-------- and I am not sure that was intended to be the case. Muss and his staff have pursued physical tall players in the past, Kerry Blackshear, and strongly considered them this year, Kevin Marfo, and have moved on when they went to Florida and A&M respectfully. He has pursued the “best available” but it is obvious that his first choices have been much more physical than the ones he signed. Connor and Jackson for example = long armed, finesse offensive players, but not physical rebounders. Chris Moore chosing Auburn may be another example of seeking a physical rebounder and ending up with a more finesse, stretch, four, in Williams. (I believe Williams will be the better player but not the better rebounder compared to Moore.)
I see next years team being longer at every position, improved rebounders but middle of the pack at that in the SEC at best, and there will now be scoring potential at the 4/5 slots that was missing last year. I am very excited about the defensive pressure that our long armed guards can bring to bear with a Williams or Jackson for some size included. JMVHO
Your conclusion is supported by the premises and facts given; but I believe the calculus is incomplete.
As stated, we will be longer which supports my belief that this team will be more successful grabbing long rebounds, which often occur on 3 pt misses. I hope this will obfuscate the low post offensive rebound put backs that often occur during drives to the basket or mid-range pull up jumpers, which I interpreted your post to reveal.
True, but we have 3 new 6’6" - 6’9" SF/PFs in Tate (who can guard 2s through 4s), Williams, and Jackson who will all get significant minutes that we didn’t have last year. They will more than make up for length (long arms) lost with Jones, Whitt and Harris. We will probably have fewer 4 guard lineups on the floor than we had last year.
The assessment of Jackson that Scottie got from the UNM writers was that he wasn’t aggressive blocking shots, not that he was soft on the glass. They pointed out that he was very good on the defensive glass, an area where we’ve had problems, with 6 or more defensive boards in 28 games and double-figure rebounding overall 10 times, and a defensive rebounding rate of 22.3 percent in his first year at Numex. But he didn’t take a lot of contact and wasn’t one who was going to protect the rim like Adrio did.
I don’t know whether to be embarrassed or proud that I knew what that word meant, lol. Regardless, I’ll take this board over any other school’s board in a spelling bee.
Spelling mistakes can be overlooked.
I come to the board to see what our fans think about our hogs in all sports and to speculate on how the next season looks. From where our rebounding was last season I can’t seem to think it could get any worse. Rebounding should improve.
Rim protection should improve too.
I’m in the corner with it has to get better but not simply with length. This staff is very good at the basics like blocking out and defensive intensity. Hard to believe Muss won’t get the maximum effort next fall.
The length was the issue last season. The effort was there most of the time.
Fatigue and tired legs cost in late game situations and in OT games!
The focus on blocking out has improved but the overall rebounding margin has too change!
