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landrus13

The JSW Level
If the ISU basketball season started today, what would your starting 5 look like?

I'm curious to see what everyone says. Trying to get some conversation going around here!!

Go Sycamores!!
 

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Good question. I'm not sure who will get the start at the PG spot, but I think you get Key, Neese, LaRavia and Williams at the other 4 spots.

We have a lot of the combo guard types and Cam may be out only true PG so safe money says he will get the nod.
 
PG. Howard or Miller or Cam
SG. Howard or Miller or Neese
SF. Key
PF. Jake
C. Williams

Then they probably go with a bench depth of:

Neese
Barnes
Stephens
Hankins
Cam


I don't see Neese getting the nod. I am not sure he has ever lived up to the work ethic or investment expectations of this coaching staff. That might be fair or unfair? They didn't bring in two grad transfers for them to come off the bench and play spot minutes.

It's a pretty deep roster - if someone doesn't play well they will find themselves out of minutes pretty quick.
 
I don't see Neese getting the nod. I am not sure he has ever lived up to the work ethic or investment expectations of this coaching staff. That might be fair or unfair? They didn't bring in two grad transfers for them to come off the bench and play spot minutes.

It's a pretty deep roster - if someone doesn't play well they will find themselves out of minutes pretty quick.
That's true but he also didn't get popped for a DUI within a month of him being on campus.

I went with Neese simply because Lansing is usually pretty loyal to guys that have been here.
 
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PG. Howard or Miller or Cam
SG. Howard or Miller or Neese
SF. Key
PF. Jake
C. Williams

Then they probably go with a bench depth of:

Neese
Barnes
Stephens
Hankins
Cam


I don't see Neese getting the nod. I am not sure he has ever lived up to the work ethic or investment expectations of this coaching staff. That might be fair or unfair? They didn't bring in two grad transfers for them to come off the bench and play spot minutes.

It's a pretty deep roster - if someone doesn't play well they will find themselves out of minutes pretty quick.
How can this be a deep roster with 10 guards on the roster. Don’t you think we are very thin with front court players? Or is just the way mid-major and small colleges are going?
 
PG. Howard or Miller or Cam
SG. Howard or Miller or Neese
SF. Key
PF. Jake
C. Williams

Then they probably go with a bench depth of:

Neese
Barnes
Stephens
Hankins
Cam


I don't see Neese getting the nod. I am not sure he has ever lived up to the work ethic or investment expectations of this coaching staff. That might be fair or unfair? They didn't bring in two grad transfers for them to come off the bench and play spot minutes.

It's a pretty deep roster - if someone doesn't play well they will find themselves out of minutes pretty quick.
So you think Larry will redshirt since we brought in Howard.
Larry has more upside than Cam; but, since he passes a lot I would expect him to have some TO's.
 
PG - Bacote (Until I see Howard or Miller play in a Sycamore uniform, I believe Lansing starts with Cam at PG)
SG - Key (no brainer)
SF - Stephens (not sure about his offense, but his reputation coming from JUCO was for defense and rebounding per his coach)
PF - Jake (no brainer)
C - Williams (no brainer)

I don't think this will be our starting 5 for long after the season starts, but day-1 i think this is the squad. I also can see the thought process behind Neese starting, but I think Lansing likes bringing his shooting off the bench. Howard and Miller can both also shoot it a little, so we have scorers who can come in and relieve the back court early if we struggle to get going offensively.

For Lansing's offensive system, this has to be close to his dream starting 5. He can play inside out with two of our best players in the front court, and he has Key on the perimeter to bail out the offense when it stalls. Stephen's is there to defend and rebound, and Cam is there not to screw anything up.
 
How can this be a deep roster with 10 guards on the roster. Don’t you think we are very thin with front court players? Or is just the way mid-major and small colleges are going?


I mean relative to past years having two Soph's with starting lineup experience on the roster at the PF and C position is deep to me... I mean it may not be deep by definition - but again it really depends what you're comparing it to. Ndewa is going to pretty raw but he can play some spot minutes and maybe get some blocked shots and some rebounds. My guess is that Hittle doesn't RS. And per Booker's post above - if Stephens can rebound and defend than certainly he can play some spot mins at the PF position potentially.

So again - maybe not deep as you typically think of the word but I'd say that depth shouldn't be a problem.

I don't know enough about other mid-majors to say one way or another. Perhaps Jason or South could speak to that a little better than I can. I would just say generally speaking - the game has evolved. You look at Jake and for a PF he handles the ball pretty darn well - I think if you look across the college landscape you don't really see traditional sit on the block and post up PF/C players. They're pretty versatile these days - so not having a ton of experience and depth behind Jake and Tre is not really a concern to me.

All that said - this team is going to go as far as those two can take us... Make no mistake about it - as good as Key is and much attention as he takes away from those two. We desperately need them to stay out of foul trouble and healthy. Those two guys are damn good basketball players and if they have improved - watch out!
 

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PG - Bacote (Until I see Howard or Miller play in a Sycamore uniform, I believe Lansing starts with Cam at PG)
SG - Key (no brainer)
SF - Stephens (not sure about his offense, but his reputation coming from JUCO was for defense and rebounding per his coach)
PF - Jake (no brainer)
C - Williams (no brainer)

I don't think this will be our starting 5 for long after the season starts, but day-1 i think this is the squad. I also can see the thought process behind Neese starting, but I think Lansing likes bringing his shooting off the bench. Howard and Miller can both also shoot it a little, so we have scorers who can come in and relieve the back court early if we struggle to get going offensively.

For Lansing's offensive system, this has to be close to his dream starting 5. He can play inside out with two of our best players in the front court, and he has Key on the perimeter to bail out the offense when it stalls. Stephen's is there to defend and rebound, and Cam is there not to screw anything up.

So you're not starting Howard or Miller until you see them play - both 5th year Seniors. But you're okay with starting Stephens a JC transfer. Gotcha!

You know since Cummings I'm not sure that we've had a consistent JC player and that was a while ago.

You could very well be right - I don't have a problem with him giving the starting job to Cam and letting play things out. If they think he's earned that I am sure they will run him out.

In addition to that as Jason mentioned above I would say that Howard getting in trouble off the court (DUI) is probably not going to help his chances of starting from day 1. So can't ignore that.
 
So you're not starting Howard or Miller until you see them play - both 5th year Seniors. But you're okay with starting Stephens a JC transfer. Gotcha!

You know since Cummings I'm not sure that we've had a consistent JC player and that was a while ago.

You could very well be right - I don't have a problem with him giving the starting job to Cam and letting play things out. If they think he's earned that I am sure they will run him out.

In addition to that as Jason mentioned above I would say that Howard getting in trouble off the court (DUI) is probably not going to help his chances of starting from day 1. So can't ignore that.

Everett Clemons was pretty darn solid, but point still remains..we haven't had the greatest luck with impact JC's.


FWIW I got

Howard
Tyreke
Miller
Jake
Tre

You don't bring 5th years guys in to sit imo. Could be wrong and would like to be because that means Cam or Cooper really elevated their level of play consistently. I also agree with the statement that we have a lot of depth other than at C. Having 2 5th years battling it out for starting spots with 2 returning guys who were part of the core 7-8 that played the year before is a big advantage compared to most of our recent teams. It was part of why the 2011 team was special, they were deep at most positions. Iron sharpens iron.
 
So you're not starting Howard or Miller until you see them play - both 5th year Seniors. But you're okay with starting Stephens a JC transfer. Gotcha!

You know since Cummings I'm not sure that we've had a consistent JC player and that was a while ago.

You could very well be right - I don't have a problem with him giving the starting job to Cam and letting play things out. If they think he's earned that I am sure they will run him out.

In addition to that as Jason mentioned above I would say that Howard getting in trouble off the court (DUI) is probably not going to help his chances of starting from day 1. So can't ignore that.

The reason I think Stephens starts is because of his defense and rebounding (by reputation alone at this point), and the fact we have nobody else on the roster like him. He’s our only true wing player. The coaches seem to want Cobie to play the 4, so we can either go super small playing three guards, which we very well may do, but if Lansing wants to start a true #3 then Stephens is that guy. When we’ve had players on the roster in the past like Stephens (i.e. Qiydar Davis and Allante Holston), they’ve started.

I would prefer Howard start at PG (DUI excluded) only because I haven’t seen anything out of Cam up to this point to give me confidence giving him the keys to the car, but we have redundancy at PG/CG right now so I think Lansing leans towards experience with his system to start the season, and Cam fits that bill.

My list isn’t who I’d like starting but who I think the starting 5 is game 1.
 
Hell I keep forgetting Cobie as I didn't mention him above... You've got to think Cobie, Cooper, Cam or Hankins has gotten much better this off season. Again - I really think Lansing has a lot of depth to work with here. I am not sure how he's going to work everyone in - well the answer is pretty simple he is not. Guys are going to have to play well to earn minutes.
 
Hell I keep forgetting Cobie as I didn't mention him above... You've got to think Cobie, Cooper, Cam or Hankins has gotten much better this off season. Again - I really think Lansing has a lot of depth to work with here. I am not sure how he's going to work everyone in - well the answer is pretty simple he is not. Guys are going to have to play well to earn minutes.

The backcourt depth is why I would much prefer we speed up the tempo and defensive aggression. We have enough guys to warrant pressing more (or almost all game) and getting out and running off makes and misses.

Our best defense last year was when we pressed, trapped at mid court, and forced the issue. We just never seemed to do it until it we were in desperation mode.
 

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The reason I think Stephens starts is because of his defense and rebounding (by reputation alone at this point), and the fact we have nobody else on the roster like him. He’s our only true wing player. The coaches seem to want Cobie to play the 4, so we can either go super small playing three guards, which we very well may do, but if Lansing wants to start a true #3 then Stephens is that guy. When we’ve had players on the roster in the past like Stephens (i.e. Qiydar Davis and Allante Holston), they’ve started.

I would prefer Howard start at PG (DUI excluded) only because I haven’t seen anything out of Cam up to this point to give me confidence giving him the keys to the car, but we have redundancy at PG/CG right now so I think Lansing leans towards experience with his system to start the season, and Cam fits that bill.

My list isn’t who I’d like starting but who I think the starting 5 is game 1.
There is no way a JC is replacing Neese in the lineup at the beginning of the season. Neese can do more than just shoot.
 
There is no way a JC is replacing Neese in the lineup at the beginning of the season. Neese can do more than just shoot.

Based on all of the varying responses to the starting lineups, I don't think anything is set in stone. The good thing is we have depth, so the starters could change game to game.

Also, I'm not sure how you can say a JUCO player would be replacing Neese in the starting lineup. Neese hasn't historically been in the starting lineup. Either he or Stephens would be a new starter.
 
I'm not sure Bacote is the guy at PG. He had 27 assists and 21 turnovers in limited action. He shot 32% from 2 and 32% from 3. 0.9 assists per game. I know it was limited action but doesn't sound like he can handle the rock very well. I would assume he's the backup PG.

I think Howard is the starting PG. Neese as the SF and Key at the SG.
 
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