My concerns heading into this tourney

Posted on: November 22, 2017 at 11:16:45 CT

- Barnett now needs to emerge as our go to scorer, and potentially a leader. This is problematic because he doesn’t seem to possess that mentality and is difficult to motivate/focus, and he is essentially a poor man’s Earnest Ross assuming he is properly motivated/focused.

- If Barnett is not able to do that, Puryear will. That will not be an efficient/effective result.

- We have to relieve Robertson of playmaking duties by someone stepping up and seizing that role. Without Porter Jr as a go to offense this team needs to run effective offense and generate good looks, and have good outside shooting. That can’t happen with Robertson playing primarily pg.

- We went from having too many players to suddenly having depth issues, with the loss of our best player to injury and the decision to redshirt two guys.

- We can’t have Phillips simply disappear. He is considerably more valuable and productive than Geist or Vanleer, and he can be a vocal leader this team will need down the stretch.

- We still don’t really have a defensive identity. That is supposed to be Cuonzo’s calling card, and thus far we are not really imposing a defensive approach on anyone.