Had to run out for a bit at halftime but just watched the 2nd half.
For those saying Pitino kept Kadary on the bench for the whole 1st half after he picked up his 2nd foul only because it was an exhibition were proven wrong in the 2nd half. Pitino treated this as a real game the whole time. Even had the emphatic fist pump on the sideline when Luis forced the over and back turnover. Benching Kadary the whole half could have cost us the game and it will cost us a game at some point. Kadary only picked up 1 more foul the rest of the game. I just don't get it.
As I said, once the ball was tipped Pitino treated this as a real game. I'm not sure if the full scouting report was put in (more on that next) but in the 2nd half Pitino shortened the rotation bigtime and that shows where guys stand on the depth chart currently.
- Zuby played amazing obviously but Vince didn't even sniff the court in the 2nd half. Rick likes his upside but doesn't trust him yet.
- Glover and Prey are two other guys that Rick likes long term but they aren't ready yet. Both saw the court in the first half but not even long enough to break a sweat
- Nothing at all for Lefty
- Spot minutes for Brady. He's going to have to make some shots or he'll be on the bench all year
The defense was bad today but I'm not overly concerned about it. It looked like the team was prepared for a generic opponent and didn't tailor their strategy based on Rutgers' players. That's fine. They overhelped off shooters when they didn't need too way too much giving Rutgers open 3s. Also had Dunlap guarding Harper on back to back possessions which did not end well for us. Rutgers also made a handful of ridiculous shots, mostly the two stud Freshmen. The defense will improve by leaps and bounds.
Zuby is going to have a way bigger impact this year than Soriano had last year. His growth between last year's exhibition vs Rutgers and this game is astounding. He's our second most important player behind Kadary. Nobody else is close to those 2.
The rebounding will be fine. There were a seemingly inordinate amount of rebounds that one of our guys had both hands that we didn't end up. Zuby, Kadary, Scott and Luis are all plus rebounders.
Team showed their fight and experience to take over the game in the 2nd half on the road and overpower Rutgers inferior cast of periphery players. Knowing that Pitino's teams are always going to improve at a more rapid pace than most other teams I'm pleased with where the team is now especially in the current landscape of the game with nearly every program incorporating multiple new players.