Player Jared McCain

[rome8180]

He may be the coolest person to ever come through this program.

 

[bdotling]

 

[Topher]

I like this kid, he's got moxie.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

I love it. Backhanded way to call the refs pussies.

 

[Pantone287]

Pretty good (real) debut. Made a few nice heady plays on both ends, seems very mature for a freshman in early November. Just have to tighten up those annoying couple TOs, and it kind of sucks he's effectively playing out of position (so that we need to rebound like a 6'7 guy, etc.).

Also, very much like how good he and Proctor were at slapping down through the ball as their man went up. The strip he had on their PF when he was iso'd on him in the post was a crazy good play.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

Have moved him out of my 2024 mock draft and counting on him being a four year player.

 

[Pantone287]

Those were some rough misses from the corner. Several of them were as wide open as you can get. Tough to have your value to a game completely swing on 2-3 bounces, but unfortunately, that's life for him this year if he's going to start.

It's kind of a tough roster for him, all else equal. I think he's pretty redundant to Proctor, in that I think his ideal role would be more of a busybody game manager who motors around the court with the ball setting people up. Maybe if he shifts to a bench role, he'll be able to be on the ball a bit more, at least.

 

[rome8180]

He still passes my eye test of high IQ player with perfect shooting form and good understanding of where to be. I didn't feel that anything he did out there was actively stupid like Roach's play was.

 

[rome8180]

It's like watching freshman Luke Kennard or something. There are obvious differences in their games, but you could tell they both knew what they were doing even though they weren't making shots. Obviously, I'm just speaking about offense since McCain is way more disruptive defensively.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

He and Proctor just need to shoot better. The chances in any random game for a true 40% 3pt shooter to go 1-4 or 0-3 from 3 are deceptively high. When it becomes common over the course of an entire season, then the guy probably isn’t really a 40% 3pt shooter.

If they finish the season shooting like this, neither of them is going to be a 1st round pick. Unexplosive, not-giant guards who can’t shoot have no value aside from when they become old guys in college basketball.

 

[childress22]

I think McCain and Foster both, on the whole, played above average defense in terms of IQ and effort out there last night. Foster had like one or two minor lapses, but they were both SO playable on that end. That alone is really nice.

 

[rome8180]

I was generally really pleased by our defense. Even taking into account that MSU's offense seems to have no organizing principle besides getting out in transition, I thought the game-plan, effort, and execution were all good. Flip is picking up too many fouls, but he's been playing his ass off defensively.

 

[childress22]

I was generally really pleased by our defense. Even taking into account that MSU's offense seems to have no organizing principle besides getting out in transition, I thought the game-plan, effort, and execution were all good. Flip is picking up too many fouls, but he's been playing his ass off defensively.

Young, too. Who knew he could hedge and recover like that? I would have thought using Ryan to ice ball screens would be a disaster, but he really moved his feet while also making it super tough for the guards to pass over him. Won't work against every single team, but should work against PLENTY of them.

 

[dukebluedevils05]

Yeah, I thought Young, surprisingly, did really well defending the ball screens. He and whoever the guard was that was navigating the screen, did a nice job bottling the ball handler up and having high hands to take away the passing lanes. Once the ball handler retreated a bit or picked up their dribble, he would slip out and recover.

 

[aiw]

He had a lot of backside help with people defenders hedging on the roller towards the basket so Young didn't need to stampede back. It helped that you didn't have to guard the guy that ended up open on the 3 point line. The MSU ball handler rarely, if ever, found him and Duke used the right guy to help because he was leaving a guy that couldn't shoot anyway.

 

[rome8180]

His on-ball defensive fundamentals are really good. Great footwork, quick hands, and nice use of his lower body to bump his man off his spot.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

And the ten rebounds. I think the way I’m thinking about it is that Foster has a higher ceiling than McCain but McCain is more consistent Day 1 CBB player and will probably end up having an overall better freshman season.

Only thing is I’m starting to see a case where they’re both really draftable based upon the opportunities they both can get.

 

[deepdarkblue]

Scheyer was saying from early on that he wanted the guards to rebound more so hopefully this is a sign that at least one of them is paying attention.

 

[rome8180]

Scheyer was saying from early on that he wanted the guards to rebound more so hopefully this is a sign that at least one of them is paying attention.

Proctor and Foster are at around 3 rpg each. You'd like that to be more like four, given their size. Roach is never gonna be some great rebounder given his size. It's funny that McCain is doing a better job rebounding than any of the other guards given that he's the second smallest who plays real minutes.

 

[rome8180]

But to me, where the rebounding actually needs to improve is at the 4 and 5 positions. Mitchell should be higher than five rpg. Look at where Tatum and Winslow were at once they switched to the 4. Even skinny ass Brandon Ingram was at seven rpg.

Flip's rebounding numbers are also lower, though some of that difference is related to playing slightly fewer minutes and missing fewer shots at the rim (allowing for fewer offensive rebounds). Still, if Mitchell ends up closer to six rpg and Flip gets closer to nine, that makes a significant difference.