6 weeks until the first Exhibition game
- Thread starter Middawg
- Start date
More than ready!
Have HIGH expectations for this team. Got a true center, power at the forward positions, and two experienced guards....all backed up by a deep, experienced bench.
What could keep us from hanging #6?
Have HIGH expectations for this team. Got a true center, power at the forward positions, and two experienced guards....all backed up by a deep, experienced bench.
What could keep us from hanging #6?
Thin at guard. No question they will need contributions from Leal, Cupps, and or Gunn. The front court looks good, but guards and outside shooting from the wing, is weak.
I think IU has a bottom five group of guards in the BIG so I fear they will struggle more than we
would like to see some conference season. I hope I'm wrong.
A five year starter (X), a senior starter (Galloway), and a bench with a senior (Leal), a sophmore (Gunn) and a highly recurited 4* player (Cupps) and you think we're bottom of the barrel at the guard position?
Maybe so, but if our starters stay healthy we should have the most experienced guard combo in the B1G. If Gunn makes that sophomore leap, we'll be fine. Don't underestimate Cupps. Heard a lot of good about him.
Difficult one to rank. Is Mack considered a "guard"? Banks? Those guys are going to be playing our "3" spot, for most of the minutes, I would think. And that's a position most programs now reserve for perimeter oriented "guards". Mack is the highest rated incoming recruit in the B10. And he's widely regarded as one of the best scorers in his class. And Banks showed enough, to me, that he'll be a very productive backup in that spot. So we're not "bottom 5" at the 3 position...its just not being filled with a traditional guard.
Trey...he's the tough one to evaluate, for me. I think Trey is what Purdue coaches and fans have always wanted Ethan Morton to be, but hasn't, and never will be. He showed last year he can make open shots. And I think, when he's not been relied upon to be a lead guard, on both ends, he's been very solid. Definitely not "bottom 5" in terms of 2's in the conference. We have zero proven depth behind him though. CJ Gunn shaking off the shooting rust would be an ENORMOUS boost for this team. He showed everything else last year in his minutes, but he has to knock down some shots. Taken together, including the proven depth aspect, IU's "2" spot, or group of shooting guards, could be bottom 5.
X...he's one of the better PGs in the conference. So if he stays healthy, and can play 30 min a game...obviously no chance we're bottom 5 at the PG spot. Further, I think Cupps is going to be a very good college PG. Is he ready to lead a B10 contending team today? Probably not. But I think he's a better all around player coming to college than Braden Smith was. And Smith ended up figuring it out. I think we have enough other guys that would/will help Cupps out, that he would too. So assuming X stays relatively healthy, with Cupps as his backup, I'd say IU's PG stable is probably top 2-3 in the conference.
Overall depth, and shooting are the question marks. But I think we have enough known answers, already, that our guards are easily better than "bottom 5".
I think we should have a pretty good starting five but after that who knows. The guys coming off the bench are all unproven at this level so not really sure what to expect. I would certainly not call the bench experienced. Right now I would say probably about .500 in conference and a bubble NCAA team but until we see them play its hard to know.
Leal does not get off the bench and cupps is an unproven frosh. I get we always hype up the team before we see them play but lots of unknows with this group.
True, but at least our unknowns are for bench guys!
IF Gunn can become the sniper we need, I’d be fine with X, Trey, Gunn & Cupps holding down the 1 & 2 guard spots. It’s not a big stretch, IMHO, to think Gunn can make that jump - because he’s done it at the HS level. Not everyone does or can make the jump to big-boy D1 ball, and he obviously struggled last year, so I’m merely hopeful.
I will say that I would wager a fair amount of money his shooting percentage improves by a fair amount. That’s not saying a whole lot, other than his shooting can’t be worse than last year 😅
I will say that I would wager a fair amount of money his shooting percentage improves by a fair amount. That’s not saying a whole lot, other than his shooting can’t be worse than last year 😅
If he ends up earning regular, extended minutes, his shooting numbers will improve a lot.
Its not easy to come in off the bench and immediately start hitting shots. Nearly all of his playing time stretches were very short appearances. He did show some explosiveness at the rim, and some decent defensive abilities during those short bursts of PT.
I fully expect CJ to be a solid bench guy for us this year. If he's any sort of reliable shooter, it'll be a huge boost for the team. Because he'll bring a lot of other good things to the court.
We're gonna know what kind of team we have from Dec 1st to the 16th..
Those two weeks will tell us a whole bunch..Now can and will they jell in late Jan & February sure..
But we need to win one of those .Or hang tough in all of them.
Getting beat by all of them ..Would give me pause in a having a decent season...
Those two weeks will tell us a whole bunch..Now can and will they jell in late Jan & February sure..
But we need to win one of those .Or hang tough in all of them.
Getting beat by all of them ..Would give me pause in a having a decent season...
Maybe not, but it is easy to come off the bench, recognize you're in a slump and play hard and smart and not keep putting up 3ts. I know it was a small sample size, but he just kept on shooting. Who knows, maybe CMW was encouraging him to keep shooting, but I would've just curtailed shooting and focus on playing good D, playing smart and making hustle plays and let the game and points come to me. Folks here seem to have more confidence that he can straighten out his shooting, but I don't think anybody we've ever considered a "good shooter" went through a 2-24 stretch on 3s. I hope I'm wrong and he does become a good shooter, it will only help us.
Uh, let’s see….Sparqs(sp) from Ball state was starter if I’m correct, Ware from Oregon had about 5 minutes per game and actually started and did well against top teams before their conference games and don’t we have a grad transfer from Miami and was a top guy off their bench and, can’t remember, didn’t they do OK in the tourney so he played quite a bit I would assume so are you saying ALM THE NEW GUYS or just the freshmen? Cuz your statement says “after the 5 starters, no proven talent at this level” think Sparqs and the grad transfer HAVE proven their worth at this level
He did play solid defense. And he had a pretty decent amount of explosive plays at the rim for someone that played as few minutes as he did. And I’d bet A LOT of money he was instructed to shoot it at any opportunity. We needed someone to provide that scoring spurt off the bench. Tamar wasn’t consistent with it, they needed someone. He wasn’t able to get going, but I’d be shocked if taking any and all open looks he got wasn’t his marching orders.
And finally, outside some mop up duty type games…virtually all of his meaningful minutes came in short 1-2 minute bursts. Incredibly difficult to get in a groove. I was actually impressed he didn’t let it affect his defense.
I’ve seen him play in person, he’s a solid shooter, albeit a little streaky. He’ll have some big games for us this year I bet.
Look at his game logs ... he had a total of 12 0-1 games, which was half of his attempts. He only had 4 games where he shot 2 or more, and 4 games where he shot none. So he didn't keep shooting.
Pushing back a bit, this team may not gel and have chemistry until January or February, if so won't know how good they are until then.
By my math he took more 3s per minute than anyone on the team. something like 1 every 6-something minutes and I think Tamar and Miller were in the one every 7-9 minute range. By comparison, Banks, who played similar minutes and was supposed to be a good shooter took 5 and CJ took 24... both made 2. It is a small sample size, so there are several ways to explain it away, but it just feels to me like everyone wants CJ to be a shooter so badly, and there's not really evidence that he is at this level. I felt like the same thing happened with Leal and Galloway. And, Galloway proved himself last year, so hopefully CJ will do the same.
Banks was not as established a shooter coming out of HS as CJ. To the point where I would be surprised if his role was to come in and shoot the ball, like I strongly think it was CJ's.
And again, his numbers are likely very misleading. As TMP referenced, a big chunk of his opportunities came in very short bursts. And when he did get extended minutes, its not like he "kept chucking it".
In the 2 games he played more than 15 minutes...
7-17 overall FG
2-8 from 3
8 PPG
2.5 APG
2 RPG
2 SPG
O TO
Those were against Elon and Miami (OH), to be fair. But I think it offers a glimpse of what type of player he'll be when he ends up getting 15-18 minutes every night.
good points. My only exposure to him has been last year. Folks on here say he was a good 3 pt shooter in HS, but I think he was in the 30s %-wise and that's good but not great. I bet if you went back and looked at the guys I've considered "good shooters" they were mostly 40+ in HS. It may be that CJ was just a bigger threat driving the ball in HS so defenders laid off him a bit and gave up the 3. Certainly college defenders are better, bigger, faster and stronger. I just kept hearing the same stuff about Leal and to me he's a good shooter, but not in the "knock-down" category. I hope CJ does become a knock-down shooter, but I think he's a good player and will contribute regardless.
I think its very possible CJ won't ever be a 40+ 3PFG shooter. But as his stat lines suggest, when he ends up earning regular extended minutes...he'll contribute in a lot of other ways. I bet he'll become a solid 30's 3 point shooter, push for double digits scoring, and contribute in a lot of other ways. I doubt he'll have the extended droughts that Tamar had, but I bet he has a game or two where he hits 4-5 3s and puts up over 20 points.
15-18 minutes per game
7-8 ppg
30 ish % three point shooter
45 ish % overall
a few rebounds and a couple assists per game
Solid defender
some highlight reel dunks
He'll be an effective perimeter depth guy for us. We don't need for him to come in and shoot 40-50% from the 3. Especially if the trade off would be he can't defend, can't handle the ball, wasn't athletic, etc...
... and if/when he does struggle from 3, put the ball on the floor or look for the pass, and only shoot the 3s that you are stepping in to and feel great about. That was just how I played because I wasn't a great 3 pt shooter, but I still took the ones I was confident in because it was such a weapon to draw out defenders if you knocked a couple down. As you say, CJ has a lot of game and doesn't need to take forced 3s to contribute. If he gets to 30% plus, great, keep shooting. If not, put the ball on the floor, get the hustle points that come to you and contribute in other ways.
Definitely...I think he'll figure all that out fairly well when he earns regular extended minutes. If not, maybe the new walk on will get some PT, or Leal...?? Probably an important year for CJ and his IU future.
With TJD gone, we dont need to run the whole offense through a single player like TJD. The offensive flow should be more guard oriented this year, just hope we get good and not bad XJ! I hope CMW doesn’t get too one dimensional with his play calling! Would love to see a more motion oriented style instead of the g/c pick-n-roll while everyone else stands in the corner!
Will be 4 capable shooters on the floor that are good enough to score from 3 levels. There will be games that he uses the pick n roll a lot. Purdue is one of them. The corner will still be occupied and that’s normal. It’s what that player does from the corner. Kopp was limited because he’s not exactly the quickest but wait and see what a true three level guy does from there. Mackenzie will be great in that scenario.
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