For what it's worth, I do think the defense declines next year. Hard to maintain that level of defense with so much turnover. Chris has stated that our style of play, TJ's first two years, is very deliberate, due to personnel. I do think we'll see an improvement in offense (after portal is all said an done) that somewhat negates the defensive drop off.
Iowa State Transfer/Recruiting Class 2023
- Thread starter CoKane
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For what it's worth, I do think the defense declines next year. Hard to maintain that level of defense with so much turnover. Chris has stated that our style of play, TJ's first two years, is very deliberate, due to personnel. I do think we'll see an improvement in offense (after portal is all said an done) that somewhat negates the defensive drop off.
Overall it has worked. But there were games like Iowa, Mizzou, Pitt, etc. where teams with great ball movement made us pay for trapping.
Then there were games like TT and WVU where guards killed us off the dribble by getting mismatches.
Ideally, we would have defenders who can play tough man-on-man or trapping.
I thought guys like Gabe, Kunc and Jaren were great team defense guys- but not the best on-ball. We struggled to stop dribble penetration by guard who were strong off the bounce.
Final Four teams almost always have a Top 10 offense and a Top 35 defense. I think it's okay if the defense falls off a little if it comes with big gains in the offense.
Gabe was straight up a great individual on-ball defender.
Gilbert was recruited by TJ before so maybe he’ll commit on his visit
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UNLV team page says 6'4". I'm guessing that is correct.
Agreed. Just from watching his clips, definitely 6'4 and not 6'1.
Was Gilbert injured? He barely played the last 3 weeks and didn't even score in double figures after February 14th.
Re: Discussion of defensive fall-off in favor of better offensive production: I think we don't have to worry about sacrificing a little on one end to improve the other, as long as everyone is committed to working at defense, individually and as a team concept.
Some players whose biggest upside is shooter/scorer might not be have to be the team's most outstanding defenders, just be willing to embrace the philosophy.
Some players whose biggest upside is shooter/scorer might not be have to be the team's most outstanding defenders, just be willing to embrace the philosophy.
I was confused too watching the vid and then seeing 6' 1". My thought was man those other players are tiny.
IIRC he was tossed from a game and had a weird injury thing, too.
It looks like all 3 guys that are visiting this weekend are excellent free throw shooters.
Thats enough for me, go get them TJ.
Thats enough for me, go get them TJ.
Gilbert and Williams both play in the Mountain West so it is a higher end mid major conference so I like that. Not quite as big of jump in competition
Yeah I loved this year's team but goodness the FT shooting was tough to watch
A article I read on Gilbert mentioned he was ejected from a game and then suspended for head butting an opponent. Could be a random incident or maybe that he could be a loose cannon?
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2023/mar/20/what-keshon-gilberts-transfer-means-for-unlv/
Definitely one of the negative elements. I'm not sure how many additional wins might have come with even a modest bump in FT%, without digging deeper, but it did have an effect on a few occasions. In some cases, iffy accuracy from the line also came when the opponent shot it well.
Interesting. Obviously a little concerning but I totally trust TJ on stuff like that.