Will Juwan Develop a backup PG this year?
I know this may be a hot take after a tough loss last night. But I'm wondering if there will be an emphasis this year on developing a backup PG behind Jones. It was evident last night and it's kind of trended this way in each game that Jones tends to turn the ball over and makes poor decisions. He's a great rebounder. Last year against UCLA I thought the fact that Smith was outmatched could have been mitigated if Zeb would've been more ready?I'm assuming Zeb must be hurt because he has not played thus far. I think Brooks operates best when he is off guard and is a good shooter. I guess I'm hoping to see some development from Collins and was surprised he didn't play at all last night. Was it the size of Hall's guards?
November 17th, 2021 at 11:17 AM ^
Like last year, Eli will be the backup point guard. The third guard looks to be Kobe. If Kobe comes in for Jones, Eli will slide to point.
The role of Zeb remains to be determined. No real word on what is up with him.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:27 AM ^
I think the ideal scenario is Kobe can play PG, but expecting him to do so against full court pressure that just caused Jones to commit back-to-back 10 second violations (they missed the first one) in his 3rd game of his college career isn't realistic.
Hopefully he is comfortable enough by B10 play to run the point so Eli can stay at the 2.
November 17th, 2021 at 2:09 PM ^
Zeb has been out with an illness.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:18 AM ^
nope. I don't see Juwan emphasizing development of any players, especially backup point guards.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:35 AM ^
I see you! My only point of contention is you should have capitalized the 'N', then added an exclamation point for emphasis; if you're gonna bring it, bring it!
November 17th, 2021 at 11:20 AM ^
Collins is about the same size as Jones/Brooks, so that probably wasn't the case. I think either Jones needs to settle down or have Eli run the point. He has better chemistry with Hunter at this juncture. Zeb may be the X-Factor! He can break his man off the dribble and has enough size on defense to give opposing guards a different look. I'm all for Frankie playing, the more athleticism we have on the court the better.
November 17th, 2021 at 12:25 PM ^
"Collins is about the same size as Jones/Brooks, so that probably wasn't the case."
WTF does size have to do it, anyway? If Smith were still here, would he have been benched because SH has tall guards? WTH kind of question/statement is that?
November 17th, 2021 at 1:56 PM ^
The problem with Eli at point if Johns and Jones are out there you are dead in the water. Neither can make defenses pay with a kickout which is what you need. If Jones gets the ball he will try to drive into an already packed lane and if Johns gets the ball he will head fake an open three to get blocked by someone in the paint, probably the rim.
November 17th, 2021 at 6:19 PM ^
Eli will play point only when Jones is on the bench.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:21 AM ^
No he won’t. There’s no way with Eisley over there getting a check will any guards get developed. Also our other graduate guard who played at Michigan will never work directly with any of the guards to help them cut down on their turnovers and increase their assist to turnover ratio!!!
November 18th, 2021 at 12:46 PM ^
Is you being face tious?
November 17th, 2021 at 11:23 AM ^
Backup position players are overrated, why would Juwan have any interest in them? After all, the NBA is a star-driven league.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:24 AM ^
Preface by saying I think Devante Jones is a good player and should progress under Howard.
But... Jones will either have to become more composed by B1G time or I'd say start one of the freshman guards and split time with Jones. It's going to start putting a lot of pressure on Brooks to be the floor general we thought Jones would be. Not saying he can't get there and yes, it took Smith more than 3 games in November last year to develop but TOs and sloppy play will kill any team, especially one replacing a bunch of starters from an Elite Eight team.
All in all, it's been 3 games and Seton Hall looks at least like a middle-tier tourney team. We can relax.
November 17th, 2021 at 1:16 PM ^
willard is a good coach, seton hall always plays tough. theyre no powerhouse but youre right, theyre a solid squad. its not a terrible early loss where youre thinking this team has no shot
November 17th, 2021 at 11:37 AM ^
Need to play Brooks more for now. Either that or Jones needs to learn to stop taking the entire D into his hands with those awful attempts at drawing a charge he pulled last night. The loss wasn't all on him, of course. But man he really screwed us late in the game.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:38 AM ^
Zeb has been out with an illness, that's why he's not playing. Guard depth has been a problem though.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:50 AM ^
I wish him the best and a speedy recovery!!
November 17th, 2021 at 11:40 AM ^
Its been 3 games. A team that lost a lot of talent last year and is trying to make a bunch of new pieces work together all takes time. Saying Jones is 'trending to turn the ball over and make bad decisions' is a completely unfounded hottake after 3 games. He's the PG, so if the team is somewhat dysfunctional, its going to look like hes the one making the error when that might not always be the case.
Do we think Juwan is developing a backup PG? I'm just going to assume this was a rhetorical or sarcastic question and wasn't one you actually needed an answer to.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:46 AM ^
I’m 100% behind Juwan. Look at my profile pic and you’ll see him. My point was more about being hopeful that he does. I just saw the trend last year and it hindered us in the tourney not having somebody that could step in. We’ve had 4 games (including the exhibition) and what I have seen from Jones is a lack of valuing the ball. Maybe he’s getting up to speed against better competition, I don’t know but at the best he’s been meh… As far as Brooks being the backup, with our lack of shooters right now I feel he’s better at getting opportunities to spot up.
November 17th, 2021 at 11:41 AM ^
Yes. Or not.
50/50.
November 17th, 2021 at 12:16 PM ^
The guy who probably will be our backup PG is currently out.
November 17th, 2021 at 12:18 PM ^
Anyone in the habit of declaring a trend based on three samples?
November 17th, 2021 at 12:20 PM ^
So all last year needed was a true freshman bench guy to be better than a senior starter in the tournament?
November 17th, 2021 at 1:54 PM ^
Wouldn’t have hurt… Especially if you watched the UCLA game you’d see how having a much bigger guard and someone that could spell Smith would’ve helped. Smith was lost. I hope we learn from it.
November 17th, 2021 at 12:32 PM ^
Will Howard even sports this year?
November 17th, 2021 at 12:34 PM ^
This is a good point. Remember Eli has had 'health' issues the last two years for some part of the season. Believe his nose was broken once and I do not recall the other 'issue' he had?
November 17th, 2021 at 1:20 PM ^
November 17th, 2021 at 12:49 PM ^
i expect jones to improve at running the offense, as it's a new role to him. the thing that troubled me the most, however, was the difficulty in just bringing the ball up the floor when pressured one on one. there was one 10 sec violation and a couple other plays that were close. there were also several possessions where we didn't get set into our offense until 15 sec had run of the clock. that is not good. and as a senior, i doubt that improves much.
my hope is that zeb has improved this often season. he definitely has the speed to blow by pressure one on one. i haven't seen enough of collins or bufkin yet.
November 17th, 2021 at 2:07 PM ^
Jones played at Coastal Carolina, he definitely still has the ability to develop at this level.
The best team he played against last year was Pepperdine...
November 17th, 2021 at 3:17 PM ^
i think there is little or no chance for a senior to significantly improve his ballhandling or breaking down a press during his final season no matter what the competition. learning the offense is a different story.
November 17th, 2021 at 1:20 PM ^
He might be unaware that he needs to. I suggest an email or tweet to make sure.
November 17th, 2021 at 1:22 PM ^
Who is advising him??
November 17th, 2021 at 1:27 PM ^
We need Zeb to play when healthy and Kobe until he does. Playing Jones right now does not give Michigan the upside that was expected when he transferred in. Develop the young guys!
November 17th, 2021 at 1:34 PM ^
Jones should play off ball. I think he's fine if all he has to worry about is attacking the rim and taking open threes. You don't want him making reads in PnR too often.
Brooks on the other hand looked very good in PnR. Flip their roles on offense. Give Kobe the third guard minutes. I'd also like to see Houstan used as a secondary ballhandler more and let him run some PnR.
November 17th, 2021 at 2:13 PM ^
Jones seems fine running the offense in the half-court, but he couldn't handle pressure. Maybe that changes as he gets used to this level of play. Otherwise, we need to use Jones as the inbounder, and have Houstan and Brooks be the main ball handlers to get the ball across half-court. Then you can swing it back to Jones at the point to run the offense.
November 17th, 2021 at 1:34 PM ^
Jones should play off ball. I think he's fine if all he has to worry about is attacking the rim and taking open threes. You don't want him making reads in PnR too often.
Brooks on the other hand looked very good in PnR. Flip their roles on offense. Give Kobe the third guard minutes. I'd also like to see Houstan used as a secondary ballhandler more and let him run some PnR.
November 17th, 2021 at 3:18 PM ^
I agree that Jones would ideally perform a Mo Rakhman type of role (rather than serving as the primary on-ball guard). That said, 5th year of eligibility Brooks is a very known quantity at this point and has been given repeated opportunities to serve in that role and again and agin, demonstrated that he also seems better suited as only an occasional point guard. I think it is Jones in that role until either Kobe (looking good so far) or Collins unseat him.
November 17th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
Neither Jones nor Brooks is a true point guard. Juwan seems all in on Jones. But as limited as Brooks is at the point, he knows the system far better and likely would make fewer mistakes. It would be greatifHouston could step up and initiate some ofthe offense in the way Stauskas did--Walton brought the ball up, but Nik was as likely as anyone to run the offense/PnR.
November 17th, 2021 at 1:36 PM ^
Delete me
November 17th, 2021 at 1:56 PM ^
Everyone is on Jones. I think people need to back off. The dude has played his whole career at Costal Carolina. Give him a chance to adjust to playing better competition. The guy still had a decent game.
We lost because:
Johns is a liability on offense.
Houstan had a horrible game and outside of Brooks and Houstan we don't have any other consistent outside shooting
We missed some clutch free throws
We didn't get the ball to Dickinson enough down the stretch
With college ball being so 3-point centric these days, we are going to have games all year that we struggle in because we aren't getting outside shooting. I don't see a remedy to that unless Houstan grows up quickly, and even then the dropoff after Brooks and Houstan is steep.
November 17th, 2021 at 2:10 PM ^
Johns isn't good enough to be a starter on an elite team. He has so much talent, but he just seems to have frying pans for hands and can't hold onto the ball.
November 17th, 2021 at 3:38 PM ^
Everytime he gets the ball in position to score it seems like he either:
1. Drops the ball
2. Dribbles the ball and get stripped
3. Gets his shot blocked by someone he should be dunking on
I don't get it. He looks like he should be a monster of a player and then he just seems to always struggle to deliver. He's in the right place a lot of the time but just can't convert.
November 17th, 2021 at 3:13 PM ^
I expect like any power conference coach, Juwan is looking at developing two players among his current roster for that role. Fortunately, we have two great candidates in Kobe and Frankie. Really not sure why people are so nervous after game 3 of the season on whether those two highly regarded freshmen will pan out or not.
November 17th, 2021 at 3:34 PM ^
Gotta get a point guard before we can have a backup point guard.
November 17th, 2021 at 4:32 PM ^
Zeb Jackson is hurt and Frankie Collins is a freshman.
Relax.