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With all the applicable caveats — it’s early, small sample sizes, limited practice due to covid, new transfers, etc. — turning the ball over on 1 out of every 4 possessions (especially when going at such a slow pace) is not indicative of a strong coaching performance. I shudder when Joel Brown comes into the game.

I like Betley though. He is what Grant Mullins was supposed to be.

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Curious to see who (if anybody) will emerge to get significant playing time alongside the big 6. Maybe it would've been Bowser if he hadn't hurt himself in that fall.

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My best guess would be DJ Thorpe as he showed some flashes of what he could be at the end of the last year with relentless finishing and rebounding. In my opinion he is way more polished than the clunker known as Lars Thiemann who so badly reminds me of Kameron Rooks, leading me to think Thorpe can provide good bench production for a backup PF/C with some adjustments on his defensive skillset.

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I was really hoping Lars would show some semblance of improvement from FR to SO seasons but he really doesn’t bring much to the table, at least on the stat sheet...troubling. Poor rebounder, poor shot blocker and not much of a rim protector for a 7-footer, at least so far.

Kelly & Thorpe just looked small Sun... Kuany looks like he should make an impact with the length but again, no real development as yet.

Sigh.

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Lars has brick hands and always seems to get the ball poked out in the post. There's freshman mistakes that he has clearly made but he makes me want to bang my head into a wall everytime he's on the floor.

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I agree with a lot of this. When the season started, it felt like we were forcing a lot more shots but I was okay with it even when it was bad. The worst thing you can be is passive IMHO. And that's currently an issue with our bigs that needs too be figured out. Their positioning and defense still feels a little passive, I'd love for them to be more confident and proactive but that's just going to take experience I suppose.

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For context, what was before "forcing" shots has evolved into something much more strategic and intentional.

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