Marsden - Worthless?

JBone84

Well-Known Member
Nov 30, 2006
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Rochester, MN
Anyone else see Marsden as a terrible starter? He can't rebound, pass, block shots, block shots, defend his man, or play help defense. No post moves, although he can hit short open jumpers. He's beyond slow and entirely unaggressive. I wouldn't mind giving him 6-10 minutes off the bench to shoot the occasional open jumper and use some of his fouls, but start??? Come on. Hopefully Mac will wise up and start Hubalek if he can get his head on straight (AKA pass often and develop better shot selection), and give Gray a lot of minutes off the bench, or vise versa. I'm hoping Marsden is done starting now that Hubalek is off suspension, although the announcers last night sure didn't sound like it.

Thoughts?
 
Hubalek started yesterday and Marsden didn't play so I don't know what your talking about.
 
Marsden was sick or something but the announcers made it seem like he was going to start if he was not sick.
 
I think that Marsden can provide some important depth for this team. He appears to be an intelligent player but just not physically able to do a whole lot, at least right now. There will be injuries and foul trouble throughout the year and we will need a guy with a good attitude who is ready to step in at any time to play big minutes. A starter? No! Worthless? No!
 
That's correct, Marsden had the flu and didn't play.

I feel Marsden has been solid defensively, at least he plays sound positionally.

Offensively he isn't your typical center which is what we need right now. I think he's a smart player and looks to set up plays but he needs to stop setting screens on offense and get to the post. That said, he might have the best mid-range shot on the team and does well with the set plays (high-lows for instance).

I like him but he certainly doesn't fill the role we desperately need which is a Homan-style post player. I was hoping Jiri would but that doesn't appear to be the case either.

Unlike most, I don't mind him as a starter but I recognize that I'm in the minority there.
 
Marsden gives you the solid, but never the spectacular. Quality defense, boxing out, rebounding, hitting the open jumper, not taking shots outside of his capabilities *cough Jiri cough*, and just plain not doing anything stupid. Solid team player if you ask me.
 
I disagree with your thought that you don't want him setting screens. Chances are that teams will not honor him much beyond 15' which means that when he sets a ball screen, his defender won't be in position to hedge out on the guard...this will hopefully allow the guard to penetrate the paint. If he is not about to create his own shot on offense, I like using him as a screener.
 
We're undefeated with him as a starter, and winless with Jiri as a starter (yes I know the competition isn't anywhere close). What I do like about Ross though is that he's a role player, and knows his role. He doesn't take stupid shots, and he trys hard.
 
The good thing about Marsden is, even if he doesn't score from there, he will go down to the low blocks. Then we can pass to him and he can either pass back out or try to make a move to the bucket. And after a miss he is at least near the hoop for a possible rebound. I will take this all day long over a 6'11 "center" who refuses to go down low and just floats around the perimeter all day. Plus, if given the ball, Marsden will pass it. Jiri just chucks up everything he gets his hands on. If there is no threat of us getting the ball down low, since no bigs are down there it makes us so much easier to defend and takes away perimeter looks since everyone is just lined up along the 3pt line. Just having someone standing down there makes us slightly more 2 dimensional
 
I love how everyone dumps on Jiri for having a bad night. He will have plenty of good games down the road for us the next couple years. As for Marsden, he's a reliable player. He won't take many chances, won't screw up much, plays defense. I think he's improved quite a bit from last season, especially with his body and footwork.
 
The main reason as Ive read into it that Marsden started all of the first six is that Mac is superstitious and he would have started last night as well if he could play. If you have noticed Marsden has started but not played a lot of minutes in some games. I agree that he is a role player that can help us.
 
Anyone else see Marsden as a terrible starter? He can't rebound, pass, block shots, block shots, defend his man, or play help defense. No post moves, although he can hit short open jumpers. He's beyond slow and entirely unaggressive. I wouldn't mind giving him 6-10 minutes off the bench to shoot the occasional open jumper and use some of his fouls, but start??? Come on. Hopefully Mac will wise up and start Hubalek if he can get his head on straight (AKA pass often and develop better shot selection), and give Gray a lot of minutes off the bench, or vise versa. I'm hoping Marsden is done starting now that Hubalek is off suspension, although the announcers last night sure didn't sound like it.

Thoughts?

Holy cow dude, I am hoping you have got Hubalek and Marsden mixed up because there is no way I am starting Hubalek over Marsden. We need a post player, not a wannabbee guard-shooting forward in a centers body. I would take Marsden playing with one arm behind his back over the Hubalek that played last night, and for that matter, EVERY Capital City League game he played in this Summer. Marsden is smaller and maybe not quite as big as Hubalek, but he works hard and at least gives us a presence down low. If we had a presence down low last night, we wouldn't have been outscored 30-14 in the paint and could very well have won the game. What we need is Alex Thompson and/or Brackens and we will have both next year and then Jiri can sit on the bench......IMO

"I love how everyone dumps on Jiri for having a bad night. He will have plenty of good games down the road for us the next couple years. As for Marsden, he's a reliable player. He won't take many chances, won't screw up much, plays defense. I think he's improved quite a bit from last season, especially with his body and footwork"

Dumping for having a bad night????? I haven't seen him play the position we need him to play since he's been here. Floating around the perimeter and shooting outside shots last night that I am sure, he was wasn't making 10% of the time is not what we need. Does he even know what posting up is?? Maybe I am sounding harsh, but he played last night exactly like he did in the summer league and I was hoping since the coach isn't there that he was just having some fun and was hoping once Gmac got a hold of him, he would play his position. Last night was a big negative on that one. Gmac didn't look too happy so I hope he improves because we need him DOWN LOW...
 
Anyone else see Marsden as a terrible starter? He can't rebound, pass, block shots, block shots, defend his man, or play help defense. No post moves, although he can hit short open jumpers. He's beyond slow and entirely unaggressive. I wouldn't mind giving him 6-10 minutes off the bench to shoot the occasional open jumper and use some of his fouls, but start??? Come on. Hopefully Mac will wise up and start Hubalek if he can get his head on straight (AKA pass often and develop better shot selection), and give Gray a lot of minutes off the bench, or vise versa. I'm hoping Marsden is done starting now that Hubalek is off suspension, although the announcers last night sure didn't sound like it.

Thoughts?

Cut the kid some slack. First of all, he should have been redshirted last year. Playing as a true freshmen did nothing to help his development as a player. Is he an all American? Absolutely not. Is he a role payer? Yes. I do not understand calling him worthless. I think he can be effictive as a role player playing 10-15 minutes a game. That does not make him worthless. You might not have realized but basketball is a team sport. You need some guys to play 35 minutes a game and need some guys to play a solid 10 minutes a game. I think Marsden can be effective in that role.
 
he's like a paul shirley, and all the shots that jiri shot last nite, i bet ross would make alot of them because ross has a stroke for those jumpers, and not only that, he doesnt get into foul trouble, ross does alot of the lil things that you do not see on the stat sheet
 
We need to remember that he is not a huge guy. Vertically, hes a big dude, but he jsut doesnt have the muscle that homan did. With Mac pushing him in the weight room this offseason, and if he continues to progress, he will be a solid big for us next year and his senior season. Hes not very athletic which kind of holds him back from having a stellar season teh first year he gets big minutes, not to mention playing in a new system. He is still young. Most big guys dont develop as fast as guards as you all probably know. we need to be patient and we cant just expect him to be a great player for us in the beginning of this kids sophomore season.
 
He will be a nice player coming off the bench for his Junior and Senior Year. I don't think he will crack the starting lineup next year over Thompson, Hubalek and Brackins. Your program is classified as good when you have hard working guys like Marsden coming off the bench. He has had way too much pressure on him being the only true center we have as a true freshman and soph.

We have to get some bigger guys in the next few years..
 
in all honesty i think i like they way we have been playing him because i think jiri is better off the bench along with gray, i think the way we have played him has worked pretty well, next year i think it will be a good battle to see who gets the job
 

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