Wayns may miss next game at USF

Best of luck for a speedy recovery, Maalik.

Possible blessing in disguise if he has to sit? A road game against a beatable team with our 3 freshman guards having to step up to control the ball, and Cheek / Bell / JVP having to step up as the main scorers? Remember when Harangoudy for ND sat out and their team got better? This could be the fire that ignites some of our potential.

USF has only one loss in Tampa during Big East play, they just beat a surging Pittsburgh team and they knocked off Villanova in Philadelphia earlier this season.

It’s going to be a tougher game than you think.

i suppose i would consider anyone but ‘cuse in the beatable realm. i also think we need to be fair to our own team, we are better than our record, look at the teams we have stayed close with / almost beat  –  WVU, Marquette…Mizzou!!!

i suppose i would consider anyone but ‘cuse in the beatable realm. i also think we need to be fair to our own team, we are better than our record, look at the teams we have stayed close with / almost beat  –  WVU, Marquette…Mizzou!!!

i suppose i would consider anyone but ‘cuse in the beatable realm. i also think we need to be fair to our own team, we are better than our record, look at the teams we have stayed close with / almost beat  –  WVU, Marquette…Mizzou!!!

No sense in looking past this game.  These guys are tough.

Winning or losing the game is secondary, it will be interesting to see what coach does.  Given that Maalik is out, and none us us can do anything about it, it will be good for other guards to get more minutes.

Oreo,

Please do not forget Santa Clara. I agree this team is better than most give them credit for and the SOS is much harder than anticipated but we need Wayns if we want to have any postseason.

Oreo,

Please do not forget Santa Clara. I agree this team is better than most give them credit for and the SOS is much harder than anticipated but we need Wayns if we want to have any postseason.

The Coach is Right.  No game is more important than Wayns’ health.  I’d hate to see the ‘Cats lose again to USF, but it’s important that Wayns gets a full recovery before playing.

I suppose there is a gallery of fans who think that we’d have a winning record in the BE without Maalik. If we recall, they said Fisher and Wayns held back Mouph and Cheek all last year. Now, if for some reason we win in Florida, expect some bozo to start saying Maalik was the problem.

Yup, have to take knee injuries seriously. Better to miss one game or a few than the bulk of a career.

I have been drinkin some whiskeys, and i just watched the 2nd half of providence again. i am happy for the guys on our team, its a tough season, but to come back in the 2nd half down 19 without our leader, that’s a special win and they deserved it. call me emotional, i cried during titantic and armagedon.

to Naples34110: I think anyone who blames our current record on maalik is silly. but sometimes, pressure makes diamonds, and maybe it takes some untenable situations for guys like cheek / bell / TJ, et al to have to step up becuz they know that without wayns, the burden of winning / losing is on them. If this happens, we may be better in the long run. i was glad to see Bell get so many minutes and 8 assists, we need other MAJOR contributors.

Please–look at the teams we have lost to and barely beat to subscribe to your comparison. Almost beats mean squat. This team is what its record says it is–look at the stats. We don’t defend, can’t shoot and have an awful assist to turnover ratio. How bout barely beating Providence(with 2 BE wins ) at home?. How bout needing OT to beat LaSalle at home?

Agree.

Maybe i have missed more than I thought but why has Hilliards minutes been cut as the season has progressed? He has shown more poise than a typical freshman, and for the early part of the season he played just as good as Wayns was playing. Is he hurt?

Poise & hustle he has but offers little else without his shooting touch.   
He is shooting 17.9% from the arc since the Temple game so his perimeter shooting is awful lately.  He doesn’t play good defense and doesn’t have the physique to bang in the paint.   His minutes have been given to JVP, TJ and Sutton in recent weeks.

In this struggling season, Hilliard had far more opportunies than the average Jay Wright freshman and has failed to produce enough on the court.   He is not one of the 7 best scholarship players on this team and a healthy Arcidiacono should bypass him next season in the rotation.  

Stealing a line from Dennis Green,….’Hilliard is what we thought he was’  ..when he was taken as a sleeper recruit.   Lots of hustle, great poise, passes well and offers versatility.  He just doesn’t do anything particularly well. 
His key to getting more playing time in coming years will be to get his perimeter shot back.  

Kennedy has disappointed and earned more pine time(3min-9min playing
time last 2 games). Must be from his hideous fouls in the previous games.
14-15Mins and fouling-out.
Doesn’t show in box-score but TJ looks better as his minutes increase,more
confident being the point and looking to get the ball inside.
He needs to cut down on his TO’s and hit a couple of his chip shots.
Would like to see at least 2 of our freshman finish strong(Kennedy & TJ).
I think AJ & Hilliard will gut it out and be as good as they can be through
hard work!!(Not including JVP,counting on him to continue banging and
getting everyone involved by his effort & example).
Barney, do you have any gut feelings about transfers and are you concerned?

As far as Ty Johnson, my expectations for him were much higher than either Yacoubou or Hilliard so alhough he played well in the comeback the other night, I expected more from him this season and hoping he can come thru in USF game with Maalik out. .   
Johnson looks to pass the ball inside and our bigs can’t catch a pass so that tends to annoy me.   Even that outlet pass he threw ahead on Tuesday that went out of bounds was catchable if Yarou wasn’t dragging his butt in transition.  

Transfers are done for such a variety of reasons that no telling what happens.  Losing creates more silly issues than winning.  
Armwood’s transfer probably didn’t affect our record much either way.  Anything he might have done to help us win early in our non-conference schedule would have cost us the maturation process afforded JVP and Kennedy which would make us a lesser team at this point in the season. JVP clearly has higher upside than Isiah did.  

I don’t know what Yacoubou’s expectations were to play as a freshman but if he looked at past Nova freshman, they generally don’t get a lot of playing time if they aren’t starting.  
Hilliard has nothing to complain about with 21 MPG avg that is about 6 mpg too many.  If he shot well he would still be starting but his shooting stinks lately.  
Is Bell unhappy?  He plays a lot and he had some real stinkers in the middle of the season and didn’t get buried so he has nothing to complain about. It’s still mind boggling how a player of Bell’s ability fouls out in 5 minutes with zero points.  He is doing better lately and his play the other night without scoring (8 assists) was very helpful to the comeback.

I am not too worried about Kennedy.  He has rebounded well and used his size inside and he passes well for a big man.  His offense will improve down the road and if he keeps toning up, he will be that much stronger. He is what he is because of his girth.   Markus at 230-235lbs wouldn’t be the same player.  If he keeps himself around 255-260 lbs and increases his conditioning, he will be fine.  Opposite Ochefu, he offers a different body type inside.