Rokas Skill development Thoughts

[23won]

I like what I saw in the Fordham game, but if I were a coach, I'd work on three things in practice with Rokas.

1) On the lob entry passes, there often are players nearby or in double team, so he needs to jump and high point the catch instead of staying cemented on the ground as he is prone to do.

2) After an entry pass, don't always back the defender; instead, pivot to face the basket in a triple threat position and then look for a lane cutter, shoot a midrange (after a ball fake) or ball fake and then drive

3) When getting an O rebound near the hoop, keep the ball high and immediately go up with force to the hoop. A bucket or shooting foul would then be a likely outcome. If you don't go up with force, you won't get the foul call.

Good skills, but needs to adapt to US play and be more aggressive around the hoop.  What do folks think?

[hoopsguest]

On point 1 - depending on if he is injured and what the injury could be, that is easier said than done. That’s more of an offseason thing with a good strength and conditioning coach

[calsufan]

The number one skill he needs to work on before anything else is his hands. Learning to catch the ball and then holding onto it instead of losing it or having it ripped out of his hands. Both happen much too often.

Second, they need to instill aggressiveness in him. He is wayyyyyyy too placcid. He needs to learn how to play with an edge.

Last, someone needs to drill him on free throws.

If he can master those 3 skills, everything else will follow.

[lasallejohn]

I like him coming off the bench the past two games. You can see the guards are more comfortable passing to Zan on a pick and roll or any time then they are to Rokas, probably due to his lack of footwork and propensity to get the ball knocked out of his hands/tied up for a jump ball, etc. I keep reminding myself he is only a sophomore. He needs to get tougher though. The end of the fordham game saw ample opportunities for him at the end to go up and get a REBOUND to end the game and he just never did. He’s the tallest guy out there, but often plays smaller. Rooting for him to improve because if he can get better at these things he makes the team much better. Right now though I’m content with him off the bench. I wonder if the former big man coach we used to have on Ash’s staff would have helped him out a little bit more in his development to this point.

[nyalum]

Agree with the things he needs to work on. I also believe we could weaponize his jumper some more. La Salle ran a couple of inbound plays for him vs. Fordham and he knocked them down. Could help to add another dimension to the offensive sets.

[roaddog77]

In my opinion, the only thing I want him to do is to get physical in the post on the offense and defense side of the ball. By that he need the whole summer with the strength and conditioning coach.