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Given who we have right now. What would your ideal depth chart be for this team? Because clearly what is going on is not working. I'm doing without Washington (because of illness in the current environment could mean all season). But will blurb what would change.


Give your depth chart, and a blurb about why it works / how it would help our problems.


PG: Fields (30) / Matheny (10) / Elsasser (emergency only)

SG: Fulcher (25) / J. Turner (10) / Matheny (5) / Watson (emergency only)

SF: J. Turner (25) / C. Turner (10)

PF: Diggs (30) / Young (10) / C. Turner (5)

C: Plowden (30) / Young (10) / Swingle (emergency use only)

Overall: Starters can ALL shoot from outside. Our 4 most experienced players all start. Plus Fulcher for energy/defense/rebounds. This team will move better, play better defense, rebound better and shoot better than the unit with Swingle.

1) Why bench Matheny? Because he's taken a couple steps back - and I think he could KILL 2nd units if given the chance. Love his energy - but he's getting timid about looking for his shot and he really NEEDS a sliver of daylight to make the shot. Against starting units, he's not getting that sliver anymore because they know about him now.

2) Why start Fulcher? He's been fearless the last few games while the seniors have been stinking it up. The look on his face when he was taking it straight at Jackson in the Akron game, and coming out at least even - tells me a lot. He's also been hitting enough shots to matter, and seems to always out rebound his size / position. We need that on the starting unit badly.

3)J. Turner is really the PG the entire time he is on the floor. Can we please stop pretending otherwise?

4) Diggs at the 4? It's him, Young or C. Turner. He's the best player of the group, and almost as big as those guys. He'll draw charges from bigs who think they can blow by him, and he'll draw their bigs out to the arc - or punish them harshly if they don't.

5) minutes max: I maxed out minutes at 30 for anyone who wasn't MUCH better than the guy behind him and could ALSO consistently stay out of foul trouble. This is why Plowden gets listed for 30 not 35. Ideally, he'd play 35.

6) Bench Bigs: Young and Turner bring different things. I love the rebounding, deflections and general energy that Young brings. He's the exact same ht and wt as Freeman for Akron - and he could be that guy next year. C. Turner brings better ball handling, is a little thicker, and a little more likely to look to score inside. If either of them are on the floor with Plowden AND Diggs, then Diggs slides to the 3.

If Washington is available: I'd start him at the 5 in a heartbeat. Give him 20-25 minutes. Make Fulcher the first guard off the bench and let Juice actually start at GUARD instead of forward.

I couldn’t agree more.

It sounds good to me. I really like Matheny's game, but he's been struggling lately for sure. Swingle should never see a D1 court, that much is obvious. I don't know why he continues to start when we pull him every game at the first timeout and he barely plays past that until starting again the 2nd half anyhow.

Fulcher has been the better freshman guard of late, so I have no issues elevating him and letting Matheny step back and play a first guy off the bench type role.

Really, unless we're going to start running some damned offense I'm not sure who's on the court even matters. We haven't been passing at all...we hand the ball off until it gets into somebody's hands, then they try to dribble past any doubles or whatever come and we settle for a crap ton of contested mid range shots. I can count on one hand the number of times in the past 4 games we've made multiple passes out of that action to find a wide open look. Other teams do it to us constantly, we just keep asking Turner to be LeBron James. And he's really good, but he's not LeBron James.

I know it’s pointless/wishful thinking but every game i watch i just think how much better we’d be with Matiss as a stretch 5 given the makeup of the rest of the roster. Swingle is obviously a square peg in a round hole with this team. I do like Matheny off the bench though and maybe move him to the 2. I know he’s a freshman but the point guard of any D1 team should not be getting stripped as much as he does.

How long until Swingle's PT starts fraying team morale?

BPardonMyTake wrote: ↑Fri Jan 22, 2021 10:09 am I know it’s pointless/wishful thinking but every game i watch i just think how much better we’d be with Matiss as a stretch 5 given the makeup of the rest of the roster. Swingle is obviously a square peg in a round hole with this team. I do like Matheny off the bench though and maybe move him to the 2. I know he’s a freshman but the point guard of any D1 team should not be getting stripped as much as he does.

Matheny has always tried to do just a bit more with the ball than he can - right from game 1. But he used to almost always end up getting the ball back and resetting things.

Lately, he's been losing it entirely.

I think he is trying to make up for a lack of stature with speed.

I htink he should learn a bit from Juice.

How often do you actually see Juice just blow past people? Or even really TRY to blow past them?

Instead, it's all change of pace, change of direction, hesitation and misdirection.

Matheny is lower, I think he's actually a better ball handler. He's definitely quicker. He needs to learn how to use that quickness in small bursts, instead of 24/7. Have him slow down his dribble from 180 beats per minute to 100. He'd never lose it on his own. Then have him juke, jab step, waltz. Walk it around like no biggee, turn on the jets for 2 steps to warp the defense, then make the easy pass. Defense warps more, that player passes again - repeat until a good shooter is wide open.

That doesn't even change our current offense of dribble handoffs until someone drives. It just uses it better.

And my god I miss Matiss. His size and shooting - neither of which are AWESOME but both of which are serviceable - would be SO appreciated. Have him and Washington split the center duties and let the other guys do things they actually have the size for? <shudder>

Does anyone else remember David Greer? Early 80's?

2nd in the nation in assists per game. Only scored about 10 ppg. But it was efficient.

He was listed at 5-9. I can tell you from personal experience that he was maaaaaybe 5-9 in shoes. Since I was 5-7 and looked him eye to eye as the ball boy his senior year.

He used unparalleled ability to change direction, change pace, and STOP, to get into the heart of the defense over and over. And his ballhandling was legendary.

Usually, it was a dish to a teammate. Sometimes he would penetrate REALLY deep, which would draw ALL the defenders, and result in someone else getting a WIDE open shot.

After doing that a couple times, he would DEAD STOP right around heh FT line and pop up for a jumper. Which was darn near automatic.

It also opened up his drives in deep because if they stopped short, they got burned. IF they went out to meet him, he went by, and a 2nd guy had to stop the layup. And that meant someone was open.

Matheny has made some passes that I have only seen two guys in Falcon uniforms make: Greer and Brandon Pardon. He's SO CLOSE on the ballhandling skills. He's close on the quickness, direction change, etc.....

He could, right now, be Greer light - plus an outside jumper. He could, in a year or two, be flat out amazing.

But he has to learn CONTROLL. He cannot go 100mph at ll times. He's gotta go 40 sometimes so he can catch people half a step out of position. His acceleration will be better than darn near everyone.

He also needs to stop TRYING to finish in the paint with big guys around him. He just gets stuffed. But that big guy is totally out of position to stop ANYONE else.

If only we had a weak side cutter when he was driving.

We are a dumb team that doesn't do the little things to win. It's unwatchable. They only win if shots go in If they don't they lose. There are no schemes. There is no development.

hammb wrote: ↑Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:53 am It sounds good to me. I really like Matheny's game, but he's been struggling lately for sure. Swingle should never see a D1 court, that much is obvious. I don't know why he continues to start when we pull him every game at the first timeout and he barely plays past that until starting again the 2nd half anyhow.

Fulcher has been the better freshman guard of late, so I have no issues elevating him and letting Matheny step back and play a first guy off the bench type role.

Really, unless we're going to start running some damned offense I'm not sure who's on the court even matters. We haven't been passing at all...we hand the ball off until it gets into somebody's hands, then they try to dribble past any doubles or whatever come and we settle for a crap ton of contested mid range shots. I can count on one hand the number of times in the past 4 games we've made multiple passes out of that action to find a wide open look. Other teams do it to us constantly, we just keep asking Turner to be LeBron James. And he's really good, but he's not LeBron James.

Your comment about it not making much difference if it's the same offense -- is exactly what I was thinking as I read the original post. This is as much about lack of a system on offense as use of personnel. Now, depending on what type of offense was being run, then you get into the nuances of players and the strengths they can bring to the court.

Falconwriter wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 10:28 am

hammb wrote: ↑Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:53 am It sounds good to me. I really like Matheny's game, but he's been struggling lately for sure. Swingle should never see a D1 court, that much is obvious. I don't know why he continues to start when we pull him every game at the first timeout and he barely plays past that until starting again the 2nd half anyhow.

Fulcher has been the better freshman guard of late, so I have no issues elevating him and letting Matheny step back and play a first guy off the bench type role.

Really, unless we're going to start running some damned offense I'm not sure who's on the court even matters. We haven't been passing at all...we hand the ball off until it gets into somebody's hands, then they try to dribble past any doubles or whatever come and we settle for a crap ton of contested mid range shots. I can count on one hand the number of times in the past 4 games we've made multiple passes out of that action to find a wide open look. Other teams do it to us constantly, we just keep asking Turner to be LeBron James. And he's really good, but he's not LeBron James.

Your comment about it not making much difference if it's the same offense -- is exactly what I was thinking as I read the original post. This is as much about lack of a system on offense as use of personnel. Now, depending on what type of offense was being run, then you get into the nuances of players and the strengths they can bring to the court.

To Globe's point. We were winning early doing these same things because Matheny and Diggs were filling it up from three. Now they're shots have been struggling more the past couple weeks and we don't have a way to make up for it. Personally, I think their shots might start falling more often if we actually moved the ball around from one side of the floor to the other and got them OPEN looks. Instead we're shooting a ton of contested shots.

Huger likes to always talk about how our defense fuels our offense. Well, I've noticed over the years his teams often times go the other way as well. When we're NOT getting offense we frequently stop playing good defense. The Akron game was a pretty good example. The first half we played darn good defense and did NOTHING on offense. That was even with Akron turning it over and being generally awful on offense...we could not turn that defensive effort into offense. In the 2nd half they just stopped playing any semblance of defense to top it off. Late in the Miami game the other night we started to get some points, but we never really made a serious run because our defense completely checked out after our bad first half.