July Update

[BTbird]

Video update on how the summer is going..

http://goredbirds.com/watch/?Archive=3263&type=Archive

 

[East Coast Bird]

Long athletic team

 

[Retire 12]

I'm not worried about scoring at all.

I'm worried about leadership and defense though. Fayne and Evans look to be the front runners in the leadership department at this point.

 

[Source]

I'm not worried about scoring at all.

I'm worried about leadership and defense though. Fayne and Evans look to be the front runners in the leadership department at this point.

We have A LOT of guys that can score. The struggle will be determining who is the guy that takes most of the shots within the flow of the offense. Last year we knew when we had the ball, Lee, Wills, McIntosh, or Hawkins were taking a 90% of the shots. The other 10% were mixed with Evans, Fayne, and Clayton. 5 of those 7 are gone. Who steps in to these roles and in what capacity is the question. Like i said, we have a BUNCH of scorers on this team.

Defensively, in team workouts, the ethic and intensity is there. These guys are priding themselves on defense in these workouts. There is a lot of smack talk if you get scored on in practice. Evans has said a few times that last year the leaders made you feel embarrassed if you got scored on. Evans, Fayne, and Milik are bringing that to this years team too. Paris Lee and Tony Wills was the defensive advocate and has really established a defensive culture within the organization.

Leadership wise, you will all be incredibly impressed with Keyshawn, who has missed time recovering for his surgery, but he hasn't missed a beat. He is at every scrimmage and practice with limited or no action. Key has established himself as a leader. Fayne has also assumed a leadership role by default. He is the lone returning starter and he knows that. He has some of the most D1 experience on the team now. He is a little timid and more of an "action speaks louder than words" guy, but he'll get it. The coaches have met with him about it and I know he will pick up the skills necessary to be a leader.

Everyone that was here last year; Evans, Fayne, David, Madison, Milik. Chirstian, Ike, and even Matt have been really vocal for the most part with the new guys in helping them get up to speed. These guys are going to be close. Chemistry off the court= Chemistry on the court. We'll finish top 3.

 

[Retire 12]

With the state the Valley is in, Top 3 should be a given for this program.

Back to Back MVC Regular Season champs lies squarely on Fayne and Evans shoulders.

 

[Joe_Y]

Great write up Source, I'm hoping this will be a good team that becomes a great team by end of December.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

We lost experienced and proven MVC studs that were littered all over the all MVC teams. It would be surprising for ISU to reload that kind of production. This isn't Kentucky. I look for a backward slide, unless Clarance is the program changing savior he has been advertised to be.

This will be an important growth and development season for this senior-less squad. I can see this group being MVC dominant in 2018-19.

 

[V Boy]

Worried about rebounding and guarding without fouling. Front court depth is a huge question mark.

 

[MJ_Durk]

Worried about rebounding and guarding without fouling. Front court depth is a huge question mark.

Fayne and David haven't proven they can do that yet

 

[Source]

Worried about rebounding and guarding without fouling. Front court depth is a huge question mark.

Our guards will rebound better than last year's. They are longer and more aggressive on on the glass. The bigs will miss Hawkins' boards for sure. Fayne and David need to step up. Guarding without fouling, at the guard level, we are DEEP. We'll be able to foul a little more than last year for the guards. For the bigs, not so much. We have David, Christian, and Phil that can guard other bigs. Taylor isn't there yet. This is why we will utilize small ball very often, and use Boog, and Milik at the 4 position. I would be surprised to see David and Phil on the court together significant minutes due to lack of big depth.

FWIW, Milik is down to 218. He is going to be a more finesse version of MiKyle.

I really think overall we could be 10 deep in each game this year.

Side note: its always interesting to look at the rosters and see how players are listed. For example only two players are listed as multiple positions. Christian is listed as a F/C and Matt Chastain is listed as a G/F. Milik also listed F.

 

[Redbird Alum 2004]

Worried about rebounding and guarding without fouling. Front court depth is a huge question mark.

Our guards will rebound better than last year's. They are longer and more aggressive on on the glass. The bigs will miss Hawkins' boards for sure. Fayne and David need to step up. Guarding without fouling, at the guard level, we are DEEP. We'll be able to foul a little more than last year for the guards. For the bigs, not so much. We have David, Christian, and Phil that can guard other bigs. Taylor isn't there yet. This is why we will utilize small ball very often, and use Boog, and Milik at the 4 position. I would be surprised to see David and Phil on the court together significant minutes due to lack of big depth.

FWIW, Milik is down to 218. He is going to be a more finesse version of MiKyle.

I really think overall we could be 10 deep in each game this year.

Side note: its always interesting to look at the rosters and see how players are listed. For example only two players are listed as multiple positions. Christian is listed as a F/C and Matt Chastain is listed as a G/F. Milik also listed F.

So are you thinking that milik will be more of a point forward? Better ball handler than mikyle?

 

[Source]

Milik has been cutting weight to become more agile. As a 6'6 218 dude he will be a height mismatch for 1 and 2 guards and a speed mismatch for 3-4-5. So point forward would probably be a good label. His biggest focus this off-season, other than cutting weight, has been ball handling. I would say he is a slightly below Mikyle right now with a bunch of time to continue to develop.

 

[DannyCooksey]

Worried about rebounding and guarding without fouling. Front court depth is a huge question mark.

Our guards will rebound better than last year's. They are longer and more aggressive on on the glass. The bigs will miss Hawkins' boards for sure. Fayne and David need to step up. Guarding without fouling, at the guard level, we are DEEP. We'll be able to foul a little more than last year for the guards. For the bigs, not so much. We have David, Christian, and Phil that can guard other bigs. Taylor isn't there yet. This is why we will utilize small ball very often, and use Boog, and Milik at the 4 position. I would be surprised to see David and Phil on the court together significant minutes due to lack of big depth.

FWIW, Milik is down to 218. He is going to be a more finesse version of MiKyle.

I really think overall we could be 10 deep in each game this year.

Side note: its always interesting to look at the rosters and see how players are listed. For example only two players are listed as multiple positions. Christian is listed as a F/C and Matt Chastain is listed as a G/F. Milik also listed F.

So are you thinking that milik will be more of a point forward? Better ball handler than mikyle?

If Milik has better handles than MiKyle that would be great because IMO MM's best attribute was his ball handling.

 

[V Boy]

Worried about rebounding and guarding without fouling. Front court depth is a huge question mark.

Our guards will rebound better than last year's. They are longer and more aggressive on on the glass. The bigs will miss Hawkins' boards for sure. Fayne and David need to step up. Guarding without fouling, at the guard level, we are DEEP. We'll be able to foul a little more than last year for the guards. For the bigs, not so much. We have David, Christian, and Phil that can guard other bigs. Taylor isn't there yet. This is why we will utilize small ball very often, and use Boog, and Milik at the 4 position. I would be surprised to see David and Phil on the court together significant minutes due to lack of big depth.

FWIW, Milik is down to 218. He is going to be a more finesse version of MiKyle.

I really think overall we could be 10 deep in each game this year.

Side note: its always interesting to look at the rosters and see how players are listed. For example only two players are listed as multiple positions. Christian is listed as a F/C and Matt Chastain is listed as a G/F. Milik also listed F.

We have one proven rebounder on this team and that is Fayne. Not really sure we can even count on David playing through the whole year at this point let alone being on the court a lot of time with Fayne. Romine is unproven at the D-1 level. I hope he comes in and averages 20 mpg and 5-6 rpg but that is a BIG "if". Fayne also basically fouled out in the first half of the biggest game of his life last year, so even our top front court player still has to demonstrate discipline to stay on the court.

I'm optimistic Yarbrough is athletic enough to get some boards, but at 6-6 218 he is going to be on the small side compared to front court players from BYU, Ole Miss, S. Carolina. Bruninga better get there quickly.

I agree that our guards will rebound better than last year guards. They will have to though. Ideally you would want Evans, Clarance, Copeland and Williams getting out in transition soonest.

This team better box out better than last year's team. We aren't going to out-size many teams this year and are a bad Fayne foul call away from being pretty exposed on the defensive glass.

 

[East Coast Bird]

Which guard will be our top defender and board grabber

 

[CB2K]

This year's team must use their speed and quickness to develop that transition game that DM talked about awhile back. If height depth is a scarce resource then driving and running may be the best recourse. This team may be quicker and more athletic than last year's. Throw in the ability of consistent three point shooters -- not sure if we have that or not -- then this team could have some success. As stated, defense seems to be the focus this year too but I hope that DM pays more attention to the offensive side of the game than he did last year. He said in one interview that because of their incessant focus on defense last year the offense development took a backseat. In the end, that worked out great. This year since we lost a lot of offense, it might be better to work on offensive sets more than they did last year.

 

[Retire 12]

These players don't want sets, they want motion.

 

[BIRDFANATIC78]

These players don't want sets, they want motion.

Sets for this group would be a disaster, transition and more reliable 3's likely. IMHO still say David needs to arrive this year and if he does we have some real athletes to be turned loose. I am optimistic yet fearful at the same time.

 

[Retire 12]

Don't be fearful... this group can ball out.