Isaiah Joe should be benched, he’s obviously not up to playing against anyone who can play back. 5 pts in 36 minutes is ridiculous. I could get that right now at age 50. Earlier in the year, some of the geniuses that frequent this message board, said he was ready for the NBA…He isn’t even ready for the SEC, let alone the NBA…
Unless Arkansas gets things turned back around, they will quickly be on the bubble in another week or so. This game Saturday is huge, considering right now TCU is a bubble team on the outside looking in.
In my opinion the struggle Joe is having is getting himself open to get a quality shot off. We had a player here awhile back that was not quick, did not jump extremely well but worked hard continuously to get good looks and knew how to catch and shoot, that was Pat Bradley. Pat worked tirelessly to get open and did so against good defenses and not just against the cupcakes on the schedule. I’m not down on Joe in the least as he is a very talented shooter but he will have to be coached on how to get open better and set better screens to get him open. The question is not can he shoot but will he put the work in to get in position to get good shots. You cannot just rely on being talented you have to out work your opponent. There’s many very talented players that never succeeded in NBA or in college due to work ethic. I’m not calling Joe out Im just saying he will have to work harder at his trade to become successful, we know he’s proficient shooter when he gets his shot and it’s up to him and CEM to get him in position to be productive.
I know I am a broken record on this, but I wonder if he would fare better in a more patterned offense. Even though Mason was big into keeping us in the game, with him at the point it seems we are more dribble drive oriented. He can create his shot, but Joe seems more effective as a catch and shoot scorer. While we don’t have a real post threat, with Whitt’s ability to work inside, it would seem we might be successful with creating open shots for Joe with a bit of inside out movement involving Whitt.
Muss is very adept in devising strategy, so I know he can better address any tweeking that may be warranted, but it is interesting to play coach, even without any real expertise.
That’s all on CEM I put my full trust and backing behind him 100% as we have improved in his first year while being undersized. He’s making changes steadily as players on the bench earn playing time, Chaney is coming around as is Cylia and he’s implementing these guys the best he can. These guys will help underneath and get some minutes of rest for the starters which will help. I wouldn’t change schemes at this point as we are in every game and have opportunities to win every night. I’m sure CEM will be tweaking things every practice to shore up both sides of the ball. He’s has recruited guys to play his style of ball and I wouldn’t want to change anything that might want any commits we have to have any doubts about how we are going to play. We are undersized and this shall pass and things will look extremely different next season, we all new this could happen going in and we will just have to do the best we can until next year or these guys all having a growth spurt. But it is fun to play coach from a far and say what we would do knowing we have nothing to lose or gain other than the occasional “I told you so” we can sling around for a couple days. Good morning. WPS
Hogs went to Mississippi State and lost a close game. They lost to Kentucky. Stop overreacting. My only criticism of the coach would be to stop harping on negatives. Hogs will win tomorrow and probably all of the remaining home games. All teams will lose some road games.
I didn’t read everyone’s blog here so if I’m repeating a quote in a sense, sorry but then again it may need to be a reminder. CEM has a good thing going and a somewhat unique philosophy on defense but I’m sure by now other coaches have caught on to a degree and may even be copying our defensive approach to a degree. S E C teams KNOW that Joe has been a hot item at times but is struggling now, so I’m sure they’re doing everything they can to put as pressure as possible on this soph Rather than condemning him because he’s not your idea of labron, as a TRUE RAZORBACK FAN IMO we should be praying for him because whether you believe in prayer or not, it’s the best and fastest way to help him and everyone else out of the slump. WPS
The injury kind of explains the drastic deterioration of Isaiah Joe’s play, I liked how Desi Sills and Mason stepped up in his absence on Saturday. TCU has a strong interior game obviously. It will be interesting to see how Joe plays at home against a solid and tough SC team, that’s always well coached. Joe should have fresh legs.
I wouldn’t call it a slump, just one game, and obviously he wasn’t right physically. He’ll be alright, just needed some added motivation, which I gave him…LOL…