Humphrey was a far better defender than Noah is, and a slightly better ballhandler. And an overlooked aspect of Humpty-Dump's game was his amazing stamina. He was constantly moving without the ball and that caused defenders to tire and break down.
But who would you rather have at the stripe? Surprisingly Lee Hump was not very good in that aspect of the game.
Humphrey was an outstanding perimeter defender and one of the best we've had in that respect. You are selling him short.
One takeaway from your argument is that the coaches system either facilitate or hinder a players strengths. Both coaches had their own players in place at this point of comparison. Also..how many players has mike White's offense facilitated so far? I like white. I'm just ready for a different offense
So last year. When we were preseason to 10 based on the talent, how do you explain the abysmal season perhaps “saved” by a pandemic cancellation?
The talent was overrated, and we shouldn't have been ranked that high. It's not really anyone's fault, but we just weren't as good as everyone thought. Mann was a year behind where we thought he was. He's coming into his own now. Scottie Lewis has shown flashes, but is wildly inconsistent. We all thought Mann and Lewis were surefire 2020 lottery picks going into last season. That said, this year was looking like a special year before KJ collapsed. You can't ignore that.
Losing KJ was huge, but if we had a healthy KJ would CC have risen to the occasion? Some thing you will never know. But losing KJ meant a total retooling of the offense midseason. That was a huge problem.
I agree with those questions, and also what if Nembhard stayed or if KJ had not collapsed on the court... would Mann have developed? We'll never know, as you said.
Maybe it’s the lack of development of high end recruiting talent? Nembhard, for example, is thriving at Gonzaga. Maybe he wasn’t developed to his full potential here. Maybe the same is true of Scottie Lewis. I don’t think you can discount the role of a coach, who recruited and selected a highly regarded class, because the talent he selected (and who others rated as highly rated recruits), were “misses.” I think great college coaches develop the talent they have in their team. If they didn’t develop, then they would not improve each year and there would literally be no reason to come back to school after year 1.
We did look vastly improved. But to be fair, there was a very small sample size of games played when KJ went down. White deserves credit for keeping the team motivated and together, for sure. But I’m not willing to give White the benefit of the doubt that we would have been consistently great with KJ. In fact, I think we would have proven to have been the same inconsistent team that has been the hallmark of White’s tenure.
Maybe we should revisit this thread, especially with what looks like an improved basketball squad and what happened to our football team.
The beauty of Hump is, incredibly, two of his hottest 6 game streaks were during NCAA title runs. Especially both final fours. He and Green could fill it up from distance.
you're wrong on at least 3 of the first 5. No way is 6'9 Corey Brewer less talented than 6'4 Scottie (listed at 6'4 in the NBA). That's his problem - he was always undersized for his skillset. Noah Locke is too one-dimensional AND can't play D. Humphreys was a much more lights out shooter. And Noah?? C'mon man....just c'mon.
the number of deep, timely 3s he hit during our title runs was unbelievable. Every time we needed a big bucket he was there for us
It’s interesting that this has come back to life after 6 or 7 months. My point, which admittedly, was exaggerated is that one coach developed his players and the other doesn’t. Take my favorite subject, Ques Glover, he regressed at UF. Now, a short time later, he was the best player on the floor against a team that went to the Elite Eight last season. That’s one of my primary problems with Mike White.
