Reader mail

Guys,
Sorry for not doing this over the last couple days... I'm sure you saw the story today as well as running around with the teams of late, haven't had a lot of blogging time. That ends now as we tackle two questions from a guy named Matt, clearly a great man.

Q: "Hi Matt...where do you stand on all the Baskerville-Simmons talk on the board? I know you don't want to bash a player...but do you think Howie has some sort of "love affair" with Simmons that is unfounded? Is he not playing Baskerville as much because of a lack of talent or a lack of work ethic? I just think Simmons is the better player. I'd love to hear your take.
Matt"

A: Matt,
First, I must admit that I haven't lurked around the board much lately for the reasons above, but I can speak about the two in general. If I miss someone's specific argument, let me know and I'll reanswer the question.
I think Howie is always going to favor tough guys, but that's not to say he doesn't like Baskerville. I think they're different kinds of players. You're all right that Chris is probably a better offensive player than Dave, though Dave can get just as many (if not more) points through his board work. And with this team, which has so few big rebounders, Dave's boards are critical.
Chris strikes me as a complimentary type of offensive player. A good number of his points have come lately from that big-to-big pass I love (look at how many assists Markeys had the other night) that leads to easy layups. Dave's meanwhile, are going to come on offensive rebounds, cuts to the basket and open court dunks.
Translation: Neither player is explosive enough offensively right now to be worth of all the minutes in the post. It's not an either/or thing. Nor is either guy a real option. Their points come from situations, not plays run for them. Each will play based on matchups and how they're practicing and playing.

Q: I'm curious about Ken Horton...are the CCSU coaches expecting him to be the Horton of the 1st half of last season? I don't expect him to be THE MAN in November...but I'm hoping he'll be full strength by mid-January of next season. Is he practicing with the team yet? I think a lot of people, including myself, expect next season to hinge on his health.

A: First off, everyone keep these coming. I want to make these columns a regular thing. We'll do five a day if we get them.
I haven't talked to the coaches specifically about Kenny in a while, but I did to talk Kenny himself a couple of weeks ago. I also relayed on here that story about at the FDU game on the road, when he was running around and looked great. My understanding all year was that he'd have been ready to come back some time this month, which from my talk to him and seeing him, sounds about right. But the idea was that it was silly to bring him back now. Give him the redshirt and give him the full year.
Howie has told me repeatedly that they expect Kenny to be as good as new next year. It might take him some time to get his timing back and conditioning, but I think a lot of that comes during this offseason. As of today, and man do I hope I'm not jinxing it, I expect him to be 100 percent by the time conference season comes around next year.

My own 2 cents on something I saw while I was getting caught up on that debate to answer the other question: regarding the rotation for next year. I think you're playing too many guys in that breakdown.
Here's my guess:
It's Devan and Shemik with Vince as the third guard and a freshman stealing a few minutes her and there.
Up front it's Ken, Markeys and Dave up front with Chris, Mr. Alexander and Joe Efese coming off the bench. That's your 10, and I think in that order.