. He has to play the point by default a lot, but he has turnover problems. Being a sixth man would limit his weaknesses while leaning into his strengths I think.
Hickman - a two guard. He’s smart but not super quick and has turnover problems against quicker guards in the clutch. The two guard is his best spot. He has to play point for us a lot.
Burch - a slasher two guard. He’s playing point a lot. I see good passing ability at times, but he’s not consistent enough yet to run point.
Atlason - a four man is his best spot (now I’ve listed four of those in eight players). He’s playing the five man a lot and sometimes the three spot. I love his future, but he really isn’t ready to be a three or five yet.
Ellis - I’m undecided on this, but I don’t think he’s a point either and he’s playing there out of necessity at times. He seems like a two guard to me.
So of the 9 guys who play almost all of them are positional limited yet still playing out of position often or are put in poor positional matchups. Then the three bench players are all apparently unplayable post players, leaving us nowhere to turn for our point and two guard minutes, probably the most important spots in the Valley. At least 7 of these guys playing are pretty talented to me, but when roster construction throws off the strengths, it hurts. We needed more perimeter shooters and a bigger point guards on this roster and really needed to land a starter quality guard to be really successful this year. Hopefully players like Burch, Atlason, Ellis keep growing.
