Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Burgundy View Post
Playing time can be determined by so many things, matchups, foul trouble etc. I would like to see more out of one thing...playing Deng and Rocky together. They help eachother. I know because we have NOBODY else in the post, that this is damn near impossible, but I was going nuts at the end of the UND game that we continued with small ball. They were in foul hell, and we didn't punish that. I wanted to bring in the beast. Keep Deng out there. I dream of Sammy at the 3, Deng at the 4 and ROcky at the 5. They are VERY good SUmmit League players. Sammy is going to be a dude.

I actually hate even saying this, as Jared is a great kid, but nobody in the world can tell me that he should lead our team in minutes. Nobody. I would fight forever on that one. (great bar topic with friends). I love that kid. To me he is instant offense off the bench. Deep on the bench. Hey...we need a shot in the arm, Jared...go be a gunner. Won't work every game. Nobody works harder, is a better kid, but that doesn't mean he needs 30 plus every night. I feel like splitting up his minutes is where Horn and Cook come in. Like it or not, Cook was the biggest recruit in years, I have no idea if he is thrilled never playing or not, but to me....every kid wants some clock. They could each play 10 minutes. Cook is the future at the 2. We don't graduate anyone....are we going to keep playing Jared and NOT developing this kid at all? Is he THAT bad on defense that Jared cannot be taken out?

Quale? Please. Again, great kid with talent and length and I would like to think he plays super hard and played Saturday a lot because Tyson was in foul trouble. Robotic. Just sick of small ball. End the half playing the big men together. Deng is a 4. Rocky is a 5. If nothing else, I want smiles. I want to see that fire. from everyone. This team has talent, I think they can beat anyone and easily lose to anyone. Sam is going to be our top player sooner than later. I think he is legit. I loved Horn as a combo guard early in the year. We struggle to score, he doesn't. I also think his attitude looks awesome, and the kid isn't even playing....that says a lot. Really want to go into Brookings and start strong. Our flat and nervous starts is because we play scared. Nervous. Not fast. Live with some mistakes, encourage a kid who dives for a loose ball. go absolutely fucking nuts when Deng gets the absolutely filthy offensive rebound late in the game. Show these kids you will die for them. We have talent and this is a game. Games are fun.
Good post Burgundy, I agree with your takes on all the players you reference. However, it's not impossible to play Deng and Rocky together. If each played 25-30 minutes that's 10-20 minutes per game they'd be on the court together. It really shouldn't be that tough to figure out. Like you mentioned in crucial situations either when you need to stop an opponents run or at the end of the game just frickin do it! The only monkey wrench in that scenario is bigger guys tend to rack up more fouls so there would probably be games that they could only get 5-10 minutes of "together time".

On the topic of Samuelson, I've said it before but I think he's a carbon copy of Mike Felt. When NDSU fielded their best team ever in 13/14 Felt was about the 3rd player off the bench and was exactly what you described; instant offense/3 point sniper. Samuelson would be great in that role just as Felt was. It's easy to say that Samuelson doesn't have nearly the cast around him that Felt did and that's why their roles differ so much but there is depth on this year's team at the 1 and 2 spots.