2013 class

[phdnumbaone]

Originally Posted by walk.daddy

I'm hoping that the transfer from Nova will be able to win the starting job at the beginning of the year so Eric Smith won't have to see the floor. I'm sure he tries hard but Smith just doesn't have any business playing at the SEC level.

lol so true.

[USCBASEBALL1]

Ringer has a big body but has a ways to go. I doubt he starts at any point next year.

[Spur20001]

Originally Posted by jared

Why would you expect players to leave the program? Who?

Two reasons:

1. Lack of playing time will cause players to leave the program.

2. Some players probably won't be able to take the heat from Martin. A KSU fan said 12 players left Martin's progam in his five years there. Martin himself has said 40% of players leave a program before their jr. year.

[BrownBearCock]

Originally Posted by walk.daddy

I'm hoping that the transfer from Nova will be able to win the starting job at the beginning of the year so Eric Smith won't have to see the floor. I'm sure he tries hard but Smith just doesn't have any business playing at the SEC level.

He wont be able to play until the fall semester is over

[ConwayGamecock]

Originally Posted by walk.daddy

I'm hoping that the transfer from Nova will be able to win the starting job at the beginning of the year so Eric Smith won't have to see the floor. I'm sure he tries hard but Smith just doesn't have any business playing at the SEC level.

IMo the fans are just way too hard on Smith, and much harder than Coach Martin is on him. Eric has started - not played, but STARTED - every single game for us this season. He is 3rd on the team in average minutes played. He's poor offensively and in shooting, but he's the closest thing we have to a traditional ball-managing #1 we have on the team. He leads the team in assists and has the best assist-to-turnover ratio of all the guards.

Bruce has improved tremendously in terms of his turnovers since rejoining the team full-time from football. You can really tell that as he was playing early on, his "basketball sense" was rusty and he wasn't quite on the same page with his teammates. But he still struggles mightily (and always have) in passing the ball to teammates set up on the perimeter where they don't have to lunge, jump, or move out of position to catch the passes, and it disrupts their chances to make high-percentage jump shots, or gives defenders time to jump out and defend their shots while they regroup themselves.

If Bruce improves on this, then perhaps I could see him replace Eric full-time at point. But right now Eric is the best distributor we have, and I think Coach Martin well knows this....

[uscbaseball32]

Smith has trouble dribbling the ball up the court though, in the Arkansas game every time he touched the ball before crossing half court he was immediately doubled. He has improved tremendously from last year, but he doesn't have the skill set to play at this level. He won't see the court next year once Johnson is eligible and Bruce is back from football. I can't wait to watch Frank's system with some legit scoring threats next year, should be fun to watch.

[Travelin]

Originally Posted by garnet_black215

If the coaches can make it happen, I'd love to see us add another big man, particularly the 6'8" guy mentioned in a previous post. This team could always use more size in the post.

I wouldn't be surprised if L Chat is huge in another 12-18 months. What we do with Geathers will also be interesting.

I agree about Leonard, it just looks like he'll want to play more next year and I doubt there will be much playing time for him at USC. I hate when it doesn't work out for these highly rated recruits, but he is a Horn recruit and he just doesn't seem to fit in Martin's style of play.

Transfers are going on at an alarming rate in college basketball, so it's gonna happen every year at nearly every school until the NCAA restricts it more or decides to make it easier for those wanting to transfer. I say make it easier for the guys to play where they want. College basketball already has the NBA taking away a lot of talent, so they should be trying to make it as competitive as possible.

I don't think Smith will be leaving. From what I've heard Martin say about him, he seems happy about Eric's work ethic.

Then we have Bruce, I think it's a strong possibility this is his last year on the hardcourt. I haven't heard anyone say that, jmho. He might stick to football and enter the draft next year. That will obviously be determined at a later date. But if he does leave the basketball team, that would be another 30+ minutes a game available for another player next year.

I expect next years team to have a much different look than this years.