Style of play

[mtgrizrule]

Well with the school year about to begin, basketball is a few months from starting.
Many are wondering what will the GRIZ style of play be under a new coach?
I believe Travis will be true to his word. Based on who he is recruiting, where the majority of the talent is, and possible roster changes, we will be able to soon get an idea.
I honestly believe we will often be going with 1 big, go small often, and pick up the pace.

Another thing I am surprised by, normally when there is a coaching change the inherited roster is impacted in some way. We have yet to hear publicly of that. I would not be surprised if there is a minor shake up by the time season starts.

IF there are changes, I am hoping we fans can balance our player loyalties with an open mind to the new coaching changes, rather it be with strategy, personnel, or combination of both. This is DC's 1st head coaching job. As articulate and bright he is, and the fact he has veteran coach on the bench (Ken Bone), I expect him to have some growing pains with the job too.
I have a feeling his 1st questionable decision may be a little controversial.

It will be interesting to see what plays out the next few months.

 

[alabamagrizzly]

Well with the school year about to begin, basketball is a few months from starting.
Many are wondering what will the GRIZ style of play be under a new coach?
I believe Travis will be true to his word. Based on who he is recruiting, where the majority of the talent is, and possible roster changes, we will be able to soon get an idea.
I honestly believe we will often be going with 1 big, go small often, and pick up the pace.

Another thing I am surprised by, normally when there is a coaching change the inherited roster is impacted in some way. We have yet to hear publicly of that. I would not be surprised if there is a minor shake up by the time season starts.

IF there are changes, I am hoping we fans can balance our player loyalties with an open mind to the new coaching changes, rather it be with strategy, personnel, or combination of both. This is DC's 1st head coaching job. As articulate and bright he is, and the fact he has veteran coach on the bench (Ken Bone), I expect him to have some growing pains with the job too.
I have a feeling his 1st questionable decision may be a little controversial.

It will be interesting to see what plays out the next few months.

Question for you rule. With the style he is bringing, what kind of projections to you have for our current roster? Do you see any people making different contributions then they did in last years game plan? How about D. Will we keep our same intensity there? Obviously with the up-paced O, the D will take a small step back but I hope not too much.

 

[mtgrizrule]

Well with the school year about to begin, basketball is a few months from starting.
Many are wondering what will the GRIZ style of play be under a new coach?
I believe Travis will be true to his word. Based on who he is recruiting, where the majority of the talent is, and possible roster changes, we will be able to soon get an idea.
I honestly believe we will often be going with 1 big, go small often, and pick up the pace.

Another thing I am surprised by, normally when there is a coaching change the inherited roster is impacted in some way. We have yet to hear publicly of that. I would not be surprised if there is a minor shake up by the time season starts.

IF there are changes, I am hoping we fans can balance our player loyalties with an open mind to the new coaching changes, rather it be with strategy, personnel, or combination of both. This is DC's 1st head coaching job. As articulate and bright he is, and the fact he has veteran coach on the bench (Ken Bone), I expect him to have some growing pains with the job too.
I have a feeling his 1st questionable decision may be a little controversial.

It will be interesting to see what plays out the next few months.

Question for you rule. With the style he is bringing, what kind of projections to you have for our current roster? Do you see any people making different contributions then they did in last years game plan? How about D. Will we keep our same intensity there? Obviously with the up-paced O, the D will take a small step back but I hope not too much.

That is a tough question. I have not been able to watch any scrimmages/open gyms. At this point all I can do is guess what he might do based on the kind of players being recruited. Big men are very few. I believe there is only 1 offer for 2015 to a HS post player. I really do not know about what JC's we are looking at. At this point I think our personnel and depth is best suited for very aggressive defense. I have not heard anything as to if TD prefers zone or man, or switching things up (like Wayne did). I feel the biggest difference will be pushing the ball more with emphasis on creating for teammates more. I expect Dunn to have pretty solid assist numbers. I think the offense will be centered a lot more around Breunig. He is a 6'9" player who can score from 3, mid range, driving, and the post. He also has a nice touch.

I feel Breunig and Kemp will be our main men for bigs, and the majority of minutes beyond those 2 will be very similar to what Wayne did in 2013/14 with a lot of small ball. Kemp will be expected to rebound, or he may be on the pine too. Don't be surprised to see very little emphasis on post depth, at least for this season. It looks to me DeCuire wants a lot of athleticism, agility, and versatility on the court regardless of height. Wayne had to go smaller out of necessity the last few seasons, which was not his preference. Travis only wants players who can play in the open court by getting up and down the court, which will make post depth even less emphasized than under Wayne.

I'm hoping there will be more zone traps, and forcing the ball to the baseline and corners more. The GRIZ executed those kind of defenses well under Wayne, but Wayne was very selective when he ran that kind of defense. I have a feeling Travis will make more trapping a bigger part of defense. Also a lot of collapsing defense and smalls trying to poke the ball free when the ball goes to the post. Post defense will be more about positioning on the blocks than shot blocking. I really don't expect much shot blocking beyond Breunig, at least until Travis gets more athletic posts. Dare I says, we will almost be centerless more often than we expect? (I consider Breunig a PF/4).

We can only wait and see what changes DeCuire brings. I won't be surprised if we see some kind of shake up in personnel in terms of minutes, or someone not suiting up. It is common for new coaches to put their own stamp on a team, even if it means doing something that some fans will not like. I just hope whatever is done, or whoever is impacted does not come back and bite the team in the butt as the season progresses.

I'm hoping sooner than later, there is some kind of news. Things have been a little too quiet since his announcement of the staff. :thumb:

 

[alabamagrizzly]

Thanks for the insight. As usual, you bring good info. I kinda consider you, journal, and citay the BW's if the b-ball board. Your that high on Breunig? That's good to hear he's that good. I'm real interested in Dunn's buddy transferring in too. I'm also interested in seeing if we can get a 20 per game guy with TD's O. I only would have considered Jordan but it sounds like Breunig could do it too. If he's also gonna be the main big then mabey he could go 20 and 10. Of course I'd take a con title and nobody averaging more then 10 pts any day of the week.

 

[mtgrizrule]

Thanks for the insight. As usual, you bring good info. I kinda consider you, journal, and citay the BW's if the b-ball board. Your that high on Breunig? That's good to hear he's that good. I'm real interested in Dunn's buddy transferring in too. I'm also interested in seeing if we can get a 20 per game guy with TD's O. I only would have considered Jordan but it sounds like Breunig could do it too. If he's also gonna be the main big then mabey he could go 20 and 10. Of course I'd take a con title and nobody averaging more then 10 pts any day of the week.

Gregory and Breunig will likely be our top scorers. We have not had a good scoring 6'7" plus scorer since Ward. So the majority of players are not used to having a dependable scoring big, like Breunig. I'd like to see Breunig average 15 ppg and 7 RPG. He will be the player we cannot afford to lose due to injury. Dunn will likely be a scoring option, if needed. I hope Kemp can live up to his potential this season. It will be interesting to see who steps it up behind Gregory and Dunn? I hope Gfeller find his game again this season. He hit the freshman bump very hard last season, and never recovered from it. Weisner's role will be interesting. The guy can flat out score when he is not asked to do as much in the paint on defense and the boards. I see him swinging between SF and PF this season. I think he can score 12 plus ppg. I'd like to see him get more of a green light though.

Beyond those players, rest of the roster is pretty unknown and hard to predict. I wonder who will do what and who will emerge? I'd like to get some time to drive over to Missoula to watch some pick up games, practices, and scrimmages. If I were in Missoula, I'd be living at Dahlberg when not working. :thumb:

 

[citygriz]

i think the coaching staff is probably just as much in the dark as we are at this point. you can't know a player's true strenghs and character until you see them in game conditions. and there's nothing solid you can say about next year's team. it's definitely not "set" like weber is to be the pre-season favorite. at the same time, we're not exactly in a re-building mode, yet we may not be good enough to be in a re-load mode.
all in all, a total mystery.

my hopes for the coming season:
--that we see real progress between the freshman and sophomore years on the parts of dunn, gfeller and lopez. i think all three have great upside, but if you don't see that potential begun to be seriously realized by the sophomore year, you usually don't see it at all.
--that breunig is truly a 15-point-seven-rebound-a-game type player. i know there are high hopes for him on this board, yet in two years ar udub he didn't demonstrate that kind of potential. hope i'm wrong. hope, too, that kemp develops.
--that one or both of the jaycee transfers make substantial contributions. i saw a couple of dunn's high school games, and frankly don't remember edmonds on a team with several star players. but he could be a late developer. the other kid, nwosu, seems to have a good outside shot, but doesn't seem to get it off quickly. i hope he can adust to the faster d-1 game.
--finally, that decuire insititues a sensible red-shirt policy. montana can only compete against the four-and-five star recruits when they have a mature experienced team, hopefully always with a couple of fifth-year seniors on the roster. the kids from glendive and australia need redshirt years--unless the kid from australia surprises. the kid from glendive will not. four points in a high school game against kids from wyoming does not bode well for the future.
well, with football season here, basketball is on deck. we'll know soon enough.

 

[mtgrizrule]

i think the coaching staff is probably just as much in the dark as we are at this point. you can't know a player's true strenghs and character until you see them in game conditions. and there's nothing solid you can say about next year's team. it's definitely not "set" like weber is to be the pre-season favorite. at the same time, we're not exactly in a re-building mode, yet we may not be good enough to be in a re-load mode.
all in all, a total mystery.

my hopes for the coming season:
--that we see real progress between the freshman and sophomore years on the parts of dunn, gfeller and lopez. i think all three have great upside, but if you don't see that potential begun to be seriously realized by the sophomore year, you usually don't see it at all.
--that breunig is truly a 15-point-seven-rebound-a-game type player. i know there are high hopes for him on this board, yet in two years ar udub he didn't demonstrate that kind of potential. hope i'm wrong. hope, too, that kemp develops.
--that one or both of the jaycee transfers make substantial contributions. i saw a couple of dunn's high school games, and frankly don't remember edmonds on a team with several star players. but he could be a late developer. the other kid, nwosu, seems to have a good outside shot, but doesn't seem to get it off quickly. i hope he can adust to the faster d-1 game.
--finally, that decuire insititues a sensible red-shirt policy. montana can only compete against the four-and-five star recruits when they have a mature experienced team, hopefully always with a couple of fifth-year seniors on the roster. the kids from glendive and australia need redshirt years--unless the kid from australia surprises. the kid from glendive will not. four points in a high school game against kids from wyoming does not bode well for the future.
well, with football season here, basketball is on deck. we'll know soon enough.

TD really wants players who are agile, athletic and can run the floor. I have not seen Boehning play. I hope for his sake he is a big who can run. If not, he won't be around long. I have a feeling that scholarship would have gone to someone else if DeCuire had not arrived so late in recruiting. I'm pretty confident in believing what TD wants in his players. Unfortunately for a few of them, they if they cannot physically be agile and athletic, they will not be around long term We shall see how it plays out.

 

[grizzlyjournal]

Rule, Citay: Your comments regarding the 2014-15 Griz style of play are perceptive and on-target in my thinking.... but go well beyond what I’ve been able to assume at this point.

I haven’t seen any summer sessions, so I can’t even consider newcomer potential. I did observe Martin Breunig several times last season and am confident he’ll become the player Wayne Tinkle predicted he’d be.

Beyond that, my observations are shorter term. I strongly believe Montana’s upcoming style of play has been pretty well cast with the hiring of Travis DeCuire and his hiring of top-caliber assistants. From the hiring interview (gogriz.com) we have that information already:
• DeCuire has already predicted that Montana’s style of defensive attack would be significantly more aggressive and risk-oriented (willing to make mistakes on pressure in order to set tempo). He also said the Griz would be a significantly higher geared offensive team and tossed out numbers as his goal (80-85 ppg scoring average). Then he hired coaches with the experience and reputations to put that higher paced game into place, particularly with Ken Bone as head assistant. My response? Can’t wait.

But there are two other pre- or early season phases that I believe will have a huge impact on how the Griz will play this year.
1. I have NO inside info, but the recruiting sites indicate that Montana’s still in the hunt for a JC power forward. The printed names are: Williston State College 6-8 hoss Houston Lavachek, reportedly contacted by Tinkle’s staff... so, who knows if he’s still being considered; and, Midland College pf 6-8, 2l5lb. Kenan Guzonjic. The names aren’t as important as is the reality that any additional j.c. player will displace a player whose name is on the current Griz roster over at gogriz.com. What this says is that Montana coaches are in the hunt for front-court brawn (& scoring punch?) ... something that will definitely have an impact on this year’s team.
2. Secondly, those same recruiting sites indicate the Griz are being very aggressive in recruiting high profile H. S. players in the 1-4 positions. If the Griz land one or two of the higher-rated players it’ll have an immediate impact on Montana’s short- and long term future (sort of like when we first read that Will Cherry and Kareem Jamar were headed to Missoula).

Already we’re gradually seeing H. S. players in the class of 15-16 announce their decisions, the most impactful of which will probably be known by the end of September. Two on Montana’s list have already committed to other schools. But I think we’ll get an idea after the first autumn recruiting visits on a beautiful football game day where these kids can get a taste of UM campus life. My take? Can’t wait to see if we can get one or two top recruits.

But I have a gut feeling the most important one will be if a JC big is headed to zootown to bolster Montana’s front court. At that point we’ll have a clearer picture of the team Mr. DeCuire and his staff are assembling.

I can still remember the press interview when newly hired head coach Pat Kennedy described UM and Missoula as the perfect environment in which to build the next mid-major dark horse. Well, I say there's no time like the present. Can't wait.

 

[BelierPeaux]

I'd be stoked to see 15 - 20 more ppg. Not that I will complain about the success Tinkle has had. More up-tempo should be fun and may help put more butts in seats.