az91 wrote:Spaceman Spiff wrote:This is a young team. Having ugly games early was always a probability. How we progress is the big thing for success this year and onwards. Let's not be a bunch of Chicken Littles yet.
Maybe some players will improve (Trier in particular) as the season progresses, but this team lacks elite players. Even with growth, it is hard to imagine much more than a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament this year.
It will be interesting if Miller can land some of the remaining elite recruits for 2016. That will determine whether this program can take the next step or fall back into the middle of the PAC-12.
this is just so crazy I can't begin to respond to it, but I'm going to try.
First round exit? Just because we had a tough weekend without our most important defensive presence at a time when our defense is still on a huge learning curve??
I'm proud of the way they fought back and played Boise St, even if we are having issues putting our foot on a team's throat (how is that not to be expected when this group has barely played together).
Are we really THAT far away from that Michigan State team, who has so much more continuity than us and a national player of the year candidate? From what I saw in their games against Boise and Providence, we aren't that far from them at all.
The thing is, our defensive system looks really bad when even one piece is out of line, and certainly we have a lot of work to do there. It will take time, maybe all season, to get to a point where we can rely on it. But the potential is there when healthy. This team has great chemistry and will work hard to make sure that each guy can be relied on to be in the right place at the right time. I believe CSM will get them there. But it will be UGLY, that's obvious. It's tough to go from the last two teams we had to this one because we are used to a well oiled machine from the start.
Offensively, do people really think that someone like Gabe is just immune to shooting slumps? All over this and every Arizona board it's "Gabe is too streaky to rely on" a week after everyone was saying "This is the go-to York we've been waiting for his entire 4 years!". It's insane how quickly we flip-flop. I for one see a guy who, when his shot starts falling like I know it can, is going to be much more dangerous because he has started attacking with purpose.
Tollefsen is figuring things out just like the rest of the new guys. Just because he's a 5th year guy doesn't mean that it's easy to learn CSM's system just like that. I have seen slight improvements in his defense within the system (admittedly he's still getting beat off of the dribble too much, but that seems a lot worse when the rest of the team doesn't know where to be on the help side). Tolly seems to be one of the few guys who is at least trying to provide help defense properly, which seems to go completely unnoticed on this board. He is stuffing the stat sheet and makes a lot of energy/hustle plays. Happy to see him drain that long three yesterday, and I think by the end of the year we will be happy to have him.
I hope Zeus and RA get healthy quick and are 100% for Gonzaga. I want to see what this team is made of in a tough environment, but I am expecting a good effort and I believe we will be in that game until the end.
