[Rocketfan]

Smith thrives while being a slasher....and i think he will get away from that this year and try his hand at post play. This move in my opinion will not help his game and thus he will regress.

[SuperJon]

Smitty very well could see time at the four. Remember back to last year, the talk was that Tyler may spend time at the 3 because of the match-ups he would create out there. The thing that makes me think Smitty will be better is he has more to play for now. He realizes that if he steps his game up he could get paid to play basketball and could support his family by playing basketball. He's the only veteran leader on this team and there will be times when he has to take over that I think he will. The way he came on at the end of last year, plus him working out and getting better this summer, makes me think he will have a very good year.

[jcmanson]

He’s not going to be our first option at the 4. You take your best player and plug in guys around him. Smitty will play the 3, sure he could get some time at the 4 but TB and Carter will be the primary guys getting time there.

[SuperJon]

No one said primary option. I said "could see time." You're also assuming that a freshman will be ready to come in and play at the 5. That and you're completely neglecting to even reference Austin Smith who is by-far our best pure inside player in the incoming class.

[coolhandluke]

I heard this could be our starting line up. I hope not, but this is just what I heard...

1. Seth Curry
2. Kyle Ohman
3. Brolin Floyd
4. Tyler Baker
5. Anthony Smith

But I hope it ends up something more like this...

1. Seth Curry
2. Jeremy Anderson
3. Smitty or Brolin Floyd
4. Smitty or Tyler Baker
5. Austin Smith or Carter McMasters

[jcmanson]

No one said primary option. I said "could see time." You're also assuming that a freshman will be ready to come in and play at the 5. That and you're completely neglecting to even reference Austin Smith who is by-far our best pure inside player in the incoming class.

First of all, my post wasn’t directed at you it was directed at RF. Also, I said TB and Carter will get most of the time at 4. Well, if I said that who do you think I would be thinking is going to be at the 5??? AUSTIN SMITH

Yes, I’m assuming a freshman will be ready to come in and play not only the 5, but the 4, and the 3, and the 2 and the 1. We all are.

Smith thrives while being a slasher....and i think he will get away from that this year and try his hand at post play. This move in my opinion will not help his game and thus he will regress.

To me that's him saying he would be the primary option.

[jcmanson]

I heard this could be our starting line up. I hope not, but this is just what I heard...

1. Seth Curry
2. Kyle Ohman
3. Brolin Floyd
4. Tyler Baker
5. Anthony Smith

Whoever is saying this is off their rocker.

[Rocketfan]

No one said primary option. I said "could see time." You're also assuming that a freshman will be ready to come in and play at the 5. That and you're completely neglecting to even reference Austin Smith who is by-far our best pure inside player in the incoming class.

First of all, my post wasn’t directed at you it was directed at RF. Also, I said TB and Carter will get most of the time at 4. Well, if I said that who do you think I would be thinking is going to be at the 5??? AUSTIN SMITH

Yes, I’m assuming a freshman will be ready to come in and play not only the 5, but the 4, and the 3, and the 2 and the 1. We all are.

Smith thrives while being a slasher....and i think he will get away from that this year and try his hand at post play. This move in my opinion will not help his game and thus he will regress.

To me that's him saying he would be the primary option.

Try his hand.... implys the primary option? I was merely saying i think its going to be wasted energy and time for him to develop a post game at what 6'5''? If he gets away from slashing and scoring and just becomes a jump shooter he will be pretty easy to defend, even if he is our best player.

[jcmanson]

Try his hand.... implys the primary option?

The way it was stated, to me, made it like it would be his primary option.

I was merely saying i think its going to be wasted energy and time for him to develop a post game at what 6'5''?

6’5” in this league can not only be a post player but can dominate:

Arizona Reid 6’5” 205 23.9ppg 11rpg 2 time Big South player of the year, big south career leader in rebounds, only big south player with 2,000 points & 1,000 rebounds

[Rocketfan]

Try his hand.... implys the primary option?

The way it was stated, to me, made it like it would be his primary option.

I was merely saying i think its going to be wasted energy and time for him to develop a post game at what 6'5''?

6’5” in this league can not only be a post player but can dominate:

Arizona Reid 6’5” 205 23.9ppg 11rpg 2 time Big South player of the year, big south career leader in rebounds, only big south player with 2,000 points & 1,000 rebounds

If your gonna tell me Smiths game is going to look like Reids game.....you sir are indeed drunk. Smith has barely worked on his post moves in games that ive seen, you don't get a good as Reid in one off-season.

[jcmanson]

I'm not saying he will put up numbers like AZ, but you can't say that at 6'5" he would be wasting his time working on his post play. Not in this conference.

[Iwasneverhere]

I heard this could be our starting line up. I hope not, but this is just what I heard...

1. Seth Curry
2. Kyle Ohman
3. Brolin Floyd
4. Tyler Baker
5. Anthony Smith

But I hope it ends up something more like this...

1. Seth Curry
2. Jeremy Anderson
3. Smitty or Brolin Floyd
4. Smitty or Tyler Baker
5. Austin Smith or Carter McMasters

if you believe what you were told then you must be smoking some good stuff.

[olldflame]

I heard this could be our starting line up. I hope not, but this is just what I heard...

1. Seth Curry
2. Kyle Ohman
3. Brolin Floyd
4. Tyler Baker
5. Anthony Smith

But I hope it ends up something more like this...

1. Seth Curry
2. Jeremy Anderson
3. Smitty or Brolin Floyd
4. Smitty or Tyler Baker
5. Austin Smith or Carter McMasters

if you believe what you were told then you must be smoking some good stuff.

And our coaches would have to be smoking the same stuff to have decided on any kind of a starting lineup before the first practice, especially with so many new players in the program.

[jcmanson]

It didn't come from our coaches. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Our coaches aren't stupid.

[Cider Jim]

Trying to picture Smitty posting up against 7'7" Kenny George.

[ToTheLeft]

Trying to picture Smitty posting up against 7'7" Kenny George.

Actually CJ he is our best defence against Kenny, since he can play in front of him and get up and get the ball before Kenny even catches it.

On the offensive end, tho, NO ONE in the BSC can post up on Kenny.

[coolhandluke]

It didn't come from our coaches. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Our coaches aren't stupid.

you think that would be something McKay would not want to do? I love him and I think he is a good coach, but he didn't recruit any good big guys who play down low. Coach has already shown us he likes to play small line ups. Why wouldnt he start Smitty at the 5? Who else is going to play there besides Austin Smith? Carter is probably not going to be big enough (not height wise obviously) to play the 5.

[jcmanson]

It didn't come from our coaches. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Our coaches aren't stupid.

you think that would be something McKay would not want to do? I love him and I think he is a good coach, but he didn't recruit any good big guys who play down low. Coach has already shown us he likes to play small line ups. Why wouldnt he start Smitty at the 5? Who else is going to play there besides Austin Smith? Carter is probably not going to be big enough (not height wise obviously) to play the 5.

It's not going to happen. Say what you want, but it's not.

[SuperJon]

you think that would be something McKay would not want to do? I love him and I think he is a good coach, but he didn't recruit any good big guys who play down low.

Have you not seen Austin Smith? Have you not heard about him? He's the prototypical big guy in the Big South. He's already as big as Alex. We brought in a lot of guards, yes. However, look at the league we play in. Tyler Baker, while naturally a wing player, will be able to post up easily on occasion. Smitty will be able to take advantage of mismatches and post up. Also, have you not looked at the players we are recruiting for next year? They're all big guys. Everyone who likes to talk crap about McKay says he doesn't like inside play or big guys. Have you ever stepped back and tried to think that he's got some type of game plan with how he's recruiting? It's not like the cupboard was simply overflowing with big guys when he got here. In the Big South, guard play is what wins. The best post player in this league for the past couple years has been 6'5. Other than that, you had Craig Bradshaw who was basically exactly like Tyler Baker until his senior year when he started posting up more. Give it time. You can't completely judge a coach after one recruiting class. Coach Rocco's recruits in football are just now starting to hit the field. Things like this take time. Granted, after three years (that gives him time to get two full recruiting classes) if things aren't any better, then yes, it's ok to complain. But after one year it's too early.

[olldflame]

So, some of us think that Carter McMasters at 6'11 and 210 is "not big enough" to play the post, but Smitty, who is 6 inches shorter, and maybe weighs a few pounds more is?????

Add to that the fact that in 3 years at LU, Smitty hasn't demonstrated the slightest indication he has a post up game, and last year he broke the school record for 3 pointers, and the concept gets more and more far-fetched. Is it possible we may go with a small, athletic, perimiter shooting lineup with Smitty at the 5 for brief periods against certain opponents? Sure it is; but to suggest that lineup will start and play a lot is silly. Sounds to me like some people who don't like McKay's style are spreading this rumor to make him look stupid. Let's wait and see who actually plays.

[JDUB]

It wouldn't surprise me for anthony smith to get a fairly decent amount of time at post this year. No, I haven't seen Austin smith play, but I doubt that as a freshman he has the endurance to play a whole game, and from what I've heard McMasters probably won't get a ton of time this year. So I can see when Austin Smith is taking a breather Anthony playin the 5 for the majority of the time that Austin is out, with small appearances by mcmasters.

the reason I say this is we did see Anthony play 5 a few times last year, most notably against Kenny george. So he does have limited (VERY limited) experience down there. I just don't see anyone else being able to play that position outside of Anthony and Austin. TB would probably break in half if he tried to play 5, he'd have like 8 broken bones

[jcmanson]

I love how people are on here saying who's going to play and what position and how much they're going to play about freshman. Practice hasn't even started so all I hear is

[JDUB]

official practice hasn't started..

[LUconn]

Who do you think will be a surprise player this year and why?

I love how people are on here saying who's going to play and what position and how much they're going to play about freshman. Practice hasn't even started so all I hear is

[ToTheLeft]

I think I am seeing a trend here...

Speculation is fine, until someone says a doubting word about Carter, and then Manson jumps on the "They're only Freshmen, they haven't practiced" bandwagon rather quickly...