Again, he's a coach's son and has been playing at a high level for years, so I'd imagine he's been under a trainer's guidance for a good while and is less likely to make a big jump in any area.
Woody won't be able to keep Cupps...
- Thread starter Ty Webb iu
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Still got this take after watching Harvard? Mack had 0 points and was shut down by the bigger physical X. Pushed him around on every screen and was on his ass.
Take X off him, Cupps lets him walk it up the court at the end of the half for a three, got blown buy, and somehow fouled him not once, not twice, but three times while shooting.
I don’t think anyone on the planet that watched that game would say Cupps is in the same stratosphere as X defensively.
X is experienced and a very good on ball defender Gabe will be fine.
not sure how he could be. cupps is years younger than X w no experience at this level. X is a man. Cupps is just out of HS.
I wanted to see them bring in Gunn and try him om Mack. Gunn can be handsy and pick up fouls, but he has the best hands and feet and, imo, is our best perimeter defender. Plus his length might've given Mack some trouble. Still think it's odd that they didn't try CJ and I'm wondering if he did have an injury? I think he only played like 3 minutes in the first half, so I think it's either that, or he got in CMW's doghouse for some reason.
Correct. There are no freshmen guards in the country that can defend at Xs level. He is a 24 year old 6th year power 5 player that has played an ungodly amount of minutes against the best college competition.
To think gabe would be as good as him this year is asinine, and not fair to Gabe. He will be a good defender as an upper classmen. You can for sure see his potential, but like any freshmen, a shit ton to learn.
Did you go back and watch, or were you focusing on X vs Mack? I had no idea about him as a scorer, and thought about going back and rewatching to see why he didn't score early and see how much of it was X's D. I think Hummel cited it, but I think he sometimes (fouls on not giving Mack space to land, for instance) decides what happened and states it as fact, when sometimes it wasn't.
Yep watched the highlight replay that was posted. X rubs him and never leaves him. All shots x was touching him or a hand in his face.
For sure better in the second offensively. I would say Malik and ware were the reasons though, our guard play was not good in the 2nd.
He said Cupps was better than x right now at D. I agree stupid comparison. 18 vs 24 makes my point. Thanks.
If you need money for cable to watch the big ten let me know. You obviously have not watched any games the last decade.
Expectations are what humans do. They may be right or wrong but an essential part of life. My expectation is that Cupps has a ceiling and will not be equal to the great guards of IU past. He needs to make huge strides in his offense and strength in my view to be a good guard. I may be right (I think I am) but I may be wrong. It’s not the comparison of his strength to X that is worrisome but his strength vs the guards he will face. Best thing he can do is improve his shooting. Even if understrength good shooting will compensate for that.
Money would be great! DM me and I'll give you my address. I'm old school, so I only do checks.
I look at a freshman like Steve Alford, who wasn't a big guy and played poor defense (although he led IU in steals) individually. He wasn't a particularly strong individual, but he did one thing very well - score.
Cupps seems to be a decent all-around player, but I don't see one thing that he really excels in. Usually, if a freshman is going to be exceptional, he's really good in at least one thing.
As you say, he needs to improve, and shooting is one area he could make himself really valuable, because we don't have many great shooters right now.
Might be a redshirt freshman, but that guard for AZ is awfully damn good. Don't remember his name, but he was excellent vs Duke.
Taking about 2 3pt shots a game. Kinda Galloway-like from last season.
I'd love to still have him in an IU uniform though.
Cav had MUCH higher expectations for him, before he even stepped on campus. The point was, Cav missed huge with his assessment of Tamar. Which is undoubtedly true.
I thought he would go pro for sure. I was right about one thing though.... WAY better shooter than Romeo.
Silly to be touting anything you said regarding Tamar. Your assessment of him couldn't have been much further off. And you were so relentless about it.
He had a kid….. but not as good as I thought he would be. Unless something crazy changes at mizzu.
Well, he wasn't as good as you thought he'd be as a freshman or sophomore. He's not getting much time as a junior. He's definitely underperforming your oad claims.
That I just don’t get. He easily could have transferred somewhere he got promised a starting spot.
When you are right as much as I am, you got to bring up the wiffs. 😬.
Granted I planted a pretty large flag, so I’ll own it lol.
Maybe he hasn't met expectations, but IU could sorely use him right now. At the time, I thought his departure was a big deal ... and I still do. Would you rather have Bates or Gunn as the backup 2?
Tamar seems like a great kid and I wish him the best.
However, in regards to his 46% from the three.
He has made a total of six three pointers in seven games but three of those were in their opener vs Arkansas-Pine Bluff (who knew that was a school ?).
In the subsequent six games he has made a total of 3 threes @ 3-10. He wouldn’t have moved the needle for us.
That compares to two of our guards hitting a combined 5/25 from 3 and who even knew Harvard had a basketball team.
Atleast look up his stats before you post.
They played last night before you posted and beat Pitt. (Tamar got the start)
Tamar now is 8-16 from three. He has made more than anyone on our team, while taking less than a few of our players. He has taken 2 less than Trey, yet hit triple as many. Take out the pine bluff game, still has almost double the threes made than Trey.
Tamar would be our best shooter this year and it wouldn’t be close.
I need money for cable too! And, I'm old, but don't like to think of myself as old school. Venmo works for me!
Harvard has pretty much been the class of Ivy League bball for the last decade under Amaker I believe. That was a well constructed team for the Ivy League and they have a player in Mack who is not your typical Ivy Leaguer and probably won't be next year.
I’d love a 6’ guard Ivy League player!! It is very frustrating watching team after team having guards that can shoot at high volumes and actually make it. CJ could do that for us, he would just be at 15%.
My point was that hard to argue strength of schedule. Harvard’s BPI is 150th in D1 and actually Penn has better BPI as of today.
I already stated I'd like to have him in an IU uniform. That has nothing to do with anything I've stated. Context my friend.
I don't know anything about Mack other than what I saw in our game, but I wonder if he's not just an anomaly, as far as 3 pt shooting. The only person I can recall who made threes/shots taking off at such odd angles and with his body not facing/moving towards the basket, and don't laugh, was Kobe. I just wonder if he's not off to a hot streak, but I haven't seen many good, high-volume 3 pt shooters who make them at the angles and manner he did against us. Be interesting to watch as the season progresses.
For sure. He is an anomaly. But plenty of good shooters that don’t have odd angles, we don’t get them either. Lol
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