One or two games in two years?
Izzo did not even guard Smith on the perimeter.
Zero respect for his perimeter shot, from a future Hall-of-Fane coach.
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Izzo did not even guard Smith on the perimeter.
Zero respect for his perimeter shot, from a future Hall-of-Fane coach.
There was some information about his height and rapid growth on another forum. I think it came from his HS coach.
It said he was 5'10" tall.....either 2 years ago or when he came to that school....can't recall which.
Damn, yeah my old eyes read the wrong column.
Again I like Anderson and think he can contribute off the bench. If he develops an old man game I can see him being a bulldog of a player...but from when I last saw him he's got a way to go. His awful PER doesn't lie.
I have no idea why anyone thinks Anderson is going to contribute this year.
I bet a lot of people thought that about Tom Coverdale after his freshman season. Not saying Anderson will break out like Tom, but you never know what an off-season can do.
Because Anderson's skill level is higher than last season's stats.
Damezi can shoot according to Archie. Assuming he can do that in a game, he will also need to not fall for shot fakes. I don't recall him scoring off the dribble or drive. He needs to be more than a 3 point shooter to be a contributor.
That is a lot of improvement in one year.
For his size, he has a lot of game. He has an NBA frame. As a freshman, college ball was too fast for him. I think he’ll be most improved on the team, and possibly edge out Smith for a starting position.
Archie just stated that Anderson was a good shooter and Smith will focus on defense. He sees them in practice. He knows their strengths and weaknesses. So that is fact.
Until proven otherwise..Smith over Anderson..
Sure we need another shooter ..But Smith is a better defender and rebounder..What if Smith worked on his own jumper this summer...He had a pretty decent streak of games late in the season.
I'm not slamming the door on either..
Sure we need another shooter ..But Smith is a better defender and rebounder..What if Smith worked on his own jumper this summer...He had a pretty decent streak of games late in the season.
I'm not slamming the door on either..
Well he wasn’t a good shooter last year at 23% from three. Period.
And his defense was even worse. He didn’t have a clue. Couldn’t stay in front of anyone. Liability on both ends.
He isn’t Tom Coverdale. He will get another shot this year but we have plenty of players to play his position going forward.
Smith was a worse shooter than Anderson. That is fact. So what does this make Smith on offense? Teams actually guarded Anderson, they did not even guard Smith. When this happens IU is playing 4 against 5. That is an offensive problem when the other team refuses to guard a player because he is not a threat to make a shot. Smith shot 50% FT. So teams may foul him, "Hack a Smith" if the game is close at the end as a strategy to exploit a player's weakness.
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Funny how the offensively deficient Smith shot 50% from the floor in total, 54% from two while the offensively gifted Damezi shot 28% from the floor, 39% from two.
As Coach Knight would scream 'you're not playing Goshen anymore Anderson!!!!'
Last year Smith logged 25.3 MPG in 31 games to the 9.9 MPG to the superior offensive player, Anderson.
Why?
Why would a coach choose to play 4 on 5?
The only reason I can think of is that coach miller hasn’t watched enough HS tape of his players. I assume he sees them practice.
There is nothing wrong with being high on a player. But, sometimes as fans our judgements can get clouded. It’s really easy to want to see the backup quarterback in the game, for example.
Smith played a lot more last year. The team lost a big chunk of minutes to players that left. It’s not unreasonable to think Smith may play even more this year. I hope Anderson can contribute and be a great player for IU. But right now as a college player he is mostly an unknown. And the reason for that is that he hasn’t earned more minutes.
He has the size of an NBA player. We did see him make a few 3 pointers and I trust coaches that say he can shoot the ball. He did it well in high school. He wasn't near ready to contribute last year at the college level.
Like everyone else, I haven't seen him play since last year when our players came back from injury. There is no evidence he will pass Smith or anyone else. Fans fall into a trap that players will make big jumps from one year to another. It rarely works like that and a big jump is what Damezi will need to earn playing time.
Smith made big strides by the end of his freshman year. He didn't bring that improvement into last year and rarely displayed the same effort and ability. It will be interesting what added competition will do for Smith's performance. Damezi isn't his biggest competition.
That's what is frustrating about Smith. Toward the end of his freshman year he did seem ready to contribute. So there were expectations for him going in to his sophomore season. I think we can all agree that he didn't perform as well as many thought he could. Then towards the end of last year he again showed flashes.
As the saying goes, once burned twice shy. It is possible he'll become a good and consistent player but there are many reasons to doubt that.
As far as Smith vs Anderson, I agree that Anderson has to make a pretty big leap to bypass Smith based on what we saw last year.
Smith didn't have any competition for his position until the end of the year when Race was cleared. He has plenty of competition now from Hunter, Thompson and TJD. I will be interested to see if he will respond to the competition. I was a little surprised he didn't transfer. I took that as a sign he is willing to compete for playing time.
Smith has potential. He may not be a great 3 point shooter, but I remember him hitting mid range shots in his freshman year to the degree I thought we had a player that was going to excel in a needed area. We will see if he is a starter or depth off the bench soon enough.
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The basis of my hypothesis for him rapidly improving this year is due to (1) how he played in high school, (2) his specific limitations being only mental, (3) the specific needs of this team and (4) Juwan Morgan considers him a “dark horse for most improved.” I suspect TJD, Brunk, Davis, and Race will get most of the minutes in the front court, so Smith will be pushed out to compete with Anderson for minutes on the wing.
Hunter will be in the mix at the 3. He is probably the best candidate on paper.
Damezi will have his chance. He will have to show he can shoot and will have to make a big improvement on defense.
Defense has always seemed to be the easiest thing to learn if you have the athletic ability. It gets back to your mental limitation. You have to want to play defense and make that a priority. He should understand defense is pretty important to Archie. It would be great to see a new Anderson. I'm just not expecting to see it early this year.
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