Swopshire to start against St. John's

He’s not mentally tough enough. I think he regresses b/c of this change.

TJ – athletic freak, but no discernable basketball skills.
Swop – Slightly above average athlete, but has every skill in the book. Lacks strength to finish (like, he’s really bad at it), but I think some of that stems from lack of confidence.

Here’s what it comes down to for me. Jennings isn’t much offensive threat at all from the four, but his presence seems to help create better spacing for everyone, particularly Samardo. On the defensive end, it’s a bit tougher to figure out, but he’s probably not as good of a defensive rebounder as Swop, though he’s a better helpside shot blocker, and he’s gotten some steals (who knows if that’s statistically significant though). Swop, meanwhile, is more of a scoring threat from the four (who would you take in a jump shooting contest? Swop or TJ), and he’s arguably the best defensive rebounder on a team that isn’t very good at defensive rebounding. He’s also, in my opinion, a better perimeter defender on a team that isn’t very good at defending the perimeter.

We’re already a really efficient offense (11th in the nation), but we’re terrible at defense, particularly guarding the perimeter and getting on the defensive glass. So the question is this: does TJ’s shot blocking presence, occasional steals, and apparent improvement of an already really good offense (even though I don’t think he’s got much “box score impact”) outweigh the possibility that he’s a worse defensive rebounder and perimeter defender on a team whose two biggest weaknesses are defensive rebounding and perimeter defense?

I don’t think it does. And I don’t even really think it’s a close call. Maybe if he was a great defensive rebounder it would be a debate, but he does appear to be. At the end of the day, I just don’t see him as a four on a Pitino team unless he puts in a ton of work this offseason. Maybe in a 3-2 offense he would work better, but not in the 4-1 RP favors, and certainly not in the zone we use. He just doesn’t have the skills for it right now. Fortunately for him, he’s got the athleticism to at least adequately develop them if he wants to.

Jennings gets lost on defense in the zone so many times it’s comical. It’s like he’s still waking up from being tazed. We spotted Cincy 8 points. Spotted WVU 13. His defense on the press has been atrocious at the timeline. Atrocious. Like he’s stuck in cement. Also, Swop’s high-low passing was quite a nice addition to the offensive sets against Rutgers. That will be a big deal against Syracuse. If Jennings starts rebounding like a madman, he will play. And at least occasionally paying attention would help.

Jennings out plays Swops almost every night. Defensively: Swops gives you nothing, Jennings is a game changer. Offensively let’s look at stats. Swops 37% shooting wide open shots because the other team does not even guard him, 1 point for 3.1 minutes played. Jennings 65% shooting, other teams can not double off of him which creates more spacing, 1 point for every 2.4 minutes played. Rebounds Swops 1 for every 4.2 minutes played. Jennings 1 for every 3.8 minutes played. Furthermore Jennings plays has hard as anybody on the court including Swops . Jennings has blocked 3 jump shots away from the basket this season so do not tell me he does not get out on shooters out of the 2-3.