After 2 games....

I would imagine Ahmed or Ellison would have to guard really big Guards.
 
Yes,the test will be how they fare against talented big guards. Does speed and skillful ball handling trump ht since often they will be giving up 3-5 inches
 
Backcourt thoughts...

Like everyone else, I love the combo of LoVett and Ponds. Excited for what they are now and the potential for what they can develop into. Good pesky defenders but I agree size may be an issue at times down the road.

Really like Mussini in his new role. He's still a liability on defense so I like him maxing out around 20 mins, but he's gonna hit some big shots for us.

Ellison looks way more confident on offense which is a big plus but I'm still a bit disappointed in him defensively (only 2 games though so I'm not down yet) He's got great size and athleticism but seems to lack some basic defensive fundamentals. I think there's an opportunity for him to carve a role out on this team as the guy who we can bring in to shut down bigger guards who are giving us problems but he's gotta dedicate himself to making that a priority. He played so well against Whitehead in that Seton Hall game last year though so potential is there. Otherwise I agree Simon is gonna steal his minutes next year. Simon is hands down the more physically skilled player so I think Ellison's gonna have to earn his time by playing with grit, passion and intelligence.
 
Way too early to tell but.....backcourt is better than fine offensively but I agree 100% on Lawmanfan comment about keeping the ball in front of them, biggest flaw I see so far. Front court to me is an incomplete because Ahmed needs to get his feet wet and the rest need to become acclimated to a completely different game with LoVett / Ponds. Captain Obvious, we need to box and defensive rebound. It will take time to gel, but obviously the talent and depth have been upgraded significantly.
 
1. Ponds and Lovett are a legitimate BE starting backcourt. Ponds is electric, and he should be here for awhile since he's too small to play in the NBA. Ditto Lovett. Their height may be a small disadvantage in the BE, but they will basically be fine and fun to watch. Great chemistry on the court already.

2. Mussini can now play a role where he should excel, playing 15-20 minutes off the bench and hitting spot-up 3s. Far too much was asked of him last year. Large role player, will be a nice contributor. Ellison should be a smaller role player as a swing man.

3. Hopefully out of our group of bigs 3 players will emerge. Let's count Yakwe as one, so that leaves two more out of the following prospects:
- Sima - had hoped for more from him this year, so far he looks like less but it's a small sample so fingers crossed
- Owens - too thin, but really effective in the press/trap game due to length and athleticism. No sign of any more game than that yet, though. Mullin seems to like him, so maybe there's something there.
- Ahmed - Good size, strength, and athleticism, but not ready for high D1 play yet. Hopefully he will adjust fast.
- Freudenberg - do not expect much this year.
- Alibegovic - no comment.

Overall, the backcourt is playing at a different speed and level than the bigs. Hopefully the bigs will catch up sooner rather than later. Otherwise the backcourt has enough game to win 21 games, the bigs have enough game to win 13, and that means as a group they land at around 17.

4. The defense is woeful, except that the press and trap looked good (against not much competition). Three words apply to everyone on the team: STOP THE DAMN BALL (ok that's four, but it is enormously frustrating watching defenders as turnstiles). Ponds will collect a lot of steals, he has very fast hands. But we have to stop the ball and play better team D or we are going to give up a ton of points.
Click to expand...

Agree on the defense. Binghamton's guards dribble penetrated all night, which is surprising because both Ponds and Lovett are very quick. That led to our defense collapsing and left a lot of open looks from the 3-point line for Binghamton. They need to learn to stay in front and move their feet. Too much ole defense on the perimeter.
 
4. The defense is woeful, except that the press and trap looked good (against not much competition). Three words apply to everyone on the team: STOP THE DAMN BALL (ok that's four, but it is enormously frustrating watching defenders as turnstiles). Ponds will collect a lot of steals, he has very fast hands. But we have to stop the ball and play better team D or we are going to give up a ton of points.
Click to expand...

I don't understand why we start guarding man2man at the halfcourt line. I thought that would be thrown out when Lavin left.
 
Agree on the defense. Binghamton's guards dribble penetrated all night, which is surprising because both Ponds and Lovett are very quick.
Click to expand...

Quick yes, but like most kids straight out of high school/AAU they guard with their hands looking for steals rather than with their feet. Coaching and the humiliation of getting constantly blown by should reverse that.
 
4. The defense is woeful, except that the press and trap looked good (against not much competition). Three words apply to everyone on the team: STOP THE DAMN BALL (ok that's four, but it is enormously frustrating watching defenders as turnstiles). Ponds will collect a lot of steals, he has very fast hands. But we have to stop the ball and play better team D or we are going to give up a ton of points.
Click to expand...

I don't understand why we start guarding man2man at the halfcourt line. I thought that would be thrown out when Lavin left.
Click to expand...

With anyone besides Lovett and ponds it would be a mistake. But if your pg is quicker than theirs, why let them walk the ball into their sets?
 
Love Ponds & value his deflections & steals. That said, against better teams he should not overdo cheating. If so, savvy teams will burn him. Not being nit picky, just observing habits of a first year budding star.
 
Backcourt size is overrated in college. Uconn won a National Championship with two sub-6 foot guards in Napier and Boatright. I could come up with a ton more. Our guards just need to use their speed to stay in front of guys, , not guard with their hands. Get in front and take charges.. the ole Duke-flop.

Only big guards that can back their man down on iso like Mark Jackson or deadeye shooters that are much taller should be worrisome. The beauty is that we do have the 6'6" Ellison to work into the lineup.

Our offense looks great early on as does ball movement and passing. Our defense, switches looked atrocious last game. Too much help defense and not recovering with ball reversal. Need it worked on ASAP because the real opponents are coming.

As far as who looks good and who doesn't.. our guards are light years ahead right now. Our front court is still extremely young and new to big time D1 ball with exception of Yakwe and Sima who have been solid if unspectacular. Lots of room for them to grow this season and I expect they will.
 
Agree on the defense. Binghamton's guards dribble penetrated all night, which is surprising because both Ponds and Lovett are very quick.
Click to expand...

Quick yes, but like most kids straight out of high school/AAU they guard with their hands looking for steals rather than with their feet. Coaching and the humiliation of getting constantly blown by should reverse that.
Click to expand...

100% correct. The team-wide flaw is that nobody moves their feet. You can't be seeing blow-bys and ole' defense against the Binghamtons of the world. I'm amazed Mullin has not drilled them to death on that already.

Also agree with Paultzman that Ponds will get schooled if he keeps cheating against real D1 point guards, and then he'll learn. Though I'd rather somebody teach him before that happens, but it's all part of the learning curve.
 
Backcourt size is overrated in college. Uconn won a National Championship with two sub-6 foot guards in Napier and Boatright. I could come up with a ton more. Our guards just need to use their speed to stay in front of guys, , not guard with their hands. Get in front and take charges.. the ole Duke-flop.

Only big guards that can back their man down on iso like Mark Jackson or deadeye shooters that are much taller should be worrisome. The beauty is that we do have the 6'6" Ellison to work into the lineup.

Our offense looks great early on as does ball movement and passing. Our defense, switches looked atrocious last game. Too much help defense and not recovering with ball reversal. Need it worked on ASAP because the real opponents are coming.

As far as who looks good and who doesn't.. our guards are light years ahead right now. Our front court is still extremely young and new to big time D1 ball with exception of Yakwe and Sima who have been solid if unspectacular. Lots of room for them to grow this season and I expect they will.
Click to expand...


This is spot on.
 
I think Sima was good against Binghamton he just got in foul trouble. If he could've stayed on the floor he would have put up much bigger numbers against a small team. He got 2 or 3 fouls reaching in when all he needed to do was just let the smaller forward try to post him up.

The fouls were definitely tacky tack, but if thats how the referees are going to be calling the games then he has to adjust and just focus on playing good straight up defense.

I think Owens, Yakwe, and Sima have all showed flashes in the first two games. If they can just become more consistent as the season wears on we should be in very good shape. I believe they will. Excited for Friday night, only two more days!!
 
Backcourt size is overrated in college. Uconn won a National Championship with two sub-6 foot guards in Napier and Boatright. I could come up with a ton more. Our guards just need to use their speed to stay in front of guys, , not guard with their hands. Get in front and take charges.. the ole Duke-flop.

Only big guards that can back their man down on iso like Mark Jackson or deadeye shooters that are much taller should be worrisome. The beauty is that we do have the 6'6" Ellison to work into the lineup.

Our offense looks great early on as does ball movement and passing. Our defense, switches looked atrocious last game. Too much help defense and not recovering with ball reversal. Need it worked on ASAP because the real opponents are coming.

As far as who looks good and who doesn't.. our guards are light years ahead right now. Our front court is still extremely young and new to big time D1 ball with exception of Yakwe and Sima who have been solid if unspectacular. Lots of room for them to grow this season and I expect they will.
Click to expand...

I think Yakwe needs to play more. His offense is not advanced either but he does have the ability to get some easy baskets down low on put backs.
 
I hate that refs are going to be slowing the game down with all the whistle work. They have to allow the guys to play.
 
I understand that Coach is experimenting with lineups with all the new players, but he needs to cut this down to an 8 man rotation fast with the quality opponents upcoming. I could see Lovett, Ponds and Bashir each getting 30 minutes, with Mussini and Ellison getting 20, and Sima, Yakwe and Owens in the paint for 20-25 minutes each per game. I'd prefer Yakwe to get the most, followed by Sima then Owens. In any scenario, we won't see much scoring from these guys. As for RF, he's not ready yet. Maybe by the end of the year.
 
I'm not worried about the backcourt, we're 4 deep and we have two great ball-handlers.

The frontcourt is a different story. Right now Owens is the best big of the bunch. He is fundamentally sound and boxes out well for rebounds. Sima and Yakwe still need to get their offensive games polished and Sima needs to be more alert on the defensive end.

Ahmed needs to pick and choose when he drives to the hoop, some of those bull rushes are going to result in offensive fouls. He's way better than what we had last year and i think he'll pick it up.

I think the rotation will go 8 or 9 with Amar, Freudenberg and Williams seeing spot duty as game and injury situations dictate.
 
I too am reserving judgment on Ahmed until we see how he does against better comp. IMO after the Baruch game he may have become over-confident in his ability to score easily against an inferior opponent. He expected to do the same against BC and Bing. When he found that he couldn't, he started to force the issue and began pressing. I expect that the staff has been working with him on letting the game come to him. I think that we'll see a different Ahmed against Minny.
 
After 2 games I can say id like to amend my 21-win prediction to 22. #1 this team is fun to watch. #2 Coach is much more invested on the sidelines. #3 Not worried at all about the defense. #4Offense is lit from what I see.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top