PG spot still very troubling for Heath and USF

[Matt]

I'm more worried about the huge defensive liability.  Big east guards will eat him up

[Velcro]

Please tell me we have a better 2 guard than noriega?

I think Shaun will surprise you. He's the best shooter we've had since Reggie maybe, and teams will have to respect his range. I remember reading something last year where Heath said that Noriega was the only player who had the green light no matter where he was on the floor.

This is exactly what we need.  A knock down deep threat.  If he is open, he needs to be firing away, opening up the paint for Anderson/gilchrist/famous.

If we get 8-10 pts per game out of Noriega, you'll see even better numbers in the front court.

[DELdaBull]

Noriega can stroke it and Heath says he has improved on the defensive end. That's all I need to hear.

[jg233]

I think a big problem for us will be replacing the rebounding we got from the 1, 2 and 3 spots last year.  Howard, Jones and Mercer were quite possibly the 3 best rebounders on the team.  They combined for almost 15 boards a game.  All three of them liked to mix it up down low.  Famous is adequate but doesnt jump very well and Gus has never shown any interest in mixing it up down low, he would rather just roam the perimiter.  I think we are gonna need alot from Robertson or Poland and Fitz and Anderson off the bench.  Our PG's and SG's dont seem like the rebounding types to me.

[Velcro]

good point.

The guards HAD to be good rebounders last year b/c we were loaded with softies down low.

Toarlyn was decent, famous was ok, but as you said, has cement shoes, and gilchrist not rebounding.

This year, he has help with Anderson joining the mix, and some decent sized 3's too.

I think we'll be ok on that front.  Just need that point position to improve tremendously, fast.

[The Great 8]

You don't just magically replace a 20+ ppg scorer in Dojo. He will be missed. If there isn't a dropoff it's because a combination of Noreiga/Poland (or whomever) are able to split the load better than Jones/Mercer. All that means is that Jones/Poland would've been even better.

That said, we will probably notice the loss of Howard more because no combination of players coming in will likely add up to what he did.

[Vega]

It's even more troubling now...Welcome to the BE Lavonte Dority... I thought you would be the starter.

[Velcro]

Team shot well from deep yesterday, except Noriega, who was 1 of 6.  Hopefully just a bad night... but gotta get that straightened out.  He has to be our best 3 point shooter.  If he shoots 1 of 6 regularly, no one will respect him and the paint will get congested.