Ernie Kent told reporters before practice Tuesday that the starting lineup for Thursday night’s game against California won’t be finalized until as late as the team’s Thursday walkthrough.
I see the vague nature of Kent’s comments as a two-fold necessity: to dangle a carrot in front of his players for this week’s practices and to place an ambiguous smokescreen in front of the eyes of familiar foe Ben Braun. The emphasis is squarely on the former.
Simply put, do I really believe that Kent doesn’t know who he is going to start? Not for a second.
You see, I put the comments into my reporter’s brain, and it started dividing them by what I know of coaches. That is: They are masters of manipulation and mind games.
They use punishments and rewards (real or perceived) to elicit the response they believe necessary to increase a player’s or a whole team’s performance. That isn’t a knock on coaches, that’s just what it takes to be a successful coach, and Kent is no different.
But just in case my skepticism is unfounded, and Kent really doesn’t know who he will start, here’s my advice, Coach. And this one’s on the house.
Despite the ambiguity of the comments, I have to assume the senior triumvirate of Maarty Leunen, Bryce Taylor and Malik Hairston will be starting. I can’t think of any matchup concern under the sun that would keep any of them off the floor in the starting roles they have so thoroughly earned.
So that leaves two spots and first off – start Tajuan Porter. If he’s not one of the top five players on this team I’ll eat my hat, even the one that made me famous. Also, Porter has done a lot for this program already in his young career, and I’m of the mindset that “you dance with the one who brought you.”
The temptation might be there, considering the size of Cal and Stanford to start Frantz Dorsainvil as the fifth man. He is incredibly strong, athletic, and really changes a lot of shots with his presence in the post.
But unless some miraculous turnaround has taken place in his understanding of how to defend the pick and roll, it’s just not worth it. With the big bodies and talented guards of Cal, they’ll chew Dorsainvil up on the pick and roll all day.
In my humble estimation, the other spot has to belong to Kamyron Brown.
Brown has been truly amazing to watch so far as a freshman. No, he hasn’t put up the jaw-dropping, eye-popping numbers that Porter did as a freshman, nor has he hit the different-area-code threes Porter was shocking everyone with, but he leads the team in assists and has been solid on defense. The defensive effort he gave in the Arizona game alone merits the spot.
And as spectacular as some of Porter’s moves with the ball are at times, he is obviously more effective as a shooting guard. Much of his success last year can be attributed to having a talented backcourt mate who not only had great vision on the court, but could break down defenses off the dribble and kick it out for an open shot. Kamyron Brown possesses these qualities, maybe not to the extent that Aaron Brooks did, but enough to make him a crucial part of the Ducks’ future success.
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