Thoughts on Watson

[jazzdelmar]

Agreed with all of your post but I want to focus on Watson. It doesn’t make sense to me to look for something wrong with him because he’s not putting up big numbers right now. We all know he can score, but he missed some shots (including some bunnies I’ll admit) in the first couple of games and it’s like this is a huge problem we have to address. It would be nice to score 150 per game but it’s not realistic and it’s not necessary, 100 will do just fine. What we need is his defense. His offense will come around anyway. Not even close to a problem.

Not a metric thing. Just looks tight and out of synch.

[NotoriousZ]

I suppose, but not to the point where we should cut his minutes by any amount.

[zag67]

Notorious, I agree. He sat most of last year and is coming back from injury. He needs playing time to gain confidence to play with reaction first analyze after the game. He will be great as the years go on.

Ballo also needs time on the court to get used to the speed of the game. He is so young and his movement needs to become more fluid. He is like an e@rly Shim and as his body improves, so will he.

[White lightning]

Notorious, I agree. He sat most of last year and is coming back from injury. He needs playing time to gain confidence to play with reaction first analyze after the game. He will be great as the years go on.

Ballo also needs time on the court to get used to the speed of the game. He is so young and his movement needs to become more fluid. He is like an e@rly Shim and as his body improves, so will he.

I totally agree with the Karnowski comparison with Ballo. Hopfully he becomes a more athletic 7' than Shim.

On the Few show coach knocked the bumps of this week's performances saying Suggs played great but still is a freshman making those freshman mistakes. Watson played a couple good games and was really happy with his performance. Obviously he's checking the boxes expected of him.

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[Hoopaholic]

I totally agree with the Karnowski comparison with Ballo. Hopfully he becomes a more athletic 7' than Shim.

On the Few show coach knocked the bumps of this week's performances saying Suggs played great but still is a freshman making those freshman mistakes. Watson played a couple good games and was really happy with his performance. Obviously he's checking the boxes expected of him.

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"obviously he's checking the boxes expected of him"..........for his coaches but still some fans expect different objective or performance measure.....for me he is a critical link to our success and many times that does not translate to box scores for the casual fan

[TheOtherGreatOne]

I wish he had Karnowski's basketball IQ. As far as more athletic, he is already there in that aspect.

[CPkZagFan]

I agree! I know Watson can shoot having watched him for years. I am wondering if Ballo is having some injury problems or if he is having trouble adjusting to the extra height and the weight loss. He doesn’t look like the guy I watched play in FIBA games. I keep remembering a statement from last year that Ballo was the best guy in practice. This team is playing at a faster pace than most other teams and Kispert doesn’t seem to be racking up assists. This offense could present problems for the freshman big. Writing players off in any way after watching 2 games is silly. So far we have seen a guard’s dream game come true.

Having watched Watson play in high school, I know he can shoot. He has a beautiful 3 point shot and is a good passer. I just think he needs to start seeing his 3 pointer drop and he will regain his confidence. In spite of all the scoring power, it would be great to see Watson regain the offensive punch he had in high school and AAU. It will be needed at some point.

[EEzag]

I wish he had Karnowski's basketball IQ. As far as more athletic, he is already there in that aspect.

Back to Watty...... He looks rusty. He is a fantastic defender on and off the ball when he's right. I noticed he was chasing or trailing some the last two games. Some were other guys missing assignments, but other times he just got to his slow and was put into react mode. When he's right Watson's presence improves our team D quite a bit. His timing isn't there yet but it will be. His basketball IQ is off the charts which leads me to believe he'll be back to 100% sometime this season.

[WallaWallaZag]

watson doesn't look as explosive to me...the shoulder shouldn't have anything to do with this, but maybe the extra 10-15 lbs. of weight/muscle does. He's always been more of a smooth athlete than truly explosive...and it could be I'm just looking at rust that needs to come off, but he looks like he's lost just a touch of athleticism.

[MDABE80]

Watson is a bit lost. We need another big. I agree what constitutes a BIG is bigger than it used to be but as Watson is a nice 6-8 and 225(that was his height 2 years ago). I suspect he's taller. Once he finds his "groove" he'll add a lot. The trusting of the shoulder is a very important thing for him. Love the kid.

[scrooner]

I feel like he should watch this, twice a day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndOGscqdzIc

[JPtheBeasta]

Notorious, I agree. He sat most of last year and is coming back from injury. He needs playing time to gain confidence to play with reaction first analyze after the game. He will be great as the years go on.

Ballo also needs time on the court to get used to the speed of the game. He is so young and his movement needs to become more fluid. He is like an e@rly Shim and as his body improves, so will he.

Shem, his freshman year, looked like a puppy tripping over his own feet. He got so much better between freshman and sophomore years, if I recall.

[HenneZag]

Hes doing some good things out there defensively. On the offense end he looks like he's thinking about every move he is making and leads to a charge, non confident shot or a forced pass. He started the year against some very physical and athletic teams, so I'm hoping he has built some confidence that he can continue to improve.

[CDC84]

Unlike Karnowski, Ballo has a nice touch from the free throw line. He is going to greatly benefit when he gets more PT during WCC play and against some of GU's easier non-league opponents. They really needed his PT last night. Ballo is needed against an opponent like WVU.

[kitzbuel]

I feel like he should watch this, twice a day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndOGscqdzIc

No doubt that he has the tools. He just needs a boost of confidence.

[CDC84]

I thought Shem lacked fluidity in his game at first, but he got better.

[billyberu]

I think he should be playing, possibly even starting, but he doesn't have a lot of confidence right now in his scoring. It's totally obvious that he is still learning to trust his surgically repaired shoulder. Hopefully, this will happen soon.

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[RenoZag]

We need another big. . .

We have another big. 7 footer. But apparently his 'frosh to soph' improvement is non-existent, otherwise we would see him giving Drew and/or Anton a blow every now & then.

Wherefore art though, Pavel ?

[jazzdelmar]

We have another big. 7 footer. But apparently his 'frosh to soph' improvement is non-existent, otherwise we would see him giving Drew and/or Anton a blow every now & then.

Wherefore art though, Pavel ?

The Land of Monninghoff I fear.

[WallaWallaZag]

old man kispert looks more spry than ever...slimming down has definitely seemed to benefit his quickness and he's getting off the floor faster than before...he's always been fairly explosive/powerful on dunks, but in the past he needed to "load up" on his jumps. as it relates to watty -- in his current role watson needs to bang down low, but sure seems like he would be better off without the added muscle.

[TheOtherGreatOne]

Notorious, I agree. He sat most of last year and is coming back from injury. He needs playing time to gain confidence to play with reaction first analyze after the game. He will be great as the years go on.

Ballo also needs time on the court to get used to the speed of the game. He is so young and his movement needs to become more fluid. He is like an e@rly Shim and as his body improves, so will he.

Ballo does not necesarily need to be more fluid. We need a big strong bull in a china shop type of player, that can get rebounds and throw his weight around, which he can already do. Oh and by the way, he can also make free throws, which is an added bonus.

[Saxon_zag]

unsure how Watson regressed so much year 1 to year 2. All shoulder?

[scrooner]

I wonder, is Ballo our Kofi Cockburn next year, or maybe the year after? Kofi is 7' 290lb, Ballo is 7' 260lb.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...ockburn-1.html

Cockburn played 27 minutes a game as a freshman. Here are their 'per 40' numbers for comparison:

[MDABE80]

I feel like he should watch this, twice a day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndOGscqdzIc

Exactly. He's shown he can be a super player. It'll come.

[zag buddy]

Gives me much hope after he shakes off the rust.