i always question whether White’s offense, rotations, or coaching, was in-part a culprit to a lot of kids either not progressing, or digressing..
You know how bad I want to say something, but I will pass, he can see now he's just a fair player still to even play college ball is something to be proud of.
As an Illinois alum I watched a lot of Illinois basketball. I guess I have a different notion of busting ass.
If you couldn’t see it, you should get your eyes checked. On offense, he was setting screens all over the plus and was constantly fighting for position down low. On defense, he was giving the old 150% guarding bigs in the low post. You can argue that he wasn’t productive, but you can’t argue that he wasn’t playing with maximum effort.
He fouled a lot, but I disagree on the switches. He had offensive fouls on some of his screens, and he made contact defending guys.
Speaking to an opinion obviously in the minority, I always thought Payne was developing nicely at UF and was on the cusp of earning more minutes where he could showcase that improvement. Not being privy to practices, he seemed to show an improving BB IQ. Quite different from Lewis who was an all world athlete and seemingly incapable of being convinced he needed anything else.
Scottie Lewis is playing well in the G League. I seriously doubt that his better play against much tougher competition has anything to do with his being convinced or not convinced of anything. I believe that it has more to do with standing around at UF and watching Appleby, Mann and CC dominate the ball versus the more free flowing offense that he is a part of in the G League. As for Payne, his shooting percentages did improve in his sophomore year at UF, but he didn’t seem to be developing his touch or footwork. At Illinois, it seemed to me that he ran into much more physical big men than he played against at UF, plus he was stuck behind Cockburn, which cost him playing time. IMO, he needs to play the 4, not the 5. It will be interesting to see where he ends up.
I don’t think that his coach left. Regardless, because he already used the portal once, he would need some kind of waiver to not have to sit out a year. He actually might be better off sitting out a year and working on his game.
Illinois fan here. Omar started off with a raw deal in that he transferred to Illinois when everyone assumed Kofi was gone. So he was relegated to a backup role he was not expecting, didn't develop much as a player (he literally had more fouls than points this year), and is basically being passed on the depth chart. Seems that it just didn't work out for all parties and they're both moving on.
The more fouls than points is not particularly relevant in my opinion because Omar is not trying to score, and the team is not getting him the ball in the low post. However, he is still deficient on his footwork and shooting touch in the low post. He also has not improved his rebounding. He did a good job on setting screens and moving the ball when it came to him. He also defended very well in his limited playing time. Clearly, he has not done enough to be a starting center in the Big 10. Wherever he goes, I believe that he needs to shift to the 4 if he is going to have a pro career somewhere in the world.
It's relevant when you average 9.8 fouls per 40 minutes. That's ridiculous and also not indicative of a good defender. Regardless, like I said he got dealt a bad hand at Illinois and I hope it works out for him somewhere else.
The fouls obviously are relevant. He was a solid defender. Reach in fouls on defense do fall within an area that he could improve on on defense. He also committed a bunch of offensive fouls while setting screens. The ratio of points to fouls is meaningless imo.
