Jackets Go Cold.....

... shooting the rock in hoops that is. Story here. We cannot underestimate the impact of losing Clarence Moore and Marvin Lewis. More than anything these guys were the most consistent shooters from the outside. Yeah, Lewis would disappear at times, but we he disappeared, he just wasn't taking a lot of shots. When he took shots he didn't get into many prolonged slumps. And C-Mo always seemed good for 1-2 3pt goals each game.

Here's my take on each of our current perimeter players:

Elder - streak shooter. His shots will eventually start falling, but in spurts. He can still score 0 one half and 20 the next. The streakiest of our shooters and that won't change. The key is not settling for 3pt shots all the time. Elder has a great ability to post-up, to drive, to pull-up from 10feet. He can work himself out of slumps by moving his game more inside.

Bynum - another streaky guy who's shot will come around. But again, another guy who could put up 30 one game and 0 the next.

Jack - I think Jack will really show an improved shot this season. He hurt his wrist prior to the UIC game and struggled, but his shot percentage will go up this year.

McHenry / Muhammad - We heard about Isma'il's improved jump shot and that T-Mac needs to be more aggressive on offense. But we have yet to see either of these guys knock down perimeter shots their entire career. So I'm not looking for much from the outside from them.

Fredrick / Morrow - Here's the interesting delimma. It is pretty clear that these two freshman could help add two more perimiter shooters to the line-up. Unfortunately they are not ready for the defensive play of the GT game at the collegiate level yet. And the bottom-line is that they are going to earn their minutes on D and not shooting the ball.

Our shooting will come around. There is no doubt about that. However, it is not clear that we will be as good a shooting team as last season. Time will tell. Can the freshman step up the D and get their shots as a result? Stay tuned.

Here's a story on the struggling offense.