Game 20- Valparaiso

[bigcatlover]

I don't post too often, and when I do, everyone disagrees with me vehemently, but
I will try again. I've heard a lot of good things from the board about Kelm, but he
appears to turn the ball over a lot and misses close-in shots. Is this first-year nerves, and
are there strengths I'm not seeing? We will still have Meier for one more year, but
Kelm doesn't seem like a strong player to follow him, based on his performances.
I've stopped worrying about this year and I'm trying to hope for a better future.

[Rawls]

"But our shooting was just as bad, we got outrebounded severely, and we could never put together a run."

I turned the game off, but you said it all right there. I've seen enough this season to have an pretty good idea. Terrible shooting and shot selection. Just as it was in the first half.

[Super King]

I wouldn't call our system a swing. We go to it every once in a while to change up the tempo, but for the most part we run a dribble drive system.

Jan 21, 2011 20:04:07 GMT -6 bigcatlover said:

I don't post too often, and when I do, everyone disagrees with me vehemently, but
I will try again. I've heard a lot of good things from the board about Kelm, but he
appears to turn the ball over a lot and misses close-in shots. Is this first-year nerves, and
are there strengths I'm not seeing? We will still have Meier for one more year, but
Kelm doesn't seem like a strong player to follow him, based on his performances.
I've stopped worrying about this year and I'm trying to hope for a better future.

I think Kelm's big problem is that he's adjusting to a new body and a new game. He was essentially a shooting guard at Randolph and put on a good 15-20 pounds of muscle before enrolling here. He never got used to the post game, especially on offense, and as his confidence waned he started to miss silly, easy shots.

But his intangibles have still been excellent, he's displayed great hustle, court vision, and ball fakes, and he's a solid defender against physicality the likes of which he hasn't seen. But I think he definitely should have been redshirted.

I really hope we learn our lesson about this with Panoske, who will be going through the same problems as Kelm, and redshirt him the second he enrolls.

[Rawls]

Jan 21, 2011 20:04:07 GMT -6 bigcatlover said:

I don't post too often, and when I do, everyone disagrees with me vehemently, but
I will try again. I've heard a lot of good things from the board about Kelm, but he
appears to turn the ball over a lot and misses close-in shots. Is this first-year nerves, and
are there strengths I'm not seeing? We will still have Meier for one more year, but
Kelm doesn't seem like a strong player to follow him, based on his performances.
I've stopped worrying about this year and I'm trying to hope for a better future.

Agreed, and Kelm's struggles have been amplified by Ant's. If Ant plays more games like YSU, Kelm can spend more time as a reserve, learning from Ant. But we've needed him more than we expected due to Ant's inconsistencies, and I don't think he was quite ready for the responsibilities. I've seen flashes and there's no reason why he can't be a quality 4 or 5 in a year or two. Haarsma will help next year, and I'm excited to see what we can get from Wolf, Q, and Panoske in the coming years. We should be deeper than this year.

[buppie05]

We redshirted Evan essentially because he needed work on defense, and we had enough scoring and shooting guards. That's what i gathered anyways. Other than Ja'rob and flashes by Tone, we haven't had the type of shooting guard we need IMO. Hindsight is always 20-20, but yea at this point considering were not using Kelm all that often, maybe we could have redshirted him instead.

Don't forget ANT is graduating, can we afford to redshirt JJ next year? And based on this season, I would think we will need significant contributions next year from both of our highly touted freshman in order to be successful.

Lonnie is one of my favorites, but as a 6th man energy type player. I forgot about James he should be a beast next couple of years.

[Super King]

I think the plan was to give Kelm minutes from the start, which probably had more to do with Wolf and Carter than Hill. Once Carter started to disappoint, the depth problem was especially exacerbated. It's a problem I don't think we'll have two years from now, and will have started to alleviate next season. But a 2012-2013 forward lineup of Haarsma, Kelm, Panoske, Arenz (fingers crossed), and Wolf is enticing, let alone the Meier-Haarsma-Kelm trio next year.

Either J.J. will be too skinny or he won't be used to his size. Either way it's a problem. And he lives at the 3-point line in high school, something we don't want him to do in college. Haarsma is allegedly Ant's size, and he brings a more diverse skill set to the floor. He should fill in for Hill, while I expect Kelm to have matured in leaps and bounds. Meier will be Meier, and will probably be the best player on the team. We should be deep enough without Panoske.

[bigcatlover]

Thanks. That's somewhat reassuring, and maybe next year will not be the
disappointment that this year has been. It would be great to see Ant
get his game back, or Tone get his shot back, but I'm not counting on it.
I'd forgotten about Haarsma as well, and he seems to have a lot of potential.

[ghostofdylan]

I got up early this morning to watch that?

That was our team's eighth "gong" game already this year, among its 11 losses.

Has Bo Ryan had this many collectively during his nearly 10-year tenure in Madison?

[uwm97]

No. At least not in the regular season. Especially not many Big 10 games.

While Ryan's offenses have been a bit inconsistent shooting the ball, you can always make book on his defenses. Jeter's defenses have never been very good. So at least there's been consistency there.

Here's a question: how many games during Jeter's tenure have you thought to yourself, "That looks like a Bo Ryan team out there?"

[Pounce Needs Pals]

The bad passing and firing up the three's when you still have not made a field goal. That's coaching and the team not following the gameplan. I saw a different game in terms on what Rob Jeter said on his TV show.

[ghostofdylan]

By the way, as of yesterday Wright State had advanced to No. 98 on realtimerpi.com, giving the Horizon League four teams among the top 100.

This has only happened once before in the history of the league, when Butler (12), Cleveland State (52), Green Bay (71) and Wright State (93) accomplished the feat in 2008-09.

Man, is this ever an overestimated, underperforming league.

[Pounce Needs Pals]

Some may view that as the poster child of the new power in the league (Detroit) not living up to the hype.

[Rawls]

Jan 22, 2011 12:16:47 GMT -6 Pounce Needs Pals said:

Some may view that as the poster child of the new power in the league (Detroit) not living up to the hype.

..I'd add Butler taking a step back to that as well. The conference is consistently in that 8th-12th range as a conference. This year is no exception.

fwiw, RPI for the HL:
29. Butler
34. Clev
43. Valpo
t99. Wright
153. Milw.
t156. gb
168. Det
183. LUC
253. YSU
263. UIC

[JG Panthers]

I wish I hadn't gone back and read this thread. Some of the things said in here are insanely stupid... Valpo was a total unknown to our team? HUH?!?!?!

9-11 is below average...definitively

God, I hope we can come out and compete with Butler tomorrow...

[Super King]

Jan 22, 2011 12:38:38 GMT -6 Rawls said:

Jan 22, 2011 12:16:47 GMT -6 Pounce Needs Pals said:

Some may view that as the poster child of the new power in the league (Detroit) not living up to the hype.

..I'd add Butler taking a step back to that as well. The conference is consistently in that 8th-12th range as a conference. This year is no exception.

fwiw, RPI for the HL:
29. Butler
34. Clev
43. Valpo
t99. Wright
153. Milw.
t156. gb
168. Det
183. LUC
253. YSU
263. UIC

I'm shocked that we're as high as 5th.