I'm VERY concerned about our guard play -

[Dawg04]

Thompson plays small forward. We wouldn't be having this discussion because he would have provided the 15 points a game scoring punch we need.

Lawrence Williams was a true point and had won the starting job last season before he had his incident with the law and was kicked off the team.

It's easier to find a combo guard who can handle the ball well enough to do the job than to find a true point who has the offensive ability to contribute. Lonnie Cooper's are few and far between. I don't remeber the players name but I think it was the point guard the year before Lonnie arrived who averaged less than a point a game as a starter.

Last year we only had 3 ships to offer. We signed two top 300 HS players and 1 JC Top 50 player. There wasn't a point guard coming out of HS good enough that we could land to pass on
Eric Woods who Richard said "he may be our shooting guard of the future" or Jeremy Johnston - It's hard to find a 6'8 post player who can score/have the potential he has.

[boxerdog]

I agree with your analysis, Dawg04. I wouldn't want to trade any of the young players we now have. I'm just alarmed by our inability to sign a true point guard. (Lawrance Williams was also a "combo".) My frustrations are compounded when we are unable to consistently pass the ball to the interior. Good passing is a whole lot more than penetrating to the bucket and dropping it off. Alot of it has to do with finding angles and creating passing lanes. In other words, your dribbling and ball movement around the perimeter opens up the opportunity to get it inside. Too often, our guards are merely focused on "beating their man" by some kind of one-on-one move which accomplishes nothing if we can't get the ball to where it needs to be. That, coupled with our inability to consistently finish on the break, is the essence of my complaint.

[JAY]

we also missed out on derrick zimmerman from wossman, who chose miss st. over us. he is a senior now and one of the best guards in the country.

[TYLERTECHSAS]

we also missed out on derrick zimmerman from wossman, who chose miss st. over us. he is a senior now and one of the best guards in the country.

That is true. But the one I really hate, that we missed signing, was Bernard King (son of Bulldog great Victor King). Freshman of the year BIG 12 and All Big 12 at A&M of all places :cry: . Now that was a real screw up! Oh well! GO DAWGS GO!

[Dwayne From Minden]

we also missed out on derrick zimmerman from wossman, who chose miss st. over us. he is a senior now and one of the best guards in the country.

Zimmerman's dad got involved and played his son into a higher paying job at Miss St...

As far as Bernard King goes, KR missed on him trying to sign Zimmerman -

But in the end, I don't think him and G could have co-existed on the same court in KR's offense - there wouldn't have been enough balls to go around -

I'm satisfied with our basketball recruiting - I still think this program is light years a head of where it was at 5 short years ago and I think there isn't another program on the campus that we can say that about...

[dawg80]

[quote:ff2bca0ff8="JAY"]we also missed out on derrick zimmerman from wossman, who chose miss st. over us. he is a senior now and one of the best guards in the country.

That is true. But the one I really hate, that we missed signing, was Bernard King (son of Bulldog great Victor King). Freshman of the year BIG 12 and All Big 12 at A&M of all places :cry: . Now that was a real screw up! Oh well! GO DAWGS GO![/quote:ff2bca0ff8]

When it comes to purely offensive skills, Victor King is the best big man I've seen at Tech in my 26 years of watching BB. Of course, he played that matador defense, which kept him out of the NBA.

But, overall, recruiting has not been a problem under KR. The talent has been, and is! present on the BB team. Last year we saw it all gel with the blow-out wins in the NIT. That was a lot of talent ripping apart two pretty good teams.

Hopefully, we'll see something simliar this March too.

[TYLERTECHSAS]

I agree 100% DAWG80!

[LouisianaSelect]

Hey Guys, I just got back home from a great game. The AZ coaching staff invited me to the game this weekend. I have to admit i went to see Hudson play and he played very well.

I have been reading all of this about the Guard play and i though i would put my two cents in. First of all Boxerdog, have you ever played the game? Have you ever played the point? Lets talk when i come over. About Charlie Thompson, we don't have a kid with a grandfather that will give a $1,0000.00. Yes money can buy you a way on the team. Also Thompson went to LSU on a tops scholarship. We may could have had a Bernard King and a Hollis Price. Those two kids talked about going to school together but KR did not recruite either one. Coach Baker said that Hollis WAS NOT a D1 player. Derrick Zimmerman would have come to Tech but thats another story. KR put all of his time into DZ as he did with Donald Perry.

With all that said, we have Bruce and Felton and we must live with them. It may not be the best but who are we to get on here and drag them down. Its just like on the football site, why call names(Boxerdawg). I am sure these two young men hear it enough for KR.

By the way Eric Woods played the point for his high school team and some for me. :x

[boxerdog]

La.Select, I'm trying to respond to you but your message is so convoluted I can't make sense of it. What's your point?

If you would check my comment history, you'd see that I've praised Felton and Edwards as much as anybody has. I view last night's post as constructive criticism. My complaints concerning point guards at Tech have been for years and your information added further substantiation to them. We didn't recruit Hollis Price? We didn't recruit Bernard King? Who in the world is evaluating talent for us? We need those types of players.

I thought Woods did a fine job of running the point last night. Like you said before the season, he is the real deal. I really like that kid.

Also, I'm glad we have LaVelle and Bruce on our team. I didn't think Felton played a poor game last night at the 2, but he underachieved at the point. Bruce had a subpar game altogether. He can do better, and we need him to do better.

[JAY]

felton seems able to score, maybe we should have edwards and woods at the point and felton and wilder at the 2. or if richard is about to go to an 8 man rotation then maybe:

edwards woods
felton woods/dean
brown dean
meeking johnston
johnson johnston

that leaves powell, sykes, and wilder out of the rotation. i have a feeling wilder will find his shot and keep a spot in the lineup. i hope he does because he is our best outside shooter. i would also like to see powell play because we will need both he and johnston next year to step up. i doubt richard would go with 10 guys though:

edwards 25 min, woods 15 min
felton 25, wilder 15
brown 25, dean 15
meeking 35, powell 5
johnson 25, johnston 15

[Dwayne From Minden]

Hey Mike -

You would have been proud of Eric Woods saturday night - especially the last 5 minutes -

He not only wanted the ball - he demanded the ball and ran the point and only had one turnover when the game was on the line -

He also got the ball into the Tigers hands at the the correct times and in good position - I think you know what I'm trying to say...

JJ also played well again off the bench and Wayne Powel made some key defensive plays and a huge offensive put back with about a minute to play -

That's one of your sophomores and TWO of your true FRESHMEN who contributed mightily down the stretch when we were FLOUNDERING big time...

Tiger was over 20 pts even though he sat for 15 minutes of the second half with foul trouble -

Out side of that it was a bad display of basketball - outside of Tiger - I firmly believe the youth are the answer to the success of this team -