Why not play Luther?

[Monroevillefan]

I see no reason not to play Ryan Luther the majority of the minutes at center. What do we have to lose.

We are getting little if anything from Maia and Odobva.

Maia's game may work in the Ivy League but not jumping does not work in the ACC. He had a couple of,bunnies in the Clemson game but was too slow,to convert. Any other center in the ACC would have dunked.

Odobva has not shown the defensive prowess that he was advertised in having when we brought him in.
His offense is non existent.

Luther on the other hand seems to be in great shape and he hustles which this team needs. He can shoot the ball and he can run the floor. He is certainly undersized but given the alternatives what choice do we have. Either play him or go small withYoung at center and start Jeter. Playing the 5 year guys is no solution.

 

[Chescat]

I see no reason not to play Ryan Luther the majority of the minutes at center. What do we have to lose.

We are getting little if anything from Maia and Odobva.

Maia's game may work in the Ivy League but not jumping does not work in the ACC. He had a couple of,bunnies in the Clemson game but was too slow,to convert. Any other center in the ACC would have dunked.

Odobva has not shown the defensive prowess that he was advertised in having when we brought him in.
His offense is non existent.

Luther on the other hand seems to be in great shape and he hustles which this team needs. He can shoot the ball and he can run the floor. He is certainly undersized but given the alternatives what choice do we have. Either play him or go small withYoung at center and start Jeter. Playing the 5 year guys is no solution.

You've made some very good points, maybe Luther has deserved to see the floor more. The problem is he's not a Center, he's a forward with a decent outside shot. You're right, he does hustle, and is a very hard worker. The problem is, he gets abused on defense against any decent center with size (and every ACC team has at least one of those...well, every team but Pitt LOL). Much as I don't like him at Center, everything I criticized about him is true of Maia and Odoba. Maia, bad as he is...IMO is our best bet
defensively and rebounding wise....he gives us NOTHING on the offensive end. However, he tires and fouls easily and can only be used for short stretches. If you watch our games, even when we have horrible first halves, we tend to do fairly well the first few minutes of the game with Maia. Problem is we then bring inOdobva (human fouling machine) and only very slightly better offensively than Maia. Following this Luther comes in and we are even more liable defensively....however given his hustle and hard work, and ability to hit an outside shot he tends to look a little better than the other two. It's an obvious dilemma for Jamie, and we can see the results...NO center between the two grad transfers, and a choice of an out of position forward who hustles, can make an occasional outside jumper, but gets abused inside.

Bottom line...we need an infusion of ACC talent. Jamie failed in recruiting a legit Center and had to
resort to Plan B (grad transfers). The part that people are forgetting is that both Maia and Odobo
were not even his first two choices among the available grad transfers....and as I said before, that's
why we saw Kent ST's two MAC level big guys manhandle our Bigs. Ditto for the 6'7" Center
from Detroit. Given all this, it's no surprise what's happening to us against ACC talent.

 

[Scruffy the Panther]

Luther over Ododa for sure.