Rotational Changes

[arxpert]

Tom should probably consider giving Carter more options besides just shooting threes.

I echo this, but I think the options begin with leaving him on the court and letting nature take it's course.

[arxpert]

Tom should probably consider giving Carter more options besides just shooting threes.

Not sure what to think of CTL.  He's not getting it done (yet) with this squad that's for sure. 

In the most extreme "Hot Take" universe, there is a train of thought that Tommy may not be ready for this Big12 Transition. He may end up a transitional coach overall if he isn't careful.

[KansasCityCats]

Lloyd's offense system asks players to take the first "good look", in order to speed up the game and create more chances through offensive boards and/oe fouls.

Bryant has the ability to drive to the basket but if he settles for multiple distant misses, Lloyd won't hesitate to replace him with somebody that can allow the offense to get into a rhythm.

Coaches can't take the blame for inconsistent play.

[arxpert]

Lloyd's offense system asks players to take the first "good look", in order to speed up the game and create more chances through offensive boards and/oe fouls.

Bryant has the ability to drive to the basket but if he settles for multiple distant misses, Lloyd won't hesitate to replace him with somebody that can allow the offense to get into a rhythm.

Coaches can't take the blame for inconsistent play.

Again, you just prove my point over and over and over again. Tommy built this team completely wrong if that is what you think his system is. There is no possible way to play that system with the players he has. Not to a level that can win vs mid-level Power 5 competition at least. But if you enjoy beating Altoona Agricultural and Mechanical than godspeed.

[KansasCityCats]

We had three OOC wins against ranked opponents last season.  That's more than the Houston Cougars have won over the past 15 seasons.  Our schedule isn't weak and with the exception of this season, Arizona has beaten the big boys over the past 3 years.

[LouieGTheThird]

New lineup I say we deploy is
Bradley
Love
Delly
Bryant
Krivas but he's hurt. So Veesar
Bench
Townsend
Lewis
Tobe
Conrad

Gives us a scoring punch in Townsend. Energy with Lewis & Tobe off the bench. Also I like the glimpses of Conrad I saw. Now the caveat here is the minutes have to balance for Carter Bryant. He can't have 9 mins & be a starter. He's raw but he's not 9 mins raw. He's gotta be out there more. Gives us more versatility & much needed length. Delly might not be a popular opinion in the starting lineup. But, we need shooting in the starting lineup. 3 point shooting. Someone who can spread the floor & space out the lanes for Bradley & eventually Carter Bryant once he gains more confidence. We can't expect Delly to be this bucket getter all we need him to do in this lineup is to be a 3 pt specialist. 2-3 3 pts & he would get his job done in this lineup. Obviously Caleb Love isn't with us mentally & that needs to change otherwise we are going to have to move on from him in the starting lineup & replace him with Lewis. But, I think this would be our most balanced starting lineup & then if we are fortunate enough to get a healthy Krivas this year. I would like to see him & HV play some minutes together. Tough tough first 9 games. But, as always, Bear Down.

[WILD]

Here's my favorite starting lineup

Bradley
Lewis
Delly
Bryant
Veesar

Bench
Awaka
Love
Townsend
Conrad
Krivas (Injured)

Thoughts?

[|ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ|]

PG1  - Love
PG2  - Bradley
SF     - Bryant
PF     - Veesaar
C       - Awaka

The Lavar Ball lineup

[arxpert]

We have hit an inflection point where Love needs to decide if he wants to step away and prepare for the Combine or if he wants to actually play basketball. If he can't accept a role of 10 to 15 minutes off the bench to come in and take 3 to 5 shots within the flow of the game as a spot up shooter than he just needs to step away at this point.

I have the lineup like this now:

Bradley
Delly
Bryant
Awaka
Henri

KJ 6th Man - Rotate him with anyone.
Townsend to rotate with Carter, Awaka, and Henri

Conrad for rotational purposes only if there is foul trouble.

Feels like we are missing something when you look at that, but I think we would be gaining something. A forced Continuity. No more relying on Superman Caleb Love to jack up 9 3's a game.

Everyone will have to be responsible.

We are now a 7 Man team in my opinion. I would just cancel Love if it were my call. I really think that Tommy can't bench Love like he did Boswell for a game or so and expect it to all work out. It just doesn't work. He needs to decide if Love will be part of this team going forward or if he is just going to be there to practice with the team for his own personal benefit and ours to practice against a competitive player, but not be on the bench during games.

Tommy has to be able to coach. Tommy used to coach 7 guys, but now I think everyone should be able to see and agree with me that he just had NBA players left over for the most part and they had the speed, talent and athleticism to pull it off.

A good coach would adapt and set up actual plays to get all the players into positions where they only need to catch a pass, take 1 or 2 dribbles, then go up with the ball with whatever action they are going for on the set plays.

Not just say "run down the court and chuck the first open look". That isn't Coaching. We aren't the Warriors and we don't have Chef Curry.

Unfortunately we don't play a game of unlimited timeouts. Tommy does have some nice plays that he draws up from out of bounds. I give him that. He needs to be able to call those plays in-game though.

This is not Gonzaga. This is Arizona. Tommy missed that memo.

Like mentioned above, there is no such thing as a Starter who gets 9 minutes. That, to me at least, speaks to someone from Carter's "camp" saying that if Carter is not starting then he is just going to stop playing and prepare for the combine as well as train to field offers for potential transferring.

So in this situation, for better or worse, I know it is a lot to ask/hope/pray for, but we need to see Carter Bryant putting up 12 to 15 shots per game in this offense. If he isn't "Him" then so be it. We would never know the way Tommy is forcing things to be.

There doesn't necessarily need to be an outright Leader, but we do need SOMEONE to assert that this is Their Team and it cannot be Caleb Love anymore + we know it can't be KJ Lewis since he can't shoot the ball. If it is Bradley then we are done. It can't be Awaka since he can't shoot. It can't be Henri since he isn't Andrew Bogut in the post.

It also can't be Townsend + Delly unless you all want to admit Tommy turned us into a REAL Mid Major.

That means we need to give Carter a shot to be The Guy.

He should be getting a touch every single possession and he should make the choice to pass out of it or take it to the rim/get his shot off. There is also a reality where Tommy can actually call plays and get Screens for Bryant too. Screen and roll with Henri would be good with Awaka crashing the back end in the event of a brick-put back.

It is time. Use it or Lose it. This is College Basketball. No one needs to "earn minutes via practice". Whoever is the mother fucking King Dingaling should be getting the ball. End of story. This is the 1 sport where 1 player can make that big of an impact. It could be anyone any given night, but Tommy cannot be yanking players out of the game for missing 1 or 2 shots.

We don't need to play games in the 80s to win, but we do need to play good enough defense and be efficient on offense.

If the only way we are losing is because we are allowing 3's and not Hitting 3's, then we are doomed no matter what. There is no way to play basketball in 2024 if you can't hit 3's and you can't stop 3's nor get rebounds off bricks. Awaka, Henri and Bryant is solid enough to gang rebound with Bradley helping to crash the boards. Tommy has found a way to play Awaka, one of the nation's best rebounders, less and less. Tommy needs to stop the bs already.

We are not a roster that should be running and gunning. Identity crisis.

If Tommy has zero coaching adaptability than he built the team wrong. We all must accept it. He can't change things around forever. The goal now is to win 14 games from here out. Dumbing it down - 14 out of 22 in the regular season then see where we are at. Any loss is a big loss now. Doesn't matter who beats us.

This is now Game to Game survival until proven otherwise.

[Bear]

Shake the tree.

Martinez
Bradley
Bryant
Townsend
Veesar