Morris

Men's Sports Men's Basketball
21

I have listened to Coach Steele said that every decision he made was to prime us for year 3. I just dont know if paying Mirambeaux over Morris matched that Mantra

But maybe it was the other way

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22

“It’s a popular thing to put your name in the transfer portal; there are approximately 4,000 Division 1 players and there are going to be 2,000 in the portal, which means half the players in college basketball are looking for a new destination,” Larranaga said. “Does that make any sense to anybody? It doesn’t to me.”

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23

This one really sucks, and the blame should clearly go to the coaching decisions on cutting his playing time. He played like 3 lousy minutes in the tournament game. While Mirambeaux gave up like a career high of 30 points to their center. He was our best rebounder all year and our best inside defender, and most of the year he led the MAC in FG%. I was keeping my mouth shut the last month about playing a guy who let the team down by going ineligible and missing the first semester and benching a guy who just busted his butt all the time. Hard to blame Jacquel for leaving, I was angry about what they did to him with giving the playing time to Mirambeaux and taking it away from Morris. That was a very big mistake. Everything that Red Sea and Quinoaburger say above about this seems right on to me.

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24

This is a huge loss.

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25

While I wish things went differently with him (and wish him well) I’m sure there was something going on behind the scenes at practice. He was showing promise in the non-con and was getting great reviews from the coaches. Then essentially radio silence. Maybe there was an attitude rift, or maybe he preemptively told them his intentions and gave Reece/Kotecki more minutes and Anderson got the majority of the load being a senior member. I don’t have all the answers, but this doesn’t feel like a black and white issue

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26

I agree, certainly seems as if there is a story behind this decision. None of our business really, but I am curious.

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27

Well, another possibility of friction was that twice Morris got into a little altercation with another player and Coach benched him ( maybe for the rest of the game…in looking at the plays it did not really seem like Morris did much of anything to get called for a tech or flagrant. Anyway, Jacquel looked upset those nights.

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@JiveHawk does your stats package show On/Off numbers by player? Would be curious on what Morris’s were, and everybody for that matter.

29

the dancing bull’s minutes were fine in my book but why the hell was Bryce Builtman constantly in the game over Morris? Truly mind blowing to me

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30

This is why I don’t place a lot of stock in our young roster equating to future success. The new reality is that several players are likely to transfer every year. If we develop a really talented young player, they are going to leave for NIL money (Elmer and Potter worry me). If we develop a pretty good player, they could leave for a variety of reasons. Don’t think Morris is leaving for NIL money, but he could be leaving over lack of playing time and to be closer to home.

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We played small over and over again this year, and used Bultman as the 4. I whined 3-4 times on here early in the season, and then got tired of whining about it.

We were dreadful at rebounding because we played with a 6’5”(maybe) guy at the 4. Unless that 4 is ridiculously athletic or an amazing shooter/scorer, I don’t see how it works. I don’t blame Bultman - he doesn’t control his height, position, or playing time.

I’d love to know how many minutes we played with Jacquel at the 4, Elmer at the 3, and then Potter or Mirambeaux at the 5.

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32

All that may be true. However, Bultman got more rebounds per minutes played than anyone on the team except Morris and Potter. That includes Mirambeaux.

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33

And I believe we were at the bottom of the MAC re rebounding- big upgrade needed esp with Morris leaving. With respect to Morris he on occasion showed real promise but also he had stone hands, was a foul magnet and had no shot. With respect to Mabrey he was a streaky shooter, marginal on D , did not move well with out the ball and was a poor rebounder- Dean equal or better in all categories including esp in rebounding. With smart use of the portal we should be able to upgrade from Mabrey and Morris.

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34

Yep, for sure. Just would have played Bultman at the 3.

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35

Why are people so stuck on playing Morris at the 4? It’s a waste. It screws your offense. It would only work in the 90’s. The only reason he could play it offensively is because Potter could stretch the floor. See this thread:

https://twitter.com/jacklich10/status/1769497933991268634

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Again, see my other post. Miami has historically been successful because they were always on the cutting edge of team building. Miami was critical in the development of the forward pass for football. The basketball coaches were just as progressive. Why, as fans, is everyone obsessed with playing a brand of basketball that clearly doesn’t get you into the tournament?

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37

Morris only shot 1 or 2 times all year from outside, so his actual FG% was outstanding, actually leading the MAC most of the season. I never liked it when we used him as a ballhandler at the top of the key, I think when he was in at center he should have been a low post guy, when he was in with Andy or Potter as a power forward, he should have been on the baseline and flashing into the low post, but always close to the basket because he was our best offensive rebounder.

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38

And here’s the on/off that backs up pretty much exactly what I said when comparing Morris to anyone else. Dean spent half of the year injured right before getting up to D1 speed. Mabrey spent a chunk of the year injured. Morris doesn’t have that excuse.

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Edit: diving in deeper, Morris was our best offensive rebounder. He also was awful when it came to preventing offensive rebounds on defense and his TO% was over 23%.

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39

Thanks Jive.

The more I think, the more this Morris move could be as simple as not really fitting cleanly into the system the Staff wants to run. As others have said, ball handling, outside shooting, and passing were not strengths of his. If that’s the system we’re going with (and recruiting to) Morris’s fit was always going to be awkward at best.

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Correct. Potter shot 45% from 3. So you can afford to play a defensive presence that doesn’t shoot well from the outside with that lineup.

Akron shot 3-23 from 3 against us and destroyed us. Freeman didn’t stretch the floor. He just attacked our undersized front line or ran past them. Over and over and over again.

I don’t think that game was in 1990. I think it was last week. Perhaps the MAC will rescind Akron’s automatic bid for not playing modern enough basketball.

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