• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

New starting line-up

tornado said:
I don't place "fault" but then I don't blame someone else for the conclusions I draw.
I think this team does have a lot of talent, and just a couple weeks ago lots of people were saying so, now
it's all doom and gloom as if we never had any decent talent in the first place.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5854
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5968
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5979

Now tell me you are going to blame me for all the opinions in these threads??
Click to expand...
T...
Just to clarify...I am not blaming you, personally, for the overwhelming amount of hype that surrounded this team...
The point of my original, longwinded post was that the high expectations that I had for this team were mainly brought about because of all of the statements/predictions made by Les, Snell, the Valley coaches, a handful of independent recruiting experts, and dozens of college basketball websites and magazines....
My expectations of this team were NOT based on observations that you or any other posters that had access to any of the team's workouts passed along. Sure, those observations did serve to support the glowing reviews that Snell, Les, Van Coleman, the Valley coaches, etc. had already given us on this team and its group of newcomers, but "the message board hype" wasn't the primary thing I was basing my high hopes on.
If somebody's brother that knows a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy that cuts Jim Les's hair comes on a message board and says that he heard that Les said that TCS is going to be a lottery pick, Egolf will start this year and average 20 pts. and 15 boards, and Matt Salley worked out with (and dominated) Tim Duncan all offseason and is now 7'1" and has 6% body fat...well, that is the kind of message board hype that you take with a grain of salt until you see it for yourself. But with so many independent talent evaluators, college hoops sources, etc. picking us 2nd in the Valley, with a nationally-ranked recruiting class, the most talent we have ever had here, etc., etc., etc....I don't see how we could have or should have dismissed that as "typical message board hype" and thought for ourselves...
And I'm not calling Les a liar about making his infamous "most talented BU team he has had" statement...I'm just concerned...because that is NOT the type of statement you want to go around making as a coach in the preseason...It sort of backs you into a corner...because if this team doesn't make the tournament and doesn't finish in the top half of the Valley, then you have to wonder whether: A) This team was not all that talented, and he has somehow lost his ability to judge talent, and completely misread the talent level of this team; or B) this team IS the most talented team he has ever had at BU, but he and his staff did a lousy job of teaching and coaching that talent.
Just seems like a "lose-lose" statement for him to make, IMO...I don't doubt that he did/does think all of these newcomers were/are ultra-talented, so I'm sure that it is frustrating to this coaching staff that they have not been able to get much production from 2/3 of them to this point in the season...
Hopefully that can change as we go forward...
 
So who is to blame for the way that we are playing now, the coaching staff , the players, or the media for picking this team to finish 2nd and making references about how good these incoming players would be?
 
Ummm...I would suppose the coaching staff and the players would be the ones that would have to be held accountable for the way this team has been playing.
For whatever that is worth...Getting to the bottom of who is actually at fault for this mess is secondary in my mind...I am disappointed, and I just want this team to start playing good basketball...
 
Back to the topic ... I was out of town for the weekend and I heard the score of the game Saturday. As expected, it's like the burning of Rome here...

17 Valley games left ...

I also just finished watching the game on the BUBraves.TV archive and agreed, that was pretty nasty.

5 starters?
We only have two guys who deserve to start right now: Maniscalco and Wilson. They played with a lot of guts in an otherwise horrible game.

Warren needs to be benched because of how invisible he has been at times. That will send a message.

Crouch hasn't been a leader in Daniel's absence, that deserves losing your starting spot as well.

Similar to 2006, Les needs to declare the starting lineup up for grabs for the remaining 3 spots. Lets see who wants it in practice.

One thing I'm not buying into is the Rashad Austin lovefest on here. Are we really that desperate that we want a guy starting who bricked his only shot, had a terrible turnover (moving screen 30 feet from the hoop) and got beat bad on defense by Coleman? He did make a nice assist to Wilson and a couple good boards. But, he hasn't shown me enough in hustle yet to warrant a starting spot.

Where was Sam Singh Saturday?

My lineup is, after considering how bad almost every player has been at times:

G: Sam Maniscalco
G: Jeremy Crouch
F: Theron Wilson (Let him play the weave, he can dribble and shoot enough)
F: Sam Singh (Unless he's hurt, he should have played Saturday)
F: Matt Salley (Seven boards and 2-3 from the floor is adequate ... it's better than Austin, so far - That said, Austin's minutes DO need to go up)

The offense needs to be reworked ... the weave simply isn't working too well. Use it on occasion but we need some new sets. When teams aren't playing zone, let's see Austin/Singh work down low a bit. They surely have to be able to do something??
 
I think tonight would be an ideal situation for JL to completely shake up the starting lineup the way he should have done a couple weeks ago. No pressure from the home crowd, not expected to win this game, and it NEEDS to be done!

I would love to see the following lineup at the start of the game and see what they can do.

Maniscalco
Crouch
Wilson
Austin
Collins
 
shaunguth said:
I think tonight would be an ideal situation for JL to completely shake up the starting lineup the way he should have done a couple weeks ago. No pressure from the home crowd, not expected to win this game, and it NEEDS to be done!

I would love to see the following lineup at the start of the game and see what they can do.

Maniscalco
Crouch
Wilson
Austin
Collins
Click to expand...

I agree that there needs to be a shakeup, but am not sure if there can be an effective offense with both Salley and Austin. Unless your plan is to cheuck up shots and have Austin and Salley cleanup the garbage.. Actually that would of been effective last game.
 
ph said:
I agree that there needs to be a shakeup, but am not sure if there can be an effective offense with both Salley and Austin. Unless your plan is to cheuck up shots and have Austin and Salley cleanup the garbage.. Actually that would of been effective last game.
Click to expand...

I don't want Salley in the starting lineup period, no matter who else is in there!
 
Some people don't want Singh to play. Some people don't want Collins to play. Some people don't want Salley to play. Some people don't want Austin to play. Some people don't want Egolf to play. Even somebody doesn't want Maniscalco to start.

Seems we have more arguments to keep players out of the lineup and very few arguments to put/keep them in.

Just an observation. . .
 
I just don't think Salley will be able to handle Richards at center on either end of the floor. Collins would give us an inside presence (hopefully) and Wilson/Austin could match up with Lamberth/Mitchell. That's how I would like to see the game start anyways. Right now, I just think we need to bring Warren and Salley/Singh off the bench and see what happens. What do we have to lose?
 
squirrel said:
Some people don't want Singh to play. Some people don't want Collins to play. Some people don't want Salley to play. Some people don't want Austin to play. Some people don't want Egolf to play. Even somebody doesn't want Maniscalco to start.

Seems we have more arguments to keep players out of the lineup and very few arguments to put/keep them in.

Just an observation. . .
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, this is what you get when you have a team where 80% of the roster appears to be regressing at this point in the season rather than progressing.

It seems like there is a whole lot of "the grass must be greener on the other end of the bench" discussions on this board after every game...It just seems whatever big guy gets no time in the most recent game MUST be the best option to start/get big minutes in the next game...because "he HAS to be able to be more effective than (insert ineffective BU big man from previous game here) was"...
 
ER3 said:
Unfortunately, this is what you get when you have a team where 80% of the roster appears to be regressing at this point in the season rather than progressing.

It seems like there is a whole lot of "the grass must be greener on the other end of the bench" discussions on this board after every game...It just seems whatever big guy gets no time in the most recent game MUST be the best option to start/get big minutes in the next game...because "he HAS to be able to be more effective than (insert ineffective BU big man from previous game here) was"...
Click to expand...

I'm not saying the starting lineup should be shaken up from game to game, but Collins has only averaged 5 min/game over the last three and Austin has averaged less than 2 min/game for the season. I just think the time is now to shake things up and I would personally like to see these two on the court at the same time to start the game.
 
I'm personally a fan of our size. There's a psychological advantage to having size on the floor, as not many teams have it. I would like to see Collins or Singh at center with Salley at the 4. . .I think his production numbers would go up dramatically.

I also wouldn't mind seeing Crouch or Warren come of the bench. . .not because they don't deserve to start, but rather to provide continuity, production, and hopefully some energy off the bench.

At times this season I feel the bench has done well in the 1st half, but the production disappears in the 2nd half, many times because it remains on the bench.
 
shaunguth said:
I'm not saying the starting lineup should be shaken up from game to game, but Collins has only averaged 5 min/game over the last three and Austin has averaged less than 2 min/game for the season. I just think the time is now to shake things up and I would personally like to see these two on the court at the same time to start the game.
Click to expand...
I agree...I'm certainly in the camp right now that wants to see Austin get more minutes to see what he can do...I'm just afraid that if he gets 15-20 minutes a game, it will be very easy to see why he hasn't been able to jump in front of Egolf, Collins, Salley, or Singh so far in our mess of a big man rotation...
Collins had a good stretch of games earlier in the year and looked like he was progressing, but he has simply looked horrible and lost in the time he has seen over the last few games. I still think he is the only big man we have on our roster that is capable of catching the ball in the post and executing anything remotely resembling an effective post move, so I think you have to figure out a way to get him minutes...but he has needs to get some toughness and make huge strides on the defensive end before you can afford to play him for extensive stretches of time.
 
Unfortunately the paper has us starting the same 5 players that could only score 9 points in the 1st half at home; Crouch, Wilson and Maniscalco deserve to start where as the other 2 do not as they have not played up to their potential; I would have replaced them with Singh and Collins or Austin; at least we would have some bigger bodies with this lineup; can only hope that we do not see the same problems with scoring and rebounding as we did saturday.
 
real fan said:
Unfortunately the paper has us starting the same 5 players that could only score 9 points in the 1st half at home; Crouch, Wilson and Maniscalco deserve to start where as the other 2 do not as they have not played up to their potential; I would have replaced them with Singh and Collins or Austin; at least we would have some bigger bodies with this lineup; can only hope that we do not see the same problems with scoring and rebounding as we did saturday.
Click to expand...
I don't know...I guess I really don't agree with this recent groundswell of support for starting and/or giving extensive minutes to Singh...He's a big body, yes...but he simply isn't athletic enough to provide much else at this point. I think the Butler game gave us a perfect illustration as to why Singh can only be used sparingly. Every single time Les put Singh into the game, Butler would simply spread the floor and then isolate Howard on Singh and Sam simply couldn't move his feet well enough to play any kind of post defense...
I liked that Singh came into the Mich State game and showed them that we had one big man that wasn't a complete marshmallow...and he did do a nice job early in the year on some screen and rolls...but it seems that teams have found a way to take that away from us lately...
To me, Singh is a 5 to 7 minute a night type of guy at the most...Any more time than that and I think his physcal limitations can be exposed...of course, getting any decent minutes out of these big guys lately has been hard to do, so there just aren't a ton of good options out there for Les to call upon...
 
I agree that Singh is not a starter but should definately be used ALOT against a very big, bulky, and physical Missouri State team.
 
Matt Salley starting is a guaranteed disaster and Les's deficiencies as a coach who can recognize talent are beginning to surface. Collins is soft because he's in fear of being pulled the first mistake he makes. Let him make some mistakes now and show him the floor until he fouls out. Salley gives you nothing...NOTHING!!! at least earlier this year, Collins showed some moves...give him some time and he might develop a spine as well! We need to find someone to initiate the high-low instead of the overused weave.
 
OK, I have to respond on one issue:

chitown fanatic wrote:

Les's deficiencies as a coach who can recognize talent are beginning to surface

C'mon guys. He recruited Ruffin, Crouch, POB, Boogie, Zack,.... He did not all of a sudden lose his ability to evaluate talent. Not everyone pans out but he has an admirable record of finding talented players who have become much better than anyone ever thought they would.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top