Who should be starting five...

[seminolesboilers]

• Haas C
• Swanigan PF
• Smotherman SF (better defender...quicker...more athletic than Vince Edwards who should be 6th man)
• Carsen Edwards SG (only guard with effective dribble penetration...quickest guard too)
• PJ Thompson PG (he has played well so far this season and thus deserves to start)

Haas and Swanigan are not quick...so adding quickness to the lineup in Smotherman and Carsen Edwards gives the team quickness it lacks. Both Basil and and Carsen are slashers...another added attribute that is missing on this team.

 

[krazyjvilled]

Nothing about smotherman says starting player to me. Lost his quickness and is actually quite bad on D. I would start swanigan, vince, mathias, carsen, PJ. Haas off the bench.. 2 bigs in the paint just clogs everything up.. we need 4 shooters and a low post

 

[boilerzz]

PJ, Dakota, Vince, Caleb and Isaac.

 

[cprh9u]

I can't see starting PJ and CE

 

[Dryfly88]

PJ, Dakota, Vince, Caleb and Isaac.

I see what you did there.

 

[JerseyBoiler]

Nothing about smotherman says starting player to me. Lost his quickness and is actually quite bad on D. I would start swanigan, vince, mathias, carsen, PJ. Haas off the bench.. 2 bigs in the paint just clogs everything up.. we need 4 shooters and a low post

Biggie
Basil
Dakota
Carsen
Cline

This team needs to be agressive early with good shooters on the floor. Give up some defense for offense. Get Cline, arguably our best from 3pt, open looks early. Also, Carsen should be the guy to bring the ball up and 1st look for driving lanes. If nothing there, pass inside or look for open perimeter shot. The first half Saturday spoke volumes. PJT and Vince were shockingly tentative and cost us the game.

 

[djy2j]

Not Vince Edwards. Clearly has something else going on off the court. I hope he figures it out because it's greatly affecting him on the court.

Most of these guys just seem like they lack that killer instinct. It just feels like they too nice of agroup of nice guys. Not having that 'nastiness' will make you look soft on the court.

Carson is the only one who strikes me as possibly having it but he's still young.

Gotta find us a mean streak somewhere so we can get tough.

 

[Boiler_HD]

The only thing I will agree with temporarily here is maybe to bench Vince to see if he can come off the bench and regain some confidence. This problem we have is not 1 individual. In my opinion comes down to effort and carelessness. I say for a week or so start the following.

PJ
Mathias
Cline
Swanigan
Haas

Let Vince make his way back, similar to what Hammons had done a year or so ago.

We may be distraught now, but games like Villanova and Louisville will pay dividends in B1G play and into the tourney!

Boiler Up my Friends!

 

[02Boilermaker]

Vince had a bad game against Louisville. His minutes suffered because of that as they should. I don't think that means he needs to lose his starting spot.

He's struggling from 2pt & he's turning the ball over more, but he's otherwise still doing the things that make him valuable (including shooting better from 3). Here are his per 40min numbers this year vs last year:

FGA: 12.2 vs 12.9
FG%: .413 vs .450
3P%: .462 vs .407 (on 5.0 3PA vs 4.7 3PA)
TRB: 6.4 vs 7.8
AST: 4.6 vs 4.2
TO: 4.3 vs 2.4

The TOs drive me crazy, but the teams needs Vince to achieve its goals. I think you need to let him work through it in the non-conf so he's ready to go for B1G & tourney play.

 

[*4purdue*]

Haas
Biggie
Mathias
Carsen
PJ

 

[JohnnyDoeBoiler]

Vince had a bad game against Louisville. His minutes suffered because of that as they should. I don't think that means he needs to lose his starting spot.

He's struggling from 2pt & he's turning the ball over more, but he's otherwise still doing the things that make him valuable (including shooting better from 3). Here are his per 40min numbers this year vs last year:

FGA: 12.2 vs 12.9
FG%: .413 vs .450
3P%: .462 vs .407 (on 5.0 3PA vs 4.7 3PA)
TRB: 6.4 vs 7.8
AST: 4.6 vs 4.2
TO: 4.3 vs 2.4

The TOs drive me crazy, but the teams needs Vince to achieve its goals. I think you need to let him work through it in the non-conf so he's ready to go for B1G & tourney play.

The issue is that he is so bad defensively right now, he is costing the Boilers more than just on the offensive end. Frequently, he has allowed his defender to drive the lane and get easy buckets. During the Louisville game, there was a replay that was shown time and again where Vince played horrible defense that led to a bucket. The replay was played as the game went to break at halftime, when it went to the studio for halftime, and when the game started the 2nd half. The only time I have seen him play good defense was the second half of the Auburn game...and ironically that was also his best half of offensive (and overall) basketball.

 

[djy2j]

One thing I don't think you can measure is Vince's assertiveness. This is one thing he has regressed at immensely this year IMO. We really need him to be more aggressive and look to score more. He's a versatile player but he has been limiting himself to sitting and taking threes when he absolutely has to. He needs to be a threat to score to take the heat off of Swanigan and Haas. Right now he doesn't even need to be on the other team's scouting report.

 

[*4purdue*]

One thing I don't think you can measure is Vince's assertiveness. This is one thing he has regressed at immensely this year IMO. We really need him to be more aggressive and look to score more. He's a versatile player but he has been limiting himself to sitting and taking threes when he absolutely has to. He needs to be a threat to score to take the heat off of Swanigan and Haas. Right now he doesn't even need to be on the other team's scouting report.

He also use to be a rebounding machine on the offensive end. That's gone now.

 

[Chuchumutha]

Biggie
Basil
Cline
Mathias
PJ

 

[CRBoiler]

I think we have learned that the match ups will affect who gets the most minutes. Our guards are strong enough this year that against some opponents (i.e. the ones who can prevent or at least minimize Isaac's offense), we are better off giving more minutes to a smaller, quicker lineup.

BUT most times Isaac will not be stoppable the way Louisville did, and so he should usually get as many minutes as he can tolerate. He needs minutes now to reduce his turnovers before conference season.

I think CE has proven he can make an impact this year, and the more minutes he gets, the faster he will improve.

As far as Vince, I don't know why, but he has gone backward... could be from playing the 3 instead of the 4. I think we still will probably start him, though I could see him come off the bench for a few games as we saw in the past with AJ.

Here are my lineups...

If Isaac is not being stopped the way Louisville did...
Isaac, Biggie, Vince, Dakota, PJ

If Isaac is being stopped...
Biggie, Vince, Dakota, Carsen, PJ

If we play Vince off the bench...
Isaac, Biggie, Dakota, Carsen, PJ

If PJ's underperforming in a particular game, slide Spike in or let Carsen play point. Use Basil in bursts when we need a spark. Cline rests Dakota.

 

[Mgkcbb]

PJ
Carsen
Basil
Vince
Swanigan

 

[TheMogul]

Most of these lineups are garbage. Our players need to step it up but the starters should remain the same. The offense needs fixed.

 

[Chuchumutha]

I'm not even going to bother with my usually schtick. This lineup would struggle to score 50 points a game and couldn't stop a nosebleed

I just thank God I avoided the "schtick".

 

[mathboy]

I'm not even going to bother with my usually schtick. This lineup would struggle to score 50 points a game and couldn't stop a nosebleed

Oh man, I love the "schtick". It shows so much of your intelligence and personality. Beside, it is always nice to know what the bottom end of the IQ bell curve thinks.

 

[Heller]

I wouldn't change anything but Carsen starts over PJ. Sorry, know he's a fan favorite but he is short and slow.