NM State Game

[calpoke25]

Because to the naked eye, in game, its not like Aka Gorski, Dalton, or Lieberman are great defenders. I would put them close to the Liability end of the spectrum honestly. If Marshall is lacking behind them on the defensive side of the ball at this point then there is bigger issues, like why was he recruited if he's that awful. And why recruit his just to park his ass at the end of the bench? I just don't get it. If he needs more time to learn the system then redshirt him.

Well, the players you mention are #6, 7, and 8 in MPG this season, with Barnes and Naughton at 9 and 10. So they're role players as is. Dalton isn't in direct competition with Marshall for minutes but I'd agree he's been suspect defensively at times (especially his early season tendency to foul jump shooters). His last four games: 5, 8, 11, and 0 minutes played. Gorski and Lieberman are serviceable defenders (and I'd argue Lieberman is better than that, people are underrating him on the defensive end).

Those two are much more susceptible to losing minutes to Marshall than JMac is. For some stupid reason, certain people have been saying for two solid years now that JMac is essentially a stopgap until the players behind him get with the program. It's some Wyoming inferiority complex bullshit is what it is. The assumption is that he can't be that good if he's from small town Wyoming. Guess what: HE IS THAT GOOD. He is absolutely worthy of playing 28-30 minutes on an upper-tier MWC team. I can see it. Larry Shyatt, Jeremy Shyatt, Scott Duncan, Allen Edwards all see it. Deal with it and enjoy the ride.

As for your remaining point, it isn't necessarily that Marshall is that awful defensively, but he's in competition with players who have at least a year more in the system to get an understanding of what the staff is asking them to do. As far as redshirting, Shyatt has said that is the player's decision. We don't know if that was suggested to him, and it isn't common for a juco transfer to redshirt after transferring to a D1 school. You can't give a player minutes just because you recruited him. You bring him in and he sinks or swims. Some players don't pan out. All you can promise is opportunity. He wouldn't be the first player (juco transfer, even) brought in who didn't wind up a contributor and won't be the last. And by the way, none of this is to say that I think Marshall isn't good or won't play his way onto the floor and make an impact. I just think he's probably being given a fair shake right now and trust our staff to evaluate players better than your average message board jamoke.

You're probably talking to me. I still don't think he is THAT GOOD, and by that I mean starting and playing 32 min a game for a MW title contender. We aren't a title contender this year, at least in our current state. Hopefully as we progress through conference season we can gel and make another run in Vegas, and if JMac plays 32 minutes a game and we win the title or make a deep run you can serve me all the crow you want. It's not a Wyoming inferiority complex, it is what it is. He gets burned on defense against good teams and is a very streaky shooter, who struggles to score against good teams. I think he brings great passion to the floor and he defends with great energy, but watch him against good teams and he gets burned too often IMO, not just in one on one situations. Last year his shooting % took a dive once we hit conference season. We will see what it does this year, hopefully he is able to improve on that. IMO he's a good 6th man.

Now maybe we don't have a better option right now due to whatever reason, being Marshall not being ready/good enough or not good enough defensively, whatever. I think it is possible that JMac is one of our 5 best players right now given the inability of others to step up and contribute, but I think that means we aren't an upper tier MW team. That's my opinion though, feel free to disagree. In regards to what Shyatt says regarding JMac, Shyatt says a lot of things that I don't necessarily think are 100% accurate. I think last week he said something along the lines of "we can't think of a better big man for our program than Barnes." Now I am certain there are better big men out there, and Shyatt knows that but what's he supposed to say. I hope you are right and we end up being a MW upper tier team with JMac playing 32 min a night. I think the team has bigger problems more deserving of attention than JMac though, namely what is going to happen down low against MW big men.