Kylan Boswell - Real Talk

[arxpert]

Is this point shaving?
Is there money transferring hands?
Just asking.
I am sorry, but as a coach when my players play with so little effort and heart, I empty the bench. Martinez would have been in early.
He wasn't the only one either!

I made this type of comment I think on the other thread. Something just isn't right here. I hate to think about the Stephen "Headake" Smith scandel at ASU in the early 90s that was featured on Big Shot: Confessions of a College Bookie --- but something is not right overall. I don't think Tommy is in on it. It is possible though. Like you said, even Conrad would have been able to put up 4 points and escape this game.

Boro, Paulius... there are able bodies that are capable of watching Wash. St brick shots, rebound and get up court.

KC is out here acting like if Tommy goes to the bench that Wash. St would instantly and automatically become the Warriors swishing every jump shot. It is actually sort of disrespectful to Paulius and Boro as if they have no pride.

Why is Dylan Anderson even Red Shirted at this point? He can't be any worse than Ballo or Krivas. We have a glaring problem with Ballo on the floor. We play 4 vs 5 on offense because any time Ballo touches the ball he is fouled instantly since he cant hit FTs.

Is anyone telling me that Krivas is worse than Ballo at FTs? Why isn't Tommy going to Keshad at the 5 on Offense and keeping Ballo out of the paint? Anyone can get into the lane if Ballo isn't clogging it. That requires GUARDS who PLAY TO THE RIM. That isn't Boswell though.

Pelle would benefit. Love, Bradley, KJ..........

Ballo can play around the FT line, pass out of there to a guard all day for a catch and shoot or cut. Or We can play 4 vs 5 and Ballo can just crash the boards hard when the shot goes up.

There are ways to deal with Ballo being a liability, but Tommy refuses.

[KansasCityCats]

That JV Colorado team was bad but they only lost by one possession to assu two nights after being embarrassed by Arizona.

Ballo was definitely worse than Boswell last night. He missed easy shots and allowed weaker bigs to slip by him in the post. It's a moot point though because everybody is playing to win. 

[arxpert]

That JV Colorado team was bad but they only lost by one possession to assu two nights after being embarrassed by Arizona.

Ballo was definitely worse than Boswell last night. He missed easy shots and allowed weaker bigs to slip by him in the post. It's a moot point though because everybody is playing to win. 

Quick thought: ASU Sucks. SUCKS.

Boswell is lucky that Collier is basically done for season. Bronny James had a Boswell stat line the other night btw. No one talks about that. He was 1 million % hype heart problem or not. Was... Is........... And that stat line came without Collier AND Boogie Ellis......

So it could be an interesting Get-Right game for the team as a whole. However, I am thinking that Boswell needs to be benched for a game. This would be another good game to bench him in. There's not many "opportunities" that arise for a Coach to make a point to his players. This might be the last chance.

Otherwise I would like to see Boswell play Bronny even though they may not be naturally aligned positionally. It could be the type of matchup that can help Boswell get some confidence back. Dominating Lebron's kid. Getting some "tape" on it.

All of this still lends to my original commentary about how playing Arizona is every Pac12 Team's Superbowl. We are the Hunted. No one in the Pac12 can make the Big Dance without beating us. Losses will happen, but ultimately if our team is getting worse because of the losses then I can't stand for that silently. Tommy needs to be the HUNTERS. This is where we have to turn it around. I think EVERYONE should be able to agree with me there. Change the narrative. Get into gear. Get serious and ferocious. Don't just clap a bad or injured team. Create a culture for the rest of this season Right Now.

HOWEVER ---->

If Tommy wants to throw away another Pac12 Title that's his business. I don't have to enjoy it. In fact it makes me sick. Degusted with Tommy's coaching.....

But if he is actively making this team worse by refusing to coach it properly then that's another story. He cannot be so blind as to see what is and isn't working.

I hope everyone understands that we shouldn't even be considered a lock for Selection Sunday if we don't get the automatic qualifier Pac12 Tournament. Sure, we might be a "lock" in some people's minds, but some brutal honesty is without barely beating Duke, we probably wouldn't be.

Depending on total Losses, I can see us being a 7 to 10 seed with 10 losses if we don't win the Pac12 Tournament. Maybe a 5 seed if we do win and have like 7 losses on the year. This is a BAD conference. I can't see more than us making it in. Maybe 1 other team? I'm serious.

This is starting to get rough and as I've said before "It's getting late, early".

[arxpert]

Another bad game from Boswell.

Tommy finally starting to listen though. Bronny outplayed Boswell like it was nothing. That is very worrisome.

Bradley outplayed Boswell big time tonight. Sure he had a couple miscues, but this was effectively the changing of the guard (no pun intended).

10 Points, 5 Steals, 3 Ast, 2 reb. 4-4 from the Stripe. This is what having an impact means. 2 turnovers? Perfectly acceptable. He did not get dominated out there like Boswell did by Bronny.

A starting PG of a top team needs to have this type of impact on the game. 3-9 from the field ends up better than 4-12 from the field with empty peripherals from Boswell. It also cut Love to only 16 shots which is a good thing. We don't want Love to be getting 25pts on 22 shots.

This was a bad game from Arizona and we had it in control the whole time. Proves a lot.

Bradley and Love operate better together. They both attack the rim and make everything happen. It can be sloppy at times, but if Boswell will just hover the 3pt line and let the real men handle the attacking, we should be just fine.

Footnote - Tommy also started listening to Ballo at PF. Something I said many times preseason was our optimal bundle. I was thinking it would be with Hank Vessaar, but now I see it will be Ballo and Krivas. Ballo PF was the recipe for the 1 Seed with Koloko.

Looks like Tommy is prepping to go back to that strategy down the stretch. Krivas looks rough sometimes, but even when he isn't scoring, he is effecting the game. He had 4 or 5 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal early in the game with 0 points. Eventually he broke through for some nice finishes. 4pts 8reb 1blk 1stl? Can't ask for much more from him. Ballo 8pts 13reb (most o-reb from his horrible attempts that he ends up playing some volley ball with) ---> 10 FT attempts, hit 4 of them. Notice Krivas is not put on the FT line?

When Tommy plays both of them, teams can't automatically foul Ballo because Ballo isn't automatically going to receive the moonball lob. Krivas also is a much bigger player and better screener. For Guards like Love and Bradley that is amazing to have as a tool so they can attack cleanly and then dish or try to finish strong.

[KansasCityCats]

I agree that it "looked" like Bradley was the better of the two players last night but neither player was good.

They both shot 33% and had a similar point total in a similar amount of minutes. Both took care of the ball and played decent D.

Bronny shot less than 50% and constantly turned the ball over against smaller defenders. He'll be in the league but he wasn't nearly as good as our wings.

Out of 17 games, Love has only two games where he shot inefficiently at a high volume. I guess he's due.

Ballo is in a serious slump. Between rebounding f, ballhandling, easy bucket and (obviously) free throws...he needs to become his old aggressive self if he doesn't want Krivas to eat up more minutes.

[KansasCityCats]

http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/39330498

Pretty funny link of LeBron's frustrations with Bronny last night (during his presser).

[arxpert]

http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/39330498

Pretty funny link of LeBron's frustrations with Bronny last night (during his presser).

I think Lebron will always hold Bronny to a different standard. Bryce is way better than Bronny. Lebron needs to keep pressing Bronny if he wants him to have a legit chance.

I say Bronny dominated the game with a lot of reasoning. He is playing with a cast of misfits who are bad at basketball. USC could be good if they were 100% healthy. He probably miscalculated where to go to College in the end. He would actually have been a great fit on Arizona. Bronny will be a Guard at the next level. I didn't see him struggling out there. I saw him competing. Out-competing our guys. But he couldn't do it alone. He definitely has the talent. He made some amazing passes and high IQ plays, but he is hindered by talentless teammates. He might be an above average pro in the right situation.

I think Tommy has been listening overall. Krivas and Ballo... thats the Koloko/Ballo approach. He knows he can't rely on Keshad to play bigger than he is. We are often overmatched by teams that have a 6'10" and a 6'8" player which is really sad.

We are a much different team with both Ballo and Krivas out there. But I think it only works if we have Bradley and Love out there too. That configuration has no experience together. That's on Tommy.

Bradley
Love
__________ (Boswell, Pelle, KJ) ---> Figuring out that 5th player per any situation is a very good thing.
Ballo
Krivas

Any of those 4 players as the 5th guy on the floor in this lineup could indicate a way to counter an opponent and make them play to Our style at Our will. Love/Bradley attacking, kick out to Boswell for catch and shoot 3's (maybe in a perfect world Boswell can actually hit some passes to Bradley/Love cutting to the rim). Pelle would indicate 3 and D as well with more focus on trying to have Love/Bradley slash in and Krivas setting screens, Ballo on Mop Up, Pelle getting back on D. KJ would indicate more back door cutting.

Keshad probably would not be on the floor for this lineup often, but could if things were dire.

I felt yesterday was the right time to bench Boswell. We won't get that many more walkovers this year. We got it vs Colorado and USC... But Tommy did prove last night that he was willing to try other things out. I'm sure he will go back to the old 6.5 player type rotation and go down in flames when it matters, but I hope to see more of this changing things up. If we make UCLA look good then it will be on Tommy. I can only assume he tried Ballo/Krivas together because he is afraid Bona will dominate too much.

[arxpert]

Here we are again.

It is like no one wanted to believe me.

No one wanted to understand what was going on when I started this thread.

I can't accept any excuses for Boswell anymore. A PG or SG cannot be on the court and not affect the game at all. It is literally impossible to argue against me on this.

As little as some will say Bradley does, it is like 200%+ more than Boswell sometimes.

[KansasCityCats]

I still don't see where Bradley is outperforming Boswell.  They play similar minutes and are both ineffective.  5 points, 1 board, 2 assists and 2 steals is nothing to brag about.  Somebody (not named Love) needs to wake up in the backcourt.

[arxpert]

I still don't see where Bradley is outperforming Boswell.  They play similar minutes and are both ineffective.  5 points, 1 board, 2 assists and 2 steals is nothing to brag about.  Somebody (not named Love) needs to wake up in the backcourt.

I mean, tonight Bradley did put in the effort when he was out there. He plays a fearless brand of basketball. He plays tough. He's not the prospect Boswell is, but I like Bradley's swagger more.

Fact of the matter is the 5-1-2-2 type line simply dominates 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 type lines. Lesser minutes to get the stats vs more minutes to produce 0.

12 shots by Boo Boo or Bam Bam depending on the night now is a big difference. Tommy is clearly telling Boswell to work through his problems, but in the Small Ball lineup, Bradley was out there. That helped take a lot of pressure off of Boswell to handle the ball. Even if it didn't amount to stats tonight, it definitely helped Boswell get his. To me, that's a good teammate/role player.

Maybe neither are the starters we need them to be, but no matter how you slice it, you can't have a PG not affecting the game overall. So today was a decent glimpse in how to take pressure off Bam Bam and he seemed to do alright.

The adjustment from Tommy was good today. It is a wait-and-see overall if he deploys it again.