Ty Wallace is a very good basketball player but he's not a pure PG. The innate sense of where teammates are on the floor, the intention to set them up optimally, to know when to attack and when to pull it back out, those are not Ty. He's a very good defender, rebounder and ball handler. Offensively, he will feast on lesser defensive teams and struggle against the better ones. That's true of everyone but more so for Wallace. His numbers go from great to awful when he faces a top defense as in SDSU, Virginia, Arizona, St Mary's, Utah.
Jaylen Brown looks tired to my eyes. Lost the pep in his step with this Arizona trip. Freshman wall? Rabb had the same look 2-3 weeks back and has bounced back. Let's hope Brown does the same thing. We need him brimming with energy and confidence to make a deep run.
One thing that worries me a bit as we get closer to tournament time. Yes, this was a very good Pac12 conference in 2015-6, yet it was not one that had good PG play. Great PGs win games in the tourney. Let's look at the conference:
Oregon - Brooks plays a point forward and Benson is a solid facilitator and ball handler but they do not have a classic one man.
Arizona - Devoid of a playmaker.
Utah - The best PG of the top teams and that damning with faint praise. He got eaten up in the NCAAs last year. Smaller, good not great quicks and very streaky from three, still he has the mentality
Cal - Wallace is not a pure PG and Singer's 2/3 of the way to being a difference maker at the one
USC - McLaughlin is a player but defenses adjusted to him and he's struggled down the stretch. Perhaps the conference's best after Payton
UCLA - They don't have one
Oregon State - Payton is a very good player, a dynamic force with his passing, defense and rebounding. A better Ty Wallace. Still, he's not the type of shooter that can carry a team in March.
UW - They don't have one, Andrews is a point forward a la Brooks at Oregon
Stanford - They don't have one
Colorado - They don't have one
ASU - Holder's a nice player, good quicks, can get in the lane and score himself as well. Lacks the feel of a great PG, not a strong assist guy.
WSU - Does it matter?
net net this is one thing we'll need to pay close attention to when we get to the NCAAs - facing a team with a great PG.
Jaylen Brown looks tired to my eyes. Lost the pep in his step with this Arizona trip. Freshman wall? Rabb had the same look 2-3 weeks back and has bounced back. Let's hope Brown does the same thing. We need him brimming with energy and confidence to make a deep run.
One thing that worries me a bit as we get closer to tournament time. Yes, this was a very good Pac12 conference in 2015-6, yet it was not one that had good PG play. Great PGs win games in the tourney. Let's look at the conference:
Oregon - Brooks plays a point forward and Benson is a solid facilitator and ball handler but they do not have a classic one man.
Arizona - Devoid of a playmaker.
Utah - The best PG of the top teams and that damning with faint praise. He got eaten up in the NCAAs last year. Smaller, good not great quicks and very streaky from three, still he has the mentality
Cal - Wallace is not a pure PG and Singer's 2/3 of the way to being a difference maker at the one
USC - McLaughlin is a player but defenses adjusted to him and he's struggled down the stretch. Perhaps the conference's best after Payton
UCLA - They don't have one
Oregon State - Payton is a very good player, a dynamic force with his passing, defense and rebounding. A better Ty Wallace. Still, he's not the type of shooter that can carry a team in March.
UW - They don't have one, Andrews is a point forward a la Brooks at Oregon
Stanford - They don't have one
Colorado - They don't have one
ASU - Holder's a nice player, good quicks, can get in the lane and score himself as well. Lacks the feel of a great PG, not a strong assist guy.
WSU - Does it matter?
net net this is one thing we'll need to pay close attention to when we get to the NCAAs - facing a team with a great PG.
