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Will Shaedon Sharpe take this team to the next level?

Yes, I believe he takes us from a S16 team to being title contenders and maybe even favorites. That is if he is as good as advertised and we stay injury free.

This team is better than a sweet 16 team. I'd say we are in the elite-8 range right now, with room to improve. Cal's teams always improve as the season goes on because it's a new group playing together. Sharpe makes us a legitimate Final-4 team and one of the title favorites.
You really think we wouldn’t have?
Probably because of the match up problems. We would have dominated the paint and rebounding. Kinda like Duke did to us in the 1st game this year. But who really knows for sure.
 
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Agree with you it's always the next guy or next year. When it doesn't workout fans will be blaming everyone
Always. They set these guys up for failure before they ever step on the court. Can’t just let the dude play and see what he’s got. We have to build them up immediately so we can tear him down later lol
 
We played back to back tight games. I think we would have won, but I’m a homer. Doubt we would have demolished them.

And duke had an easy win and we would have survived a war. Wisconsin beats Duke if Duke plays uk and somehow won and Wisconsin beats msu.

Re seeding the final four should happen. Bs uk got Wisconsin when msu was lowest remaining team.
 
And duke had an easy win and we would have survived a war. Wisconsin beats Duke if Duke plays uk and somehow won and Wisconsin beats msu.

Re seeding the final four should happen. Bs uk got Wisconsin when msu was lowest remaining team.
They messed up when they gave Nova the 1 in the East. The best four teams all year were UK, Wisconsin, Duke, and Zona. In that order. That should have been the 1 seeds. UK in the Midwest, Wisconsin in the East, Duke in the South, and Zona in the West. All four would have made the Final Four and UK would have played Zona and gotten a relatively easy win and Duke and Wisconsin would have had a hard fought semi-final. UK plays the winner for the title and goes 40-0.
 
Agree with you it's always the next guy or next year. When it doesn't workout fans will be blaming everyone

Always. They set these guys up for failure before they ever step on the court. Can’t just let the dude play and see what he’s got. We have to build them up immediately so we can tear him down later lol
Since I started the thread, I'll speak for myself.

For my part, it has nothing to do with the insidious motivation you're ascribing to it.

Sharpe is the highest ranked prospect we've had since Mercer. I'm excited. I think he'll be an enormous help to this team. I don't expect a title with him. What I do expect is that he'll help make a very good team even better.

It's as simple as that.

Respectfully, you both get to speak for yourselves as well, but you don't get to speak for me.
 
Since I started the thread, I'll speak for myself.

For my part, it has nothing to do with the insidious motivation you're ascribing to it.

Sharpe is the highest ranked prospect we've had since Mercer. I'm excited. I think he'll be an enormous help to this team. I don't expect a title with him. What I do expect is that he'll help make a very good team even better.

It's as simple as that.

Respectfully, you both get to speak for yourselves as well, but you don't get to speak for me.
that’s fair. my comment was not directed at you directly. it was more a comment on the general way this board operates. these young guys are set up to fail by the expectations people put on them before they even put the uniform on. sharpe is a good talent but who knows what impact he will have. i take your point under advisement
 
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I mean it goes without saying it, Sharpe is an elite guard prospect. With #1 draft pick potential. Elite athlete, smooth jumper, elite handles. Dude can score from all three levels. Him joining in Dec/Jan, will need to come in with very high conditioning and probably buy in for a lesser role early on. If he can play and provide good offense without requiring the ball in his hands a lot I think we’d benefit greatly by getting him 15ish mins a game to sub in at the off guard/3. That also probably takes away all of Allen’s minutes.
 
Fredrick's injury changed a lot in terms of which mouths the coaching staff probably felt they needed to feed.

I doubt they even have a vote this time. Bringing him in this winter was the rock that got the avalanche rolling. It's already been removed and the situation is rapidly evolving to Sharpe playing this spring.
Frederick was barely going to play as it was. Who's minutes would he have taken from the guard spot? Nobody
 
Presently, it appears as if we have everything needed to make a tournament run. A dominate big man (Oscar); a veteran point guard who can generate offense (Wheeler); multiple legitimate perimeter threats capable of making threes (Grady, Mintz, Allen); and a do-it-all guard who can create offense in the halfcourt (Ty Ty). Our four men are also progressing and learning their roles (Brooks and Toppin). The depth is also elite with guys like Hopkins and Collins still learning their roles on the fly.

What we seem to lack is a elite wing scorer. Grady is a catch-and-shoot scorer but doesn't have much of a slashing game. Brooks is extremely limited in terms of taking his man off the dribble. Ty Ty is going to be special in the halfcourt by March, but he's a guard. What it seems we lack is a wing player who can consistently take his man off the dribble.

That's what Sharpe will bring to the table.

Do you think Sharpe gives us the missing ingredient to go from a very good team to a real title contender? Presently, I don't think we have enough firepower to win it all, but Sharpe could give us that last known quantity needed to win it all in April.

Thoughts?
1. Oscar is not a dominant big man, a dominant big man could score every time from 6 inches away and he can’t. Has zero offense.
2. Wheeler will get posted and driven against high quality other guards
3. Agree with the rest.
 
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They messed up when they gave Nova the 1 in the East. The best four teams all year were UK, Wisconsin, Duke, and Zona. In that order. That should have been the 1 seeds. UK in the Midwest, Wisconsin in the East, Duke in the South, and Zona in the West. All four would have made the Final Four and UK would have played Zona and gotten a relatively easy win and Duke and Wisconsin would have had a hard fought semi-final. UK plays the winner for the title and goes 40-0.
Spot on! They screwed the pooch giving Nova that 1 seed. They weren’t a 1 that season. Hell, UVA was more of a 1 than them, even with Anderson (best player) injured.

Oddly enough; somehow Wisconsin’s loss to Michigan State in their conference tournament championship game caused a lot so that shift. I can’t remember exactly how it worked now. I do remember that loss coming into play.
 
Isn’t SS a guard? UK has better guards than anything else. An upgrade at guard will not be that significant unless you think TyTy will be a bust.
 
Spot on! They screwed the pooch giving Nova that 1 seed. They weren’t a 1 that season. Hell, UVA was more of a 1 than them, even with Anderson (best player) injured.

Oddly enough; somehow Wisconsin’s loss to Michigan State in their conference tournament championship game caused a lot so that shift. I can’t remember exactly how it worked now. I do remember that loss coming into play.
UVA was like 20-0 until duke beat them that year. We DESPERATELY need another title to ease the pain of the 2015 loss. Next season's team will be our best chance since 2017.

Sharpe
Wallace
Livingston
Clarke
Cook (?)
Dillingham (?) or Wheeler
Toppin
Ware
Oscar (please)
Next years team could be a JUGGERNAUT.
 
UVA was like 20-0 until duke beat them that year. We DESPERATELY need another title to ease the pain of the 2015 loss. Next season's team will be our best chance since 2017.

Sharpe
Wallace
Livingston
Clarke
Cook (?)
Dillingham (?) or Wheeler
Toppin
Ware
Oscar (please)
Next years team could be a JUGGERNAUT.
Absolutely agree. We desperately need to carry over a few dudes from this year’s team. You mentioned Toppin, Ware, Oscar and Wheeler. I could see that, minus maybe Oscar. Don’t forget Allen, Fredrick, Hopkins and Collins as well.

Your top 4 are basically locks, providing Sharpe players next season. Just those four with Oscar, goodness! We could potentially get all eight that I listed to return with those four freshmen. I would be ecstatic with that group. That’s a SQUAD!

EDIT: You’re correct, UVA was the last unbeaten team left other than us. That was a great, disciplined team. Hell, they won the regular season ACC championship that year IIRC. They were most definitely a top 5 team. That 3 seed for ND that year was a joke as well. They won the ACCT over duke and split 1-1 with duke in the regular season. I’ll never get over 2015.
 
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Absolutely agree. We desperately need to carry over a few dudes from this year’s team. You mentioned Toppin, Ware, Oscar and Wheeler. I could see that, minus maybe Oscar. Don’t forget Allen, Fredrick, Hopkins and Collins as well.

Your top 4 are basically locks, providing Sharpe players next season. Just those four with Oscar, goodness! We could potentially get all eight that I listed to return with those four freshmen. I would be ecstatic with that group. That’s a SQUAD!

EDIT: You’re correct, UVA was the last unbeaten team left other than us. That was a great, disciplined team. Hell, they won the regular season ACC championship that year IIRC. They were most definitely a top 5 team. That 3 seed for ND that year was a joke as well. They won the ACCT over duke and split 1-1 with duke in the regular season. I’ll never get over 2015.
they were 30-3 and didnt get a one seed. LOL
 
This team is better than a sweet 16 team. I'd say we are in the elite-8 range right now, with room to improve. Cal's teams always improve as the season goes on because it's a new group playing together. Sharpe makes us a legitimate Final-4 team and one of the title favorites.

Probably because of the match up problems. We would have dominated the paint and rebounding. Kinda like Duke did to us in the 1st game this year. But who really knows for sure.

You're probably right, I just don’t like to set the expectations too high this early.
 
UVA was like 20-0 until duke beat them that year. We DESPERATELY need another title to ease the pain of the 2015 loss. Next season's team will be our best chance since 2017.

Sharpe
Wallace
Livingston
Clarke
Cook (?)
Dillingham (?) or Wheeler
Toppin
Ware
Oscar (please)
Next years team could be a JUGGERNAUT.
Plus Fredrick, Hopkins and maybe even a resilient Allen.

Collins might even be back.
 
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I'm not for letting him play. I think we have gained more consistency when there have been several injuries that have given more minutes to 7 or 8 players. You ad sharpe and ty, grady, mintz, allen minutes go down. I want a full year of him next year.
 
I mean it goes without saying it, Sharpe is an elite guard prospect. With #1 draft pick potential. Elite athlete, smooth jumper, elite handles. Dude can score from all three levels. Him joining in Dec/Jan, will need to come in with very high conditioning and probably buy in for a lesser role early on. If he can play and provide good offense without requiring the ball in his hands a lot I think we’d benefit greatly by getting him 15ish mins a game to sub in at the off guard/3. That also probably takes away all of Allen’s minutes.
I agree, plus if Sharpe proves in practice he belongs...I think the team would support his minutes.
 
Presently, it appears as if we have everything needed to make a tournament run. A dominate big man (Oscar); a veteran point guard who can generate offense (Wheeler); multiple legitimate perimeter threats capable of making threes (Grady, Mintz, Allen); and a do-it-all guard who can create offense in the halfcourt (Ty Ty). Our four men are also progressing and learning their roles (Brooks and Toppin). The depth is also elite with guys like Hopkins and Collins still learning their roles on the fly.

What we seem to lack is a elite wing scorer. Grady is a catch-and-shoot scorer but doesn't have much of a slashing game. Brooks is extremely limited in terms of taking his man off the dribble. Ty Ty is going to be special in the halfcourt by March, but he's a guard. What it seems we lack is a wing player who can consistently take his man off the dribble.

That's what Sharpe will bring to the table.

Do you think Sharpe gives us the missing ingredient to go from a very good team to a real title contender? Presently, I don't think we have enough firepower to win it all, but Sharpe could give us that last known quantity needed to win it all in April.

Thoughts?
Yes
 
Sharpe takes this team from a fringe elite 8 to a strong FF team. Still think Zags are the team to beat though, they look extremely good and Holmgren is just going to get better and better.
 
the problem with that is that Winslow had probably 25 pounds on Sharpe and legitimate PG skills. He’s a rare piece.

plus, Oscar isn’t the player and doesn’t command the attention that Okafor did to free up the perimeter.

I think you’re right that that’s our best way to play, but I don’t think we’d replicate the effectiveness.

I’d like to see us play Hopkins more in the hopes that he can give us that regardless of Sharpe. If Sharpe plays, bring Grady off the bench and run sets for him.

Play Hopkins more?

I dunno.
 
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Play Hopkins more?

I dunno.
I think this all boils down to, if you get peak Shaedon Sharpe by March, and you PLAY him, we have 4 guys who are a given. Wheeler, TyTy, Sharpe, Tshiebwe.

In my opinion, you could play those 4 with any of Grady, Toppin, Hopkins, Collins, Mintz, and put a nasty lineup on the floor.

But I think the best shot at a Title involves OT/Sharpe/TyTy/Wheeler playing the most minutes.
 
I think this all boils down to, if you get peak Shaedon Sharpe by March, and you PLAY him, we have 4 guys who are a given. Wheeler, TyTy, Sharpe, Tshiebwe.

In my opinion, you could play those 4 with any of Grady, Toppin, Hopkins, Collins, Mintz, and put a nasty lineup on the floor.

But I think the best shot at a Title involves OT/Sharpe/TyTy/Wheeler playing the most minutes.

I agree completely. I don’t like the idea of plugging Hopkins in for anything major. I’d rather go with the lineup you’re presenting here.
 
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I didn't realize the basketball team was a democracy. Every team I was ever on was a dictatorship with the coach being the supreme ruler.
Except, of course, those times the coach knew how the team would "vote," because we knew what he wanted us to say. Then he could present it as a "team decision" (which it was always the right decision anyway). I bet you probably remember a few of those too.
 
Presently, it appears as if we have everything needed to make a tournament run. A dominate big man (Oscar); a veteran point guard who can generate offense (Wheeler); multiple legitimate perimeter threats capable of making threes (Grady, Mintz, Allen); and a do-it-all guard who can create offense in the halfcourt (Ty Ty). Our four men are also progressing and learning their roles (Brooks and Toppin). The depth is also elite with guys like Hopkins and Collins still learning their roles on the fly.

What we seem to lack is a elite wing scorer. Grady is a catch-and-shoot scorer but doesn't have much of a slashing game. Brooks is extremely limited in terms of taking his man off the dribble. Ty Ty is going to be special in the halfcourt by March, but he's a guard. What it seems we lack is a wing player who can consistently take his man off the dribble.

That's what Sharpe will bring to the table.

Do you think Sharpe gives us the missing ingredient to go from a very good team to a real title contender? Presently, I don't think we have enough firepower to win it all, but Sharpe could give us that last known quantity needed to win it all in April.

Thoughts?
The question is will he play not will he win us a championship. I can't understand why people want to anoint him our saviour when he may not even play and if he does it will take him weeks to have any impact.
 
Don't follow enough to know..


If he played this year would he be draft eligible?
 
As good as Oscar is on the glass, if Sharpe is legit, I'd like to see a four guard lineup at times with Wheeler, Washington, Grady, Sharpe, and Oscar. Oscar's elite rebounding gives us the advantage of being able to use four guards at one time. Plus, I'm not sure Keion's 4.8 rebounds/game really merit him being a fixture at the 4 spot. Yes, we'd occasionally struggle against teams with legit four-men, but I also think Oscar's elite rebounding negates some of that.

Meanwhile, can you imagine opposing teams trying to keep up with those four guards? Sharpe's elite slashing ability would provide us with a matchup advantage over most teams.
I am not saying I do or don't want Brooks playing most of our minutes at the 4. I like Toppin. But I think when you look at his 4.8 reb/gm, you have to consider that Oscar is getting 15, leaving fewer available for Brooks or anyone else to get. Two games ago I remember Brooks and Oscar both coming down with the ball, and Oscar then yanking it out of Brooks hands. But I am not in favor of 4 guards because you still have to defend the other team's 4. I think Banchero may have gone off for 40 with Grady or Sharpe guarding him.
 
I am not saying I do or don't want Brooks playing most of our minutes at the 4. I like Toppin. But I think when you look at his 4.8 reb/gm, you have to consider that Oscar is getting 15, leaving fewer available for Brooks or anyone else to get. Two games ago I remember Brooks and Oscar both coming down with the ball, and Oscar then yanking it out of Brooks hands. But I am not in favor of 4 guards because you still have to defend the other team's 4. I think Banchero may have gone off for 40 with Grady or Sharpe guarding him.
If Brooks keeps scoring 15 per game, no way Toppin takes his minutes.
 
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