catgrad97 wrote:You don't understand what I'm saying, rg. The loss wasn't about Gordon's defense: If Tarczewski has even one more rebound that game, we win. Kaminsky backed Zeus down and brutalized him on the blocks.
Whether or not Ashley was injured, in a one-point overtime game, is quite beside the point when your starting 7'0" center collects a grand total of four rebounds. Hell, their starting third guard outrebounded him that game--and guess which team shot better from the line, too? The Badgers, by 13 percent.
Smart coaches see the patterns in our losses, and for once Myron Medcalf nailed it on ESPN: We get outshot at the free-throw line and our center is a non-factor in at least one statistical column he should be filling up, night-in and night-out.
For the last year or so, it's been rebounds. Tonight, it was points--two. And he was a foul magnet and never got to the line.
He's been starting for almost three years now. He shouldn't be laughing off a performance like that. He should be p*ssed and working on his low-block moves all damned night.
The fact that he isn't, apparently, attempting to improve himself that way anymore should end this patience everybody has been having with our starting center when there are two guys behind him who can be liberally rotated in and hold their own.
I understand your frustration, but it has nothing to do with effort, the kid has stone hands and there is nothing that can be done to fix it. When you can't catch the ball, it's hard to get rebounds and it's hard to score points.
He's still the best option on the team, he tries hard, and he plays pretty good D. At the very least he can box out guys so our forwards can grab a rebound.
Kaleb is what he is. People can choose to be frustrated with him every game, but there's literally no other option and there's no fix either. My recommendation would be to just accept our center's limitations and instead of being frustrated every time he fumbles the ball, be excited every time he catches is.
Arizona is ranked #2 in offensive rebounds allowed, so as frustrated as you might be with Kaleb's rebounding numbers, it's really not a problem.