Thursday, January 1, 2009

Sober up II

Of the Black Bears' top six in scoring average, only one, Troy Barnies, is shooting above 40 percent from the floor.

4 comments:

MattT said...

That's my point illustrated to a tee. Way too many low percentage shots are being hoisted. So how are we doing in the hunt for Keegan Hyland anyway? Do you know if Maine is looking at Distasio at all?

Dan King said...

What I've heard is that Maine and BU are interested in Hyland, but at this time he's hoping to draw some interest from higher D1s. Distasio? He's competitive and plays hard the times I've seen him, but he's kind of a straight line player. Black Bears need playmakers. We have too many guys who are spot-up shooters and non-shooters.

MattT said...

I'll be honest, I've only seen Mick Distasio play a couple of times but I like players who can shoot. Let's face it, at the America East level most teams even the Vermont's have only 1 or 2 playmakers who create their own offense and offense for others. The majority of the roster will be filled with role players (shooters, defender/athletes, rebounder/banger types). If you put a kid like Distasio on a team with a couple of dribble- drive players (hopefully that is what Jacob McLemore will be) I believe he would do well. I'm not sure what the story is with Doran Mitchell? He is another penatrator, but he appears to be in Woodward's doghouse? Woodward may need to look at a juco point guard and hope he finds another Eric Dobson.
Do you think they will keep Ted around past this year? Give him credit for trying to keep Maine's best around but he really needed the ones that got away. Bryant Barr and Carlos Strong would be differnce makers on this year's team. I have a feeling they may keep him for some reason, but I think they need to move in another direction.

Dan King said...

Yeah, I too like what Ted's trying to do with the Maine kids, but it seems the difference makers jump at the first sniff from out-of-state suitors. It's frustrating for Maine fans. At this level, every player is going to have warts. You really don't find many guys who can create their own shots, but it does help if you have the ability to score in different manners (i.e. jumpshots, putbacks, runners, mid-range, stop and pop, post up, to name a few) that have nothing to do with creating. For the past several years, we are just so easy to defend. Everybody says, you've got to throw it into the post first, and there's logic in that. But, when you throw it into the post to guys that have no "go-to" offensive manuevers, the opposition (especially league opponents) aren't fooled, just play straight up and stay all over the jump shooters. In the past, we've had guys who had pet moves close in to the hoop (Carvell Ammons, Mark Flavin, Erick Greene, Rickey White). We've had nobody the past three or four years that were of any real concern in the 10 feet and in range. So that's why it's frustrating when a kid like Knight is seemingly close to signing with Maine and then gets all excited about a trip to a Notre Dame pep rally and signs right away. Hope he does well, but I wonder if any of his advisors noted that Notre Dame signed two other kids at his position in the same class? Whatever the case, it's hard to pass up the chance to chase a dream and maybe he'll have a Nik Caner-Medley type career in the Big East. Percentages say he'll ride the pine, wave to Dickie V. a couple times a year and help with the team's graduation rate. The frustrating part for us fans is wondering what might have been if a kid like that chooses Maine and the opportunity to lead the state school to some success. As for Ted's future? I've got no clue. There's not much interest in anything other than hockey in Orono so I don't know. The team is losing home games at an alarming rate and has been for the past two-plus seasons. Crowds are dwindling to the point where UMaine is now second to last in the league in average attendance as we speak. But, again, if a tree falls in the forest ...