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re: LSU basketball transfer portal watch
Posted on 6/4/23 at 12:09 pm to Lester Earl
Posted on 6/4/23 at 12:09 pm to Lester Earl
Last year only KJ was a steady threat to score. This year both of our guards and Baker will be steady threats. Wright could start at SF over Wilkinson, but Mwani is also an efficient scorer and a great defender. He just finds a way to make himself valuable. He won’t be easy to push out of the starting lineup. If both of our guards are scoring threats, plus Baker, we can have more defensively oriented players at the other 2 spots. We’ll have an option to run a small offensively oriented lineup against smaller teams, but I think the lineup I proposed is more balanced.
This post was edited on 6/5/23 at 8:46 am
1
Posted on 6/6/23 at 10:58 pm to Lapaz
I'm sorry but I have never understood why some of you think Mwani is so good. Efficient scorer, I assume you mean percentage, doesn't mean a thing when your career average for three years is 3.5 points per game. He basically has one way to score - a wide, open standing three pointer. I have never seen him dribble or drive in for a score. I can't remember one time he was down court and scored off of a fast break. As an undersized forward, he is also not a good rebounder or interior rim protector. His assists are only a little ahead of his turnovers. He does hustle and plays good defense on the outside players. But to say he should start? Don't know about that one.
Posted on 6/7/23 at 7:23 am to Tom Bronco
Mwani is incredibly limited on offense. Basically useless unless he's shooting a wide open catch and shoot corner 3. He's also the only remaining player on the roster who wasn't recruited by McMahon, he ain't starting
Posted on 6/7/23 at 8:43 am to McMahonnequin
It depends on which Mwani shows up, but he has started all 3 years. Granted his minutes are limited, but maybe the coaches use him to set a tone. He has found a way. His freshman year he was scoring almost exclusively 2 pointers. His sophomore year, he was about half 2s and half 3s. He was great defensively both years. Now last year, he fell off on all categories, but he barely played before getting injured. I hope someone beats him, but if he returns to form, I think he’ll start primarily for his defense and efficiency. If he returns to form, Mwani may be our best perimeter shooter, and I do remember him slashing for goals as well. All we need him to provide is 9-10 points per game at 50% or better efficiency and hold down the other team’s scorers. If he can do that, we’ll be better off than going with a smaller lineup that are better scorers overall, because we should get enough scoring from others.
Posted on 6/7/23 at 8:58 am to Lapaz
quote:
All we need him to provide is 9-10 points per game at 50% or better efficiency and hold down the other team’s scorers
So we just need him to triple his career high in points while still shooting 50%? Sounds completely reasonable.
He’s a glue guy that fit what Wade needed when his teams were all offense. If we are relying on him being an impact player this year then we will be in trouble again.
Posted on 6/7/23 at 9:12 am to Lapaz
quote:
All we need him to provide is 9-10 points per game at 50% or better efficiency and hold down the other team’s scorers.
He’s scored 10pts or more three times in 53 career games.
And you want him to average 10ppg over a season?
I’m not sure who you think buddy is
Posted on 6/7/23 at 9:14 am to Tigerfan14
He plays great defense, rebounds, can dunk, and on offense he opens the floor because if his defender leaves him he makes the open three so he’s a glue piece you need
Posted on 6/7/23 at 9:29 am to tigerbacon
Mwani may be a "glue" piece in the sense that he has a really great work ethic and could be a big piece for team chemistry. But if Mwani is playing more than 10-15 minutes a game with the guys that we brought in, then we won't be in a good position
Posted on 6/7/23 at 9:36 am to Tigerfan14
quote:
He’s a glue guy that fit what Wade needed when his teams were all offense. If we are relying on him being an impact player this year then we will be in trouble again.
Wilkinson was 2nd gen Marlon Taylor for Wade as he wanted Wilkinson to fill the same role. Last year Wilkinson was a starter probably because (1) he was loyal to the program when very few were after McMahon took over and (2) he was consistent in his role. Would he have continued starting and maybe flourished into a bigger role had he not been injured? Who knows? But I don't think McMahon looks at him as a necessary piece in his particular plan as much as Wade did. At least one that many not be irreplaceable.
Wilkinson has been loyal. I want him to succeed and thrive at LSU. But you also have to admit he has a pretty limited skillset (basically defend the wing and shoot corner threes). I'm not in the boat, at all, that a healthy Wilkinson would have made a huge difference last season. MAYBE 1 or 2 more wins, but not a huge difference that some (mostly defending McMahon) tried to make it out to be.
Personally, I liked what I saw out of Ward in limited action. He's long. He's bouncy. He's active on defense (sometimes overaggressive). He's got a solid pull-up. And though his shot is not a thing of beauty (it has as much side rotation as backspin), he did shoot about .40% from three in SEC play (in limited attempts).
One of my (many) issues with McMahon last season is we did not get to see all that much of Ward until late. Something that made little sense given you were constantly getting your arse-kicked anyway and he was your highest rated HS signee. If nothing else, he could have been gaining experience during the arse kickings.
Posted on 6/7/23 at 10:25 am to tigerbacon
quote:
He plays great defense, rebounds, can dunk, and on offense he opens the floor because if his defender leaves him he makes the open three so he’s a glue piece you need
Career high is 3 rebounds per game. I keep seeing people talk about how impactful his offense is because of his shooting. He’s often left wide open because teams completely ignore him on offense. Even then, his career high is 3ppg. Quick math days that’s equal to making one 3 per game. That’s the opposite from impactful.
As others mentioned, he’s been a great ambassador for the program and has stuck through the ups and down. That’s admirable, but doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t a good player.
Posted on 6/7/23 at 1:59 pm to Tigerfan14
quote:
As others mentioned, he’s been a great ambassador for the program and has stuck through the ups and down. That’s admirable, but doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t a good player.
Mwani is not a great player, but he is definitely a good player. He is a very good defender, a slightly below average rebounder, and an above average shooter, so overall he is a slightly above average player. He is replaceable if another player can play good defense and offer more offensively, but he makes himself valuable. I may be expecting too much to expect him to get 9 ppg, but he would get close if he played 30 mpg. Wright would probably be better, but that would mean also starting Stewart and Cook. While they're great players, that seems like a lineup that will create matchup problems for us due to being too small. Maybe it'll depend on the size of the guards we're playing against. Also, maybe Collins and Baker will offset that smaller guard size, so a starting lineup of Cook, Stewart, Wright, Collins or Fountain and Baker is very likely, but I suspect Mwani will start, as he has in the past, and the aforementioned will get more minutes. I expect Mwani to start to set the tone with his defense by staying in front of his man, knowing when to help, and contesting shots.
Posted on 6/7/23 at 5:51 pm to AlecRock23
No excuses next season. Other than, well, ummm, UF and Ole Miss also had Top 10 transfer classes; how could MM compete with that! It takes years to rebuild. Bull shite. Time to produce.
quote:
Evan Miyakawa
@EvanMiya
·
22m
Florida now has the #1 incoming transfer class at LINK and is also #1 in overall transfer activity.
Top 10 incoming transfer classes:
1. Florida
2. Kansas
3. LSU
4. Ole Miss
5. West Virginia
6. Missouri
7. Cal
8. TCU
9. St. John's
10. Penn State
Posted on 6/8/23 at 8:00 am to rds dc
I have yet to see one person say that because other teams recruit well last year's performance is excusable. That list has us ahead of Ole Miss, so if Ole Miss is drastically better than us then, yeah Mcmahon's not that guy and its time to move on. But I just don't understand who you are arguing with (other than yourself)
This post was edited on 6/8/23 at 8:00 am
Posted on 6/8/23 at 11:26 am to rds dc
quote:
quote:
Evan Miyakawa
@EvanMiya
·
22m
Florida now has the #1 incoming transfer class at LINK and is also #1 in overall transfer activity.
Top 10 incoming transfer classes:
1. Florida
2. Kansas
3. LSU
4. Ole Miss
5. West Virginia
6. Missouri
7. Cal
8. TCU
9. St. John's
10. Penn State
For those of you that put a lot of weight on EvanMiya, Mwani is the only player on our roster, including all of the transfers, that was in the top 300 players in the nation last year, and he's been in the top 350 every year. Mwani was 291st last year, which I think indicates he is a good player. KJ was our 2nd best at 454 (note he was 82 the previous year at Murray State), and Hayes was our 4th best at 896. Our next best current players are:
Jordan Wright at 406
Carlos Stewart at 485
Cook at 571
Fountain at 580
Collins at 653 (but the year before without the tragedies he was 263)
Hunter Dean at 1044
Hannibal at 1059
Will Baker at 1066
Ward at 2009
Reed at 2840.
This post was edited on 6/8/23 at 11:27 am
Posted on 6/8/23 at 11:43 am to Lapaz
And that is the issue with going purely off of analytics such as EvanMiya. If you truly believe that Mwani was a better player than KJ then you don't understand basketball. Mwani has averaged 13, 24, and 17 minutes the last 3 seasons. He has only scored 5 baskets twice in his career and has a career high of 12 points. You keep saying he was a good 3 point shooter, but he was an EFFICIENT 3 point shooter, not necessarily a good one. He rarely shot more than 2 a game and the few times he did, he was average at best. Mwani is a great kid, but he is not the player you are making him out to be
Posted on 6/8/23 at 12:30 pm to Aforem7
quote:
And that is the issue with going purely off of analytics such as EvanMiya. If you truly believe that Mwani was a better player than KJ then you don't understand basketball. Mwani has averaged 13, 24, and 17 minutes the last 3 seasons. He has only scored 5 baskets twice in his career and has a career high of 12 points. You keep saying he was a good 3 point shooter, but he was an EFFICIENT 3 point shooter, not necessarily a good one. He rarely shot more than 2 a game and the few times he did, he was average at best. Mwani is a great kid, but he is not the player you are making him out to be
I never said Mwani was better than KJ, so you've misinterpreted my statements. EvanMiya is just a measure of the quality of a player, and furthermore by the measure EvanMiya, Mwani is a good player, and by THEIR measure, he was our best player. I realize that things have to be taken into context, like how much teams focus on a player, and that really impacts scoring. Mwani is not asked to score a lot, so he gets less defensive attention, and that helps him. I've said repeatedly that he is an efficient scorer. Regardless, EvanMiya does try to adjust for some of these factors, and he was our highest rated player based on their measure. That doesn't mean I believe he was our best player, but I think he is a much better player than you give him credit for, because you focus on his scoring.
Furthermore, if someone argues that EvanMiya's high ranking of our transfer class means that CMM should succeed, then that means they put a lot of weight on EvanMiya's ratings, and should also conclude that Mwani is one of our best players. By the way, you derided using analytics, and then proceeded to list off stats. Stats can be much more misleading than analytics.
This post was edited on 6/8/23 at 12:33 pm
Posted on 6/8/23 at 12:49 pm to Lapaz
Analytics are great and all, but turn on the film man. Mwani made 11 baskets in 12 games last year. ELEVEN BASKETS TOTAL. He's not good on the offensive side, and unless he's developed into a Dennis Rodman type rebounder/defender he's just not good enough to be a contributor in a major role for a tournament team. If we can get 10 to 15 minutes of hard effort and defense I will be satisfied with him
Posted on 6/8/23 at 12:58 pm to Lapaz
Here's the thing you are missing. In nearly all 5-out motion offenses similar to the one Mcmahon runs (Nate Oats, Jay Wright, and Bob Huggins' offenses come to mind) you have to have 5 offensive threats on the floor for the offense to flow properly. Every player has to be a threat to shoot the three or drive to prevent the defense from crowding driving lanes and the paint. That was the issue with the way Mcmahon structured last year's team. KJ was the only one who could do both consistently which is why he did so well under Mcmahon's scheme all 5 years. You just admitted that Mwani does not get much defensive attention and that is because he is not a serious offensive threat, which would severely limit what you can do on the offensive side of the ball with him in. If we want to be more successful next year, we can't rely on holding every team under 70. That's not realistic. We have to be able to score
This post was edited on 6/8/23 at 1:00 pm
Posted on 6/8/23 at 1:26 pm to Aforem7
Is Wilkinson in the portal? Why is so much time being spent writing about him in this portal thread?
Posted on 6/8/23 at 1:34 pm to PNG Futbol
Because portal recruiting is over and there is nothing else to talk about. Would you rather dead silence?
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