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Criswell plateauing.....

Sweetwyne

Sweetwyne

Well-known member
I am wondering why Kevin Criswell is not the spark that he was in his freshman year. I dont know if he is resting on past success or what but the guy doesnt play with the same kind of fire that he has in the past.

Maybe the ankle injury is weighing on him but maybe he is just not getting that much better. I dont think that he is ever going to be effective like his freshman year since teams have started to game plan for him. He cant create his own shot which takes him out of the games when team focus on him.
 
Anybody else you'd like to rip on while you're at it? So far you've got Dlouhy, Davis and Criswell down, only 9 more to go!

Davis wasn't the only one who was late. Farr was as well. They were late for the bus by the way, they didn't miss it. I'm sure they just overslept or something of the sort. Not getting to start is a pretty fair punishment in my opinion. This is a first time and hopefully an only time occurance.

Dlouhy is fun to watch on the offensive end. He works hard out there and his leaping ability is incredible. Our offense is pretty stagnant from what I've seen. We go into the post first, and then if the post wants, they can kick it out. We have no offense towards the guards, besides when they get open looks. I think Matt shows a lot of promise. Our back court has a lot of offensive fire-power and Dlouhy, Martin and Criswell should be getting into double figures on a regular basis.

As for Criswell, he is a step slower since his ankles have been bothering him. That being said, he can still beat anybody who guards him and he shuts down whoever he guards. He held McKinney scoreless in the first half at Missouri. This is a Big 12 stud we're talking about. Kevin has shown the ability to create this season, but it looks to me the coaches are trying to keep him more into the team offense. He gets to the rim more than our big guys do. He gets more rebounds then our big guys do.

I'll agree that he doesn't seem to have the same fire as his freshman year, but he had a lot to prove then. He's established himself as one of the Big Sky's best players after 2 years. Drawing such attention from defenses is a compliment, and he's still getting 12-15 points/game. If that's not effective, I don't know what is. He had a lot of open looks his freshman year, since Bell was getting all the attention. The inside game wasn't a strong point back then either. Now with Davis, we have to go inside first and try to get the easy points. After which, should open up the rest of the offense. I don't think there's a coach in the Big Sky that wouldn't take Kevin in a heartbeat.
 
Gym Rat.... Hold on

I am not ripping anyone here. I just wonder if Criswell is making the type of progression that I thought he would after his frosh year.

That year he was dominate IMO. He was the biggest weapon by far on that team. He was always in the right place, and truly a playmaker.

I watch several games last year and so far I have seen 3 this year plus some on satellite since I am such a huge griz basektball fan.

I felt coming into this season that Criswell would be a league MVP type player averaging in the upper teens to low 20's and taking over games.

So far I havent seen that from him this year. Maybe it is the effects from the ankle, those can take an awful long time to heal. Hopefully after christmas he will be healed and at 100% for Big Sky games.


I did not mean to rip Dhouly, just thought that he was more effective off the bench, I did say that he was a great spark - didnt I????

And I felt it was poor leadership that Davis was late for the bus. The guy is an all conference performer. But by no means am I ripping him.
 
Sorry about that Sweetwyne. I interpreted you wrongly.

I think Criswell has the potential to do some great things, but Krysko is a big guy, so he's going to coach like he knows how to play. He's going to go inside first. Not to take anything away from Coach K, but he's got so much talent in his 1-3 spots, yet he pounds the ball inside. Davis is a workhorse and carries the load most nights, but put him up against an athletic post and he gets blocked or has his shot altered almost everytime. By the way, I don't think in anyway is Davis the leader of this team. He seems to go out there and play, not caring if he gets 20 or 2 points. He should have more rebounds than he gets and his defense is non-existent (because he's lazy, not because he can't get it done).

After Kamarr, we don't have big guys who can score consistently. Seyfert doesn't have the touch, McKay doesn't have the confidence, Strait and Easley show flashes, but they are power forwards. Neither of them can be relied on for 10-15 points on any given night.

Martin, Criswell and Dlouhy all knock down the open 3. Dlouhy and Criswell can both get to the bucket and score. Farr has shown he can penetrate as well. I know that a strong basketball base comes from establishing your post game. I'm not saying we go away from trying to get 20-30 points in the paint every night. But we're not going to win many games with our backcourt only scoring 15-20 points (which is what happened against UCSB). Criswell needs 10 good looks a night. Martin needs at least a couple open shots from behind the arc. Dlouhy and Farr have to be given the chance to get 10-15 points between them.

I'm sorry, but we aren't going to get those 40 points from Seyfert, McKay, Easley and Strait.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that once Coach realizes what kind of team he has, Criswell might become that player you expected him to become. It's been tough this year because Kevin's trying to play within the offense, but he feels like the team has the best chance to win when the ball is in his hands. I'm sure most players feel that way, but I tend to agree with him.
 
I agree about Davis, I dont think he really plays that hard. I dont want to libel the guy on the griz board but it seems his personal life choices are relevent to his lacksadasical play (at times)


You are right, there is no doubt that Kennedy tried to build this team aroudn guards and slashers.

But I am totally behind and stoked about Krysko. He will recruit well because players I think will flock to him simply becuase of his pro expereiecne. From the players that I have spoken with he is honest and runs the program like a pro program. That is the way to go.

I think the team respects him a bunch which is more than they could say about Kennedy.
 
Two reasons that his Criswell's freshman year were outstanding.
1. He wasn't scouted as well by other people. People now know his strengths and weaknesses. (I know Gym Rat, he doesn't have any)
2. David Bell required a lot of attention from opposing teams and that left Criswell a great deal more open looks than he gets now.
I'm not ripping him, he's a good player but that's what I've seen.
 
Well next year (based on recruits thus far) there's not going to be any production from down low. We got three more guys coming in who can nail the 3. I believe they go 6'4", 6'5" and 6'8". I could be wrong about those heights. Three more swing players though.

I think Krysko has vastly improved this team already. He's a good start to get some momentum back into the program. However, I also think we should be scoring a lot more points than we are.

I wish we would open it up a little more and get 10-15 more shots/game (the games would be quite a bit more exciting this way) :D .
 
MTGymRat and Sweetwyne- I appreciate the passion and knowledge both you guys have regarding GRIZ hoops. I hope interest in the program grows and hope for more GRIZ fans with your degree of interest. I do disagree with your criticisms of Davis however. I don't think it fair to categorize him as lazy or make comments about "personal life choices". Kamarr is probably no more that 6'5" and as an undersized "big guy" has to really work hard to succeed in the paint. He also shoulders virtually all of the opposition's attention (double and triple teamed) when he gets the ball inside due to the lack of any other post player who is consistently a threat to score. Hopefully Strait will develop into an inside threat. I know his size puts him at a defensive disadvantage against taller post players. I don't think this team has progressed as much as most of us would like. At this point I don't see the team as being any better (or worse) than the last couple of editions. The performance last night was a step in the wrong direction. I think it may be time to sit Seyfert and McKay down and go with an inside rotation of Davis, Strait and Easley. As much as I have pulled for Jon S. to succeed, I simply have not seen much progress from him or McKay. At this point, the GRIZ are a better team without them.
 
I categorize Kamarr as lazy only because of his performance on the defensive end of the court and his rebounding. I've seen too many times where he was the slow one to rotate around, didn't box out, didn't dive for a ball, etc. I think he's an incredible asset on the offensive end of the court. I just feel like he could step it up when it comes to the less noteworthy deeds to be done on the court. I'm a big fan for the "intangibles".
 
Maybe Criswell's numbers have gone down because of his ankles, but FG% and 3p% has stayed consistent at or below 40%, not a sign of a true marksman. Crissy can get hot, but he can get as cold as a high line wind, he's steaky. It would be interesting to see what Dlouhy would do with a permanent green light, the guy has a touch as soft as velvet. He has stayed consistent with a limited number of attempts, percentages would appear to only get higher with more attempts.
 
:lol: Kevin must be making some progress. He was just named Big SKy Conference Player of the Week!
 
Dlouhy is shooting 43.2% from the field and 38.5% from behind the arc. Criswell is shooting 40.7% from the field and 33.3% from the 3-point line.

Dlouhy has 88 shots this year, Criswell has 113.

Your post doesn't hold much water after a look at those numbers. They are shooting about the same percentages and Dlouhy is getting looks. He's averaging almost 7 shots/game, Criswell 9. And typically, shot percentages go DOWN the more you shoot, not up.

Perhaps a more important stat for this team is Assist to Turnover ratio. Criswell is at 1.4 while Dlouhy is at 0.6.

I'm not trying to badmouth Dlouhy, because he is a huge asset to this team and deserves to be playing 25 minutes/game. He's a guy we need averaging right around 10 points/game. Dlouhy, Criswell and Martin are all shooting around 40%. I think that's a pretty good percentage. If those three shoot 30 times, we're scoring 30-35 points off of that. Not too bad at all.
 
Criswell doesn't have the footspeed to always create a shot. He is a big
asset when he is hitting his shot. He is agresssive-sometimes he forces
the shot too much. I think that Coach K has done a good job-he has played a tough schedule. If he can get s little moe shemistry he could win
the conference-has to do something about turnovers. Kamaar can't be
counted on-but can help. Fans need to get behing team.
 
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