Yeah but outside of that what does he bring to the table
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The inevitable Kyle v iMac comparisons are coming up on another thread. For subscribers, here are Kyle’s frosh year game splits (look at 2017)
https://kenpom.com/player.php?p=39166
He had his big games against one or two cupcakes early and the later ACC games. Early on against good comp, he was fairly mediocre. And in the tourneys, ACC and ncaa, he struggled greatly.
Not trying to tear down Kyle or build up iMac. Just pointing out that you can’t rely on your memory of March 2019 Kyle when you’re trying to make relevant comparisons. Heck, even your memory of 2019 March Kyle probably overlooks the warts.**
** Kyle was 3-26 in the first three games of the tourney. That’s really bad!
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Yes - masked by how good our roster was then … That’s the bigger issue … our roster now isn’t good enough to absorb that poor a stretch by our highest volume shooter.
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Agree. To wrap it all up a bit, iMac’s major detriment compared to March 2019 Kyle is that (1) Kyle was in the spring of his junior year, and iMac is in the winter of his freshman year, and (2) iMac isn’t surrounded by a lottery pick and another first rounder.
Basically, I think we have to wait a bit to diagnose iMac’s shooting. If he keeps getting good PT, and Reece comes back healthy, and his numbers are still flagging come March or so, then it’s a different conversation.
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Still early but McKneely is shooting 30% overall and 31% from 3 to go with 60% from the FT line. I think the hope was that McKneely would be a low usage, good efficiency player his first year. Because many thought the issue with Casey was that he was asked to be a high usage player from day 1.
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It is a special challenge to shoot well from 3 in our system. Given the value we put on possessions, it puts enormous mental pressure on each shot. Not every player can get comfortable with it. Morsell being the most recent example. Post game last night … Tony was talking about encouraging guys to shoot open looks … but it is a hard balance for our rookies to find … then throw in the physical demands of our defense and you see good shooters like Isaac bricking at 30% pace.
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I do think there is a mental aspect that has been becoming more apparent these last few seasons.
I also think in general kids are more comfortable shooting on a close out and with their ball in their hands like a pull up 3 if the defender goes under the screen. As opposed to running away from the basket as a mover and then turning around 180 to spin and shoot the wide open 3. But I also hate how we hesitate to shoot it some when there is a man closing out and we put the ball on the floor.
(not many kids train in a lot of scenarios where the ball isn’t in their hands I feel like. Working and moving without the ball may be a lost art but also a strength of the pitch our staff can make to recruits. I remember seeing all these tweets from coaches talking about how even at the nba level only like 5% are going to be ball dominant/dribbling a lot).
I would take BVP and McKneely shooting a lightly contested 3 all day over the ball on the floor two dribble and kick out back to the top of the key.
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Tangent, but I wish someone (@brogdonfanpage? @hoopsandhoos? Jordan Sperber – but not unless we are top 10 or so – brian Geisinger?) would write a bit more about our offense this year. We are doing something different, or were when Reece is healthy, but it was hard to put a finger on. And then it’s changed again with just Kihei running the show. Maybe more B/M? But maybe not…
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This is a very good point. One I never considered about shooting
One of the easiest shots is catching a pass from the opposite post player while spotted up from 3. Ted Jeffries made those passes look easy and put them right on you.
Houston played this way seemingly by design and it creates lots of options for the offense.
Kadin actually surprised me last night and made one of these type plays instead of taking an off balance shot from 6-7 feet out of a post up
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This is weirdly my major red flag, although it has to be a relatively small sample size right? But that would worry me more if it keeps up than being off from three to start his collegiate career.
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Agreed that’s a more concerning stat and I feel like a more likely future predictor.
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He has only taken 11 so far, so I assume we will see it normalize. But even Casey was good from the line is first year if i remember right
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Well he’s only taken ten. For all we talk about his driving his percentages are even worse from two. Honestly it’s hard to pull any positives from his offensive performance early
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Because you all wanted to know my opinion - I think when McKneely gets to 50+ FTA and 100+ 3PTA is when we should look and see if we are worried. I have no idea what the variance/standard deviation is for shooting, but I assume once we get to those sort of attempt #s we have a reasonable approximation to work with. As of now he is at 11 FTA and ~40 3PTA.
Actually I will revise this, Ty took 73 3s his first year, and Guy took 103, so I will say at 75 attempts for McKneely we can start being worried.
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If memory serves IMac missed his 1st 3 FT’s which means that he has hit 7 of 8 since then,
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I believe our system puts more mental pressure on almost every shooter. I also think it’s part of the reason we go on these scoring droughts so much. That’s what i like about Franklin. Even when he is missing he is still not hesitating on an open shot. I hope Imac will learn the same thing. Don’t hesitate. I do like he is starting to drive in the lane. He’s going to be fine. Too soon to worry. He’s still adjusting
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What is going on with our transfers? Jabri hit 5 3s in his last game. Also shooting 90% from the line. But he’s averaging 6 pts per game
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Not much Jabri talk in it, but most of the former hoo transfer player talk has been happening here:
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