You can certainly see what he is going to go high in the draft. Without him, we lose that game. Hopefully others will step up and start playing better. We are a very average team right now. That was a very impressive performance last night.

Edgecombe really stepped up in the 2nd half last night to put the team on his back in what had to that point been an embarrassingly abysmal home game against a weak opponent that we were solidly on the path to losing. Instead of just having at most 2 or 3 highlight reel type plays and otherwise being a non-factor or even a detriment, he consistently looked like and played like the player he was billed to be for his one season with us over multiple possessions and defensive stops in that 2nd half. Hope it wasn't just because we were playing a bottom feeder team at home and that it was a preview of things to come the rest of the season and postseason.

I wish he would be more selfish. Sometimes there comes a time to take over and this guy can do that. I can see why the NBA wants him so bad.

We also need to post him up against the smaller guards.

I will admit my ignorance concerning our roster. I follow the women's team much more than the men. My question has to do with our roster. The announcers last night said several times that we were playing with a rotation of only 7 because of injuries to Love and Roach.

That only adds up to 9. What is the deal with the rest of the roster? Do we not have even serviceable players on the bench?

blackie said:

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I will admit my ignorance concerning our roster. I follow the women's team much more than the men. My question has to do with our roster. The announcers last night said several times that we were playing with a rotation of only 7 because of injuries to Love and Roach.

That only adds up to 9. What is the deal with the rest of the roster? Do we not have even serviceable players on the bench?

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We do not have serviceable bench players outside of our top 7 rotation guys. Our bench is basically just walkons who function as practice players.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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blackie said:

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I will admit my ignorance concerning our roster. I follow the women's team much more than the men. My question has to do with our roster. The announcers last night said several times that we were playing with a rotation of only 7 because of injuries to Love and Roach.

That only adds up to 9. What is the deal with the rest of the roster? Do we not have even serviceable players on the bench?

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We do not have serviceable bench players outside of our top 7 rotation guys. Our bench is basically just walkons who function as practice players.

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OK, even more ignorance. Why is that? (This is a serious question. I'd like to know the whys behind this.)

blackie said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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blackie said:

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I will admit my ignorance concerning our roster. I follow the women's team much more than the men. My question has to do with our roster. The announcers last night said several times that we were playing with a rotation of only 7 because of injuries to Love and Roach.

That only adds up to 9. What is the deal with the rest of the roster? Do we not have even serviceable players on the bench?

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We do not have serviceable bench players outside of our top 7 rotation guys. Our bench is basically just walkons who function as practice players.

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OK, even more ignorance. Why is that? (This is a serious question. I'd like to know the whys behind this.)

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Since injuries forced Asemota into the rotation, when Love is available (which granted is hardly ever) we have up to 9 guys that are capable of delivering decent minutes, but that is it. I thought the foreign late signee post player we brought in was going to be able to contribute to some extent, but that's obviously not the case.

We used all our NIL money on Roach and Omier so we didn't have enough NIL left over to recruit quality depth. Since the transfer portal we have not been able to recruit and keep players around who can develop into good bench/role players. It is harder to accomplish now because if a developmental player like Miro Little doesn't get playing time they just transfer out.

gobears20 said:

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VJ Edgecombe had his best showing of the season tonight vs KSU:

📊 30 PTS (8-13 FG, 3-7 3P, 11-12 FT), 3 REB & 2 STL

The downhill creation & perimeter shotmaking were on full display. Made it an emphasis to be aggressive as a scorer today & got to the FT line as a result. pic.twitter.com/l3aJtlkKEu

— mohamed (@mcfxz) January 23, 2025

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We need a lot more of this. He got to the rim. We can not keep being a three-point shooting team.

Maybe his performance last night elevates everyone's game. A rising tide….

Gonna be honest - I can't heap praise on him like everyone else until I see him do this against a halfway decent team, not a team on a 6-game losing losing streak and a Big 12 cellar dweller. Because what he did last night reflects the same pattern we are seeing from this team as a whole - against crappy teams, we wipe the floor with them. But against decent to good teams, we fold like a cheap suit.

He can do what he did last night against anybody. No opponent is his challenge. His confidence and belief are his challenge.

"Nobody is his challenge" do you actually watch any of the games?
VJ played outstanding last night. He's also been completely shut down multiple times this year. Your posts get more and more asinine each year

He always exaggerates but I kinda see his point. I think VJ's confidence is soaring right now. The key to his confidence level is letting him be aggressive and putting the ball in his hands to create for himself and others. You can see it in is body language in recent games. Earlier in the year we just had him camping out behind the 3 point line which caused him to play passive. When VJ is playing aggressive and engaged no one can stop him. I'm glad our coaches have made that adjustment as well as ending the Roach PG experiment. Still time to salvage our season.

I don't disagree with your take as long that aggressiveness is attacking the rim. KSU collapsed hard every time he beat his man off the dribble and it constantly lead to good things. I do agree that we need to see this against the top teams. Not the bottom of the league.
Either way we spin it we're going to need VJ to continue playing at a high level for the Bears to make run at the post season. I do think Wednesdays performance carries over to SLC. The Utes are a fantastic matchup for BU

IowaBear said:

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I don't disagree with your take as long that aggressiveness is attacking the rim. KSU collapsed hard every time he beat his man off the dribble and it constantly lead to good things. I do agree that we need to see this against the top teams. Not the bottom of the league.
Either way we spin it we're going to need VJ to continue playing at a high level for the Bears to make run at the post season. I do think Wednesdays performance carries over to SLC. The Utes are a fantastic matchup for BU

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Amen to that. Oddly enough these past few games when VJ has started to emerge, Wright and Omier have started to regress (especially Wright). If we can get our big 3 all playing well at the same time we still have a chance to make some noise.

Omier has been very consistent outside of a few recent games.

Energy has looked off and he's been moved more easily by, lets face it, not very good front courts. Looks sick or banged up. I expect it to improve.

IowaBear said:

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I don't disagree with your take as long that aggressiveness is attacking the rim. KSU collapsed hard every time he beat his man off the dribble and it constantly lead to good things. I do agree that we need to see this against the top teams. Not the bottom of the league.
Either way we spin it we're going to need VJ to continue playing at a high level for the Bears to make run at the post season. I do think Wednesdays performance carries over to SLC. The Utes are a fantastic matchup for BU

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This will be the next step in his development -- and likely a key to any success we're going to have as a team this season. Can what we've seen from Edgecombe against teams like Utah, Cincinnati and Kansas State translate to games against top-half Big 12 teams?

I think he has the athletic ability to get to the rim against most anyone. But he has struggled to finish against the better, more athletic defense we've seen this year. And he's also fallen into a habit in those games of settling for (often contested) jump shots.

I hope Wednesday's game gives him the confidence to attack, attack, attack, regardless of the opponent. Both he and we are at our best when he's trying to aggressively get to the rim.

The next 2 are very favorable matchups for the Bears. The teams we've been noticeably more athletic than we've beat. The Bears are noticeably more athletic than Utah and BYU.
Winning in Provo is never easy. But the Cougars are pretty average this year. A clean sweep in Utah would do wonders! But imo we absolutely have to win Saturday in SLC.

In general he gets his stuff blocked too easily, struggles against longer defenders. I have noticed a sluggish energy level too in the past couple games. He is a warrior and you are probably right that he is playing under the weather or banged up.

bear2be2 said:

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IowaBear said:

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I don't disagree with your take as long that aggressiveness is attacking the rim. KSU collapsed hard every time he beat his man off the dribble and it constantly lead to good things. I do agree that we need to see this against the top teams. Not the bottom of the league.
Either way we spin it we're going to need VJ to continue playing at a high level for the Bears to make run at the post season. I do think Wednesdays performance carries over to SLC. The Utes are a fantastic matchup for BU

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This will be the next step in his development -- and likely a key to any success we're going to have as a team this season. Can what we've seen from Edgecombe against teams like Utah, Cincinnati and Kansas State translate to games against top-half Big 12 teams?

I think he has the athletic ability to get to the rim against most anyone.

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We might not see it. Edgecombes game comes alive when he gets to the line. Against Ku, Houston, and most decent teams on the road he's going to get hacked and has to have the physical strength and mental endurance to play through the contact. Most of the contact just isn't called in this league even though they are probably legitimate fouls.

That's part of the reason you like physically mature vets without the huge upside talent.. which makes sense.

Now if we make the tournament he could thrive with how much cleaner the game is called. If he gets in the open floor you aren't slowing him without fouling, the tournament is much more conducive for that than the big 12.