(EXHIBITION) @Rutgers, Thu., Oct. 17, 6:30p, BTN

[logen]

Way too soon observations;

Zuby a beast, but needs some relief and not sure yet if Prey or Vince can fill that need. Hope so.

Smith found his rhythm and showed good command at the point finding right open guys in transition and is obviously quick and strong. He also will generate a lot of steals.

An off the ball Sim, Smith and Kadary will be a force in the BE.

Scott is one of those flexible pieces you need at both ends of court.

No sense beating up Brady, but he either makes shots or loses time.

Question marks overall imo are previously noted interior back up play and three point shooting. Hopefully both areas evolve in early play.

Like this group’s potential.

No question, at least last night, the game remained too fast for Dunlap. First half for Wilcher also but obviously he settled in in the 2nd half.
Personally, most impressed with Richmond’s 2nd half. He didn’t play a second to “make the pros” if you will but to win the game. Hard nosed rebounding, pushing the ball via both the pass and the dribble and made some basic but very astute on the money passes for assists.
Scott settled in on Bailey, Luis did a very nice job on Harper down the stretch although still diving for steals, but hey, results are what count. Smith also obviously stood up in winning time. As rightfully pointed out, Zuby was a monster. Loved the fact they turned the D up to take control.
As for game time posting, in real time, still think the game like a coach; I just really should refrain from posting then; but what a release!!

 

[Jack Williams]

Another nice surprise last night for me was Aaron Scott looked much stronger/filled out than he did in his North Texas highlights. Seems he has been putting in some work to be a formidable 4 for this team.

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

Sure as heck is better then the exhibitions against D3 teams.

That’s right . Losing to Pace , Acquinas , the little Sisters of the Blind gave us a good read on some of our past teams.

I watched my taped version late last night , after disasters from Yanks and Mets

The 20-0 Rutgers early run was ugly , reminiscent of many past years catastrophes but , the Tran fought hard , never quit and had a great last 5 minute run.

First , Bailey and Harper could both , be 1sr round picks . They are other worldly on the offensive end .

Bailey can shoot and hit from anywhere and did! Harper being a lefty than can get to the rim or close enough, is very tough to defend .

A couple of the Knights beefy guys , the 1 with the nasty tatooo and Martini from Princeton could play OL on Saturdays , they were good secondary players .

Our team , was relentless and never gave up and it was a long climb to win the game .
Wilcher played very well . Smith was ok , he’s quick for sure but , I didn’t see any range shooting from him . Zuby was Superman last night ! Much improved all around .

Scott ? Didn’t notice much , mostly due to not recognizing their uniform numbers yet.

Dunlop was disappointing . Did he make a shot ? Looked like his game wasn’t much different than last year . I’m hoping it was just 1 st game performance .

Richmond is going to be the Straw that stirs the drink . His PT was limited by his foul situation but , he took over at crunch time down the stretch .

We seem to lack that long range shooter that can light it up when needed . Dunlop should be that guy but , he wasn’t last night .

Lefty didn’t play and Prey was a cameo .

The Announcers were awful and the Refs not much better .

 

[Joedib]

That’s right . Losing to Pace , Acquinas , the little Sisters of the Blind gave us a good read on some of our past teams.

I watched my taped version late last night , after disasters from Yanks and Mets

The 20-0 Rutgers early run was ugly , reminiscent of many past years catastrophes but , the Tran fought hard , never quit and had a great last 5 minute run.

First , Bailey and Harper could both , be 1sr round picks . They are other worldly on the offensive end .

Bailey can shoot and hit from anywhere and did! Harper being a lefty than can get to the rim or close enough, is very tough to defend .

A couple of the Knights beefy guys , the 1 with the nasty tatooo and Martini from Princeton could play OL on Saturdays , they were good secondary players .

Our team , was relentless and never gave up and it was a long climb to win the game .
Wilcher played very well . Smith was ok , he’s quick for sure but , I didn’t see any range shooting from him . Zuby was Superman last night ! Much improved all around .

Scott ? Didn’t notice much , mostly due to not recognizing their uniform numbers yet.

Dunlop was disappointing . Did he make a shot ? Looked like his game wasn’t much different than last year . I’m hoping it was just 1 st game performance .

Richmond is going to be the Straw that stirs the drink . His PT was limited by his foul situation but , he took over at crunch time down the stretch .

We seem to lack that long range shooter that can light it up when needed . Dunlop should be that guy but , he wasn’t last night .

Lefty didn’t play and Prey was a cameo .

The Announcers were awful and the Refs not much better .

Scott hit some threes. Great defense. Shut down Bailey late. Will be key player for us.

No question, at least last night, the game remained too fast for Dunlap. First half for Wilcher also but obviously he settled in in the 2nd half.
Personally, most impressed with Richmond’s 2nd half. He didn’t play a second to “make the pros” if you will but to win the game. Hard nosed rebounding, pushing the ball via both the pass and the dribble and made some basic but very astute on the money passes for assists.
Scott settled in on Bailey, Luis did a very nice job on Harper down the stretch although still diving for steals, but hey, results are what count. Smith also obviously stood up in winning time. As rightfully pointed out, Zuby was a monster. Loved the fact they turned the D up to take control.
As for game time posting, in real time, still think the game like a coach; I just really should refrain from posting then; but what a release!!

Rutgers has big hole at center. Their bigs constantly got beat down the floor. Never boxed out. Allowed Zuby to dominate. Hope he can shine like this against real centers.

 

[espken]

Was watching the Yankees game…

Is there a link with a full replay or will it just be the highlights?

Full game

 

[Joedib]

I watched this exhibition game twice now. My take ,we beat the #25 on their court. The guys came back twice when they could have mailed it in . Zuby was excellent. Sim has really got his confidence ..

Sum is not a pg. shaky handle. But he can be a very good sg.

 

[bucketshardy]

First , Bailey and Harper could both , be 1sr round picks . They are other worldly on the offensive end .

So for those not up on Draft rankings... Bailey is a consensus top 3 pick (and looked it) - Harper is top 10.... this was a great opportunity to go against "talent" we don't* have on our Roster.

We won't see talent like that till we face Baylor...

you guys recapped it well...
-my 1st team prediction for RJ looks strong, if he cuts down on a couple poor decisions during the game- the dude is HIM. The bounce on his rebounding is surprising at times.
-Gonna be real nice having Kadary as a stabilizer out there...
-Zuby... wow
-my over 8ppg for Brady.... looks rough... he needs to make shots if he wants to stay on the floor, cause he is completely overmatched defensively in man2man
-Vince...? looked a bit unathletic defensively in the 2 mins i saw.... will hopefully get good burn vs Towson... and subsequent opening games.

Overall- like what we got this year.

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

So my two cents- if Lou was coaching for us, we are up 28-23 at the half.

Bobby Kelly with 3 Assists and 2 shots . Missed both . Lou starts him in 2 nd half . Kevin Williams at far end of bench .

 

[logen]

Scott hit some threes. Great defense. Shut down Bailey late. Will be key player for us.

Rutgers has big hole at center. Their bigs constantly got beat down the floor. Never boxed out. Allowed Zuby to dominate. Hope he can shine like this against real centers.

And maybe he beat them down court because he runs well for his size and plays with a non-stop motor. And maybe they had trouble boxing him out because of the same motor. I don’t know, I was merely commenting on his game last night.

 

[Ray Morgan]

Call it an exhibition, but this had a big game feel. Crowd made a lot of noise, so tough environment to play in. This was a good win.
Early impression is that Zuby most important piece as no real backup at this point. Needs to stay out of foul trouble or we will go with smaller lineup. Watching on small tv and camera far up, it would have been nice for announcers to say who scored or rebounded ball for St. John's instead of discussing how great Rutgers is.

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

I don’t fully understand the specifics but I remember hearing Goldman Sachs was involved

You mean Gov Murphy had a hand in this ?

 

[Silly Donovan]

I don’t get the complaints about the announcers. I think they did a great job FOR THE BIG TEN NETWORK. Clearly their announcing was biased but was that not to be expected? Especially with all the hype surrounding Rutgers recruited class.

 

[Marillac2]

At no point did I think we were going to lose last night. Quite a different feel from my Metsies.

 

[Rhythm]

I don’t get the complaints about the announcers. I think they did a great job FOR THE BIG TEN NETWORK. Clearly their announcing was biased but was that not to be expected? Especially with all the hype surrounding Rutgers recruited class.

Announcers and journalists should be objective. They can push the big ten agenda and be honest about both teams.
It is not mutually exclusive.

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

I failed to note RJ’s positive outing. When he plays smart and is patient on both ends he can really impact the game. He can also get a lot of those sneaky O rebounds to extend possessions.

Me too. He had a good game and will be very important this season . He has the Athleticism to.freeze defenders and get to the rim . Plus , he steals the ball a lot .
He rebounds well on the offensive end .
Sharpen up on FT’s and he’s a big contributor .

 

[Silly Donovan]

One of the best parts of the game for me was watching Ace Bailey jawing with Aaron Scott and Wilcher one too many times which motivated Scott with 12:40 left in the game, not to let Bailey score again. I love that $hit. Bailey is a player, no doubt, but you have to win the game. Perhaps the young man won’t be as boisterous in future games till he’s sure the game is in hand.

 

[Beasts of the East]

Rick promised us that he is in pursuit of PHDs. How refreshing to have a coach who takes even his best players and changes their shot to improve them. How refreshing to have kids like that who are so bought in and open to improvement that even some already very good players such as Luis and Richmond are open to improving by completely changing their shot.

How refreshing to have a coach who works all summer, and kids like Zuby who stayed in Queens all summer to work on improving his game.

 

[RedStormRising]

St. John's was 362 out of 362 last year in how much they played players in the first half with 2 fouls. Sitting guys with 2 fouls as a hard and fast rule is terrible strategy. Sitting your best player, a G/F, while the other team goes on a 22-0 run is dumb on its face. Pitino is dead-wrong on this one, and hopefully it doesn't bite us this year.

This is a great point. You can only go on 22-0 runs if the other time helps you. The thing about Kadary is the game is slow to him. He’s not turning the ball over, the defense is not going to get into his head, and he’s going to make the correct basketball play. Some of the time the correct backetball play is for him no make a play himself (I hope it’s less than he had to do last year). The point is that run doesn’t happen if Kadary is on the floor even for a bit of it and Kadary isn’t going to pick up a 3rd foul willy-nilly.

At the end of the day it’s an exhibition and Pitino is still learning too. I just hope he learns his starting 5 before late February this year.

 

[sjc88]

A little surprised that Lefteris didn’t see any run. I haven’t seen an injury or anything. I don’t think he has a huge role this season but zero minutes in an exhibition? Given that Dunlap is struggling mightily I wouldn’t mind someone else taking his shots.

Lots for this team to work on. These type of games are more valuable then some of the warmup games we’ll play. Hopefully these charity exhibitions continue every season.

 

[Marillac2]

A little surprised that Lefteris didn’t see any run. I haven’t seen an injury or anything. I don’t think he has a huge role this season but zero minutes in an exhibition? Given that Dunlap is struggling mightily I wouldn’t mind someone else taking his shots.

Lots for this team to work on. These type of games are more valuable then some of the warmup games we’ll play. Hopefully these charity exhibitions continue every season.

Once Smith settles in, Dunlap should be fine. He’s a fraction of a second too quick on his shot. IMO, he just needs to learn to trust that he will get good looks and not force it. He has a few nice passes as usual and was solid on defense.

The spacing and screening were both lousy. Ayo was the only non-5 to even attempt screens that I saw.