Inside Scoop

Have you seen him play defense? How many times have you really seen him try to attack the basket by beating his man off the dribble? How are you consistently so wrong about everything involving sports? Sometimes I think you just follow me around on this board trolling me.

You press because we were down double digits and the clock was getting against us. We had to get some turnovers to win the game. It worked when we cut it to 6 but we just couldn't get over the hump. The press was a lot worse in the gtech game.

For so many people questioning coaching its funny that the thought process going around is:

Press didn't work in GTech game therefore never use again rather than Press didn't work on GTech, work on it in practice, and try it again because it should be more effective.

I think Layman's weakness on D is not a lack of quickness, it's just not knowing what he needs to do or where he needs to be.

I am biased because Layman is my favorite player on this team, but I think he's a better defender than he gets credit for.

I also think offensively he's literally the only smart player we have. As frustrating as his cold shooting has been, I can only think of like one maybe two shots that haven't been within the flow of the offense. He sets good screens. He finds the open man. He runs well. He plays smart.

So we cut the game to 6 pressing but then the lead didn't bump back to 13 because of the press? The selective memory with the press last night makes me laugh. We made a quick run getting some turnovers by utilizing the press, but then pretty much gave it all right back by continuing to press, yet that is somehow overlooked.

Edit to say that you also continue to expend all of the extra energy that is required by pressing, which often makes you have to dip into your bench more often as well to keep guys fresh, forcing players like Aronhalt who are a total liability pressing out there trying to pressure full court.

He looked great in the press and on the traps last night. I notice he seems to lose his man sometimes in the half court when he tries to help out inside. On the offensive end he falls into only shooting those jumpers when he has the ability to do more. I really like his potential, I think with some more work he'll be great. I've fallen into the trap of believing that before though.

I believe the leadership void will be filled by Smotrycz. Turge has consistently said he's the best player in practice and he comes from a program and role much more high profile than Dez's was at Xavier. He also has the added incentive and credentials with the rest of the team of having worked for a year to have the opportunity to play at MD. This will take a lot of pressure off Dez from having to be a go-to guy and return to his role as a complimentary slasher (who hopefully works on the 12-15 ft pull-up).

He needs to continue to work on his lateral quickness and defensive fundamentals. I think he's shown improvement in these areas (and has the raw athleticism to continue to get better), but there is a big learning curve especially when you are a guy his height who has spent a lot of time playing against smaller, less athletic competition.

The good thing is that the stuff he really needs to work on are things that can really be improved upon in the offseason. He can spend a lot of time on his handle and footwork (different jab moves, etc).

Getting this much experience as a freshman is huge. He's had a year to see different defensive looks and how guys guard on the perimeter. Learning how to read those defenders is huge and I think he's gotten better with that over the course of the year. Now it's time to take that information and use it has he develops different parts of his game.