Sturns is the best player even better than Davis!

[untwillrise]

I have been saying this since mine and his freshman year. Since playing with him in the rec i said that he will be a star. Everyone's only complaint is that he is too out of control. With no disrespect to Johnny Jones, UNT's offense is terrible. So for a person to score they realy have to make their own offense and he does. Why is he better than Davis? He plays d-fense, handles the rock, rebounds, makes plays for others, even though KD is the team leader Sturns is better.

If anyone still wants to argue this statement I want a thanksgiving discussion, just popped the bird in the oven and have nothing to due.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

I have been saying this since mine and his freshman year. Since playing with him in the rec i said that he will be a star. Everyone's only complaint is that he is too out of control. With no disrespect to Johnny Jones, UNT's offense is terrible. So for a person to score they realy have to make their own offense and he does. Why is he better than Davis? He plays d-fense, handles the rock, rebounds, makes plays for others, even though KD is the team leader Sturns is better.

If anyone still wants to argue this statement I want a thanksgiving discussion, just popped the bird in the oven and have nothing to due.

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As far as talent and results, you'll get no argument here. I agree that Sturns is the better scorer but they are pretty equal in the other aspects of the game.

Sturns best asset is that he can ignite a team by coming in and scoring quickly to get the team back on track. He is the ideal sixth man. He can often be his own worst enemy but seems to have matured after he met with JJ.

Davis is headier, more mature, but not quite as skillful as Sturns. He needs to be in the game longer to accomplish what Michael can accomplish in a shorter time. Both types are needed.

[raygogreen]

No one could will a team to victory like Ken Lyons. A good palyer that improved his skills significantly during four years. Lyons could take over a game like no other at NT. Sturns is approaching that. At the game the other night, when we were down, he got back to back steals. That is leadership. Motivates teammates and makes the opponent more tentative.

[chrisfisher]

I have been saying this since mine and his freshman year. Since playing with him in the rec i said that he will be a star. Everyone's only complaint is that he is too out of control. With no disrespect to Johnny Jones, UNT's offense is terrible. So for a person to score they realy have to make their own offense and he does. Why is he better than Davis? He plays d-fense, handles the rock, rebounds, makes plays for others, even though KD is the team leader Sturns is better.

If anyone still wants to argue this statement I want a thanksgiving discussion, just popped the bird in the oven and have nothing to due.

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I recently posted a thread that stated, "I might be a new Michael Sturns fan" and then followed up after the Rice game, "OK, I am a Michael Sturns fan now." I have to admit I didn't see his talent last year. He seemed out of control and trying to do to much and for the wrong reasons (for his own glory and stats, not for the team). However, as we know now, his style of play was representative of behavior and attitude off the court as well. It appears to me that he is a different person this season. He has calmed down on the court, become a team player, and is scoring some serious points. The only negative thing I can say is that he can be streaky, but with more playing time now, I think he can become a consistent, dominant player. On another post, I stated that with Davis sitting out for 6 weeks, the players are starting to find themselves and look to each other, rather than just to Davis during tough ball games. I can't wait until Davis, their team leader, returns to a more complete team on and off the court. Davis' game will undoubtedly improve because other teams will have to worry about so many different threats, not just Davis.

Edited November 24, 2006 by chrisfisher

[chrisfisher]

With no disrespect to Johnny Jones, UNT's offense is terrible. So for a person to score they realy have to make their own offense and he does.

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I wanted to address the "horrible offense" in a separate response. I was a bit shocked to see this. We may not have the offense you would like to see, but the fact is we put points on the board. Even in our 14-14 season last year, I recall reading we were ranked in the top 30 in points per game. And look at our output this season, though admittedly the 65 points for the Tulsa game was somewhat "low" (actually, typically for most other teams) in scoring. We are without a doubt, a more perimeter/3 point shooting team. Maybe this is what you don't like? I would love to see us going to our big men under the basket more, but this hasn't been a productive area for us just yet. Quincy has really stepped up in this area, while Keith Wooden is REALLY struggling. Wooden seems to either (1) mishandle the ball (2) get the ball hit from his hands, or (3) misses the easy under the basket shot. If we can get Wooden to help Quincy under the basket, this could all change.

Please let me know what specifically you don't like about the offense.

[untwillrise]

I wanted to address the "horrible offense" in a separate response.  I was a bit shocked to see this.  We may not have the offense you would like to see, but the fact is we put points on the board.  Even in our 14-14 season last year, I recall reading we were ranked in the top 30 in points per game. And look at our output this season, though admittedly the 65 points for the Tulsa game was somewhat "low" (actually, typically for most other teams) in scoring.  We are without a doubt, a more perimeter/3 point shooting team. Maybe this is what you don't like? I would love to see us going to our big men under the basket more, but this hasn't been a productive area for us just yet.  Quincy has really stepped up in this area, while Keith Wooden is REALLY struggling. Wooden seems to either (1) mishandle the ball (2) get the ball hit from his hands, or (3) misses the easy under the basket shot.  If we can get Wooden to help Quincy under the basket, this could all change. 

Please let me know what specifically you don't like about the offense.

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I don't mean we can't score points. I mean in the half court the set offense is non existent. I agree that we are a three point shooting team and i like it, but after watching a team like Rice get Almond open almost 3/4 of the time just by doing the same offensive set i wonder why we can't do that.

[chrisfisher]

I don't mean we can't score points. I mean in the half court the set offense is non existent. I agree that we are a three point shooting team and i like it, but after watching a team like Rice get Almond open almost 3/4 of the time just by doing the same offensive set i wonder why we can't do that.

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sorry, I don't have much technical expertise in basketball... can you explain what the "set offense" means? Scripted plays perhaps?

[untwillrise]

sorry, I don't have much technical expertise in basketball... can you explain what the "set offense" means? Scripted plays perhaps?

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A set play is a regular play just like in football. "You go there, set a screen for him, you curl to the top for a open three." They last for about 8 seconds.

An offensive set is the continous offense. Motion, Highl-low, and Princeton are some common sets. You just run it over-and-over until you get what u want. Unt needs to run more of a motion to get shooters better looks and to open up the post man.

UNT not sends both gaurds to the corners and the postman to the block with the point at top. The gaurds "V-CUT" to get open, which is basically like a wide reciever versus a cornerback. When the point passes it to a gaurd he goes to the corner and the opposite post man comes to set a screen, overloading that side which makes it hard for the gaurd to drive or the big man to roll. We just do that from side to side.

[chrisfisher]

A set play is a regular play just like in football. "You go there, set a screen for him, you curl to the top for a open three." They last for about 8 seconds.

An offensive set is the continous offense. Motion, Highl-low, and Princeton are some common sets. You just run it over-and-over until you get what u want. Unt needs to run more of a motion to get shooters better looks and to open up the post man.

UNT not sends both gaurds to the corners and the postman to the block with the point at top. The gaurds "V-CUT" to get open, which is basically like a wide reciever versus a cornerback. When the point passes it to a gaurd he goes to the corner and the opposite post man comes to set a screen, overloading that side which makes it hard for the gaurd to drive or the big man to roll. We just do that from side to side.

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Gotcha. Thanks for the information. You may be right about set plays. And if this would help us score more, then I am all for it. One thing: You made a favorable comparison of Rice's style of play, but that might be a hard sell to Jonnie Jones seeing that we put up 90 points plus a win with our style of play. I am not trying to defend or promote our style of play; rather, make casual observations or ask questions from those that have a better knowledge of the game. IMO, the biggest problem we have is that if our outside shooters have a bad day, we cannot consistently count on our big men under the basket to pick up the slack.

[untwillrise]

That is my biggest fear. with KD out Sturns and Watson are only guys who can make their own shot. So when we play a good team like Nebraska and Western Kentucky what are we going to do to manufature points. In every game we have gone on bad dry spell, we are just good enough to have came back from all of them.

Another point is why doint we press more? Even when we don;t get a still it pressures them into an early shot which is good for us because we want more scoring opportunities.

[MeanGreenBuzz]

Nebraska is beatable. At this point WKU is not. I have said since before this season that WKU is the best team on our schedule this year and I will stand by that. They are the only team I feel a loss is justified to and I still feel like we should have only lost 2 games all season, both to WKU. I knew then and know now thats not going to happen just because sometimes a team comes out flat or has a bad night, but this team is good enough to not lose any more than 5 or 6 games and should easily win 20. Anything less than NIT is a failure and the goal should be an at-large bid to NCAA after WKU wins the tournament.

Edited November 23, 2006 by MeanGreenBuzz

[untwillrise]

Nebraska is beatable.  At this point WKU is not.  I have said since before this season that WKU is the best team on our schedule this year and I will stand by that.  They are the only team I feel a loss is justified to and I still feel like we should have only lost 2 games all season, both to WKU. I knew then and know now thats not going to happen just because sometimes a team comes out flat or has a bad night, but this team is good enough to not lose any more than 5 or 6 games and should easily win 20.  Anything less than NIT is a failure and the goal should be an at-large bid to NCAA after WKU wins the tournament.

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Hey Hey! This is thanksgiving man! I don't want to hear any negativity! Think positive man! Positive thinking brings hope, hope brings happiness. Atleast until the day after.

[MeanGreenBuzz]

Hey Hey! This is thanksgiving man! I don't want to hear any negativity! Think positive man! Positive thinking brings hope, hope brings happiness. Atleast until the day after.

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And a Happy Thanksgiving it is. I wasn't trying to be negative, thought it may have come off that way, I was just being realistic in my predictions. I am very happy about this team and think they are awesome I just don't think they have reached the point where they are capable of beating an extremely good WKU team. Will they reach that point? That remains to be seen. I hope they can prove me wrong.

[chrisfisher]

If we shoot like we did against Rice and Charlotte, we can beat anyone. It's hard to lose when you score 80-90 points in a game.

Edited November 24, 2006 by chrisfisher

[Harry]

Great thread guys. I learned a lot in reading this thread and I really appreciate your contributions.

[MeanGreengdub]

Mike Sturns energizes this team! The question was raised on the post game show the other night if Sturns should be a starter or remain an off-the-bench player.

What do you guys think???

[MeanGreengdub]

One more thing...what's the deal with us not being able to hold on to the ball against Tulsa the other night??? That was ridiculous!

[untwillrise]

as much as i love sturns, Young should start. If Sturns would start it should beover bell. I like young he just needs to look to attack more.

That is a major problem we turn the ball over way too much. Against Rice it was terrible.

[chrisfisher]

Obviously, Sturns' play this season has justified a starting role. However, I think that Jonnie Jones is holding back on that for some reason to further Sturns' development. I am not sure what, but I suspect it has to do with becoming team player and not trying to do too much on his own. Just a guess though. I suspect that Sturns will earn a start at some point.

Also, I noticed someone mentioned Sturns should start over Bell. Lately, I have seen rumblings about Bell. I am really not sure why. IMO, he runs our offense better than anyone, and you can really tell a difference when Bell takes a seat. Remember this Bell's first play in D1A B-Ball, and he already looks mature. I think over time he will become an outstanding player for us. IMO, I think the only area Bell is struggling at right now is with his shooting. He started out early in the season making his shots, but has really struggled lately from the floor... and even missed 2 critical free throws at the end of the Tulsa game that could have sealed the deal for us. Other than that, I say keep Bell in as much as possible.

[UNTFan23]

I understand the desire to start Sturns in some fans eyes, but seeing how he has helped spark the team during a lull, I think his abilities best serves the team as a hot hand from the bench. Other then Sturns, can someone name a player that comes off the bench and has had such an impact?

Just playing the role of the devil's advocate in a friendly, constructive way.

[MDTGGI]

I actually have a couple of different thoughts on this. First let me say Sturns is a very tallented player and I will never dispute that, but as for him starting and for him starting over Bell, no way. Bell is a much more solid leader at the point right now, especially when the other team presses. Sturns tends to try and finess his way across the court when people put pressure on him. When he does this he tends to lower his head to watch more of what he is doing and not the defense which is why he has run into a couple of half-court traps this year, mainly Tulsa. This leads to the T.O. he has. He has gotten better this year, but when he is feeling the pressure this bad habbit still pops up from time to time. Bell is more controled, slows down and always has his head up watching whats happening on the rest of the court.

The other problem I believe that Sturns has is the fact that he relies too much on shooting when "he feels it" and not smart shots. There is nothing wrong with taking a shot when you feel comfortable, but a bad shot weither it goes in or not, is still a bad shot. As my old coach use to say "just cuz your feeling it does not mean you should abandon being a tripple threat player." I do believe that this tends to happen to all of our shooters, but it has gotten better from years past.

And personaly I like KD having the ball in the last few seconds of the game rather than Sturns because KD doent turn the ball over near as much.

As for the offense, I think that the team in general needs to do a better job of setting up and reading the defense. We dont set up the team with any kind of efficiancey and that leads us to trying to run our offense from 10 feet away from the 3pt line, not good. Now thats not to say our offense is not predictable because I know half the plays that are called by heart myself, but any team that watches film know what the calls are for the other team. IMO its all about setting up and reading the D to get open.

Oh and another player that I am very impressed lately with, and who is having a quiet but pretty freaking good year right now is Rich Young.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

I don't have any problems with Sturns being the sixth man because it seems when he comes in he energizes the team No one else on the team that can produce points in a short period of time as well as Sturns.

So, even though he is a more talented player (make that scorer) than Watson or Young, I think that the team is better served by substituting him when the other team begins to tire a little or things aren't going well for us. Let him have a look offcourt to see where he might be able to make his shots.

As far as taking bad shots, everyone does it. I'm afraid that if he starts thinking too much about what is a good percentage shot it'll take him out of his game. By now, his instincts should tell him which teammate may have the better chance of scoring.

My biggest gripe is that he doesn't get another five or more minutes per game.

[MeanGreengdub]

I don't have any problems with Sturns being the sixth man because it seems when he comes in he energizes the team  No one else on the team that can produce points in a short period of time as well as Sturns.

So, even though he is a more talented player (make that scorer) than Watson or Young, I think that the team is better served by substituting him when the other team begins to tire a little or things aren't going well for us.  Let him have a look offcourt to see where he might be able to make his shots.

As far as taking bad shots, everyone does it.  I'm afraid that if he starts thinking too much about what is a good percentage shot it'll take him out of his game.  By now, his instincts should tell him which teammate may have the better chance of scoring. 

My biggest gripe is that he doesn't get another five or more minutes per game.

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Touche