Any chance of a media introduction for the new DC?
KQ- He will speak to the media on Saturday. Alex will cover it as I will be in Winston-Salem for hoops.
Which football opponent might sneak up on us? My pick is Boston College; they have an active win streak against us.
KQ- I think that is a likely tricky game along with Pitt here. Pitt was pretty good before Holstein got hurt and the wheels came off the bus a little bit. Both of those teams are tough and physical historically throughout multiple coaches as well. UGA will be on the horizon and GT will be coming off a bye week going into the game at BC. I'd say those are two to keep an eye on.
Whatever happened to the Alexander scholarship video?
KQ- In a hard drive somewhere in the media files of the GTAA to never been seen again. It was a funny idea and the kids loved it in the moment, but it is in poor taste for most folks.
1) You know many of the identities of members of this board. Even if the person wishes to remain anonymous, who can we get to do Couch Coach for hoops? I know I would certainly appreciate a X’s and O’s breakdown highlighting key moments of each game.
KQ- Man they'd need to get a lot better to invest in that. I know some hoops guys who could break down video I just don't think there is enough of an appetite for that. Even when I have the only video of Damon from a road game the clicks are trash.
2) Who are our strongest assistant coaches for hoops? Has Karl Hobbs been the valuable veteran presence we hoped he would be in the early going for Damon?
KQ- Nate Babcock, Pershin Williams, Greg Gary and Hobbs are the Xs and Os guys if that is what you are asking. Gary was brought in to help with some of the more college aspects vs. NBA style stuff. Babcock is very hands on as is Pershin with the players even during warm-ups. Bonzi and BJ work with specific players a lot. They all sort of have their own roles. Damon runs a lot of it himself though as much HC do.
3) If Damon was the Celtics lead assistant as Sed pointed out recently, do you think increasing the talent level on our roster is the key to his success at GT? It’s one thing to run an NBA system with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Does he need to just keep cooking in recruiting, or are there other adjustments he needs to make to the college game?
KQ- You need three-point shooting, a guard who can get to the bucket on their own and score or drive and kick, and a big that can finish for it all to work. Three of the better three-point shooters on the team Luke O'Brien, Javian McCollum and Kowacie Reeves have combined to play a total of 35 games out of 29 played so far. That is pretty hard to overcome, but they have done well. Lance Terry and Duncan Powell are the only three-point shooters on the team really that can knock down high quantities of threes and Terry had a severe hand/wrist injury to his shooting hand that still has him a little wonky. He put together the roster correctly relative to some things, but injuries and Baye Ndongo having a horrendous first two months of the season compared to how he is playing now has really hampered them.
Jaeden Mustaf played 33 minutes the other night, the plan going into the season was for him to be a 10 mpg guy to rest Nait, Lance and Javian at times. Ibrahim Souare was supposed to alternate with Ryan Mutumbo at best playing 5-10 mpg against teams with real big men. Souare despite being injured in the Pitt game and in foul trouble against NC State is averaging 17 mpg and that was probably 20+ before the last two games. Darrion Sutton was basically not supposed to play at all and he is up to almost 12 mpg now.
I think he knows what he needs and is recruiting for it. Sylla should be a better version of Souare and as Damon said the experience that Souare is getting his huge now too. Baye has figured out his role. I really think he focused on the feedback from the NBA and was trying to play like a wing when he needed to play more like an NBA 4 spot who doesn't shoot a lot of threes.
What’s been the biggest change with the basketball team over the month of February?
KQ- They figured out how to play together and Baye came around to playing like he did much of last season. The reality is the offense was set up for spot up corner shooters to open things up. Those guys were supposed to be Reeves and O'Brien. Powell hitting those shots now has been a bit of a surprise and a plus as he was not a great shooter by his own admission in the past from three and that is something this staff helped him develop and Lance has taken up shooting some of those shots, but when they didn't have that working the whole offense was out of whack and they had to go to more pick and roll type actions and figure out how to move the ball when teams were all over Nait as well. Nait had to figure out how to beat people off the dribble when they were all over him without turning the ball over and how to use his pull-up.
All of that stuff started to come together. I thought really since December the defense had been playing well enough to win, they just would get stone cold and then that would impact the defensive effort like the OU and Marquette games.
What does the team need to start the year stronger to start the season next year?
KQ- Not have guys get hurt. Luke O'Brien was hurt before the season started and Baye Ndongo missed too much time back home and was underweight and a little bit out of shape. I think you also saw that sophomore slump from Nait and Baye. That was something Damon saw coming all the way back to the ACC Tipoff back in mid-October and he was warning people about when talking about his team. Then you lost a top 8 guy on the team in Doryan who basically just lost his shit and quit unexpectedly after they spent months getting him primed for a large role. It was just a bad sequence of things happening. Javian never got going because of the two concussions and whenever he had a head of steam playing well he went down. Then Lance got hurt on top of all of that costing them that UVA game.
Assuming Baye comes back next year, does Damon have him stay for the summer so he doesn’t start the season behind like this year?
KQ- Legally he has to go home and step foot in his home country. I'm not sure what the requirements are for how long he has to stay home or whatever, but I'm sure that will be factored into his plans for him and their expectations.
