Time to bench Woodbury???

hawkfan33 said:
How is his confidence shot? He was great against Wisconsin and played 19 minutes in that game. Let's not make rash decisions on one game sample sizes.
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He had 2 pts and 3 rbs and 4 fouls in those 18 mins. No blocks however no TOs so that's a big possitive. In that Wisky game. But that is hardly the type of production you expect of a starter is it?? His body language in not just the OSU game but in a few of the prior games has not been very good. And again I'm not knocking him for that because I'd be the same way. If I wasn't playing very well and had high expectations I'd be way frustrated. It's not a one game sample size I'm going off of. How many games has he had that you would say were "good"? I hope he comes out next game and has 20 and 10. Hell half that 10/5 would be great. (and actually some what realistic) But unless he gets his confidence up gets stronger and more aggressive at the offensive end I don't see him setting the world on fire anytime soon.
 
Good points all around. What Woody adds right now is 3 fold..
1) Excellent Defense
2) Excellent rebounder
3) Great outlet passer

What Woody needs work on...
1) Scoring
2) Upper body strength
3) Leg Strength

Woody is like 98% of the 7 footers that come to college. What worked in HS doesn't work against athletic D1 players. Woody will have some great games this year and some painful games this year. His positives right now are what the team needs right now. Our defense is light years better when Woody is in the game.
 
ssckelley said:
Because Woodbury is not wearing a North Carolina uniform.
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And that works wonders for the psche of the rest of the team and especially those players fighting for minutes and the starting job which is no longer available to them. It would not be the end of the world if Woodbury were playing in powder blue on the east coast right now.
 
NO. He is going to be so much better for all his struggles this season. He has so much upside it makes me giddy to think he will be playing for us for another 3 years. Patience is a virtue, and their are many on here that need to just let the growing pains happen. Coddling him now won't do him a bit of good this far into the season.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
I feel that it is. He is struggling big time. His confidence isn't very high. Basabe has been playing pretty well and it's almost tough to want to take him out of the role he's getting comfortable with too. But he deserves more mins and so does Mcabe. Gabe brought some effort and didn't do too bad out there. (other then bricking free throws that goes for Mcabe too) I have a bad feeling that by the end of the year we might be wishing that Woodbury had red shirted. At what point does his production on the court trump experience gained by playing?
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Nope.

He is still contesting shots and putting in a lot of effort defensively. He picks up some bad fouls, but that is expected from a kid learning how to play in the Big Ten.

Basabe is getting plenty of minutes and so is McCabe. Woodbury's minutes have went down, but when he is on the floor he does something every second he is out there: Compete.

I think the only area that you can "complain" is his offense. I still like the way he plays and I don't think redshirting him would have done any good, you are questioning redshirting a starter, makes sense.

Woodbury understands how to play the game, it is up to him to have everything just slow down and not rush things.
 
Smarthawk said:
Good points all around. What Woody adds right now is 3 fold..
1) Excellent Defense
2) Excellent rebounder
3) Great outlet passer

What Woody needs work on...
1) Scoring
2) Upper body strength
3) Leg Strength

Woody is like 98% of the 7 footers that come to college. What worked in HS doesn't work against athletic D1 players. Woody will have some great games this year and some painful games this year. His positives right now are what the team needs right now. Our defense is light years better when Woody is in the game.
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Decent man up defense. Poor help D
 
It isn't who starts a game that matters nearly as much as who finishes it. Woodbury only got about 7 minutes of game time. Basabe received 3 X that amount. It is all good. If Woodbury is bringing it.. he will get more minutes. Plus, I really feel Basabe brings more off the bench with his energy when the Hawkeyes need it. The other team will struggle to defend a fresh Basabe!
 
"Decent man up defense. Poor help" +1 he lacks the quickness necessary when helping up top and rotating down low. Basabe does this well and Gabe is improving on it
 
ssckelley said:
If you did bench Woodbury I would think McCabe would be the starter as Basabe has been doing really well coming off the bench. But I don't know, I could go either way with this as his struggles are not because of a lack of effort.
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No no no no no no hell no. The last thing in the world that makes any sense is going back to a 6'6' center with a 10 inch vertical jump.

Woodbury is a 10 times better option than McCabe at center if he scores 0 points the rest of the year.
 
clicheusername3 said:
The thing about big men like Woodbury is the ceiling is pretty low on them. If a big man is going to be dominant you can see it really early. In HS he would have been putting up 25/15/5 (blocks) every game if he was going to reach a really high level in college. Woodbury was at like 17/7/>1 in HS. He's not a great shot blocker and that is not something that you can easily coach up. I would say Woodbury's ceiling is 13/8/1.5 in college.
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Disagree. There are plenty of examples to the contrary especially big guys who have to rely on things other than raw athleticism.
 
kmajhawk said:
It has been tough to watch and it was frustrating seeing Ohio State rip the ball out of his hands. He will get better from the experience; the more he gets knocked around this year, the more he should realize what he will need to do against the big bodies of the B1G the rest of his college career. During the off-season he really needs to work on his upper body, arm and hand strength. He can be a force inside but needs to work on it.
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He gotta have "wild bull pampas attitude to compete in B1G
 
hawkballer said:
"Decent man up defense. Poor help" +1 he lacks the quickness necessary when helping up top and rotating down low. Basabe does this well and Gabe is improving on it
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Gabe may be improving on it, but he's still terrible at it. He constantly gets stuck in no mans land when defending pick and rolls. Woodbury has a great feel for when to jump back after hedging on a pick and roll.
 
You mean when he doesn't foul the guard on the pick and roll 30 feet from the basket.

Gabe, not woody BTW.
 
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Having Woody come off the bench could be the best thing for him. He could get a feel for the game & study his opponent Before getting in the game. Who knows, he could shine in that role... It doesn't mean he won't start again later this year.


One thing is for sure about how well AW2 plays coming off the bench, we won't know how he will do until Fran tries it!!!
 
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