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Player Improvement

M

montanatarheel

Well-known member
My short outlook on what each player needs to improve on this offseason.

Will Cherry
Upper body strength, decision making, shooting range and freethrow shooting. The way he plays he is gonna live at the freethrow line so he has to be able to convert. upper body strength will help him finish inside( he was bumped off a lot of shots this year). if he can ad a respectable outside shot he will be impossible to guard. Gonna be a star.

Mathias Ward
Explosiveness, upper and lower strength, positional rebounding and defense and finishing inside. he is not a great athlete so he has to make up for that with positioning which he didnt always do a good job of this year. He also didnt score on enough of the opportunities he had inside this year strength will help. tough kid who loves contact just needs to figure out how to play against bigger players.

Shawn Stockton
Explosiveness, shooting range, and as bad as this sounds on this level, handling the ball with his left hand. He is on the fence for d-1 as far as athleticism and doesnt seem to have shooting range to offset this. Whenever he is in it seems he isnt comfortable with his left hand and our offense always starts on the right. That being said i love his attitude and demeanor and i think he will be a good pass first defensive backup point.

Derek Selvig
GET HEALTHY, strength, low post offense and defense, finishing inside and not putting the ball on the ground, ball control and three point shot selection. We need him available 30 minutes a night next year. he makes us so much better in so many ways. Has been known to turn it over or take a bad three every now and then. Strength will do wonders and i do not believe he weighs the 250 he is listed at. HUGE potential we just need him healthy. Dark horse next year for BSC POY in my opinion(if healthy).

Raason Young
Ball security, defensive and offensive awareness, shooting constistency, attacking off the dribble and strength. Didnt seem to have much dribble drive game despite good athleticism, quickness and his shot is streaky.turned it over too much and wasnt near as good off the ball defending as he was on. He has lots of potential and i think we will see a different player next year.

Brian Qvale
Finishing inside, explosiveness, working early consistently to get position offensively, staying out of foul trouble( though he wasnt terrible). As good a year as he had i think he underachieved some. He needs to play every game like new mexico. He SHOULD average a double-double next year with 15-18 points and 2-3 blocks. It would be nice to see him be more agressive inside early and look to dunk. All BSC first teamer, BSC POY possibility.

Michael Taylor
Offensive aggressiveness, on ball D, strength and explosiveness. Very good shooter who needs to look to shoot more and will have the chance this year. On ball defense down the stretch was not very good. a little strength and quickness would help defensively and help him attack more on offense. Think he will play a much bigger role be our main shooter and be close to 10ppg.

My short outlook on what the newcomers will bring. I hope i Havent seen any of them play this is just the jist of what i read.

Eric Hutchinson
Big that can get up and down the floor, rebound, score in the post, play hard and hopefuly block some shots sounds like a true 5.

Kareem Jamar
Kid will play a ton from the get go. Athletic wing who is rapidly improving, especialy perimeter shooting. Lockdown defender, good teamate, WINNER, and a kid that might be a level above us. Gonna be a star once he is here cant wait.

Vaughn Autry
Combo guard that can score and run the point when needed, intense on the ball defender, quick and explosive, Winner with a good family foundation, tough mature who has been through a hardship and come out of it shining.

Michael Weisner
Big perimeter player and very long at 6'7", may also be able to swing inside in the future, Great 3 point stroke, looks pretty smooth in that video but will have strength/quickness problems(length may offset that). Looks likely for a needed redshirt to develop physicaly.

Billy Reader
Big physical post with a solid frame, is good around the basket, good rebounder/defender, moves well, bit of a late bloomer who is also rapidly improving. I prefer to redshirt all big men so i hope we can with him but he may be tough to keep off the court.

Last Scholarship
Im hoping for an athletic juco big who can score and contribute right away, or a scoring guard ready to log heavey minutes. I lean towards the first because i think Vaughn might be the second and i would rather play a freshman guard than a post(reader,weisner).

Board was kinda dead so i got a little ambitious. Opinions? Lemme know What Ya'll think.
 
haven't seen them play enough this year to give individual evaluations, but little question overall that the talent level here is as high as it's probably ever been at montana, thanks to tinkle's recruiting. what a joy to go to the big dance against the top teams in the country and not fear that you were too small, or not quick enough, or not tough enough defensively. even when we got past nevada, those boston college bigs just ate us alive inside, and pretty much shut down strait. don't think that would have been the case this year--and our backcourt quickness and defensive presence was ever so much greater.

the next step for this program is for the players to realize how good they are, to expect to win, and to play with the same swagger and aura that our football team does. that's truly the sixth man, and all the great programs have it.

finally, will cherry. what a delight to have him in our program. sure, he needs to shoot better, make better decisions, et. al., but just his presence on the floor changed the character of this team. if we have to lose a player of a.j.'s ability and character, it's great to have cherry right behind. that's not a luxury montana basketball has generally been able to afford.
 
Thanks MtTarheel - Great observations! Will Cherry, Around the horn 3 point drill. Shoot from the corner till you make it, move right between the corner and top of the key & shoot till you make it, top of the key shoot til you make it, other side, and other corner. Do this until you make one shot from each position & rebounding all shots made or missed. Great way to improve your 3 point shot and stay in shape!
 
citygriz said:
haven't seen them play enough this year to give individual evaluations, but little question overall that the talent level here is as high as it's probably ever been at montana, thanks to tinkle's recruiting. what a joy to go to the big dance against the top teams in the country and not fear that you were too small, or not quick enough, or not tough enough defensively. even when we got past nevada, those boston college bigs just ate us alive inside, and pretty much shut down strait. don't think that would have been the case this year--and our backcourt quickness and defensive presence was ever so much greater.

the next step for this program is for the players to realize how good they are, to expect to win, and to play with the same swagger and aura that our football team does. that's truly the sixth man, and all the great programs have it.

finally, will cherry. what a delight to have him in our program. sure, he needs to shoot better, make better decisions, et. al., but just his presence on the floor changed the character of this team. if we have to lose a player of a.j.'s ability and character, it's great to have cherry right behind. that's not a luxury montana basketball has generally been able to afford.
Click to expand...

kinda nitpicking I guess but those Boston College bigs are all in the NBA now.... they ate up everybody they played. They would have destroyed us this year too....I think we put up an incredible effort against BC and IMO it was just as impressive as getting the win vs. Nevada.
 
Probably true, but I think Qvale matches up a helluva lot better with any true big man than Andrew Strait. On the defensive side at least. Now only if UM could combine a true #5 like Qvale with a true #4 like Strait . . .
 
strait was fearless and had nifty moves, but was 6'8" at best--maybe a center by big sky standards but not when we got to the big dance. qvale is a legit center, at any level, and selvig is a legit seven footer. i just have to think we would have fared better inside with them against b.c. than with strait. yes, they were talented, but two were six-seven, six-eight themselves, and their real tall kid was a freshman.

but in the end, we lost at the three point line. one of their kids got hot, while martin and dhlouy couldn't buy a basket from outside.
 
Actually Martin was 3-5 from 3 point and Dlouhy was 2-4. Martin & Strait had 11 points, Dlouhy had 8. Hasquet had 13. Matthews and Criswell were the ones who unfortunately had off games shooting. Criswell as 0-6, but did lead us in rebounding with 6. Matthews was 0-3, and had 6 assists. The Griz shot 7-20 from 3 point range, and BC shot 8-17.

Their two bigs combined for 42 points and 23 rebounds (10 offensive boards). Our two bigs combined for 24 points and 4 rebounds (1 offensive board). The Griz as a team had 29 rebounds to BC's 44. They just ate us up inside. The only way the Griz stood a chance against that team is if they caught fire from the outside, because inside things were just not going to go well for us. A true center like Qvale inside would've helped some, but I still think Smith & Dudley would've put up similar numbers.
 
Getting back to the subject matter at hand, good topic and good analysis MtTarheel. I agree with everyting you said. Just a few comments on some other things I noticed this year that could be worked on and improved.

Brian Qvale has improved in just about every game and his last 3 games of the season were the best overall games of his career. His 6 blocks agains Weber were every bit as important as AJ's 42 points. His footwork under the basket has improved markedly and his aggressiveness is getting better and better. He needs to improve his short range jumper from 8 to 10 feet to go along with the post moves he has underneath. The other thing he needs to work on is keeping the ball higher when in the paint. There were a number of times that Brian was in a position to score when a smaller player came around and batted the ball from his hands because he had it at waist level. If he gets that ball up a bit those steals will become fouls and scoring opportunities. If Brian starts next season the way he ended this one, he will not only be the top big man in the BSC but one of the best in this part of the country.

Aside from getting healthy It seems to me that Derek Selvig needs to decide which game he wants to play and concentrate his efforts in that area. He has to decide whether he wants to play more of a down low game or a wing game. He has the skills and potential to do either but too many times this season it seemed as if he couldn't make up his mind which he wanted to play. If he wants to play on the wing he needs to work on his defensive footwork and consistency in his shot. If he wants to play down low he needs more upper body strength and a more aggressive attitude in the paint. I'm not saying he can't do both during a game, but he should concentrate on one or the other. Alot of this may come with seasoning and maturity next year.

I agree with the statements regarding Raason Young. I saw him just light up Boise State, ( 6 three's) and get inserted into the starting lineup and then go completely cold. He never did get the shooting touch back this year but I think he still played fairly well overall. As a natural left hander Raason needs to work on the off hand ball skills and regain confidence in his shot. If he gets that confidence back he will be tough to guard.

As you point out the biggest need with that last scholarship is for a bona fide power forward, preferably a juco, who can rebound and play good interior defense. I have nothing against Jack McGillis but he was not a true power forward and the Grizzlies suffered on occassion as a result. A good power forward would make next years team very very tough.
 
Selvig really needs to work on his free throws (56% for the year I think), but then again that could be said about almost everyone coming back except for maybe Qvale, he was about 72%. If you take Johnson and Qvale out of the numbers the rest of the team shot 60% from the line last year.
 
For those of you who know the team better than I do who is going to be the starting two guard? I would assume taylor but I'm not sure if that is correct or not.
 
First of all, thanks for starting this thread. I had a similar thread in mind, but was holding off for awhile.

As a team the GRIZ need to improve offensive continuity to develop consistency. They did improve this year though. They have to get the 5 minute plus struggles they had most every game out of the way. This held true for every loss this year, and even most the wins.

Secondly they have to have consistent rebounding on both ends . This is not just the bigs I am referring too. How many times did we see opposing perimeter players keep balls alive? Sorry, for me it was a few too many possessions per game.

The newbies have to get here as soon as possible. They have to learn the system and get to know their team mates sooner than later. I have a feeling Jamar, Autry, Reader, and Hutchison will be huge contributors next year. To be honest, schedule aside, I expect the GRIZ to be very inconsistent in out of conference play this coming season. There will be a lot more feeling out and learning with the newbies this year.

Individually here is what I think.

Cherry- FT shooting 1st and foremost with his style of play. That alone would be huge for him and the team. The kid will draw many fouls. 3 point shooting would help too, but only if he can continue being aggressive. I have seen a few too many player develop a better outside shot, then guess what? They fall in love with the perimeter and there goes rest their game that was so good (Hasquet. Sorry but I will go to my grave knowing Hasquet could have been a 20 point 10 rebound guy both his JR and SR years. He had that kind of talent.) Defensively, Cherry just needs to become more aware. I honestly feel he is already our best defensive guard at Montana over the last 20 plus years.

Qvale- Needs to do exactly what he did the last few weeks in terms of rebounding, shotblocking, and inside scoring. Unfortunately for Qvale and any GRIZ big man, for our bigs to be successful, the team collective has to commit to it. Qvale's inconsistent numbers were more from the team not focusing on establishing him than it was his skill set. As for skill set, his post moves against UNM looked like a bigger and better Strait (yes that is a compliment). Qvale's footwork and position have improved. I too would like to see him get a little 12 to 16 foot jumpshot. His biggest improvement comes in demanding better from teammates, and consistent rebounding.

Selvig- His potential is off the charts. In the Bigsky and NCAA tournaments I seen a step forward in leadership, and that certain swagger. I do agree he needs to put on more muscle, but do feel he was much more aggressive this year as his playing time improved. I thought his mix of inside and outside was about right the last month. The improvement came in his willingness to fill in for Qvale inside when asked to do so. I questioned that willingness early this year. As the season ended though, he got over the hump and was more than willing and quite effective. If I am Tinkle, I only ask him to lead more and add consistency to his game. I do not ask him to change his game at all. His awareness and versatility are what make him so special. I would run the offense through him from the perimeter or high post as often possible. Basically the GRIZ version of Durant, Nowitzki, and Garnett. I just hope he does not fall in love with the perimeter hanging.

Taylor- I really like his versatility, but with Staudacher and AJ moving on, he will have to get a more aggressive mindset defensively and offensively. He is solid when handling the ball, but that needs to be used going to hole from the 2/sg, or 3/sf, not PG. Our talent and depth at PG is fine. There is no need for him at PG any longer. Taylor has an almost Staudacher like 3 point shot. I would tell him and Young they are expected to be our primary shooters next season.

Young- I too see a world of potential and athleticism. I see his biggest problem as a mindset of being used to being given a greenlight. He strikes me as someone that needs minutes and reps to find his game consistently. He did not get those minutes this year, but Stauds and AJ leaves us 60 minutes to spread around to others next year. I tell him to be ready to become a scorer this next season. I tell him to work on penetrating, ballhandling, and hit the weightroom. This kid as the talent and skills to be the total package. Question is, can he adapt to his potential?

Ward- I like his toughness and inside scoring. I feel he needs to work on footwork and defense. Consistency will come with playing time.

Stockton- I love how effective the GRIZ are when he is on the floor. His presence always makes for an improved team. I am not sure why, but maybe because he does not look to score or fill the stat sheet. He just loves playing and making teammates succeed. To me the kid is "NAILS" and would run through any wall or any obstacle. He is my choice for being the attitude guy next year to replace Banny (but different skill sets). I too know he has to work on going left. As for his shot, he is a solid shooter, but just does not look to shoot. The few times I watch him shoot in warmups, he looks solid. I feel if he wants to score he already has a game to do so, but is not comfortable doing it.

As for the newbies, you pretty well summed it up already. I expect Hutchison and Reader to play both PF and C. I hope collectively they bring the winning attitude. Basically the same attitude Cherry brought this past year. I would not put Weisner at the 4. I love this kids perimeter game. With some improved footwork and defense, this kid will be a diamond in the rough.

GRIZ basketball has arrived, I pray everyone commits themselves in the offseason just as Qvale has the last few offseasons. If they all commit to the offseason, GRIZ basketball will be special sooner than later.

With that said, CAUTION: We are very young, and it will take some time for the newbies to gell with the team. I do not expect this team to come out guns a blazing, but come January, I expect one damn good team.
 
mtgrizrule said:
First of all, thanks for starting this thread. I had a similar thread in mind, but was holding off for awhile.

As a team the GRIZ need to improve offensive continuity to develop consistency. They did improve this year though. They have to get the 5 minute plus struggles they had most every game out of the way. This held true for every loss this year, and even most the wins.

Secondly they have to have consistent rebounding on both ends . This is not just the bigs I am referring too. How many times did we see opposing perimeter players keep balls alive? Sorry, for me it was a few too many possessions per game.

The newbies have to get here as soon as possible. They have to learn the system and get to know their team mates sooner than later. I have a feeling Jamar, Autry, Reader, and Hutchison will be huge contributors next year. To be honest, schedule aside, I expect the GRIZ to be very inconsistent in out of conference play this coming season. There will be a lot more feeling out and learning with the newbies this year.

Individually here is what I think.

Cherry- FT shooting 1st and foremost with his style of play. That alone would be huge for him and the team. The kid will draw many fouls. 3 point shooting would help too, but only if he can continue being aggressive. I have seen a few too many player develop a better outside shot, then guess what? They fall in love with the perimeter and there goes rest their game that was so good (Hasquet. Sorry but I will go to my grave knowing Hasquet could have been a 20 point 10 rebound guy both his JR and SR years. He had that kind of talent.) Defensively, Cherry just needs to become more aware. I honestly feel he is already our best defensive guard at Montana over the last 20 plus years.

Qvale- Needs to do exactly what he did the last few weeks in terms of rebounding, shotblocking, and inside scoring. Unfortunately for Qvale and any GRIZ big man, for our bigs to be successful, the team collective has to commit to it. Qvale's inconsistent numbers were more from the team not focusing on establishing him than it was his skill set. As for skill set, his post moves against UNM looked like a bigger and better Strait (yes that is a compliment). Qvale's footwork and position have improved. I too would like to see him get a little 12 to 16 foot jumpshot. His biggest improvement comes in demanding better from teammates, and consistent rebounding.

Selvig- His potential is off the charts. In the Bigsky and NCAA tournaments I seen a step forward in leadership, and that certain swagger. I do agree he needs to put on more muscle, but do feel he was much more aggressive this year as his playing time improved. I thought his mix of inside and outside was about right the last month. The improvement came in his willingness to fill in for Qvale inside when asked to do so. I questioned that willingness early this year. As the season ended though, he got over the hump and was more than willing and quite effective. If I am Tinkle, I only ask him to lead more and add consistency to his game. I do not ask him to change his game at all. His awareness and versatility are what make him so special. I would run the offense through him from the perimeter or high post as often possible. Basically the GRIZ version of Durant, Nowitzki, and Garnett. I just hope he does not fall in love with the perimeter hanging.

Taylor- I really like his versatility, but with Staudacher and AJ moving on, he will have to get a more aggressive mindset defensively and offensively. He is solid when handling the ball, but that needs to be used going to hole from the 2/sg, or 3/sf, not PG. Our talent and depth at PG is fine. There is no need for him at PG any longer. Taylor has an almost Staudacher like 3 point shot. I would tell him and Young they are expected to be our primary shooters next season.

Young- I too see a world of potential and athleticism. I see his biggest problem as a mindset of being used to being given a greenlight. He strikes me as someone that needs minutes and reps to find his game consistently. He did not get those minutes this year, but Stauds and AJ leaves us 60 minutes to spread around to others next year. I tell him to be ready to become a scorer this next season. I tell him to work on penetrating, ballhandling, and hit the weightroom. This kid as the talent and skills to be the total package. Question is, can he adapt to his potential?

Ward- I like his toughness and inside scoring. I feel he needs to work on footwork and defense. Consistency will come with playing time.

Stockton- I love how effective the GRIZ are when he is on the floor. His presence always makes for an improved team. I am not sure why, but maybe because he does not look to score or fill the stat sheet. He just loves playing and making teammates succeed. To me the kid is "NAILS" and would run through any wall or any obstacle. He is my choice for being the attitude guy next year to replace Banny (but different skill sets). I too know he has to work on going left. As for his shot, he is a solid shooter, but just does not look to shoot. The few times I watch him shoot in warmups, he looks solid. I feel if he wants to score he already has a game to do so, but is not comfortable doing it.

As for the newbies, you pretty well summed it up already. I expect Hutchison and Reader to play both PF and C. I hope collectively they bring the winning attitude. Basically the same attitude Cherry brought this past year. I would not put Weisner at the 4. I love this kids perimeter game. With some improved footwork and defense, this kid will be a diamond in the rough.

GRIZ basketball has arrived, I pray everyone commits themselves in the offseason just as Qvale has the last few offseasons. If they all commit to the offseason, GRIZ basketball will be special sooner than later.

With that said, CAUTION: We are very young, and it will take some time for the newbies to gell with the team. I do not expect this team to come out guns a blazing, but come January, I expect one damn good team.
Click to expand...

Regarding Stockton, I would love to see his +/- stat if they actually did that. I think that's probably where you would see how valuable he was over the last month or so. They had a write-up a while ago regarding the value of certain NBA players and Shane Battier was considered a very valuable player based on his very high +/-. I can see the same for Stockton.
 
Selvig's biggest strength is his versatility. He is a matchup nightmare in that he has a great stroke that a guard is physically unable to defend and he has to much skill and quickness for a big to come out and guard him on the perimeter. I think next year is his breakout year. He needs to work on his explosiveness and being able to create his own shot. I'd like to see him implement mid range turn around jumpers to his game. If he could do that nobody would be able to guard it and he would attract alot of double teams to open up the floor for cuts to the basket by our guards or dump offs to Qualve. If Selvig plays to his potential he's going to make our team much much better.
 
HighLine GRIZ if Selvig does exactly what you said and learns to drive and control the ball he will be playing in the LEAGUE!! FOR REAL!!!!
 
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