With Dodie

[BUfan14]

What would we have done this year?? I certainly think we would have been a lot better.

People have argued that injuries happen to everyone and they do, but not season ending injuries year after year. The DSE, SM, and even EM injuries I'll just count as injuries that just happen throughout the course of a year, as well as the TB situations. BUT, year after year we get a major season-ending or long term injury it seems that effects where we would have been. I think we would have danced 3 years in a row had we stayed healthy the 2 years after the S16. Last year and this year would be much better too.

I think Dodie would have put us over the top for about 5 more wins this year and I don't think those double-digit collapses would have happened. He might be our best shooter (with AW) and late game shooting, perimeter defense, an extra leader, and depth have hurt this team tremendously. 20-9 would be a successful season in my book.....hopefully we avoid injuries next year finally. It's a shame we have to keep using it as an explanation, but it really is an awful string of bad luck there is no denying that. Not too many teams have dealt with the long term injuries year after year we have, it is amazing we have been as good as we have.

So even if you don't think it's an excuse, where does everyone else think we would have been had Dodie been healthy all year???

[BradleyJD]

I would say 2 more wins. Although you would probably not have seen as much of DSE either.

[Braves4Life]

Can Dodie play the 5?

[BUfan14]

Can Dodie play the 5?

A 6-3 5 probably wouldn't be a good thing

But I think our tiredness at the end of games, our lack of shooting at the end, and our perimeter defense allowing easy 3's (perhaps also a result of being tired) has lost us those big leads just as much as post defense. At least fixing one problem would have helped tremendously, we still wouldn't be perfect, but it would certainly help IMO.

[TNel]

With all due respect to Dodie, maybe one or two more wins. Our biggest problem is glaringly obvious. Next year, we'll have tons of talent at the 1, 2 and 3. If we don't get a legitimate newbie horse at the 5 (with Will going to a 4), we have no chance or competiing for a conference title. This is no longer your father's MVC.

[tornado]

disagree...I think if you look at how he literally carried us at time when we did have Dodie healthy..
I say we would have won in Indy State, would have won at UNI, and would have also held the leads and won vs. Loyola, Southern, ISU, and maybe even one more...
so I say a steadying influence and a reliable scorer like Dodie might have made a difference of 5 games..

[BradleyBrave]

1 or 2 more wins max. Remember, with Dodie we get a lot less DSE and probably a little less CR, so it's kind of a wash. He also wouldn't have prevented us getting abused on the glass the way we did in a lot of our losses.

[BUfan14]

1 or 2 more wins max. Remember, with Dodie we get a lot less DSE and probably a little less CR, so it's kind of a wash. He also wouldn't have prevented us getting abused on the glass the way we did in a lot of our losses.

See when people say less DSE would result I disagree.

We are very short on depth right now, so he probably would have gotten the same time, with DD cutting down on SM, AW, and CR's minutes which is a good thing cause they play too much and probably get tired at the end resulting in our late game collapses. He wouldn't have stopped the post, but he would have stopped the barrage of 3's that teams sometimes get against us though. Also his shooting is maybe the best on the team, something we lack now. So I think we would see no less DSE, but our starters would be more rested for sure which in it of itself I think is 3-5 more wins.

[BradleyBrave]

See when people say less DSE would result I disagree.

We are very short on depth right now, so he probably would have gotten the same time, with DD cutting down on SM, AW, and CR's minutes which is a good thing cause they play too much and probably get tired at the end resulting in our late game collapses. He wouldn't have stopped the post, but he would have stopped the barrage of 3's that teams sometimes get against us though. Also his shooting is maybe the best on the team, something we lack now. So I think we would see no less DSE, but our starters would be more rested for sure which in it of itself I think is 3-5 more wins.

Gotta disagree. JL has never gone more than 8 or so deep during the league season, so that's DD, SM, AW, TB, WE, SS, CR, and DSE. He's 8th in that rotation, so that's anywhere from 5-15 minutes a game max. And that's assuming that EM is completely out of the rotation, which he really wasn't until he got injured.

Also, nothing of what you said addresses our rebounding or interior defensive woes, which largely contributed to a number of our losses. DD doesn't do anything to help that.

[BUfan14]

Gotta disagree. JL has never gone more than 8 or so deep during the league season, so that's DD, SM, AW, TB, WE, SS, CR, and DSE. He's 8th in that rotation, so that's anywhere from 5-15 minutes a game max. And that's assuming that EM is completely out of the rotation, which he really wasn't until he got injured.

Also, nothing of what you said addresses our rebounding or interior defensive woes, which largely contributed to a number of our losses. DD doesn't do anything to help that.

When JE (current 8th man) plays well he gets upwards of 20 minutes like last game, so I think DSE still would have earned his way in as our 8th man if Dodie was healthy anyway. DSE played 37 minutes his first 2 games, with Dodie still playing.

As I said I think post play is one issue along with the other issues I stated. While that issue would still not be fixed, the others would be, and while still not being perfect because the post flaw would still be there, fixing those other issues would certainly have made us a lot better I think. We lost a lot of those gams by less than 5 points, fixing some of the issues I stated is probably a 6 point swing even with the post still being poor.

[BradleyBrave]

When JE (current 8th man) plays well he gets upwards of 20 minutes like last game, so I think DSE still would have earned his way in as our 8th man if Dodie was healthy anyway. DSE played 37 minutes his first 2 games, with Dodie still playing.

As I said I think post play is one issue along with the other issues I stated. While that issue would still not be fixed, the others would be, and while still not being perfect because the post flaw would still be there, fixing those other issues would certainly have made us a lot better I think. We lost a lot of those gams by less than 5 points, fixing some of the issues I stated is probably a 6 point swing even with the post still being poor.

Guard minutes last year (minus Andrew Warren)

SM 32.8
DD 26.8
CR 25.9
EM 25.0
DN 12.2

Guard minutes this year

AW 33.6
SM 33.3
CR 29.3
DSE 20.5
JE 10.9
EM 14.4

DD played 25 in the opener, and was going to top that in his 2nd game until the injury. You could eliminate JE's minutes and replace them with DD, which is about 10 mpg less for DSE. His minutes would have probably gone up when EM got hurt or eventually passed him on the depth chart, but DD would have meant less DSE, plain and simple.

[Air Petey]

!!

I like Dodie's leadership and his shooting.

After that -

Dribbling in the middle - he needs to look up more for open players and not force things.

Passing - He sees the open man too late and makes too many turnovers. He needs to see that open lane before it is open (just like a great quarterback). I think with Dodie - it would have been a wash this year (W&L's).

I hope he improves his driving and passing ability for next year.

Keep up the leadership

[flipper]

we dodie.....dse gets less playing time. maybe one more win. need inside help. dse did a good job with his minutes.

[SFP]

Can Dodie play the 5?

With all due respect to Dodie, maybe one or two more wins. Our biggest problem is glaringly obvious. Next year, we'll have tons of talent at the 1, 2 and 3. If we don't get a legitimate newbie horse at the 5 (with Will going to a 4), we have no chance or competiing for a conference title. This is no longer your father's MVC.

Yes! Love DD but we'll never know and our real deficiencies have been with the lack of a big.

[tornado]

we dodie.....dse gets less playing time....

again-- disagree...with Dodie, then Jake never comes off redshirt, and DSE's playing time stays at about 15 - 20 min....

Dodie would have been our most experienced player...period...one of the best two defenders, and the guy would have been a team leader and
as he showed in the Idaho State game, he'd have made a big difference.