Wilcher enters transfer portal

[GoMuskies]

Steele should have given Wilcher more playing time at the end of the last year. Next year Wilcher could still play 25 minutes even with Jones, Kunkel and Johnson all getting significant minutes as well. Steele either not being able to figure that out and communicate that to Wilcher OR Wilcher's refusal to accept that we need other good players at his position was the problem. Steele happily accepting Johnson back is decidedly NOT the problem.

[Masterofreality]

a few counterpoints:

Even WITH Carter, we had a bad interior defense. So you either have a REALLY Bad interior defense without Carter, or you can have just a BAD interior defense WITH him and then play 4 on 5 offensively. How would EITHER of these options be seriously considered?

ALTERNATIVES
- Try Miles. I understand he's a string bean. But he's got more potential as a rim protector than Carter had. Have the guards play a little closer to the guys on the perimeter and make sure Miles is there to defend the drives.
- Or Griffin. Same thing. Big dude down low could body up with the opposing bigs.

Neither Miles nor Griffin would be an offensive threat.....but on the other hand they wouldn't be taking a bunch of 3's and hitting 18%. Griffin shot 59% from the floor. Carter shot 38%. Carter took 114 shots and made 43. Griffin at 59% would have made 67, or 24 more. I don't REALLY believe that we can just substitute one shooting percentage for another, but I'm not convinced that Griffin would not have been at least as effective defensively and pretty significantly more efficient offensively.

OR, of course we could have abandoned our pre-determined half court system when it was clear we didn't have the personnel to run it. We had SEVEN guys that could play 1-2-3. Odom, Scruggs, Jones, Wilcher, Tandy, Kunkle and Johnson. We had at least 5 guys that could take some front court minutes (Free, Carter, Griffin, Stanley, Miles). So why exactly, given this roster composition, didn't we get out and run some more and actually use this depth? I realize there are some good starting 5's in the Big East, but don't you think we match up incredibly well when we force the game to go deeper into the bench.

We could have just outgunned teams. We had the horses. But instead we played shit defense and 4 on 5 offense. If that aint coaching, then what the hell is?

Hett with the spot on again.
And Carter was not some “lockdown defender”. He was a system defender, who, when on an island, got burned time and again.
This describes perfectly the misuse of last year’s roster....the continuation of which for 3 years now.

[IM4X]

Steele should have given Wilcher more playing time at the end of the last year. Next year Wilcher could still play 25 minutes even with Jones, Kunkel and Johnson all getting significant minutes as well. Steele either not being able to figure that out and communicate that to Wilcher OR Wilcher's refusal to accept that we need other good players at his position was the problem. Steele happily accepting Johnson back is decidedly NOT the problem.

Yes indeed. Don’t hate on Nate!

Nate is not the problem. Nohow. Not now. Not ever.

Nate the Great!

[IM4X]

a few counterpoints:

Even WITH Carter, we had a bad interior defense. So you either have a REALLY Bad interior defense without Carter, or you can have just a BAD interior defense WITH him and then play 4 on 5 offensively. How would EITHER of these options be seriously considered?

ALTERNATIVES
- Try Miles. I understand he's a string bean. But he's got more potential as a rim protector than Carter had. Have the guards play a little closer to the guys on the perimeter and make sure Miles is there to defend the drives.
- Or Griffin. Same thing. Big dude down low could body up with the opposing bigs.

Neither Miles nor Griffin would be an offensive threat.....but on the other hand they wouldn't be taking a bunch of 3's and hitting 18%. Griffin shot 59% from the floor. Carter shot 38%. Carter took 114 shots and made 43. Griffin at 59% would have made 67, or 24 more. I don't REALLY believe that we can just substitute one shooting percentage for another, but I'm not convinced that Griffin would not have been at least as effective defensively and pretty significantly more efficient offensively.

OR, of course we could have abandoned our pre-determined half court system when it was clear we didn't have the personnel to run it. We had SEVEN guys that could play 1-2-3. Odom, Scruggs, Jones, Wilcher, Tandy, Kunkle and Johnson. We had at least 5 guys that could take some front court minutes (Free, Carter, Griffin, Stanley, Miles). So why exactly, given this roster composition, didn't we get out and run some more and actually use this depth? I realize there are some good starting 5's in the Big East, but don't you think we match up incredibly well when we force the game to go deeper into the bench.

We could have just outgunned teams. We had the horses. But instead we played shit defense and 4 on 5 offense. If that aint coaching, then what the hell is?

Good post.

One change - you might even agree with- Griffin might have been a bit of an offensive threat if he had played as many minutes as Carter. I honestly think he could have consistently put up 8-10 points, had a few more boards per game and maybe an extra block a game.

[MHettel]

Good post.

One change - you might even agree with- Griffin might have been a bit of an offensive threat if he had played as many minutes as Carter. I honestly think he could have consistently put up 8-10 points, had a few more boards per game and maybe an extra block a game.

Yes, for sure. Carter took 3's and tried to drive to the basket pretty often. He missed regularly, and was often just denied on the drive. It seemed like MOST of Carters points came on little shovel passes or putbacks when the defense was kind of looking the other way at the rim. I really cant recall Carter just creating a shot of his own or driving to the rim successfully. I'm sure it happened, but I just remember the flailing and bricks. Oh, and when he got fouled.....more bricks.

There is no way that Griffin would NOT have been able to at least replace the actual Productivity, and we wouldn't have had to witness the bricks from 3 or the "drives" that resulted in some shit just chucked up to the rim. And, based on the limited time we actually got to see him play, it was clear that Griffin was a far more physical big that was SORELY lacking in our starting lineup and rotation in general.

I really cannot see how any other player could not have matched Carters productivity if they played those minutes.

[throwbackmuskie]

Steele should have given Wilcher more playing time at the end of the last year. Next year Wilcher could still play 25 minutes even with Jones, Kunkel and Johnson all getting significant minutes as well. Steele either not being able to figure that out and communicate that to Wilcher OR Wilcher's refusal to accept that we need other good players at his position was the problem. Steele happily accepting Johnson back is decidedly NOT the problem.

I hope you are not thinking I said Johnson was the problem, I am only saying A reason why Wilcher is leaving is because Johnson is coming back. I agree this has been mishandled by Steele.

[IM4X]

Yes, for sure. Carter took 3's and tried to drive to the basket pretty often. He missed regularly, and was often just denied on the drive. It seemed like MOST of Carters points came on little shovel passes or putbacks when the defense was kind of looking the other way at the rim. I really cant recall Carter just creating a shot of his own or driving to the rim successfully. I'm sure it happened, but I just remember the flailing and bricks. Oh, and when he got fouled.....more bricks.

There is no way that Griffin would NOT have been able to at least replace the actual Productivity, and we wouldn't have had to witness the bricks from 3 or the "drives" that resulted in some shit just chucked up to the rim. And, based on the limited time we actually got to see him play, it was clear that Griffin was a far more physical big that was SORELY lacking in our starting lineup and rotation in general.

I really cannot see how any other player could not have matched Carters productivity if they played those minutes.

Completely agree about Griffin.

I am convinced Carter would have played better with less minutes and if they kind of found a better way to use him- He just almost always looked out of position- almost in the way of the other players. He played way more timid than I think he is capable - I would have challenged him to Throw down more dunks instead of going for those layups (that he so often bricked). It might have built up his confidence a little.

Still scratching my head about all that playing time of his too- like most other fans.

[BandDad]

Completely agree about Griffin.

I am convinced Carter would have played better with less minutes and if they kind of found a better way to use him- He just almost always looked out of position- almost in the way of the other players. He played way more timid than I think he is capable - I would have challenged him to Throw down more dunks instead of going for those layups (that he so often bricked). It might have built up his confidence a little.

Still scratching my head about all that playing time of his too- like most other fans.

So I agree that our defense was not good with Carter, but I think it would have been far worse had he played less. The offense would have been better, but would have that compensated enough. We unfortunately will never know.

I would have loved to have seen Griffin get more minutes, but he apparently was not in great game shape earlier in the year and then he contracted COVID and fell further behind in his conditioning. Both Miles and Ramsey were unavailable for various games this year due to injuries and ailments, so I don't want to speculate on their availability.

Which leads me to this conclusion. If you don't have people that can play interior defense, why play a half court game. We had eight or so guys that could play the 1 through 4 positions, so why not make it a helter-skelter full-court game and try to take out the importance of the half-court defense. Press everywhere (like St. John's now or UNLV with Tark the Shark). Change your system to fit your players, not the other way around.

[MHettel]

Which leads me to this conclusion. If you don't have people that can play interior defense, why play a half court game. We had eight or so guys that could play the 1 through 4 positions, so why not make it a helter-skelter full-court game and try to take out the importance of the half-court defense. Press everywhere (like St. John's now or UNLV with Tark the Shark). Change your system to fit your players, not the other way around.

Yup. Exactly. I was making this point early in the season and all the way to the end.

And think about the by product! You have 200 minutes to split between 9 or 10 guys. That's at least 20 MPG for all of them if you just commit to a set rotation. I've seen teams that have 2 lineups of five each and just swap out everyone at the same time. Go 110% for 3-4 minutes and then get a break for 3-4 minutes. REPEAT. At the end of those games, the opponent is WAY more gassed then your team and they are forced to play guys that NEVER get on the floor.

Do you really think we'd have any PT issues and the resulting transfer problems if we gave guys 20MPG and told them to play so hard that they WANT to come out of the game for a breather?

Realistically, you wont always have the horses to play this style. But we DID. And we DIDN'T.

And instead of watching my team play in the NCAA tournament, I'm left reading the headlines that include 3 players and 2 coaches leaving the program.

[xudash]

So I agree that our defense was not good with Carter, but I think it would have been far worse had he played less. The offense would have been better, but would have that compensated enough. We unfortunately will never know.

I would have loved to have seen Griffin get more minutes, but he apparently was not in great game shape earlier in the year and then he contracted COVID and fell further behind in his conditioning. Both Miles and Ramsey were unavailable for various games this year due to injuries and ailments, so I don't want to speculate on their availability.

Which leads me to this conclusion. If you don't have people that can play interior defense, why play a half court game. We had eight or so guys that could play the 1 through 4 positions, so why not make it a helter-skelter full-court game and try to take out the importance of the half-court defense. Press everywhere (like St. John's now or UNLV with Tark the Shark). Change your system to fit your players, not the other way around.

Can't argue with your creativity.

We could say that hindsight is easy. Based on what you wrote, we could say that we had some bad luck in terms of injuries and COVID disruptions. Whatever Travis saw in Carter from that OU versus Xavier game, thinking that he would translate well to the BE, we now know that wasn't true, and that Travis stuck with him for far too long, given the final results. Could the offense have overcome a weaker defense without him seeing major minutes? To your point, we'll never know, but I would love a time machine coupled with a more flexible Steele in order to see if a different look would have led to a better outcome.

I'm beginning to think that Travis will need a miracle in order to make the NCAAT next season. Way too much turnover and disruption to the program at this point. And what does the loss of the assistant mean to the existing recruiting pipeline? Can a new guy bring someone in with him that makes sense?