by purple&orange » December 14th, 2016, 9:34 pm
I think what has changed for Evansville is having two perimeter scoring threats who can create their own shot offensively. Ryan Taylor has stepped in after sitting a year after transferring from Ohio U along with Jaylon Brown, who has come a long way since his freshman year. Taylor had 38 tonight. Both are threats from beyond the arc, which is a huge plus as too often the UE guard handling the ball was not a threat to shoot the 3. Evansville does not have a ton of shooters by any stretch, but JB and Taylor are threats, Taylor the better shooter of the two and if left open Dru Smith and even Benzon has shown the willingness to take and hit the 3 as well, but mostly as a spot up, left wide open.
Defensively having like perimeter guys in size, quickness, athletic ability has allowed the team to contest more threes due to not having to help as often or closing out quicker to an open shooter. Coming into tonight they were 8th in the country in 3-point D. They've also shut down leading scorers very well this year. Having guys like Benzon and freshman Dru Smith (athletic and long arms) helps a lot. It's much different than having Big E at the rim last year. Down the stretch vs UNI, they just set a ball screen for Washpun, got the switch from JB to DJ and said our guy can create better than your guy can defend. With the group that's out there this year for UE, the difference after the switch isn't as great.
You look at last year's team and they went 6.5 deep basically, with only Jaylon Brown back this year as Blake Simmons is out with a torn ACL. You bring back Boo Gibson off a redshirt year from a knee injury, Taylor after a year with the team, a couple JUCOs and guys getting more playing time as seniors (Howard, Benzon) and you have a more mature team who has been in the program, playing college basketball at some level (JUCO vs fresh out of high school) and just being physically more prepared to play D-I basketball. I think that's one of the biggest factors, older, more experienced guys vs the last rebuild which seemed to rely on a lot of underclassmen.
Marty/Evansville has caught a lot of flack on here for basically not trying. Hearing that over and over again does frustrate a fanbase. I never thought the 1999 team which got an at-large would be the last squad to reach the NCAAs, growing up seeing them go in 89, 92, and 93. It's frustrating and it's hard and this year's squad I think is ahead of where I feared they might be. To this point, this might be Marty's best coaching job at Evansville. I can think of 8 other schools that would love to be where Wichita State is and I only say 8 because what Northern Iowa has done deserves respect too over the last few seasons.
I can understand why outsiders would feel Marty didn't deserve an extension. I've seen kids improve greatly during their career's at Evansville and I do enjoy watching this year's team play. They get after it, it's a more balanced attack and something that is pretty refreshing and needed in terms of not relying just on the one main scoring threat. How much of that was out of necessity vs the desired way to play can be debated.
We have enough ego and bickering between talking heads in the world as it is........and it cuts both ways in this bizarre feud between a couple people on each side. We are here because we love basketball and our teams more specifically. But it's the internet so I'm probably hoping for far too much.