I posted a couple times during the game, he had poor effort. The only player I noticed slacking on defense ever was Lykes. Really inexcusable. I think this is the reason for his bad plus minus numbers, not his offense. He is a Huge liability on defense. Just way too small for him not to be the biggest hustler on the court and probably too small regardless of his effort. This is why I’m a much bigger fan of devo compared to some opinions around here. Devo is a marginally better ball handler and an enormously better defender.
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Oh Devo is much better with more size and can be a defensive hawk & get rebounds. Can be offensive weapon working off the ball, not handling it.
Anyway that’s what we got and they play hard and starting to get that fire in their eyes even when adversity hits they don’t quit.
Kinda like last year bout this time.
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Not if the young gun can’t play tough defense, drive the ball or handle/distribute the ball. He does have a nice upside, but right now he’s a one-trick pony-a streaky three point shooter. When he’s seen tight defense this year, he almost never even tries to drive, he gets rid of the ball to the first guy who gets room to receive the pass.
Right now we are stuck with Lykes, who could still turn it around a bit, to give us a few minutes every game. Maybe KK wakes up and gets back on the Court, though you have to wonder if that’s ever going to happen at Arkansas. We just don’t have another good option right now on the bench to be a major ball handler, so we end up with scraping by with Lykes, Umude and Devo handling the ball more often.
Jaxson is probably going to get one or two more chances this year for significant minutes, either because of game situation or injury/fouls. If he produces when he gets those chances, based on the way Muss has coached in the past, he will get more chances. So far he just isn’t ready for a bigger role. Muss seems to have settled on a long lineup that plays tough defense, pounds the boards, and gets to the foul line as the best way to win this year, so Jaxson is probably going to have to work on his game and wait for next year to be in the rotation(and boy won’t next year’s team look different).
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I have been hard on Lykes but I keep remembering he was pre-season first team All Conference in a pretty good ACC. You know they have defenders who will attack and strip you if you over dribble so what has changed? It looks like Muss has benched him for defensive deficiencies so, when he finally gets in, he over does it trying to do too much. Surely, that can be reigned in and he can excel as much in the SEC as he did in the ACC. You got to believe that Muss and staff are doing everything they can to coach back up.
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We may not have a point guard, but we have a great point center. We even have him as the 2nd ball handler bringing the ball up on a full court press. I’d say we have the best “point center” in the country. It should be mandatory that he touch the ball in every half court set.
Once again, thank God for Jaylin!
edit: One more note, if he’s not already, Blocker needs to be our number 1 recruit target for 2023!
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Don’t argue with Lykes having turnovers, but the coaching math dictates who takes over the point that is going to get fouled…KK/Devo (neither of which handle the ball better or shoot free throws near his rate).
Devo is a good defender as long as he isn’t gambling/reaching for steals. He either gets beat off the dribble or fouls when he tries that. He isn’t JD Notae in that regard. Doesn’t possess JD’s anticipation of where the ballhandler is gonna go with the ball. Devo’s very good at ball denial/face guarding D and shadowing his man.
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Lyke’s issue is he doesn’t dribble straight to the hole. That’s what he is here for. To get the ball and drive to the basket as fast as he can. and the press the point on his way back. That’s it. He’s not to run the offense. He’s to push the pace as fast as he can. He’s not meant for half court offense. He will struggle and look awful. He will thrive in transition better than any player on the team.
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I’d much rather him be on your team than mine.
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Interestingly, he’s neither on your team nor mine. He’s on CEM’s team, the coach that made it to the Elite 8, makes all the money to win, and spoke fairly highly of CL in his OM pre-game presser.
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