Grill Commits to ISU

[hilltopwildcat]

I'm not too worried about adding another player. Weber's notorious for an "ironman" philosophy, going with a less than 8-man rotation a lot. I think he's fairly solid at that right now. It would be nice if he could get a couple of solid players every year so there would be some stability from year to year. The Marcus Foster years still have him handcuffed a little.

[JOKKO]

I'm not too worried about adding another player. Weber's notorious for an "ironman" philosophy, going with a less than 8-man rotation a lot. I think he's fairly solid at that right now. It would be nice if he could get a couple of solid players every year so there would be some stability from year to year. The Marcus Foster years still have him handcuffed a little.

I agree that they shouldn't add anyone with the last ship unless they "REALLY" like what they bring (any grad transfer would be fine though as they are gone after one year anyway), but if they are still handcuffed from Marcus Foster, that would be EXTREMELY poor team management. He has been gone from KSU since 2015.

[Gorhoops]

I guess I need some clarification on how he is still handcuffed by the Foster deal?? The KSU classes seem pretty balanced right now with what looks to be at least two potential contributors in each class, which in this day and age of early entries and transfers is pretty rare. I actually think our roster is in pretty good shape as far as construction goes and it is pretty evident as to why the staff wanted a grad transfer with two seniors. But having two seniors, five juniors, two sophs and three freshman is pretty good construction in this day and age, with a potential 8 man rotation of Sneed, Mak, Carti, Mike, Sloan, Stockard, Gordon and any of the two freshman bigs or Love or Shadd or SNW.

I don't think the construction of the roster is the problem, the construction looks pretty good to me, the question is just the overall ability to consistently score baskets. This team has the chance to be very good defensively, just need to get consistent offense.

[learnin]

Grill made the statement that he likes Iowa State's style of getting up the court and firing 3's. I'm always a little leery when I hear a kid make such a statement. It suggests that he doesn't want to put a lot of effort into defense, etc. Make no mistake about it. Coach Weber is going to miss on some of these grad transfers, higher stars, because of his style which begins with good defense.

[tmcats]

agree with you gor. all the crape-hanging makes no sense to me. carti could be a dominant guard the next two years. sneed will be one of the league's best. mak as well.

i look forward to watching weber's development of this squad. i'm also curious who he names as a new assistant. did i miss that announcement?

[xtrawildcat]

I guess I need some clarification on how he is still handcuffed by the Foster deal?? The KSU classes seem pretty balanced right now with what looks to be at least two potential contributors in each class, which in this day and age of early entries and transfers is pretty rare. I actually think our roster is in pretty good shape as far as construction goes and it is pretty evident as to why the staff wanted a grad transfer with two seniors. But having two seniors, five juniors, two sophs and three freshman is pretty good construction in this day and age, with a potential 8 man rotation of Sneed, Mak, Carti, Mike, Sloan, Stockard, Gordon and any of the two freshman bigs or Love or Shadd or SNW.

I don't think the construction of the roster is the problem, the construction looks pretty good to me, the question is just the overall ability to consistently score baskets. This team has the chance to be very good defensively, just need to get consistent offense.

Agree. Interesting that you lump SNW in as one of the guys that might get minutes. Lots of fans on the KSO site are really high on him. I tend to agree with you. He could be really good but now needs to show it consistently with fewer errors, bad shots, etc.

I also think the freshman may be key to scoring as between the three, we should have a couple of guys that can make baskets.

[AJcat7755]

Grill made the statement that he likes Iowa State's style of getting up the court and firing 3's. I'm always a little leery when I hear a kid make such a statement. It suggests that he doesn't want to put a lot of effort into defense, etc. Make no mistake about it. Coach Weber is going to miss on some of these grad transfers, higher stars, because of his style which begins with good defense.

Agree with this. A lot of grad transfers don't want to spend their last year playing hard defense or even learning how to play that physical. They would prefer the exciting scoring aspect and try to make a "splash" to help with their future careers because let's be honest, scoring gets much more attention to fans, media, etc then playing great defense.

[Gorhoops]

Well and I also look at Geography and think about where to spend the last year of college, and although we know that Manhattan is amazing and these guys would love it if they would give it a chance, the Andree kid chose Raleigh North Carolina and the kid from Drexel, who publicly stated he was a big city guy, chose a big city, although in a terrible weather area. Yes, our coaches have to do a better job of recruiting grad transfers, but come on, if you are from the east coast and you have one year to play, geography plays a part, plain and simple.

I posted a month ago that I was a little concerned about Grill stating after his unofficial to Ames that he was looking to go where he could play and I felt then that if a kid chooses a program because he thinks it is an easier path to playing time or that they will run up and down and jack 3's, probably not a big deal, but a bit of a red flag for me.

[AJcat7755]

Well and I also look at Geography and think about where to spend the last year of college, and although we know that Manhattan is amazing and these guys would love it if they would give it a chance, the Andree kid chose Raleigh North Carolina and the kid from Drexel, who publicly stated he was a big city guy, chose a big city, although in a terrible weather area. Yes, our coaches have to do a better job of recruiting grad transfers, but come on, if you are from the east coast and you have one year to play, geography plays a part, plain and simple.

I posted a month ago that I was a little concerned about Grill stating after his unofficial to Ames that he was looking to go where he could play and I felt then that if a kid chooses a program because he thinks it is an easier path to playing time or that they will run up and down and jack 3's, probably not a big deal, but a bit of a red flag for me.

On the football side, K-State is getting a grad transfer RB from Raleigh, North Carolina who went to HS in Durham, NC and out of HS was down to Duke, Wake Forest, NC State and South Carolina.

[hilltopwildcat]

I guess I need some clarification on how he is still handcuffed by the Foster deal?? The KSU classes seem pretty balanced right now with what looks to be at least two potential contributors in each class, which in this day and age of early entries and transfers is pretty rare. I actually think our roster is in pretty good shape as far as construction goes and it is pretty evident as to why the staff wanted a grad transfer with two seniors. But having two seniors, five juniors, two sophs and three freshman is pretty good construction in this day and age, with a potential 8 man rotation of Sneed, Mak, Carti, Mike, Sloan, Stockard, Gordon and any of the two freshman bigs or Love or Shadd or SNW.

I don't think the construction of the roster is the problem, the construction looks pretty good to me, the question is just the overall ability to consistently score baskets. This team has the chance to be very good defensively, just need to get consistent offense.

I said handcuffed A LITTLE. He had a large roster turnover at that time and it has taken him some time to adequately refill the roster. He had to depend greatly on the 3 seniors who graduated and Sneed. This team IMHO is pretty much a question mark. Without those seniors to rely on how will Sneed, Diarra, McGuirl and Mak respond? I believe that the freshman on the upcoming team will have to fill a lot of the production lost by the graduation of the seniors.