Has Larranaga found the right spot for Isaiah Tate?

At the beginning of the season it was difficult to expect what kind of contributions we would see from Isaiah Tate. With the influx of new talent all over the roster and the fact that Tate never had a season averaging more than 2 points a game, one would have thought he would be the odd man out in the guard rotation. In the Villanova game in Puerto Rico, freshmen Rashad Whack got the start over him for the rule-breaking Andre Cornelius and was a game he picked up a DNP.

Then Tate got the start against UNCW, which may have been the result of an unhappy camper in senior Louis Birdsong, who recently has been airing out his frustrations with the situation on twitter. Be that as it may Tate played 32 minutes in that game and collected 4 steals, contributing to a solid defensive effort on the road for the Patriots. He has since started against Dayton and last week's game against Creighton. While his stats might not wow you, I feel he is finally being used to the best to his abilities and here is why:

• Tate is best used a spot-up shooter. He's never had great ball handling skills so playing him at the 2 spot was always a risk. While he was brought in to be a Lamar Butler type guy because of his three-point shooting ability he never was used the same way as Butler. Now you often see him in the line-up at the 3 spot which was previously being held by Birdsong. At 6'4" Tate has the size to play there and is given the opportunity to play a more catch and shoot role, which worked out pretty nicely while he was in the game against Creighton.

• He still plays better defense than the freshmen. If you watch the games closely Tate is never wildly out of position on defense like Sherrod Wright and Luke Hancock have been caught doing. It's not a knock on those guys it is just Tate's experience in Larranaga's system, something those guys can't pick-up over night.
  

• He doesn't turn over the ball. This season he has played 120 minutes and has only 1 turnover. By contrast Vertrail Vaughns has played 40 minutes and has 10. Sherrod Wright has played only 29 more minutes than Tate and has turned the ball over 10 times. as well. Late in a close game, who would rather have on the court?

I'm curious to see how this plays out, will Tate's minutes increase and will he continue to start or is this just a temporary experiment? It's difficult to think Hancock or Wright won't take over as a starter at some point down the road but for now their rookie miscues might be Tate's gain and may be better for the team at this point.

[photo credit Off wing Opinion via Flickr]