Otis My Man

Rollo83 · Post by **Rollo83** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:23 am

Otis had 4 fouls in only 11 minutes last night. Its time Otis learned how to stay on the floor. He's not a freshman any more. Potential is one thing but he needs to give this team some extended quality minutes in the paint. The first time I watched him play, I was worried about his "basketball IQ." Just not a smart basketball player at this point of his career. Hopefully it will come before he exhausts his eligibility.

VDub26Falcon · Post by **VDub26Falcon** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 10:16 am

Speaking of "exhausts," I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

BleedOrange · Post by **BleedOrange** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 10:19 am

With extra conditioning, you'd think he would make big strides in this area. It's still early in the season.

On the bright side, Marc Larson has been surprisingly productive.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:08 am

Otis gave a lot of minutes in the first game without getting into foul trouble.

I think that he may struggle with this for awhile, but hopefully we'll see more performances like the first game and less like yesterday. What's great is that he's been pretty productive thus far when he IS in the game.

I'm afraid that racking up fouls is an offshoot of his "block every shot" mentality. It's great to see him block those, but he needs to realize that he cannot do that every time. He also needs to realize that he's not an offensive tackle..pancake blocks on offense are fouls in basketball.

Still he has a great basketball body, and is very talented. It takes big men a little longer to develop on the college level so let's give him a little more time. With coach Orr's help, hopefully he'll be able to stay on the court more often by the end of this year and entering into his junior year.

BGFalconfromCincy · Post by **BGFalconfromCincy** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:09 pm

BleedOrange wrote:On the bright side, Marc Larson has been surprisingly productive.

true, Marc was very impressive last night, our bigs will need to be on there game tonight if we want a win

falconfan1999 · Post by **falconfan1999** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 3:32 pm

If any coach can truly teach a big man how to play, Coach Orr is that man!

Matty B · Post by **Matty B** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:04 am

Otis' basketball IQ is fine.

He plays as hard as just about anyone out there.

the problem is if he touches someone... they move.

His minutes will continue to improve, there is a NOTICIBLE improvement in the overall team defense when he is on the floor... we probably won't play a whole lot of zone unless he's in the game

cowboyjoe · Post by **cowboyjoe** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:49 pm

As long as he doesn't rack up fouls 25 feet from the basket like our man Netter did, he will be fine.

Rollo83 · Post by **Rollo83** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 6:39 pm

Morehead State:

Otis Polk...6 minutes...3 fouls...0 points...1 rebound.

Not making progress.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 6:46 pm

A very poor performance from the big fella today.

Probably could've been called for one or two other fouls as well. Really needs to learn which shots are blockable and which ones to just let go. The board was a real nice play and he took it back up strong...then bricked two free throws after he was fouled.

Definitely a step back today.

As was mentioned earlier in this thread, Larson is REALLY taking some strides forward. Another real good performance from him today.

Falconboy · Post by **Falconboy** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:59 pm

hammb wrote:A very poor performance from the big fella today.

Probably could've been called for one or two other fouls as well. Really needs to learn which shots are blockable and which ones to just let go. The board was a real nice play and he took it back up strong...then bricked two free throws after he was fouled.

Definitely a step back today.

As was mentioned earlier in this thread, Larson is REALLY taking some strides forward. Another real good performance from him today.

Yeah, not a good day OP today. Maybe he needs to lose another 5-10lbs and get a bit quicker still. He's always just out of position and trying to block almost every shot. Yeah, it seems like every time he touches somebody they call him for fouls. He does need to learn to play smarter though.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:47 pm

Otis would be better served standing flat-footed in the paint with his arms straight up in the air on D than picking up fouls left and right en route to sitting on the bench in foul trouble. I’m being facetious saying that, but with our thin frontcourt, he’s too important to this team to be strapped with fouls and sitting next to Orr. Last year he was picking up a bunch of fouls on blatant moving screens - I mean he wasn’t even close to being set. I don’t know what was more frustrating, watching him do it over and over again or the lack of effort to teach/and/or/show him how to set a proper pick. Now he seems to be picking up a lot of quick fouls while attempting to block a shot.

One of the beautiful things about basketball is, altering a shot is nearly as good as blocking one. Neither usually goes in and it creates a rebound-type situation and usually leads to a defensive stop. Teams usually shoot around 50% - they miss about every other shot they take. The better you can defend without sending a team to the line, the better your chance at a win.