Green, Durham, Phinisee...

[KoB2011]

What an opportunity for these three next season. They've got an offseason to bust their ass and see who can be the starting point guard of what could be the team that hangs the sixth banner... if one of them steps up. 

It is all there...except a PG. 

[Feathery]

Competition will be fierce I’m sure. I can see lineups where more than 1 of them is on the court at the same time, along with Romeo. 

Phinisee, Al, Romeo, Smith, Morgan for example. 

[5fouls]

I'm skeptical whether DeVonte will ever achieve the consistency we want.  Al will be solid but likely is not a starter on a Championship team.  My hope is on Phinesee.

[addictedtoIU]

1 hour ago, 5fouls said:

I'm skeptical whether DeVonte will ever achieve the consistency we want.  Al will be solid but likely is not a starter on a Championship team.  My hope is on Phinesee.

Maybe we need to use him as a 2 guard to backup Romeo or feature 3 guard lineup of RP-DG-RL.

[KoB2011]

2 hours ago, 5fouls said:

I'm skeptical whether DeVonte will ever achieve the consistency we want.  Al will be solid but likely is not a starter on a Championship team.  My hope is on Phinesee.

Hard to imagine an all freshmen backcourt on a championship team, too. 

Rather we like it or not, our best chance to have a great season is Green finding consistency. 

[NCHoosier32]

totally agree that it is all there other than a PG.  what i keep hearing is that RP is a "true PG."  i have to like that, but as others say, it's tough to see a freshman (who isn't all that highly touted) coming into start at PG.  it seems clear to me that Al and Green are not really ideally PGs.  do we assume that both will be trying to work on that aspect and will need to play significant minutes there?  i guess that seems obvious.  

[IUB74]

I share all of the concerns previously stated.  I am hopeful that the increased competition in practice will lead to commitment and improvement all around.  I also believe that increased talent on the floor at the other positions may take some of the heat off of the point guard position.  I do think that the proficiency level at point guard  will have a lot to do with how high the ceiling is for this team.

[slojoe]

13 hours ago, KoB2011 said:

Hard to imagine an all freshmen backcourt on a championship team, too. 

Rather we like it or not, our best chance to have a great season is Green finding consistency. 

Quinn Buckner and Jim Crews say hello.

[Parakeet Jones]

Even with all the Romeo excitement and the hope that comes with it, I'm trying to keep my expectations for this season under control.  Until Green proves he can consistently be Good Devonte and not Bad Devonte (apologies to Troy Williams), or RP shows he is ready to go I still have serious concerns about our point guard play and how that could hold us back. 

[FW_Hoosier]

33 minutes ago, Parakeet Jones said:

Even with all the Romeo excitement and the hope that comes with it, I'm trying to keep my expectations for this season under control.  Until Green proves he can consistently be Good Devonte and not Bad Devonte (apologies to Troy Williams), or RP shows he is ready to go I still have serious concerns about our point guard play and how that could hold us back. 

We’re also going to be very young with 6 freshmen and 3 sophomores (potentially) in the rotation.

[btownqb]

1 minute ago, FW_Hoosier said:

We’re also going to be very young with 6 freshmen and 3 sophomores (potentially) in the rotation.

All 9 of those (assuming Juwan is back) will not be in the rotation. 

[btownqb]

2 minutes ago, FW_Hoosier said:

We’re also going to be very young with 6 freshmen and 3 sophomores (potentially) in the rotation.

2-SRs, probably 3 with a grad transfer 

2-JRs (assuming Davis comes back six-year, he could give us 8-10)

2-SO 

4-FR (one being a RS FR) 

That's not too bad

[FW_Hoosier]

11 minutes ago, btownqb said:

2-SRs, probably 3 with a grad transfer 

2-JRs (assuming Davis comes back six-year, he could give us 8-10)

2-SO 

4-FR (one being a RS FR) 

That's not too bad

Agree that it’s not too bad, and elsewhere I’ve posted I think we should be the favorites in the conference.  But still, more than half of that rotation will be made up of underclassmen.  And it’s likely only three upperclassmen will be getting major minutes (Juwan, McBob, and Green), with McBob being more of a scrappy role player and Green being pretty inconsistent up to this point.  We’ll bring playing a lot of youth any way you slice it — the good thing is, it’s pretty damn talented youth.  And hopefully they’ll have the first team all-conference senior to show them how it’s done.

[btownqb]

12 minutes ago, FW_Hoosier said:

Agree that it’s not too bad, and elsewhere I’ve posted I think we should be the favorites in the conference.  But still, more than half of that rotation will be made up of underclassmen.  And it’s likely only three upperclassmen will be getting major minutes (Juwan, McBob, and Green), with McBob being more of a scrappy role player and Green being pretty inconsistent up to this point.  We’ll bring playing a lot of youth any way you slice it — the good thing is, it’s pretty damn talented youth.  And hopefully they’ll have the first team all-conference senior to show them how it’s done.

I think the grad transfer gives us 10-15. Yeah we'll be fairly young... I do think RP plays much more mature than that. Hunter and Green are the two big ones imo. How will they perform 

[BobSaccamanno]

Honestly, with Green, it has been unforced errors.  When he concentrates on every possession, you start seeing his 5-6 assist, 1-2 turnover games.  Let's hope after two years, the game will slow down in his mind and he won't get baited.  I think an issue with him was when he got pressured with the ball, he'd especially start making bad decisions.

I have thought for a long time that Phinesee is under-ranked.  But, true freshman PG is a rough gig.  I'd speculate that he could get substantial minutes off the bench.

Durham is a guy I like too.  Let's see how he improves and bulks up.  Durham reminds me of a Bobby Knight guard.  Not the guy at the top of your mind, but a guy who plays a ton as a coach's favorite.  I bet Knight would have liked him and played him.

[Lurker]

I'm hoping for improvement from Durham and Green with a year in the system under their belts.  The talent around them hopefully will take pressure off them too.

I'll trust CAM's eye for talent at the point.  I'm encouraged by the freshman year Wright had at Colorado.  He averaged 32 minutes a game and put up good numbers. FWIW,  Phinisee is ranked higher than Wright was and shouldn't be asked to shoulder such a big load.

[addictedtoIU]

1 hour ago, Lurker said:

I'm hoping for improvement from Durham and Green with a year in the system under their belts.  The talent around them hopefully will take pressure off them too.

I'll trust CAM's eye for talent at the point.  I'm encouraged by the freshman year Wright had at Colorado.  He averaged 32 minutes a game and put up good numbers. FWIW,  Phinisee is ranked higher than Wright was and shouldn't be asked to shoulder such a big load.

Good point. RP is a wild card next season. I feel at this point he's the only true point we have. There's always a possibility RP proves to be the next Trey Burke. 

[mrflynn03]

I think a good thing about archie is he played as a point guard.  So he understands the position well.

Hopefully he has/will be able to get one of these guys where he wants them. 

In the future I doubt this position will be an issue.  

 

[5 championships]

21 hours ago, 5fouls said:

I'm skeptical whether DeVonte will ever achieve the consistency we want.  Al will be solid but likely is not a starter on a Championship team.  My hope is on Phinesee.

I'm calling it now. I think Devonte will break out and be huge for us this year! 

[ADegenerate]

3 minutes ago, 5 championships said:

I'm calling it now. I think Devonte will break out and be huge for us this year! 

I’m on the Devonte bandwagon too. I hate this good/bad Devonte talk as much as I hated good/bad Troy talk. It just seems lazy as they are both talented players capable of having great games and when they have bad ones or decent ones like everyone else does it gets blown out of proportion. I do see the point about consistency though. 

[btownqb]

2 hours ago, ADegenerate said:

I’m on the Devonte bandwagon too. I hate this good/bad Devonte talk as much as I hated good/bad Troy talk. It just seems lazy as they are both talented players capable of having great games and when they have bad ones or decent ones like everyone else does it gets blown out of proportion. I do see the point about consistency though. 

I didn't mind troy as much as others. But Green playing a fair amount of point guard has to be better. Has to. 

[ADegenerate]

7 minutes ago, btownqb said:

I'm didn't mind troy as much as others. But Green playing a fair amount of point guard has to be better. Has to. 

He will. Phinisee and Al will be right behind him if he doesn’t. I suspect he’ll be on it from the get go. I just hope a couple of the inevitable down games doesn’t rattle him. 

I kind of like how the pressure of this teams ceiling could ride on him and I reckon he does too. It might scare a lot of people but I think he’s up to it.

[BoomBaby]

2 hours ago, mrflynn03 said:

I think a good thing about archie is he played as a point guard.  So he understands the position well.

Hopefully he has/will be able to get one of these guys where he wants them. 

In the future I doubt this position will be an issue.  

 

I'd like to think that the fact that Archie apparently didn't look at any grad transfer point guards is a good sign that he's comfortable with his current choices for next year.

[5 championships]

2 hours ago, ADegenerate said:

I’m on the Devonte bandwagon too. I hate this good/bad Devonte talk as much as I hated good/bad Troy talk. It just seems lazy as they are both talented players capable of having great games and when they have bad ones or decent ones like everyone else does it gets blown out of proportion. I do see the point about consistency though. 

I think he will be consistent this year because for one he is now an upperclassman with two years under his belt and one full year with Archie. 2. And this is the big one. He knows he has to play a certain way under Archie and if he doesn't he will get to know the bench real well and we can afford to sit him this year since we have more overall talent throughout the roster. Devonta can't play around this year. He has to bring it every time and I believe he will. 3. More talent around him with Langford and Morgan will release some pressure from having to make plays and also give him room to make plays when he has to... This is the most exciting season for me since the year we were number 1.. I think we stay in too 25 all year and make a push to second weekend of the tourney. I feel really good about this squad... last season was about changing culture and laying a foundation about how we play the game. This year I think we take a big jump. I view this season as the season we beat Kentucky on watfords shot. I think we break through and this time we are hear to stay with Archie!! IU basketball is in a wonderful position right now enjoy the ride to greatness! 

[btownqb]

I will say Green seems like a solid defender and can use his size and length vs other PGs