(04-18-2022 10:53 PM)RamyEMU Wrote: (04-18-2022 09:34 PM)Miggy Wrote: Randle will be a work in progress. One thing he does exceptionally well is block shoots. Very few players can do that.
I would like to see the center position played “by committee” of all three (to borrow a term from Steve). I have a feeling they will foul a lot- especially how undersized they are. But might be an upgrade given how much more quick/athletic they are. Jihad would need to work on his 3 pointer and hope you are right about Randle’s shot blocking.
With Nije. Okongo, N.Scott, and Binelli having departed, we’ll not know who should play till EMU signs more and hopefully better bigs. Njie was EMU’s best interior defender.
Randle, Jihad and Ballard will be in the mix to play inside. Agree that Jihad should continue to develop his three-point shot, and improves his court awareness on defense.
Hopefully, they and the new bigs won’t stray far from the hoop, only to be unable to be unable to retreat in time to defend the hoop. Also don’t want to inside defenders commit as high a foul rate as the departed players did last season. N. Scott was EMU’s only interior defender who didn’t commit excessively fouls.
Regardless of the size and limitations of EMU’s inside defenders, they need to be taught to stay between their man and the hoop, and force their opponent take jump-shots without committing dumb touch shooting fouls.
And when their opponent’s attempt to go around them, they must give ground and not let their opponent get an uncontested shot at the rim as often occurred last season.
Even though extremely thin, Randle was among the nation’s best shot-blockers. Just hope he does so without knocking the ball out of bounds.