Dan Wolken's Blog - Things I Think

Things I think…
Posted by Dan Wolken

…after watching the first 12 practices of the year

- The Tigers’ top three players will be very competitive with the top three of most of the teams in the country. The question is how much they’ll get out of the next five in the rotation.

- This can be a pretty good 3-point shooting team, but it’s not going to be significantly better than it was last season.

- I’ll be honest. When Doneal Mack transferred, and then came back, I didn’t think it would make a huge difference one way or the other. But I’m stunned by how well he’s playing right now, and it’s not even really about shooting 3-pointers. If he continues on this trajectory, he’ll give the Tigers what they lacked last year which is a legit guy off the bench to play shooting guard.

- Shawn Taggart struggled a bit in the scrimmages over the weekend. They need to figure out a way to get him going and how they can create some good scoring opportunities for him.

- Tyreke Evans has improved a ton already because he is extremely coachable. You tell him to do something, and he’ll do it on the next play.

- Wesley Witherspoon is a tough guy to guard, and he’ll be even tougher when he makes all of his layups.

- Matt Simpkins is pretty active inside. He’s been slightly better than I expected.

- There is probably going to be an odd-man out somewhere along the line. If you’re starting lineup is Kemp, Anderson, Evans, Dozier and Taggart, there are three more people and maybe a fourth who will be in the primary rotation. Mack is starting to separate himself, and Pierre Niles is in there because they need a second big. That leaves everybody else fighting for a couple positions. Not to say that the rest of the team won’t play, but a true 10-man rotation is unrealistic.

- I have almost assuredly overrated Memphis at No. 8 in my AP top 25