Big C said:
sluggo said:
HoopDreams said:
KoreAmBear said:
sluggo said:
Big C said:
oskidunker said:
I like Kuany and felt he should start but he is killing us with bad passes and poor decisions. Lead to many turnovers last night.
Yeah, I get that 2K came in as a bit of a project, but now he is 2 1/2 seasons in. A coach like Montgomery would have found a few things that he could do well -- commensurate with his pretty decent skill set -- and taught him do them. Then add in a couple more things every season. Instead, he's out there freelancing, with seemingly no plan.
For like two minutes last night he played 4 with Kelly at 5 surrounded by Shepherd, Celestine an Alajiki. The team did well. This is a really interesting big athletic lineup with some shooting. Too small a sample size to say much about it, but it is worth exploring.
Having him play 3 when he is clearly a 4/5 is making me insane. Bad coaching.
2K has some talent, but yah not at the 3. Yesterday Lars found him in the corner for a wide open shot and he wasn't ready to shoot. So the split second gave UW a chance to close out. Jalen is probably our best 3 right now.
I've been saying Lars has potential since his freshmen year, and he's now improving his defense, rebounding and scoring (with fewer dumb fouls)
but he is also improving his passing, including that one, and the assist he made to the top of the key (don't remember the shooter)
I think his development is disappointing. He takes a hard dribble to the right no matter what the defender does and his footwork is awful. He still gets in trouble when his momentum stops. His shooting is okay, but the rest is not great. I always thought he was an underrated athlete, and I think he could be more than he is with better coaching.
Why can't Lars learn from Kelly, especially with highly-paid coaches supervising it?
Lars has improved greatly since his freshmen season. First, he strengthened his lower body enabling him to move better ... he's improved his rebounding ... he improved his defense, including making fewer dumb fouls ... and he has improved his scoring ... I actually saw him use some footwork to score over 3 defenders this weekend
that's a TON of improvement
But Kelly came in as a skilled freshmen. I commented at the time and since that he has the best footwork of any post player we've had since Boykins. You just don't learn that overnight.
I think we should be happy that Lars has made these improvements so far, and is now a solid role player contributor. Certainly we need him to be since we only have three healthy 4/5s on the roster.
I think he will take another step forward next year, although I hope we can sign a 4/5 transfer as I expect Lars to continue to be a role player that can be effective with the right matchups, but probably very unlikely to take starter minutes