CW Post

Wow - only 8 minutes PT to the scrubs (including Jamal!) and yet ONLY Nuri played 30 minutes (33 - thats less than Hardy averaged last year with a full roster!). The others were all 24 to 28 minutes of action. Barring injury, that's NOT a reciepe for fatigue.... 
 
Everyone of our schollies can score, not a poor shooter amongst them.
We need all the help we can get on the defensive boards, got to find a man and box out. This is where we will probably pick up our fouls. Plenty of time to get better defensively, especially with our talented bunch. 
 
Wow - only 8 minutes PT to the scrubs (including Jamal!) and yet ONLY Nuri played 30 minutes (33 - thats less than Hardy averaged last year with a full roster!). The others were all 24 to 28 minutes of action. Barring injury, that's NOT a reciepe for fatigue.... 
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Agreed. Really love to get Amir Garrett in here soon though to really improve the depth situation. We won't be a big team though.
 
Good warm up. obviously depth and inexperience will hurt. They need to really stay together this year because in big east play we will probably win 3-4 games. Bright future though. 
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You think they will win just 3 or 4 BE games?

I'll take that bet. Whats the wager?
 
Good warm up. obviously depth and inexperience will hurt. They need to really stay together this year because in big east play we will probably win 3-4 games. Bright future though. 
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You think they will win just 3 or 4 BE games?

I'll take that bet. Whats the wager?
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Tred, is that with or without the return of Amir and/or Pelle? Because if it is WITH you will be pleasantly surprised by 7 or 8 wins.
 
Despite the comments on CW Post matching us in rebounds with a much shorter team, I am surprised noone has mentioned boxing out. It was obvious from the start of the game last night that not boxing out is a huge current weakness that will have to be drilled into this very talented group. When the ball went up they all seemed content to try to outjump the Post players but I did not see bodies being put on people, arms out, butts back. Lacking any depth at all in the paint, it's all the more important that they learn to box out. It would be in my top three of practice issues for this team: match-up zone, FT's and boxing out.
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Exactly. Rebounding in my mind all all positioning. If we have position others will be reaching over us and they will get called for fouls. They will learn that but as Dunlap said both that and safe defense will be the keys for this undermanned team.
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Part of the problem is we're still learning the zone. There was a lot of chasing and late closing with guys running at shooters with no chance to close them out. This left us in terrible position for rebounds. In several cases we were outmaned 3-1 under our defensive boards. That'll change as the season progresses.
 
Despite the comments on CW Post matching us in rebounds with a much shorter team, I am surprised noone has mentioned boxing out. It was obvious from the start of the game last night that not boxing out is a huge current weakness that will have to be drilled into this very talented group. When the ball went up they all seemed content to try to outjump the Post players but I did not see bodies being put on people, arms out, butts back. Lacking any depth at all in the paint, it's all the more important that they learn to box out. It would be in my top three of practice issues for this team: match-up zone, FT's and boxing out.
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Exactly. Rebounding in my mind all all positioning. If we have position others will be reaching over us and they will get called for fouls. They will learn that but as Dunlap said both that and safe defense will be the keys for this undermanned team.
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Part of the problem is we're still learning the zone. There was a lot of chasing and late closing with guys running at shooters with no chance to close them out. This left us in terrible position for rebounds. In several cases we were outmaned 3-1 under our defensive boards. That'll change as the season progresses.
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I recall one moment in the first half where D'angelo was running around with no clue of his assignment in the zone. It didn't lead to a basket but did lead to some harrowing sequence of men open.

Rebounding is tricky though. Last night there were a lot of long rebounds. Height means nothing there. Its right place at right time.
 
Question for anyone who attended the game: Pointer looked very long on TV, the equal (or close to it) of Harkless and Gift. At one point I asked myself, who is this guy? Was it just the camera angles, or is he bigger than initially advertised?

When I was with him in early August he was clearly shorter than G-d.  
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He looks about 6'6" but plays bigger. I thought he was the best defender we had last night. Showed he wasn't afraid to stick his nose into it down low and was tenacious in his on-man coverage.
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 I'm thinkin we got three guys to play the 4-5. When GG takes a blow Dom be guarding the post. Artest did some of that when Grant was out. I'm hopping Dom can give us Ron type muscle until RG gets here.
 
To me 24 assists tells the story. I didn't expect air tight defense at this stage of the game but to see so many touted kids share the ball like they did really showed me something. Any one of these guys could have taken over the game and gone for 35 but they played together. Looks like they've already figured out that they all will succeed if the team does. That's really great to see so early. Now THESE appear to be the character guys our former coaches used to talk about. The "D" will come around but I think the scoring droughts are over.  
 
To me 24 assists tells the story. I didn't expect air tight defense at this stage of the game but to see so many touted kids share the ball like they did really showed me something. Any one of these guys could have taken over the game and gone for 35 but they played together. Looks like they've already figured out that they all will succeed if the team does. That's really great to see so early. Now THESE appear to be the character guys our former coaches used to talk about. The "D" will come around but I think the scoring droughts are over.  
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Remember those games 2-3 yrs ago when we had 8 assists in a game.
 
To me 24 assists tells the story. I didn't expect air tight defense at this stage of the game but to see so many touted kids share the ball like they did really showed me something. Any one of these guys could have taken over the game and gone for 35 but they played together. Looks like they've already figured out that they all will succeed if the team does. That's really great to see so early. Now THESE appear to be the character guys our former coaches used to talk about. The "D" will come around but I think the scoring droughts are over.  
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Remember those games 2-3 yrs ago when we had 8 assists in a game.
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I also remember waiting 15 minutes to score a basket.
 
Totally enjoyed the game. I know it was against a Div 2 team but you can see the talent and team play-which bodes well for the future. If we can get Amir for the second part of the season it should help a great deal with the depth of the team-obviously. I was really impressed with the length of the players-seems like almost every one of them has long, long arms. It did appear that Pointer was taller than advertised, but that was only watching on the tele so I didn't get a real good visual on his height. As has been stated here repeatedly - the defense should come as the season progresses. Takes time to get things right, but it appears we have the horses to be very good with experience. I am walking around with a grin on having having seen a glimpse of the future.
 
Question for anyone who attended the game: Pointer looked very long on TV, the equal (or close to it) of Harkless and Gift. At one point I asked myself, who is this guy? Was it just the camera angles, or is he bigger than initially advertised?

When I was with him in early August he was clearly shorter than G-d.  
Click to expand...
 

He looks about 6'6" but plays bigger. I thought he was the best defender we had last night. Showed he wasn't afraid to stick his nose into it down low and was tenacious in his on-man coverage.
Click to expand...
 I'm thinkin we got three guys to play the 4-5. When GG takes a blow Dom be guarding the post. Artest did some of that when Grant was out. I'm hopping Dom can give us Ron type muscle until RG gets here.
Click to expand...
 

One game's way too soon to tell but I think Dom's got the mental approach to mix it up down low.
 
To me 24 assists tells the story. I didn't expect air tight defense at this stage of the game but to see so many touted kids share the ball like they did really showed me something. Any one of these guys could have taken over the game and gone for 35 but they played together. Looks like they've already figured out that they all will succeed if the team does. That's really great to see so early. Now THESE appear to be the character guys our former coaches used to talk about. The "D" will come around but I think the scoring droughts are over.  
Click to expand...
 

Remember those games 2-3 yrs ago when we had 8 assists in a game.
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You mean those 10 points a half and 3 assists a game?

http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/basketball/ncaab/game/StJohns_Marquette/2009/03/11
 
To me 24 assists tells the story. I didn't expect air tight defense at this stage of the game but to see so many touted kids share the ball like they did really showed me something. Any one of these guys could have taken over the game and gone for 35 but they played together. Looks like they've already figured out that they all will succeed if the team does. That's really great to see so early. Now THESE appear to be the character guys our former coaches used to talk about. The "D" will come around but I think the scoring droughts are over.  
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Great point about character; these guys give the impression they ooze it.
 
I think it will be interesting when these guys face a legit D1 zone for the first time. Going into the season I assumed that having guys like D'angelo, Nuri would open defenses up. Plus, it was comforting thinking across the board our team was comprised of better shooters than in years past - I love DJ, but he wasn't the shooter I hope Moe can be from the wing.

With that said, the VAST majority of our points last night came in the paint on drives and put-backs. And, I'm not complaining; you take what the defense gives you... and scoring clearly wasn't at issue last night.

But - down the road, I can see this being a problem if our shooting isn't a bit smoother and shots aren't taken in rhythm.


What do you guys think? It's clear that a number of our guys (hello Mr. Lindsey) can take their man off the dribble; but let's hope the guys can knock down shots when teams pack in a zone that protects the paint.
 
 
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