This team will come together

[DivisionN 102]

We are still trying to replace Mustapha  Heron. No one on this team does what he could do. He was outside, inside, drive the lane for score or dish. He was muscular, could rebound and we don't have any one player with those capabilities..... as yet. But the team is changing, becoming something different. They will get more and more comfortable with each other and learn to play together. Okeke can really be THE MAN. He had the shot to beat south Carolina. It was set up well. Those are going to start going in. Just watch this team as we go down the stretch. They are going to turn the corner and be very good. 

[KolchakAU85 430]

5 hours ago, DivisionN said:

We are still trying to replace Mustapha  Heron. No one on this team does what he could do. He was outside, inside, drive the lane for score or dish. He was muscular, could rebound and we don't have any one player with those capabilities..... as yet. But the team is changing, becoming something different. They will get more and more comfortable with each other and learn to play together. Okeke can really be THE MAN. He had the shot to beat south Carolina. It was set up well. Those are going to start going in. Just watch this team as we go down the stretch. They are going to turn the corner and be very good. 

I very much appreciate and admire your optimism.

I agree that losing Heron was a major setback for our team.

I made a post last year about how Okeke might be our best player this year.  But he just hasn't stepped up like I thought he would.

The thing that most worries me is how we get man-handled in the paint.

[gravejd 3,270]

I just hope we can come together enough to make the tourney. It'll be a crap shoot from there if we can actually do anything in the tourney. It was just a lot of fun to actually have a dog in the fight last year 

[80Tiger 899]

I think we are far enough into the season to say we are what we are. Looks like a 500 league play team. Win at home and lose on the road for the most part. Does not seem to be any one on the roster to fill Heron position.

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

37 minutes ago, 80Tiger said:

I think we are far enough into the season to say we are what we are. Looks like a 500 league play team. Win at home and lose on the road for the most part. Does not seem to be any one on the roster to fill Heron position.

For the SEC this year, that’s pretty good. That’ll put us easily in the tournament, especially with all of our losses except for one coming to ranked teams. 

[Tiger 8,819]

13 minutes ago, 80Tiger said:

I think we are far enough into the season to say we are what we are. Looks like a 500 league play team. Win at home and lose on the road for the most part. Does not seem to be any one on the roster to fill Heron position.

My fear is that your first sentence is true. However, I am hoping that the few things that are preventing us from finding our groove as a team can allow it all to come together at the right time.

I think Anfernee still trying to get back to who he was last year (his last 1.5-2 weeks he has started to look a little bit more like this), Wiley with an early injury, not starting initially, then starting, then getting hurt again, all while experimenting with Danjel a little bit have been obstacles in finding our true identity. Now, that's not to say other teams haven't had to deal with this type of thing but it's definitely rocking the boat for us when trying to establish our rhythm offensively. 

There is no player on the roster with Heron's skillset -- he was a fantastic player -- or his style of play. He was always the aggressor and we don't have that so we have to play differently this year. Unfortunately for us, it's a less reliable way to try to win games when your 2 guards are so limited in size and your 3rd most skilled offensive player makes little to no effort to establish himself offensively on a nightly basis. Chuma needs to assert himself outside of just the sets where we feed it to him in the post or hit him on a pick and pop. In my personal opinion about half the times where we just give it to Bryce on the wing and ask him to do something if we made Chuma the ball handler instead and force him to make a play it could be good for our team.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

I don’t know how you intend they replace Heron, I don’t think people are just gonna suddenly learn how to beat their man off the dribble 

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Great opportunity to come together tonight against a very evenly matched Miss St team. 

[Gene Loblaw 636]

I have full faith that this squad will be rocking and rolling by the end of the season. Danjel’s gonna just more and more comfortable with more and more confidence these next few weeks. And we’ll get Austin back soon. Just need a few dubs in a row to get back on track. Legggggoooooo 

[jared52 4,354]

There is no evidence at this point that the team is coming together. The chemistry is not there and hasn’t been since they stepped into Legacy Arena. Every game has been a step backward in team play and no one is stepping up to right the ship. Heron was right when he said he was the best player on the team. He could take AU and put them on his back. This year, no one has come close to being half the player he was, mentally or physically. There’s no bones about it, this is a mediocre basketball team headed for the NIT faster than you can say, “oh, they turned the ball over AGAIN.”

I have faith in Bruce to get the right players in for his system and be successful, but this bunch of individuals isn’t getting it done. 

[tigers23 648]

Better hurry