Wright is our only true point guard.

Doesn't matter if he starts. He's already playing starter's minutes since we only have a 7 man rotation.

He needs to play 30 plus minutes a game and that requires starting.

He's sitting at 25 minutes a game which for now seems about right. He makes his share of freshman mistakes but I do think he's special. He will keep getting better and better as the season progresses.

BUCANDOIT82 said:

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He needs to play 30 plus minutes a game and that requires starting.

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Tune in Wednesday afternoon and again in Storrs. You'll be a very happy camper.

I'm planning on attending the Wednesday game, so I could be very happy.

Love me some RW lll double figures every game off bench ,,..

At Connecticut…I believe this debate is over. He needs to start and get 32 plus minutes per night.

You better call Drew and let him know your imaginary debate is over

Wright comes off the bench so we can somewhat stagger Roach and Wright's minutes since they are the only guys who can play PG. Whether or not he is starting Wright will play starter's minutes moving forward. He got 33 minutes vs. Uconn and I think he will keep getting those minutes. He's already our best player behind Omier. I think we will start playing more small ball lineups and Josh O will start losing minutes once we get everyone healthy.

Yep. Agree. I wonder if Drew and the staff thought that Asemota was gonna be a little bit more ready when he got to campus than he ended up being, and when he wasn't we were basically stuck with 2 front court guys (1 of which is more of a situation player being thrown into playing more minutes than he probably should) and then a pretty small overall lineup otherwise although the 8 pieces are good when all are healthy. Small ball will likely work against a portion of the Big 12.

I agree, I think the staff probably expected to get something from Asemota. That said, I think Celestine was the biggest swing and miss. Celestine was recruited as the Bridges replacement to play the 4. Huge miscalculation. Celistine plays small and is only a streaky 3 point specialist who contributes nothing else when his 3 isn't falling.

Yeah, my fear with Celestine is that he does really well against lower competition and then is really streaky versus higher level comp, which is basically what he did at Cal. Looking at the numbers he basically didn't provide much offense against Arkansas, Gonzaga, Tennessee or UConn going 4-18 from 3, but feasted on Tarleton and Sam Houston. The anomaly appears to be St. Johns, where he played really well. I was hoping we could count on him as an instant offense guy off the bench. We couldn't afford for him to lay an egg like he did last night. And I haven't checked the individual defensive efficiency ratings yet but I don't think his will be very high either.

Bridges was hugely underrated especially what he did for us on the defensive end with his length and ability to get deflections. We whiffed big time as far as replacing him with Asemota and Celestine. The inability to replace Bridges is essentially what is forcing us to play Josh so much. Josh should only be getting around 1o minutes a game directly behind Omier.

Bridges wasn't on last year's team. Missi was.

We don't have any more meaningful games until the start of conference. They could start me the first four minutes and still blow out the teams between now and then.

BUCANDOIT82 said:

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Bridges wasn't on last year's team. Missi was.

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Ummm....yes he was.

Whoops…My bad…Bridges was on last year's team. We replaced him with Orchad.

Anytime Wright is on the floor, Omier needs to be out there with him. Those two seem to have a chemistry

BUCANDOIT82 said:

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Whoops…My bad…Bridges was on last year's team. We replaced him with Orchad.

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No problem. But I kinda view it as replacing Missi with Norchad and Bridges with Celestine. The Bridges replacement was a big miss.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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BUCANDOIT82 said:

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Whoops…My bad…Bridges was on last year's team. We replaced him with Orchad.

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No problem. But I kinda view it as replacing Missi with Norchad and Bridges with Celestine. The Bridges replacement was a big miss.

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If Celestine was recruited as Bridges' replacement, someone didn't do enough scouting. Celestine has always been a tall guard -- on both sides of the floor.

He may have front court height, but he is absolutely not a front court player.

It still floors me that our staff thought this roster had enough in the front court.

We're one injury away from fielding our worst team in more than a decade. And all this talk about a four-guard lineup solves nothing IMO.

I think they were hoping one of Celestine or Asemota would replace Bridges. It was a disastrous miscalculation.

bear2be2 said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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BUCANDOIT82 said:

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Whoops…My bad…Bridges was on last year's team. We replaced him with Orchad.

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No problem. But I kinda view it as replacing Missi with Norchad and Bridges with Celestine. The Bridges replacement was a big miss.

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If Celestine was recruited as Bridges' replacement, someone didn't do enough scouting. Celestine has always been a tall guard -- on both sides of the floor.

He may have front court height, but he is absolutely not a front court player.

It still floors me that our staff thought this roster had enough in the front court.

We're one injury away from fielding our worst team in more than a decade. And all this talk about a four-guard lineup solves nothing IMO.

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It was a gamble on him being undervalued being two years off major injury. They thought they could develop his rebounding / defense but it hasn't happened and like you said.. its not his game.

The bet on Josh also looks poor right now. It hasn't worked so far. Toppin at NM would have been a great target. They tapped out on the market for Hawkins (rightfully so) but Toppin could have been swung. The unexpected guys leaving after 1 year and the 4+ guys we carried on the roster that never developed basically shot the system. Needed to be resolved about a year ago and just never happened.

Someone explain the Yanis situation to me. We signed him in 2023. It was sold at that time that he would need to redshirt because of an ACL injury but he would eventually be counted on as a proven PF who was a good defender and rebounder, which is what we need in a reserve role right now if Asemota isn't the answer. He's 18-24 months from his injury and he's basically not even dressing out. Did we sign someone who had a knee injury as bad or worse than EJ's? What's up with that?

bear2be2 said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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BUCANDOIT82 said:

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Whoops…My bad…Bridges was on last year's team. We replaced him with Orchad.

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No problem. But I kinda view it as replacing Missi with Norchad and Bridges with Celestine. The Bridges replacement was a big miss.

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If Celestine was recruited as Bridges' replacement, someone didn't do enough scouting. Celestine has always been a tall guard -- on both sides of the floor.

He may have front court height, but he is absolutely not a front court player.

It still floors me that our staff thought this roster had enough in the front court.

We're one injury away from fielding our worst team in more than a decade. And all this talk about a four-guard lineup solves nothing IMO.

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It does require 4 healthy guards, which we currently lack. But it will work if we get back to 5 guards.

Wright may turn out to be a Missi freshman. Not forecasted to enter the draft but trending in that direction.