He needs to play a lot better than he did against Virginia. Definitely has the athleticism, but too much one-on-one against VA, IMO. He's a scorer, not a shooter and he missed 3 or 4 pretty easy layups.
Pressing too much right now. I can tell it’s a one on one pull up or step back the moment he catches it sometimes. Needs to just let the opportunities come, even if that means going 10 minutes without a shot.
I wouldn’t read too much into the UVA game. Golden told him to be aggressive because that’s what we needed. Can’t sit back and let their defense extend on you. But Kugel is pretty unique. Size and athleticism to defend multiple positions. Not a bad shooter or passer at all. But most importantly is as explosive as anyone in the country off the bounce. Kid can get into the lane and elevate for the rim before you blink. We’ve had some good ones on that score (James White, Brewer, Parsons, Prather, DFS), but I think he is better attacking the rim.
I would just say that he took it to the rim or shot it from the arc but he I did not see him drive and dish to a potentially open shooter. That was not in his psyche. He is firmly a 2. Clayton is a 1-ish 2. These guys and Pullin should be dynamite. The only question is, what to do with Richard. Do we pull Samuel or go REALLY small and keep them both with Samuel as the 5?
We need a half dozen or more games with Pullin to let everyone settle in. Hopefully he makes everyone better. If Samuel improves even a bit then he needs to be on the floor as much as he can handle.
All about the lateral quickness against who we play. Samuel seems capable of playing the 5 against more meh competition.
It just depends on whether we have enough 3-shooting out there. Samuel seems like he can fill that role.
He played the 5 all last year in the Big East, so I have no doubt he can play it in our league. But Golden definitely wants size at that spot.
Personally, I kinda like that small ball lineup for some stretches. If our freshmen fours don't get up to speed soon, that may be necessary in league play. I'm hoping we don't need it much. Also, I suspect with Pullin in the lineup, he, Kugel, Clayton, and Richard are all in that 25-30 minute range together, with Rishwain chipping in maybe 10-15. We have the versatility to mix and match the pretty readily. About the only combination I can't see is Kugel-Richard-Rishwain back there. Lots of options. I guess the real question is who starts.
Wish I could agree, but he has not played as confident as I hoped he would. Solid defensively, but hasn't done much with the ball and isn't known as a shooter. Plus, who are you gonna take minutes away from? A senior Rishwain who is working his way back into shape and is a legit 40% shooter from the arc?
You are right that he has played too cautiously. However, he did not turn the ball over against Virginia. He looks to me like our starting point guard for next year if he doesn’t enter the transfer portal. In my opinion, he should be the back up to Pullin with Clayton getting all or most of his playing time at the two. There’s no reason why Clayton can’t get back to scoring a ton of points and shooting the ball well if he plays the two. He played with a great point guard last year in Daniss Jenkins, and he ended up being player of the year in his conference. There’s no reason he can’t be one of the better 2-guards in the SEC if he plays with an excellent point guard.
If he can work with one of the two freshmen bigs or Mr Constants, I can see them being a pick and roll duo. Otherwise, he is merely a nice, long perimeter defender.
Riley just has a little inconsistency in his game and I think some of it comes from trying to make spectacular plays.
Why not? It seems like a potentially good combo. Richwain impressed me with his dribbling so far. He looks like he could run point.
Well, any combination of the two experienced bigs, or one experienced big and one freshman big. All those guys can play and thus far they've given us big advantages on the boards in all three games.
