HUGE Weekend for NC State Basketball

07-08 Basketball77

Make NO MISTAKE about it — NC State’s tournament-like schedule (Friday/Sunday) of home games against Davidson (7pm tonight on Fox Sports South) and Cincinnati (7:30pm Sunday on all Fox Sports networks) represent pivotal and highly important games for the Wolfpack’s 2007-2008 post season dreams.

Beacuse of State’s two unacceptable losses to New Orleans and East Carolina the Wolfpack enter the weekend with a record of just 5-3 with six out of conference games remaining and sixteen ACC games on the schedule. (Don’t forget that NC State played one of the tougher ACC schedules last season, and this season the Wolfpack plays Top 10 Duke twice instead of just once.)

Davidson
Curry Tonight, State hosts highly respected Davidson and sophomore phenom Stephen Curry. The fact that the Wolfpack doesn’t have a sharpshooter on our entire roster and Curry wasn’t recruited by the Pack is a painful pill to swallow for many. The contrast is made more clear by the fact that Curry has made more three pointers this season while competing against a tough schedule than the entire NC State roster has hit en route toa 29.4% three-point shooting percentage.

For our own sanity we won’t play the “what if” game here. Just know that State MUST guard Curry unlike we have guarded anyone all season. If some nobody from ECU can put thirty on us then the sky is the limit for Curry if he gets hot.

Davidson sets up to be a potentially miserable scenario for the Wolfpack. A lot has been made that Davidson has been ‘close’ many times but needs to breakthrough against a name to earn some respect. The Wildcats seem to expect that “name” to be NC State. Although they sport only a 4-5 record, the Wildcats have been nationally ranked this season and have suffered close losses to Top 10 UCLA, UNC-CH and Duke. (Compare that to State’s trip to Top 10 Michigan State). In their early season losses,

Davidson led North Carolina with six minutes left and gave up an 18-point first-half lead against UCLA before losing. Those losses, and losses to Western Michigan and Charlotte, had a similar theme.

Davidson as been competitive in the paint against some of the best post players in the country, but they poorly defend what NC State doesn’t do very well – the three point shot. The Wildcats allow 44% shooting from outside of the arc; but the Wolfpack only shoots 29.4% from behind the arc. Obviously, the Pack MUST capitalize on open looks from behind the line.

Another problem for the Wolfpack is that Davidson does well what we defend poorly – the three pointer. State’s defensive field goal percentage may look good on paper, but we all know that the Wolfpack plays horrendous perimeter defense. (See the kid from ECU). The Wildcats have the 20th highest ratio of 3-point field goal attempts to total field goal attempts in the country as 44% of their attempts from the field have been from behind the three point arc.

Section Six takes the preview of the Wildcats to a deeper level in this entry. You need to read the preview because he really hits the macro-keys of this match-up (and NC State’s problems).

The Wolfpack defense relies entirely on unforced errors, and that’s no way to make a living when you rebound as poorly as we do.

Marques Johnson
The Pack will have the services of Marques Johnson for the first time tonight since he announced his transfer from Tennessee last year. Unless Johnson has a better shot than has been advertised and is a more aggressive defender than the rest of our squad then I’m not sure how much of an impact that he will have.

The Charlotte Observer has some related nuggets that will be of interest to you. One set of comments baffled me:

At 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, Johnson is bigger than Degand and freshman Javier Gonzalez, the other backup point guard.

When Johnson does get in the game, the Wolfpack might switch to a more deliberate pace.

“He’ll get you into your offense, defend, hustle, nothing fancy,” Lowe said

A more deliberate pace? Is that a joke? What does that mean? Will we be playing in the 40s and 50s? How could we play a more deliberate pace than we do today?

Take note, no matter which players are on the floor NC State will continue to play close games and deliberate paces until we assert ourselves on defense and start rebounding – both of which will allow us to create some easy points in transition and take some pressure off of our half court offense.

Quick Cincy
Despite Cincinnati’s name recognition, the Bearcats are currently 4-6 with a miserable RPI of #249. They lost to Belmont by 11 points, beat Western Carolina by only 2 points at home and have struggled in other games that you would expect them to have won more impressively. State must avenge last year’s embarassment at Cincy – no Engin Atsur; Gavin Grant tryign to play the point; turned the ball over THIRTY times. No matter how bad Cincinnati looks on paper, if State can win as we should, the Bearcats are a ‘name program’ in a major conference that won’t help our RPI but won’t optically hurt us as people review our resume.

Full Season Perspective
Whether Coach Lowe and the team have chosen to hit the panic button or not, everyone needs to have their eyes open to where things currently stand if the Wolfpack truly wants to earn an NCAA Tournament bid. Beacuse of State’s two unacceptable losses to New Orleans and East Carolina, the Wolfpack enter the weekend with a record of just 5-3 with six out of conference games remaining and sixteen ACC games on the schedule. So, one cannot under-state the importance of this next phase of the Wolfpack’s schedule that is being called a “tough stretch” by the media.

I’m going to reverse-engineer some numbers and some assumptions to highlight the importance of the next two games for State:

* An 8-8 record in ACC play used to guarantee an NCAA Tournament berth; that tenant has been challenged recently and is not as much of ‘rule’ given the ACC’s imbalanced schedule.

* With losses to bad teams like UNO and ECU conventional wisdom already posits that State needs to finish the out of conference portion of our schedule strong and may have to go 9-7 to earn an NCAA Tournament appearance.

* I’m not sold on that^ yet. State’s 16 ACC games are tough, and include EIGHT games against teams currently in the RPI’s Top 53. With this said, our conference schedule will serve to strongly support our RPI and give us plenty of opportunities to have a strong resume with an 8-8 record.

* The key to the debate of ‘how many conference games do we need to win?’ actually lies in the Wolfpack’s final record in out of conference games. State is currently 5-3 with six more OOC games. In addition to this ‘tough stretch of Davidson, Cincy and Seton Hall (currently #51 RPI) the Wolfpack should be able to win against Western Carolina, Presbyterian and NC Central

* If the Pack wins all six remaning OOC games and starts conference play at 11-3, then I think we will be fine with an 8-8 ACC record. That would mean that State would have wins over one sure NCAA Tournament team (Villanova) and three other potential teams (Davidson, Rider and Seton Hall).

* If State falls once (Davidson? Seton Hall?) and starts conference play at 10-4, then I think we CAN make the tourney at 8-8 as long as we have the proper “mix” of wins and losses. A 9-7 record in this scenario would definitely get us a berth in light of the strength of the conference.

* If State loses two more times and starts conference play at 9-5, then the Pack most definitely will need at least a 9-7 ACC record for an NCAA Tournament berth.

Parting Shot
Earlier in the year we ran an analysis of how the Pack performed when Trevor Furguson was on the floor compared to how we performed when he was not on the floor. The numbers were striking. Section Six has an updated view of the comparison of the impact of State’s two most utilized lineups this season and the numbers are equally striking.

The summary of the analysis is that the line-up of Degand/Fells/Grant/Costner/Hickson have coutscored opponents by 39 points while the line-up of Degand/Fells/Grant/Costner/McCauley have been outscored by opponents by 12 points. A 51 point differential in just 8 games averages to be just under 6.5 points per game. That is a HUGE number.

As you can tell from that information, JJ Hickson is a key component of what State does well on BOTH sides of the floor. Relatedly, this is a super article about JJ Hickson and the Wolfpack’s need to adjust.

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07-08 Basketball

77 Responses to HUGE Weekend for NC State Basketball

  1. Stoner 12/21/2007 at 8:10 PM #

    Well, we almost snatched a defeat from the jaws of victory. Anyone know why this offense has so much trouble scoring? We couldn’t buy a bucket the last 5 minutes of the game.

  2. chilly water 12/21/2007 at 8:11 PM #

    HEY ….. there Gavin Grant..you keep taking years off my life OO YEAH. ……. yea yea yea . With 3 seconds on the clock .. I reach for that vodka bod ohh yea………. Yea yea yea IMA FUCKING WINNER

  3. turnoffthetv 12/21/2007 at 8:12 PM #

    W-WHOOOO.(wipes brow)(cleans drawers)(spits finger nails out of mouth)

    gopack

  4. tobaccordshow 12/21/2007 at 8:20 PM #

    “Well, we almost snatched a defeat from the jaws of victory. Anyone know why this offense has so much trouble scoring? We couldn’t buy a bucket the last 5 minutes of the game.”

    Zone… as long as we have trouble with the perimeter shot, we’re not going to be able to beat these zones.

    If we had recruited that curry kid…

  5. old13 12/21/2007 at 8:25 PM #

    JJ still learning D-1 BB. No experience at PG – but it is progressing. Returnees from 06-07 still learning a 10-man rotation . . . There is visible progress each and every game. It will be interesting to see how this tean is playing in February and March – or sooner if everybody’s light bulb comes on before then!

  6. burnbarn 12/21/2007 at 9:14 PM #

    We took a step forward this game. For the first time, we did not lose to a team that was killing it from 3. Any other game like this we played this season we lose. Our defense was very good holding davidson down.. a team that averages like 83 a game…. against ucla, dooks, and holes. Davidson played great and they are experienced and are a good team and clearly the best team in their conference.

    We should have won by a wider margin however, I am very satisfied with this win. With the exception of the back court this team played it’s best game of the season. As barely adequate as our PGs played, I was surprised marcus did not see the floor.

    We had much better desire and therefore affect on the glass tonight…we dominated. We really won this game on the boards and the FT line. Yes it was Davidson, but we have won the boards 2 straight games. had we lost this game it would have been b/c a hot shooter (again) and sloppy ballhandling by all players (save GG…..am I saying that?) which MUST improve. We also must be better on out of bounds plays. When was the last time NCSU was good on the out of bounds?

    Is GG playing as well as Hodge as a senior right now? Is he maybe a little better?

    It seems that JJ relies solely on shot blocking for defense. He, like any freshman has a lot to learn. he could also learn some nice post moves from Ben b/c just trying to over power people only will not get it done. ben got some nice shots in the double team; JJ did not. JJ hit a sweet J from about 12 tonight.
    He will be a tremendous player in the future.

    On offense, I am glad fells made that dunk… had he missed it I don’t even want to think about it. Before the MSU game, I was listening to Izzo and he mentioned that his offence had been out of sync about 1/2 a step this season….. I feel like our offense is about the same right now.

    Nice win, I think this team has a solid win against the natti!! I think we played tonight like i think most of us had hoped we would play by about game 2-3… maybe we can pull something out this season. I wasn’t so sure before.

  7. choppack1 12/21/2007 at 9:23 PM #

    All I can say is that the effort was 100% better tonight than it had been the last 2 games. (Has it only been 2 games??)

    The good: we rebounded very well tonight. We hustled. We played tough. Gavin was a hero again. Good minutes by Simon Harris in the 1st half.

    The bad: Even though Davidson isn’t one of the quickest teams we’ll play, we still couldn’t get loose for easy baskets. While the effort was there, we’re not sound defensively and that’s why Curry got such a great look late.

    The bad: No playing time for MJohson. This is either a bad sign of his abilities or something else. We need to get on the same page and push it when we have the chance. All too often we get it to our PG he slows the pace instead of pushing. I know it’s sacrelige, but I’m also getting tired of the “whistle” – our guys should know what they’re going to do coming down the floor. Finally, our out of bounds plays tonight were reminiscent of another era.

  8. ShootingGuard 12/21/2007 at 9:32 PM #

    “The bad: No playing time for MJohson. This is either a bad sign of his abilities or something else.”

    The “something else” is called, in a tight ball game where one possession could make all of the difference in the outcome, Sid didn’t want to take a chance on MJ making a mistake based solely on not having played. FD & Javy have played all season, even if not at a supreme level. MJ will see his first minutes on the floor when there is a little more cushion and hopefully be able to start really contributing come ACC season.

  9. old13 12/21/2007 at 9:35 PM #

    I thought that maybe Sid held our MJ until he can get in under less pressure. This was a tight game all the way.

  10. haze 12/21/2007 at 9:38 PM #

    Good win against a good team. Costner and Mac had solid games (if not spectacular) and Gavin continues his run as the team’s most dependable player. Weird to say but very true. Without Gavin, we simply suck. Very nice 1st half from Harris. Good flashes from Hickson, he remains a beast but we need to beat the zones if we’re going to get his full measure. Rebounding was much improved, though this opponent was not particularly gifted in the front court.

    On the downside, our PG’s were terrible tonight. They did NOTHING on O and committed a small pile of entirely unforced TO’s. At the 2, Fells played OK D but was, again, invisible on O. We literally won this game without any serious guard play. That’s a sad refrain that will doom this team’s ACC season if it doesn’t improve. I think Sid should start every game by slapping Courtney silly. If he plays angry, we can be a different team.

    As for Davidson, Curry is everything advertised. He’d start every game for NC State and twice on Sundays. More than just a bomber. Why, o’ why didn’t somebody recruit this kid? Otherwise, they aren’t much more than another 3pt shooting mid-major. I wasn’t that impressed, though I know our size bothered them terribly.

  11. choppack1 12/21/2007 at 9:40 PM #

    Those are good explanations. However, I’m a “throw ’em the fire” type guy. And it worries me that he wasn’t thrown in the fire. Not necessarily because he wasn’t thrown in there, but maybe because of the other reason he wouldn’t get any playing time.

  12. Trip 12/21/2007 at 9:43 PM #

    Good hard win. Damn gave me a heart attack near the end though, but overall everyone played well. Fells was pretty much in Curry’s jersey the entire game, but he’s basically an unstoppable force because if you even give him an inch, he’ll pop a 3 before you know it.

  13. Primewolf 12/21/2007 at 9:43 PM #

    We got a win, but it could have easily gone the other way.

    I really don’t understand our offense. I realize we have no outside shooting threat from Javi or Degand at all. Heck, we they have an open look, you can see the fear in their eyes. But, our approach to offense is to invite the other team to press us. Here is what happens. You have to be in the Arena to really get a full court view of it, but here it is:

    1. They press after they score.
    2. We walk and pass the ball up the court in a very deliberate manner.
    3. Once we get pass the half court and make one more pass, we look over to the bench to get a play.
    4. At this point there are only 20 to 22 seconds left on the shotclock.
    5. The other team settles into their half-court offense– a zone is a good choice. Generally, as we are getting the play, the press defenders walk back to their half court defense position.
    6. We make a few perimeter passes with little motion toward the basket. (Any high school team can defend the around the horn passing approach by just hustling)
    7. Now with about 10-12 seconds left, it is panic time. And 9/10 times we end up forcing a three or something.

    I though if a team presses you, you try to beat it quickly and then punish them by going straight to the basket since you generally outnumber them. I can count on one hand the times this whole season we have tried to attack the basket once we break the press.

    There is not another college team I have watch that has such an anemic approach to try to create plays.

    I realize some of this is the fact that our guards are just incredibly bad.

    Hey and why is it that other teams run screens all day on us and we can’t get around them, while we can run an effective screen at all.

    We have 3 former head coaches on the staff. It is hard to fathom.

  14. Trip 12/21/2007 at 9:54 PM #

    As far as MJ, as I said before, he’ll get thrown in our next 4 or 5 matches probably getting a lot of PT to get him up to speed with the rest of the team. This game was too close to throw in a PG who hasn’t played a game yet in comparison to the other 2, even if he was Derrick Rose. While it may be painful to watch Degand hold the ball and not attempt anything, it’d be more painful to watch MJ throw it to people who weren’t ready for a pass, creating a turnover, because he hadn’t played with them enough in a game situation to know them.

  15. choppack1 12/21/2007 at 10:03 PM #

    I just remember when Grundy joined our team – he got minutes immediately. I think we’re in the same situation.

    One of the problems I have w/ the staff this year is that they haven’t experimented enough w/ personnel. Sure, they play alot of guys – but why not play Degand AND Javy at the same time? Does MJ have to play the point? Why not let him chase around Curry for a while? Before this game we heard about how MJ’s team always won the scrimmage, how was a battler.

    I don’t know anything about his game -for all I know, he doesn’t deserve to play – but I doubt it.

    I don’t want to dwell on this too much. This was the most impressive win this year besides the Nova game. Our team played very hard. We rebounded well. I’m encouraged by the effort I saw, and IMHO, that’s most important.

    I’m very worried that we are too concerned about playing the deliberate pace. I’m also just waiting for us to go to these ACC venues and for opponents fans to start whistling their brains off. (Trust me, it will happen – and hopefully, our guys won’t be looking at the bench every time it does.)

    Finally, I did notice that we pressed tonight. Like I said, I’m very happy w/ our defensive effort and rebounding tonight. I’m happy w/ the effort.

  16. haze 12/21/2007 at 10:09 PM #

    With all due respect, the most likely explanation is usually the simplest.

    MJ has been with this team for 1 year. He’s been in D1 for 1.5yrs. This tenure means that he is, or at least should be, familiar with the system and that his team mates are, or at least should be, familiar with him. Close game or not, if MJ was significantly better than Degand/Javi, then he’d have played tonight. The fact that he didn’t means that he’s not a better PG. He might be a PG of similar talent (would validate the “experience for a close game” theory) but, assuming he’s healthy, he’s probably not notably better than what we already have. I wouldn’t look for a savior here.

  17. burnbarn 12/21/2007 at 10:26 PM #

    Coach talks about it in the post game…. he didn’t want to put him in in a pressure situation.. he’d rather go with the guys that have been playing all season.. he said they played 9-10 guys and they are still trying to figure out the best combinations.

    Maybe after the seaton hall game he plays some?

  18. werncstate 12/21/2007 at 10:45 PM #

    Primewolf you described our offense perfectly. Haze your explanation for MJ not playing tonight rings much too true I’m afraid. I was at the game tonight and our non-productivity from both guard positions was a glaring weakness. At around the 15 minute mark in the first half I asked my friend if Fells had been in the game the whole time because quite frankly I had not noticed him since he had done nothing at that point. Aside from a brief spurt where he hit a 3 and got that famojamo dunk ( which he could have easily missed with all the mustard he had on that one) Fells was a non factor. I guess you can give him credit for chasing Curry all night but Curry did score 29.
    Bottom line it was a great win but my expectations for the season are very much diminished due to the lack of guard contributions. If you offered me an 8 and 8 conference record right now I would take it and take my chances it would be good enough to put us in the big dance. My expectations are for something more like 5 and 11 in conference. Oh well.

  19. Dan 12/21/2007 at 11:40 PM #

    I’m with primewolf. This is the worst offense by a major conference ‘contender’ that I can remember. Passing the ball around the perimeter while the guy on the block tries to get position (all by himself no less) is not an offense. Seriously, this is bush league. Its almost unwatchable.

  20. Sweet jumper 12/22/2007 at 12:17 AM #

    I was at the game. We dodged a bullet. We were very lucky to get that win. Our perimeter defense is poor even though we have a lot of length. Simon Harris did the best job on Curry. Fells and Grant were no match for Curry and he did most of his damage against them. Costner scored some points, but he is so sluggish this year. His turnover in the last 2 minutes, after which Curry hit a 3 to give DC a 1 point lead, should have cost us the game. He also did not follow his shot from the wing late in the game and watched the ball go untouched out of bounds in the corner. Davidson beat our big men down the court many times for uncontested layups. During the last 8 minutes our offense consisted of 5 guys passing around the perimeter with no motion and no screens underneath. Thank goodness Gavin went to the offensive glass in the last 5 seconds! These are just observations and I don’t mean to be critical. I am thrilled that we won that game but we are very fortunate that Curry had a short cold streak before his final 3. We have a long way to go, but I hope we can build on this win and lay it on Cincy on Sunday. I would like to see Ben at the high post(for his passing) and JJ at the low post(for his strength and scoring ability) together for some extended minutes.

  21. wufpup76 12/22/2007 at 1:57 AM #

    here’s what i saw at the game:

    first the positives:

    – first and foremost, this is a good win against a good team … a true positive

    – at times, the team looked the best they’ve looked all season (unfortunately, that’s not saying much to this point, though) … rebounding effort was easily the best to this point in the season – and it came against a team that shoots a ton of 3’s which can result in long offensive rebounds … Dav. only had 4 offenisve rebounds all night IIRC

    – the defensive effort was there (i know, Curry got loose a few too many times), but i was very pleased that we didn’t let an up-tempo team like Davidson really get loose in transition all night … this is a huge improvement from previous games where we’ve looked lost in transition defense at times

    – tracy smith and simon harris each had quality minutes in the first half; harris did his best in staying with curry and smith even hit a free throw! (and had a couple of boards)

    – mccauley was effective again, and horner was a real plus for us tonight; also, costner let the offense come to him in the first half and knocked down a couple of 3’s … he had a very solid game (aside from that costly late turnover)

    – thank God for gavin grant … he really saved us tonight with that huge off. rebound and subsequent free throws at the end and he appears to be the only perimeter player really capable of creating offense at this point

    – good things generally happened when we ATTACKED the zone press and ATTACKED the basket – costner slams; hickson slams; grant slashes … all of these things happened when we were AGGRESSIVE and resulted in points almost every time

    now, the negatives:

    – this is by far the biggest: we truly lack an effective point guard … i don’t mean to pick on farnold and javy and i think both have potential – BUT, if you really want to know why the offense looks so putrid at times you don’t have to look any further than our pg position … i know both players are giving maximum effort and i really like them, but neither farnold nor javy have a true concept of how to attack a defense at this time … i haven’t checked the game stats, but i know they combined for 2 points and not very many assists – not much of a threat to opposing teams, unfortunately

    simply put, we need more than just a figure out there who can dribble around until 10 seconds on the shot clock and then try to run a play which usually results in either an off balance 3, an off ballance inside shot by mccauley or hickson or a turnover … blech … we have to have more than just a game manager, we also need a threat to not only score but also CREATE FOR OTHERS … we REALLY miss atsur … gavin has done a good job IMO of trying to be the team leader, but you can tell we REALLY need a leader at the pg position … until farnold, javy, or marques really steps up look for even more disjointed offensive possessions like we saw tonight

    – yes, we allowed another player drill a ton of 3’s on us again – but give the guy credit … curry used his screens effectively and has a lightning release … a few times we didn’t switch properly (including his last 3) and we were off him a little too much at times, but for the most part tip your cap to the guy … fells, grant, and harris each really hustled to stay with him all night – so no overly harsh complaint from me

    – for whatever reason, we can’t inbound the ball at times

    – probably the most disheartening thing to me is that we again couldn’t close a game out … we lead the ENTIRE second half yet almost let it slip away again like ECU and NO … why? – we don’t have a dependable point guard yet that you KNOW will get you a good look to get points at crucial times and allow the team to salt games away … i’m beating a dead horse here, so please forgive me, but the dropoff from atsur to farnold and javy is just staggering at this point … but those guys are on my team and i love them and will keep hoping for them to show improvement … Lord knows we will need it soon!

    go pack!

  22. Rick 12/22/2007 at 6:51 AM #

    I did not see the game. It sounds like the ghost of no PG is still haunting us.

    I was not sure we would win this game so I am happy.

  23. Wulfpack 12/22/2007 at 7:06 AM #

    I was at the game. The crowd was pathetic. I honestly don’t know why there were so many empty seats. Friday night, holiday season, very worthy in-state opponent. Head scratcher to me. On to basketball…

    Very fortunate to win. Davidson outplayed us, we were just too big inside for them. Curry will be an NBA player one day. He is super. Thought Fells did a solid job on him in the second half.

    Huge free throws by Grant. Gotta hand it to him on those. He is our leader. Nice game from Ben Mac. Hickson was a huge disappoint in my mind. Completely gased at many junctures. He should have had 20 and 15.

    Our guard play is just atrocious. I came into the game with an open mind, but after seeing both of them, I have come to the conclusion that neither are ACC calibre guards. The Davidson guard ate them up.

    I do not get our tempo. We are deliberately slowing it down per Sid’s demand. I do not get that, as we were playing Davidson College who go about 7 or 8 deep, but lost one of their best players in the first half to injury. I thought we were going to try to be a running team this year, but it is clear that we will not be. I think we can expect alot of close, low scoring affairs this year in the ACC.

    All in all, a good win that will help if we are on the bubble come tourney time. Today, I do not see us as a contender in the ACC.

  24. Stoner 12/22/2007 at 7:59 AM #

    Don’t know if anyone can answer this, but I thought since Degand is really fast, he’d be able to beat his man off the dribble creating shot opportunities for other players. Is Sid not allowing hiim to do this or is he not a good enough ball handler to do this?

  25. redfred2 12/22/2007 at 8:33 AM #

    Everyone keeps saying that the problems are all due to the point guard position, and it does need improve drastically, but I’d just like to ask if there isn’t supposed to another “guard” on the court with similar skills who can also handle some of that responsibilty? I think Degand and Gonzales are taking all of the heat, and Courtney Fells is getting a free pass for some reason.

    I would say it’s equivalent to thinking that McCauley is supposed to be out there solely for rebounding purposes ONLY, and that Costner is in the game as a shooter ONLY, and their roles never overlap. Fells is not adding any leadership or taking any responsibilty for penetrating or distributing the ball from the 2 guard spot. He should be capable or he shouldn’t be playing. Please don’t try to convince me that he is a defensive “stopper”, and that gives him an out.

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