A Sea Of Red

One of the Old Men's Club members always claimed that Jackson was the best pure shooter on the team!

Seems like a solid move. Never stopped believing in this guy. Wouldn't be surprised if he puts it all together at some stage. Some guys are late bloomers. Maybe that's him.

paradox wrote: ↑April 27th, 2022, 12:21 am Seems like a solid move. Never stopped believing in this guy. Wouldn't be surprised if he puts it all together at some stage. Some guys are late bloomers. Maybe that's him.

100% agree. Really surprised in his lack of production with the type of player he is. His game is suited for what we need. A spot up shooter that can stretch the D and pull wings away from McGhee and our bigs. McGhee and Jackson could be a poor mans Steph & Clay if Jackson can develop other parts of his game to stay on the floor. In particular, he needs to become a better off ball defender.
This team has a real chance to be special next year.

jmclaughlin wrote: ↑April 27th, 2022, 10:13 am

paradox wrote: ↑April 27th, 2022, 12:21 am Seems like a solid move. Never stopped believing in this guy. Wouldn't be surprised if he puts it all together at some stage. Some guys are late bloomers. Maybe that's him.

100% agree. Really surprised in his lack of production with the type of player he is. His game is suited for what we need. A spot up shooter that can stretch the D and pull wings away from McGhee and our bigs. McGhee and Jackson could be a poor mans Steph & Clay if Jackson can develop other parts of his game to stay on the floor. In particular, he needs to become a better off ball defender.
This team has a real chance to be special next year.

JJ can catch and shoot. He's got great form and the ball comes out quickly. There's a real opportunity there. But, he'll have to rise to the challenge. Some never get the opportunity. That's all you can really ask for. So, he's got his opportunity. And now it's up to him.

My son played against him in HS so I got to see him up close a few times. I am honestly shocked he has not broken out for us yet. The kid has all the tools. And yes I know about his health issues

From the cheap seats, it looks like we may have 5 guys competing for meaningful minutes in 3 rotation spots. Jackson has the clear edge as the most efficient catch & shoot guy. But other guys have the edge w/their strength areas.

Ritchie has yet to have more than an 8 man rotation (at least once conference play begins). Last year, Jackson was our 11th man (he moved up from 12th when Dobbs transferred). Even not taking the 4 newcomers on the active roster into account, he has some ground to make up to be in the top 8. That doesn't mean he can't do it. If he can earn the coaches confidence as a defender and live up to his reputation as a shooter, he could help fill the role McDowell played as a 3 point marksman and secondary scoring threat.

olldflame wrote: ↑April 28th, 2022, 5:56 pm Ritchie has yet to have more than an 8 man rotation (at least once conference play begins). Last year, Jackson was our 11th man (he moved up from 12th when Dobbs transferred). Even not taking the 4 newcomers on the active roster into account, he has some ground to make up to be in the top 8. That doesn't mean he can't do it. If he can earn the coaches confidence as a defender and live up to his reputation as a shooter, he could help fill the role McDowell played as a 3 point marksman and secondary scoring threat.

There is a very good reason, Ritchie only has an 8 man rotation. Hopefully that will change soon.

flameshaw wrote: ↑April 28th, 2022, 9:28 pm

olldflame wrote: ↑April 28th, 2022, 5:56 pm Ritchie has yet to have more than an 8 man rotation (at least once conference play begins). Last year, Jackson was our 11th man (he moved up from 12th when Dobbs transferred). Even not taking the 4 newcomers on the active roster into account, he has some ground to make up to be in the top 8. That doesn't mean he can't do it. If he can earn the coaches confidence as a defender and live up to his reputation as a shooter, he could help fill the role McDowell played as a 3 point marksman and secondary scoring threat.

There is a very good reason, Ritchie only has an 8 man rotation. Hopefully that will change soon.

Yes, one reason has been that there have been times when he only had 8 (or fewer) placers he felt he could trust, but it's more than that. He firmly believes that substituting too freely hurts chemistry, and I think there is a lot of truth in that. I doubt we will ever see him go more than 9 deep in conference play regardless of how talented the roster is.

Rotation is not about a number. it's about the players you have. And whether or not you need to play them. Some guys can make an impact. And they must play. Others have a different role.

Don't know why he'd return without assurance of an opportunity to compete. We need a deep threat. At this stage, someone else will have to up their game as a more dependable deep threat.

Even blue bloods with the deepest rosters rarely use more than an 8 man rotation late in the season. At the end of the day you don't want to take too many minutes away from your best 5 players.

How many player do y’all think SHOULD be in a rotation

Liberty Basketball Roster:

PG - DJ Moore & Colin Porter
SG - Darius McGhee, Brody Peebles, & Johnathan Jackson
G/F - Joseph Venzant & Isiah Warfield
F - Kyle Rode, Bryson Spell, Ben Southerland, & Zach Cleveland
F - Shiloh Robinson, Blake Preston

McGhee, Rode, Robinson, Preston seem to be safe rotation guys. All other minutes have yet to be earned. Warfield is the guy who trended higher late in the year. Fundamentally sound player.

Venzant is also a lock. He did start for us last year.

Seems like McGhee, Rode, and Robinson are the nucleus. Is there another 30 minute guy on the roster? We don't know yet. None of the remaining guys is a complete player. At least not yet.

My understanding is that we have 1 open scholarship should Kyle and Shiloh both return for their Covid year. 2 incoming freshmen take over Darius’s and Blake’s scholarships.

It's nice to see that we are hitting the portal. I'm suprised we are going after this guy though. He doesn't appear to be an improvement over peebles on either end of the floor and doesn't have much eligibility left. Also I question how likely we are to get a guy that grew up in Hollywood and went to college in portland. Neither place is full of people looking to come to a place like Liberty but you never know. I wonder if this signals that mckay isn't putting much faith in blair contributing right away.

Ill flame wrote: ↑March 8th, 2023, 8:03 pm It's nice to see that we are hitting the portal. I'm suprised we are going after this guy though. He doesn't appear to be an improvement over peebles on either end of the floor and doesn't have much eligibility left. Also I question how likely we are to get a guy that grew up in Hollywood and went to college in portland. Neither place is full of people looking to come to a place like Liberty but you never know. I wonder if this signals that mckay isn't putting much faith in blair contributing right away.

RMK was previously the head coach at Portland State and Oregon State. He played at Seattle Pacific. I'm sure he still has connections and relationships.

Nice table, but no listing of our incoming freshmen on it?

It's from ASOR.

It still shows DJ Moore on it. Also has anyone heard unofficially whether or not Preston is coming back?

As far as the kid from Portland, I'm not sure I see his upside. Although, McKay has proven with Gumbs and Porter that he can find diamonds in the rough. But from my view as a fan, I'd rather see Peebles, Jackson, and Blair get more PT.

Like Ill flame said, I just posted what ASOR had to give an idea of what we had it terms of roster management.