From Steve's site:
There are many different pieces to the puzzle and a guy who can do something really well obviously enhances his opportunities of getting in the mix. That was evident last year with Matt Mouzy’s situation. He shot the ball extremely well for us and his ability to bring that to the table allowed him to get on the floor.
With that being said, we have more guys that can shoot the ball this year, which raises the expectations on what a guy has to do on the other end of the floor to get playing time. When you have one guy that shoots it better than the rest, there’s some leniency in regards to the other areas of his game. But when you have five or six guys that can shoot it, that raises the competition for playing time because you have greater expectations on what that player needs to do on the other end of the floor.
Sounds like the pressure is on him to step it up on defense.
That was the way it sounded to me.
(11-03-2009 06:53 PM)mjs Wrote: [ -> ]From Steve's site:
There are many different pieces to the puzzle and a guy who can do something really well obviously enhances his opportunities of getting in the mix. That was evident last year with Matt Mouzy’s situation. He shot the ball extremely well for us and his ability to bring that to the table allowed him to get on the floor.
With that being said, we have more guys that can shoot the ball this year, which raises the expectations on what a guy has to do on the other end of the floor to get playing time. When you have one guy that shoots it better than the rest, there’s some leniency in regards to the other areas of his game. But when you have five or six guys that can shoot it, that raises the competition for playing time because you have greater expectations on what that player needs to do on the other end of the floor.
Sounds like the pressure is on him to step it up on defense.
I was thinking the same thing. But competition is always good.
From what I've seen and know about Matt, he'll be on the floor when the games on the line. He'll work hard and do what it takes.
(11-03-2009 06:53 PM)mjs Wrote: [ -> ]From Steve's site:
There are many different pieces to the puzzle and a guy who can do something really well obviously enhances his opportunities of getting in the mix. That was evident last year with Matt Mouzy’s situation. He shot the ball extremely well for us and his ability to bring that to the table allowed him to get on the floor.
With that being said, we have more guys that can shoot the ball this year, which raises the expectations on what a guy has to do on the other end of the floor to get playing time. When you have one guy that shoots it better than the rest, there’s some leniency in regards to the other areas of his game. But when you have five or six guys that can shoot it, that raises the competition for playing time because you have greater expectations on what that player needs to do on the other end of the floor.
Sounds like the pressure is on him to step it up on defense.
I guess you can read into it anything you want. Steve was seemingly making a statement that if you have anyone who does something better than anyone else, he's probably going to be on the floor regardless, but when you have quality depth, you are able to utilize more people.
From what I've seen, and I've seen quite a bit prior to closed scrimmages, there is nobody on the team that shoots like III. Coach is probably sending a message to everyone so that they won't get complacent, but you don't have to worry about that with III. Anyone who has worked as hard as he has the past two years to get where he is now isn't going to slack off now. But in all fairness, with all the potentially quality guards we have, he might not play as many minutes this season, but there's a positive to that. He can have fresh legs at the end of the game. It will be very interesting to see how it all plays out this year.
It could have been just a "shot across the bow" to Matt. "Pick up the pace, Matt." Or, there may be someone who really is pushing him.
I can't imagine who would beat him out at the first. He knows the system. But, if the others can shoot, and are quicker, and learn the defense, it might get interesting.