Reply To: Bucknell – Game 30 (PL's 17th)

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Bucknell – Game 30 (PL's 17th) Reply To: Bucknell – Game 30 (PL's 17th)

#13760

toddcudd
Participant

A few items i wanna jump in on here. First, the AD situation – here’s the quote from the LU Atletics site:

What are your postgraduate plans?
AD: I deferred my forensic advisory job offer at PricewaterhouseCoopers because I plan on utilizing my fifth year of eligibility for basketball. I am unsure as to where I will end up next year, mainly because I have not put my name out there just yet. After next year, I will start my career out at PwC in New York City, which is the largest accounting firm in the world.

I’m struggling with this. If he wants to come back and play next year, are we really not accommodating him? I guess I understand the scholarship problem – but when did he express interest in returning? Could something not have been worked out? I dunno – but I feel like we should have. And could he not return non-schollie? Maybe that’s not an option on his side, and if so I guess that’s just how it is. But what are his options? He can’t play D1 anywhere else next year, right? The 2 semester rule we’ve heard about here?

The other one that jumped out to me is the “just an energy guy” take on JG. Admittedly, I’m a JG fan. But last year I saw raw potential only. He looked tentative around the basket, and we really saw very little in terms of an offensive arsenal. I’d argue that his year-over-year growth is amongst the best I’ve ever seen. He has been assertive going to the hoop, and has shown a nice array of moves. In my mind, he has been limited by one thing only – lack of depth up front. There’s no other excuse for him not playing major minutes, in my book. He’s been efficient on offense, runs the floor well, and is very effective on D – changing shots, forcing kickouts. I’m even OK with some of the fouls; no freebies in the paint – it can change the opposing mindset. I will concede that there were times where they came in bunches, which is a problem. But some of that could also be attributed to lack of time to get into the flow. I really think the PF issue is overblown; some numbers for the season:
TK – 1 PF every 8.03 mins
JG – 1 PF every 7.23 mins
CB – 1 PF every 4.82 mins

I hope we can somehow resolve the front-court depth problem next year, but not sure I see how at this point. The other big challenge this off season will be significant changes to the offense. We need to figure out how to play inside-out, putting BOTH of these big guys to work, and taking advantage of double-teams.