by JacobPadilla » Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:13 am
The pitch is that they don't have anyone like him on the roster right now; the 4-guard thing is out of necessity precisely for that reason.
As for the current non-guard options, Martin could get by at the 4 and does so in brief stretches, but with his ability to shoot and attack from the perimeter (he's a pretty good slasher for a big man), he's more of a mismatch at the five and his skill set opens up the offense more there, not to mention he's a great lob threat. Perhaps with a healthy offseason they could spend more time working on two-big lineups with Martin at the 4; he spent the whole offseason and preseason rehabbing this year.
As for Bishop, if he wants to play at the four he needs to spend a lot of time in the gym this offseason. He can't shoot or dribble, which is kind of important in Creighton's offense where everyone handles the ball.
Creighton runs a lot of spread pick-and-roll with one in and four out. Add someone who isn't a threat to dribble and shoot in place of one of the four perimeter players and and you're dramatically impacting the spacing and making things tougher for your playmakers. So you're either using a less effective version of your offense and you're changing what you're doing entirely.
That's where Enaruna comes in; theoretically, someone with his skill set and size would allow Creighton to play like it wants to offensively while also matching up better defensively and on the glass. Is he actually good enough to earn that role right away were he to choose Creighton? Perhaps we'll see, or maybe we'll never know.
Say he does choose Creighton and does earn a starting role right away. That certainly puts something of a roster crunch in place with all the guys that have been pressed into heavy minutes to this point, but that's not the worst thing in the world if everyone is on the same page.
I think most can agree Zegarowski and Alexander are going to start. I wouldn't be shocked at all if Ballock would be OK with coming off the bench if he still played a starter's role. That would leave Mintz (still the team's best perimeter defender) out there to start with Enaruna and Krampelj at the 4 and 5. Sub Ballock for Mintz early, then rotate each of Zegarowski, Alexander, Ballock and Mintz through for 25-30+ minutes each.
Krampelj plays starters' minutes, then Enaruna, Jefferson, Mahoney battle it out for the remaining 3 minutes and the 4 minutes while Epperson, Froling and Bishop sort out the back-up 5 minutes. Maybe Jefferson gets back to what he was doing during the nonconference, or maybe he gets passed up. Maybe Mahoney lives up to the hype, or maybe he takes some time to adjust to the Big East level of play. Both are much less proven than any of the guards.
If Enaruna chooses Kansas or someone else, then Creighton rolls on with the 4-guard lineups and you need more from Jefferson and Mahoney right away. Perhaps they work more with Krampelj at the 4 and open up more minutes at the 5 for the back-up trio. That's something they'll have to play around with this offseason.
