March 15, 2011

Junior forward Jared Swopshire has not played all season, and Rakeem Buckles's good season was ended early by injury. This has left a void in the forward rotation, one largely filled by extended minutes for Stephen Van Treese and George Goode. Van Treese so 6'9 and rotates defensively, which, even if it's about all he does, is enough. Goode does much the same sort of thing, while also fancying himself as a shooter. In addition to those two, Mike Marra and Kyle Kuric play big minutes, using their similar physical profiles to play decent defense and contribute as off-the-ball role players on offense. But there's one big difference between them. The two are both good outside shooter, but Marra is too aggressive offensively, and Kuric is too passive. There's a 20% difference in their shooting percentage that reflects that, and it's only Mike Marra who doesn't realise that 157 threes in a season is too many when you hit only 29% of them. (Pitino has often stated his relentless confidence in Marra's shooting. And that's fine. But some up-fakes and extra passes every now and then would help a lot.) Because of this, Kuric is a valued role player integral to running of the team, while Marra, unless he's hitting the shots he's taken anyway, rather hurts it.

Read full article