There has been considerable talk about guard play in general in other threads and many good points have been made. It would definitely be nice to get that elusive all around shooting guard or that super quick point guard. However, we never had either in the past and we all would sign up immediately to get back to where we were.
I realize it's never as simple as any 1 thing. Some of our teams played much better D, rebounded better, had all americans, etc.
However, I really think the most glaring difference between our most successful teams and the post Elite 8 teams is our lack of a penetrating point guard. We ran the same sets then as we do now. We had many possessions back then that would run down to the last 5 seconds of a shot clock, as we do now. I just seem to remember, whether it was Brandin or Carl or Levance (Brad was able to do this from the 2/3 position as well), these guys would just find a way to make something happen. None were great shooters or were super quick. But they had the ability to penetrate and dish, penetrate and get fouled or penetrate and score at clutch times.
This is not an anti James/Tray post. I was excited when we signed James and I like him. He brings a lot of positives to the table. He just isn't that penetrating and make something happen point guard that was such a big part of our good teams.
This is the biggest thing that's been missing on the post elite 8 teams - my opinion.
I realize it's never as simple as any 1 thing. Some of our teams played much better D, rebounded better, had all americans, etc.
However, I really think the most glaring difference between our most successful teams and the post Elite 8 teams is our lack of a penetrating point guard. We ran the same sets then as we do now. We had many possessions back then that would run down to the last 5 seconds of a shot clock, as we do now. I just seem to remember, whether it was Brandin or Carl or Levance (Brad was able to do this from the 2/3 position as well), these guys would just find a way to make something happen. None were great shooters or were super quick. But they had the ability to penetrate and dish, penetrate and get fouled or penetrate and score at clutch times.
This is not an anti James/Tray post. I was excited when we signed James and I like him. He brings a lot of positives to the table. He just isn't that penetrating and make something happen point guard that was such a big part of our good teams.
This is the biggest thing that's been missing on the post elite 8 teams - my opinion.
