Isaiah Whitehead
- Thread starter HallX2
- Start date
Great point. This offense needs to run some more plays for Angel and Ish/Nzei. Need to do things to take some pressure off him. Right now our offense is IW and Khadeen with an occasional Angel sighting and some put back opportunities. Too one dimensional.
This post means well and in theory it is absolutely right, but Delgado does not work hard enough for position on the block. He needs to do that in order to have successful plays head his direction. He's not quick and has little elevation, which allows slower defenders to "catch up" and limit him. Think about it. When was the last time you've seen him dunk? He doesn't do it often because he's limited athletically.
As for Sanogo and Nzei, both are raw offensively. That's not a big concern for me because of the energy, defense and rebounding they bring, but scoring on a regular basis is not one of their primary roles and it shouldn't be given where their offensive skills are at right now.
Our offensive schemes are poor and that puts too much pressure on the guards. The scoring pressure on them is already great because of the makeup of this team.
The real key going forward is somehow getting Delgado to refine his offensive game, be smarter and be more aggressive. Given that we're halfway into the season and the competition level has increased in conference play, I don't think the odds of that happening are very high this season. This comes down to offensive philosophy, preparation and one-on-one coaching. Unfortunately, most of that has to be done in the preseason/offseason.
Believe me, I don't want Isaiah to transfer. But there is a reason that picking a coach who has gotten players into the league is many times a deciding factor for recruits. Hopefully Isaiah is Kevin's first. But I think Isaiah makes the league, as a Seton Hall graduate, in spite of Kevin and not because of him.
And let me just add, I've met Isaiah and he's a humble, intelligent man. He's not at all like the media portrayed him last year. A few messages on a fan forum won't make him transfer. It will fuel his fire. The kid has all the makings of a superstar. He just needs to harness it (and he will). He's learning a new position this year. I firmly believe he will leave SHU as one of the greats if he stays four years.
Whitehead is not going to transfer and sit out a year. That's like a 100 to 1 shot. He'll either be here next season or turn pro and play in Europe. My guess is the latter right now.
I really don't agree with most of that, and I was a fan of Hazell. No question Whitehead had a bad couple of games but he has absolutely been trying to improve as a PG by getting others involved. Whitehead shot a better % from 3 his Freshman year compared to Hazell, 4 times the number of assists Hazell had per game. Granted Hazell wasn't a PG but neither was Whitehead last year.
Both players try/tried to shoot us out of a slump when everyone else was off. This year Whitehead has stopped several runs with a timely 3 or a pull-up from 10 feet.
Hazell was considered a volume shooter because he holds the SHU record for 3PT field goals made, but is not in the top 20 for 3PT field goal percentage. A career .344 3PT shooter which is what Whitehead did last year.
What we are missing now is coaching. Creighton took Whitehead and Delgado out of their rhythm and we didn't change our offense to get them involved. Maybe abandon the weave and spread to let Whitehead penetrate a few times?
I think Whitehead still has a lot to improve upon but has been a good player (not great) this season and is far from our biggest problem.
He might never change. He's been king of the hill and doing it his way since he was in grammar school. Two or three years in South Orange isn't going to have an effect.
You can't undo his ways unless there's money on the line or your coach is Rick, Cal , Izzo or K.
I really must respectfully disagree with this. IMO he always plays hard on defense, he takes charges, he rebounds from his PG position, he has to both distribute the ball (and he has done that a lot better of late with several games of 9 and 10 assists), he has to score at least 15 a game for us to be in a game (which he's doing), he's learning a new position and has done it better than I thought.
He's not afraid to take important shots as he did vs Georgia, WSU, DePaul and Nova. Where would we have been vs Nova if he (along with Carrington and Gordon) doesn't come out big in the 2nd half with 15 points despite foul trouble. I'm sure someone would point out he only had two assist, but how about some of the big guys finish some plays off his passes. He's barely into his sophomore year as he missed 9 games last season and then had to overcome the lingering effects of the injury last year.
Has he been perfect, of course not. And we're frustrated as fans. But to put one of our own guys down like that, a very talented player who came to SHU to try to help build us back up (please don't repeat the BS about his recruitment-- he's here and he didn't have to chose us), isn't supported by the facts IMHO.
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