Fran McCaffery UMKC Pregame Press Conference Transcript & Video
- Thread starter RobHowe
- Start date
tksirius
HN's Love Doctor
UMKC lost by 31pts to Loyola-Chicago.
Q. Did you get to watch UMKC last night when they were playing at Loyola?
COACH MCCAFFERY: Tough environment for I think anybody. Loyola is going to be fired up, sold-out crowd. And they dropped the Final Four banner, that kind of stuff. They played really well. I thought UMKC fought them hard. He’s got some new bodies that he’s working in. He’s got some guys back that he likes that are really good. His guards are good.
He’s got a little more size. So they have more flexibility now. They can go big. They can go small. They defend. They change defenses. Nothing’s changed there. So it’s a tough opener, I think.
Q. Did you get to watch UMKC last night when they were playing at Loyola?
COACH MCCAFFERY: Tough environment for I think anybody. Loyola is going to be fired up, sold-out crowd. And they dropped the Final Four banner, that kind of stuff. They played really well. I thought UMKC fought them hard. He’s got some new bodies that he’s working in. He’s got some guys back that he likes that are really good. His guards are good.
He’s got a little more size. So they have more flexibility now. They can go big. They can go small. They defend. They change defenses. Nothing’s changed there. So it’s a tough opener, I think.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
The number one thing I’ll be watching Thursday is the play of Connor McCaffery. I’m not convinced he deserves to get the backup PG minutes. I think those minutes should go to Dailey.
Fran kind of hedges in that interview. On one hand he is talking about how Dailey is our best perimeter defender, but he makes sure to mention that Connors really keeps the ball moving and feeds the post well. Fran says Connor played pretty good, I thought he played pretty bad. It was one game, but I certainly didn’t see enough from Connor to the extent that it would make me want him out there in front of Dailey. He threw it to the other team twice trying to feed the post from poor angles.
It will be interesting to follow going forward. Will Fran bench Connor if he doesn’t deserve minutes?
Fran kind of hedges in that interview. On one hand he is talking about how Dailey is our best perimeter defender, but he makes sure to mention that Connors really keeps the ball moving and feeds the post well. Fran says Connor played pretty good, I thought he played pretty bad. It was one game, but I certainly didn’t see enough from Connor to the extent that it would make me want him out there in front of Dailey. He threw it to the other team twice trying to feed the post from poor angles.
It will be interesting to follow going forward. Will Fran bench Connor if he doesn’t deserve minutes?
NoBeer
Well-Known Member
He has no history of this for kids who AREN'T his son so I don't know why anyone would think he will.
ibahawkeye
Well-Known Member
I like that Fran acknowledged Dailey can run the point.
That was my initial thought after watching... Dailey might be our best option as the back up PG.
But at this point we need him to play the backup wing spot. But if Moss, Joe and Baer can carry the load a bit more at the wing spots, Dailey could still play some wing and point and maybe were better off not using Connor at all.
That was my initial thought after watching... Dailey might be our best option as the back up PG.
But at this point we need him to play the backup wing spot. But if Moss, Joe and Baer can carry the load a bit more at the wing spots, Dailey could still play some wing and point and maybe were better off not using Connor at all.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
Minutes wise it doesn’t add up. Moss played 24 last year. Baer played 21. Assuming Weiskamp plays at least 20 and Bohannon 30 you’re left with ~25 minutes, or less. You start giving 10 or so to Connor you’re doing it at the expense of Dailey in my opinion.
ibahawkeye
Well-Known Member
I’d like to see...
JBo 25
Moss 25
Joe 25
Cook 25
Garza 25
Dailey 15
Dailey 5
Baer 15
Nunge 15
Kriener 15
It’d keep guys fairly fresh not playing much more than 25 min. It puts more minutes on Joe and Moss which in my opinion are our best 2 wings.
Baer can play as hard as he wants for 15-20 a game and be a spark.
All the guys are getting 15 minutes so they can get in the flow.
Overall, I think these are our best players playing the most minutes.
JBo 25
Moss 25
Joe 25
Cook 25
Garza 25
Dailey 15
Dailey 5
Baer 15
Nunge 15
Kriener 15
It’d keep guys fairly fresh not playing much more than 25 min. It puts more minutes on Joe and Moss which in my opinion are our best 2 wings.
Baer can play as hard as he wants for 15-20 a game and be a spark.
All the guys are getting 15 minutes so they can get in the flow.
Overall, I think these are our best players playing the most minutes.
JG10Hawk
Well-Known Member
In an ideal world I like your idea. Unfortunately odds are Cordell and Connor will be getting a combined 20+ minutes as well. That means a combination of the bench players' minutes you posted above will probably have to come down a bit to make up for it. Unless, I don't see it happening but it could, Fran cuts someone out of the lineup like he did Uhl last season.
The minutes are going to be crazy again. Joe is going to take all of and probably more than the about 20 minutes opened up by the departure of Brady, Ahmad, and Dom. Then throw in a healthy Connor that will probably be getting 10mpg. Those will have to come from somewhere at one of or a mixtue of someone else's minutes...
ibahawkeye
Well-Known Member
I agree that Cordell and Connor are probably going to get minutes. I'm torn on Cordell. As far as talent, I think he's certainly behind Cook and Nunge and I don't think Cordell can play another position other than the 4. But I also think he has a toughness and a competitive edge.
Connor will get minutes at the back up PG spot at least early and perhaps I shouldn't over react after 1 exhibition game but I just don't know that Connor's offensive game is good enough to play at the B1G level.
Overall, I think my lineup above has a smaller rotation with the benefit of having your better players more minutes.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
I tend to agree with you that his offensive game is not B1G. The crazy part about that is when Fran talks about him he only mentions offensive stuff. He said he was “improving” on defense which would lead me to believe he’s below average on that end.
I’ve said since day one Cmac is a mid major player. Right now the sample size isn’t big enough to confirm or deny that claim, that’s while I’ll be interested to continue to follow.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
As far as your lineup goes, I do like the idea of cutting down on the roatation by at least one guy. I still think you are short changing Cook and JBo minutes. Cook our best player should play at least 30 minutes if he can stay out of foul trouble and Bo by virtue of being our best option at the 1 should continue to get about 30.
My personal dream rotation (will never happen):
JBo 30 / Dailey 10
Moss 25 / Dailey 15
Weiskamp 30 / Baer 10
Cook 15 / Nunge 20 / Baer 5
Garza 25 / Cook 15
Kriener and Pemsl can be used in spot minutes to take some fouls.
That gets your best players out there and also makes Iowa a more athletic team and a better 3pt shooting team.
ibahawkeye
Well-Known Member
JBo playing 25 minutes would be more strategic. I think he did get worn down last year playing the 30 minutes a game and I also think the less we rely on JBo, the better. Basically any defensive lineup with out JBo on the floor will be better. My hope is between Cook, Garza, Moss and Joe all being able to score, we might be able to play Dailey or even Connor more minutes at the PG with out taking too much of a step backwards on offense but improve the D.
Regarding Cook, I don't have an issue with him playing closer to 30 minutes but I'm not sure I'm sold he can log 15 minutes a game at the 5 spot but a lot of that would depend on match ups. If he does play the 5, I'd probably want him playing alongside Nunge at the 4 to provide some rim protection and still have a shot blocking presence in the game.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
I don’t love playing JBo 30 minutes, but that’s just the roster we have. FYI he also played about 30 as a freshman and we were halfway decent that year once he settled into his role. I have seen nothing that leads me to believe Cmac is a defensive upgrade.
Great point about Nunge playing alongside Cook when they are the two bigs, at that point the positions are interchangeable. Cook is 6’9/260 so he is plenty big enough to play the 5 at this level. He basically did as a freshman when he started alongside 6’6 Wagner in the post. Foul issues would be a concern but as we mentioned Nunge can help alleviate that with his size.
ibahawkeye
Well-Known Member
I think Connor is a definite upgrade on D. He's 3 inches taller and longer but going back to a couple posts ago I don't think Connor is the answer either way even if he's a better defender.
Dailey is better than both defensively and a much better offensive player than Connor so I think we'd be best playing the Dailey/JBo combo.
It's crazy how our lineup looks pretty darn good when you eliminate our "depth" from the rotation. One thing I will say tho, Nunge did not look good at all the other night. It wasn't short term things like missing shots or careless careless turnovers either. He just looked all around clumsy and weak. I'm not sure how that can change much from game to game. I've been really high on him too so hopefully I'm wrong.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
Can’t argue with anything you said here.
Maybe Nunge bulked up too much and isn’t carrying the weight well. Sometimes that happens. Maybe it was just a bad day for him. As others mentioned it did appear that he might behind Pemsl / Kriener in the rotation.
That will be something else to monitor tonight. I still feels he brings more to the table than those guys but if he is playing poorly than maybe he’s been passed.
