Sam M Feedback

[InMnBob1]

I know this may not be a particularly popular topic, but after watching two games I have a feeling that SM is out classed athletically by our new guys. This team has the best athletes I've seen on a BU team for a long time and they make SM look small and slow. I think his turnover to assist ratio and his sub-par play this year is further indication of this. I wonder how long he will continue to be the BU starter.

[bu fan 9]

Sam will be fine. It is hard to get assists when no can make a outside shot.Sam is the leader of this team.

[Da Coach]

I am not ready to make that judgement by just the 2 games, so far. Sam played a lot with Daniel Ruffin on the floor last year, and I don't think the new guys are that much faster than DR. I think Sam has just had a couple sub-par games.

[bu fan 9]

How many assists would he have if someone could make an outside shot?This team right now is a very bad shooting team.

[amettrick]

I think its waaaay too early in the season to be talking about taking Sammy out of the starting lineup. He may not have played well in the first 2 games, but thats not a reason to panic and start questioning his abilities.

It looks to me like he was just putting way too much pressure on himself to score in those first 2 games because of the absence of AW. I really think you'll see SM settle down and play much better.

[SaintLouBrave22]

How many assists would he have if someone could make an outside shot?This team right now is a very bad shooting team.

Really, we shouldn't be talking about his numbers, we should be talking about Edge's...most of the passes to get guys wide open have been from him...

My biggest problem w/ Sammy is that he isn't making the smart passes this year...he for whatever reason wants to become the Ruff-incarnate and is trying to make all these fancy passes instead of the smart ones, thus the turnover issue...

He just needs to tighten it up a bit and slow down a couple notches...he'll be fine eventually and I expect him to hit some more clutch shots this season...

Do remember though that JC went through the same stretch as a So.

[ER3]

Athleticism is nice to have...but in and of itself, it doesn't mean a thing.
Sam Maniscalco is a solid basketball player with a high basketball IQ and great leadership qualities. He proved over a whole season last year that he was capable of playing at a high level...and he took and made a number of big shots for us last year...He hasn't played well in the first two games of this year...this is true. But the guy shot 37% from 3 last year, and he hit a number of huge 3s for us in key situations (the game at Drake immediately comes to mind)....all as a true freshman.

This team needs Sam Maniscalco to play better...no doubt about it...but it needs him in the lineup, not out of it. Athletes are nice, but you need a "glue guy" to hold it all together...Sam is that guy for us, in my opinion...

If we get further into the non-con schedule and he is still struggling this badly from three and is turning the ball over at this rate, then we may need to explore different ways of dishing out the minutes...but I don't think we are anywhere near the point where those decisions need to be made...two games into the season.

[squirrel]

I think it's more a symptom of our motion sets. We don't have the same passing abilities as the last two seasons, or the overall ball movement. . .so once Sam passes the ball off he gets lost in the offense and at times has been forced to act as the 2 to get the open shot, and he has pressed a bit too much on some of his shots.

He needs to be able to orchestrate things, and he hasn't been able to.

They should be able to tweak the roles on the offensive end to allow him to do so.

[shaunguth]

How many assists would he have if someone could make an outside shot?This team right now is a very bad shooting team.

And SM is the leading culprit here too! He's shooting 8% from 3-point range.

[mrcoachdude]

Sam is pressing a bit hard.....nothing more.... getting AW back will help Sam a bunch....

[Da Coach]

We've heard rumors that it could be due to a minor injury problem with Sammy.

[real fan]

Last year Sam made all of the right passes and did not try to make the impossible or low percentage ones, he needs to just get back to the basics as far as his passing goes; his shooting will come around as he is a fine shooter, he was fast enough last season so I don"t even look at that as an issue, JC was not fast but he was very efficient.

[ph]

We've heard rumors that it could be due to a minor injury problem with Sammy.

hmmmmm

I've been thinking that SM needs to better learn his limitations (normal learning curve that eventually becomes bball wisdom), but never occurred to me that he hight have an additional physical limitation

[Stryker]

I think Sam will be fine. Until Andrew is back and the other guys step up some more the opposing defense is still going to concentrate on Sam. He has a lot more pressure this year, he does not have JC to pass to who could create his own shot almost whenever, and teams are definitely scouting him. I recall Sam taking a few very contested shots as well, mostly because of the shot clock. I think it will come to him in time and he will get it fixed.

[SFP]

I believe SM will be fine. He just needs AW to come back and go back to basics. SM plays best when he does not have to score and runs the offense from the 1. Last year SM scored because opposing teams backed off of him and was wide open. This year without AW they are playing him tight. If he plays within himself he'll score 8-10 points but with a much higher field goal percentage.