Scrimmage vs. Rhode Island

We’ll be fine. We beat Duke and Nova last season with this same team but added a bunch of young talent. First scrimmages mean zero. Like I said, coaches generally work on schemes. Agree I wish we had another big man, but down the line this season I think we’ll be fine. People can’t make too much of scrimmages.
 
[quote="MCNPA" post=298595]We’ll be fine. We beat Duke and Nova last season with this same team but added a bunch of young talent. First scrimmages mean zero. Like I said, coaches generally work on schemes. Agree I wish we had another big man, but down the line this season I think we’ll be fine. People can’t make too much of scrimmages.[/quote]

We're definitely a big man short, and today we were two big men short, because neither Roberts nor Earlington got in the game (I figure their combined playing time will equate that of one big man off the bench). No inside info, but I'm guessing that Mullin kept them out for precautionary reasons. I can't imagine both of those guys riding the pine all season.
 
agree MCN but would have been nice to have a similar "doesn't matter" story to Nova over UNC...

would have love to have seen some of the areas of improvement noticeably improved too: rebounding, 3 pt defense
 
[quote="SJU61982" post=298596][quote="MCNPA" post=298595]We’ll be fine. We beat Duke and Nova last season with this same team but added a bunch of young talent. First scrimmages mean zero. Like I said, coaches generally work on schemes. Agree I wish we had another big man, but down the line this season I think we’ll be fine. People can’t make too much of scrimmages.[/quote]

We're definitely a big man short, and today we were two big men short, because neither Roberts nor Earlington got in the game (I figure their combined playing time will equate that of one big man off the bench). No inside info, but I'm guessing that Mullin kept them out for precautionary reasons. I can't imagine both of those guys riding the pine all season.[/quote]

I’d look at it as very telling to what coach expects to get out of those two this year.
 
[quote="Amaseinyourface" post=298598][quote="SJU61982" post=298596][quote="MCNPA" post=298595]We’ll be fine. We beat Duke and Nova last season with this same team but added a bunch of young talent. First scrimmages mean zero. Like I said, coaches generally work on schemes. Agree I wish we had another big man, but down the line this season I think we’ll be fine. People can’t make too much of scrimmages.[/quote]

We're definitely a big man short, and today we were two big men short, because neither Roberts nor Earlington got in the game (I figure their combined playing time will equate that of one big man off the bench). No inside info, but I'm guessing that Mullin kept them out for precautionary reasons. I can't imagine both of those guys riding the pine all season.[/quote]

I’d look at it as very telling to what coach expects to get out of those two this year.[/quote]

Then, we won't win. They need to play at least a few minutes each off the bench, for us to have a shot. Need some semblance of balance out there.

If Williams is only going to get 5 minutes a game (which is what he played tonight), then I'd be all for redshirting him this season, to make sure the Roberts/Earlington duo gets some burn. We're going to need them, not to be alpha dogs every night, but to sometimes contribute.
 
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It was 8 deep with Williams getting a token 5. I do think we'll see those guys in the first part of the season against the weaker competition.

Hypothetically it might be that they are thinking going 8 deep with 1 guy earning minutes between Williams, Earlington and Roberts based upon what is going on in practice.
 
Trying to get myself worked up and it's not happening. The only line that i was remotely concerned with was Dixon, 2 FT's, 0 dimes and 2 TO's in 14 min. But again, he hasn't played in a competitive game in over a year. This is what these games are for.
 
[quote="SJU61982" post=298599][quote="Amaseinyourface" post=298598][quote="SJU61982" post=298596][quote="MCNPA" post=298595]We’ll be fine. We beat Duke and Nova last season with this same team but added a bunch of young talent. First scrimmages mean zero. Like I said, coaches generally work on schemes. Agree I wish we had another big man, but down the line this season I think we’ll be fine. People can’t make too much of scrimmages.[/quote]

We're definitely a big man short, and today we were two big men short, because neither Roberts nor Earlington got in the game (I figure their combined playing time will equate that of one big man off the bench). No inside info, but I'm guessing that Mullin kept them out for precautionary reasons. I can't imagine both of those guys riding the pine all season.[/quote]

I’d look at it as very telling to what coach expects to get out of those two this year.[/quote]

Then, we won't win. They need to play at least a few minutes each off the bench, for us to have a shot. Need some semblance of balance out there.

If Williams is only going to get 5 minutes a game (which is what he played tonight), then I'd be all for redshirting him this season, to make sure the Roberts/Earlington duo gets some burn. We're going to need them, not to be alpha dogs every night, but to sometimes contribute.[/quote]

I think we’ll get some minutes from Roberts but I think it’s gonna be very minimal once the tougher games begin. Another thing to notice from today is Keita was able to play 30+ minutes. If he got into foul trouble maybe we would have saw JR.
 
[quote="MCNPA" post=298595]We’ll be fine. We beat Duke and Nova last season with this same team but added a bunch of young talent. First scrimmages mean zero. Like I said, coaches generally work on schemes. Agree I wish we had another big man, but down the line this season I think we’ll be fine. People can’t make too much of scrimmages.[/quote]

PLEASE let's not bring up Nova and Duke from last season anymore! Those two wins were outliers to what was a very mediocre season.
The good news is that this is a very new team with the addition of Figueroa, Keita and Heron so being a little disjointed is expected.
The bad news is this is how we began last season against Rutgers.
Heron had a terrible game, plain and simple. Shooting 1 for 10 was the game breaker. He played well at Auburn last season and during the summer so it is not "rust". Both Heron and Clark likely did not take "quality"shots. Especially Clark who was three happy again. Mullin needs to show he can coach an inside-outside game or we should expect more games like this scrimmage.
One thing is certain about a Mullin coached team and that is that nothing is certain.
These guys coaches and players, need to take every game seriously. Hopefully this is a wake up call. Cragg has watched 30 years of genius coaching from the scorers table. Like it or not, Mullin has a boss who knows what good coaches do. Mullin needs to start doing those things.
 
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[quote="Paul Massell" post=298600]It was 8 deep with Williams getting a token 5. I do think we'll see those guys in the first part of the season against the weaker competition.

Hypothetically it might be that they are thinking going 8 deep with 1 guy earning minutes between Williams, Earlington and Roberts based upon what is going on in practice.[/quote]

Then, Williams should be redshirted, IMO. He may be the most talented player of the three, but he's the least important to our success this year. It would be a waist of a year from him, if that's all he's giving us. Even if it's just those numbers playing time wise, they would be better served going to the two bigger guys, who might be able to help out down low.
 
Don't agree with redshirting Williams. He is someone Mullin has said can help defensively now. There will likely be games when he plays only 5 minutes and games where he plays 10-12. Next year he will be ready to step in and play significant minutes after getting some experience this year. Roberts & Earlington will play some in non-conference play and Roberts will play in BE when foul trouble to Clark and/or Keita requires it. Love having 11 guys who can play if needed - no redshirts please.
 
[quote="SJU61982" post=298604][quote="Paul Massell" post=298600]It was 8 deep with Williams getting a token 5. I do think we'll see those guys in the first part of the season against the weaker competition.

Hypothetically it might be that they are thinking going 8 deep with 1 guy earning minutes between Williams, Earlington and Roberts based upon what is going on in practice.[/quote]

Then, Williams should be redshirted, IMO. He may be the most talented player of the three, but he's the least important to our success this year. It would be a waist of a year from him, if that's all he's giving us. Even if it's just those numbers playing time wise, they would be better served going to the two bigger guys, who might be able to help out down low.[/quote]

You redshirt a player like Williams you lose him to transfer. That's the reality of the game these days. He is a pure freshman. Give him a chance to get acquainted with the college game. Considering today Trimble was mediocre you need a Williams to keep Trimble working for his minutes. It looks to me like poor shot selection and player management may have been a factor today. For the fan who thought Heron was rusty please be advised that this coaching staff did pretty much squat shit over the past 5 months. They may be the ones with rust.
 
I doubt 4-21 combined from Clark and Heron (1-10) will happen much if ever again. Bad days happen...if Heron gave us any pulse of life we win this game albeit a close one. Not worried about him, just getting used to his new digs and playing with our guys IMO. I was actually very very happy to see Keita put up 15 points and 6 rebs (for what we are used to, this isn't terrible). He's at worst every bit as good as Owens without the blocking ability. At best he is clearly an upgrade. Also nice to see LJ's eye-opening scrimmage during tip-off wasn't an aberration. The kid can score.

Again, only a scrimmage and who knows how hard the guys played or if Mullin told them to take it easy a bit, but if we are to take this result somewhat seriously at all, I'd think it's more an indictment on our staff. If you have good talent time and time again and it just ain't working, it's not the players. Part of the coach's job is to mesh talent and no one does it better than Jay Wright. I'm cautiously optimistic...it seems we don't do well at all in scrimmages under Mullin. But who cares? It's only a scrimmage and doesn't count. What it does do though is make more people question if he will be able to take us where we need to be.
 
Disappointing results, although understandable with 4 new players in double-digit minutes.
Rebounding differential of -1 isn't bad, but Clark--instead of being 3-pt happy--should get under the Boards more; expect more than 3 boards / game from him.
And hopefully, this is Heron's worst game of the season.
Won't win many games with those results.
Good game from Ponds, Simon, Keita...and Figgy.
 
Interesting that Shamorie only took 8 shots. I wouldn’t be surprised if Shamorie played like this all season.

Everybody in college and the NBA knows he can score, so Shamorie May look to just be a pure passer. I expect Shamorie scoring to drop sharply this season in a bid to improve his draft stock.
 
"Only an exhibition so can't take too much from it, but I'm not crazy about rebounding numbers. Even more so than last year, Rhode Island is small with only the one big. If we are going to be even in rebounding against them, we are going to struggle against teams with 2 or 3 decent bigs. Having said that, foul shooting numbers are great and like that Keita was able to stay on court for 33 minutes."

Keita had 5 fouls.
 
[quote="capmaker" post=298610]"Only an exhibition so can't take too much from it, but I'm not crazy about rebounding numbers. Even more so than last year, Rhode Island is small with only the one big. If we are going to be even in rebounding against them, we are going to struggle against teams with 2 or 3 decent bigs. Having said that, foul shooting numbers are great and like that Keita was able to stay on court for 33 minutes."

Keita had 5 fouls.[/quote]

Figueroa, and someone for URI, each had 6, so they're must have been an agreement that no one would foul out. That would allow everyone to be more aggresive, so maybe not taking it easy is why Keita went off for 15 and 6 (and may also be the reason he committed 5 fouls - he knew the ramifications would be minimal).
 
[quote="Sju grad 13" post=298609]Interesting that Shamorie only took 8 shots. I wouldn’t be surprised if Shamorie played like this all season.

Everybody in college and the NBA knows he can score, so Shamorie May look to just be a pure passer. I expect Shamorie scoring to drop sharply this season in a bid to improve his draft stock.[/quote]

Then, this team will never reach it's maximum potential.

He still gets his own shot better then anybody else we have, and is capable of putting up big scoring numbers. That won quite a few games for us this year. If he's feeling it early (and I don't know how it went today, but 8 free throw attempts means he probably put up his shot more then 8 times), then he needs to keep shooting. It would open up so much for other guys.

The guy I'd like to see be more pass first this year is Simon. Shot more then I think even he wanted to last year, but should have enough options to play very well as our primary ballhandler this year.
 
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This is bringing all the hype down to earth. No matter how you look at it
no matter how you slice it ,it was a dissappointment
 
There were some positives and negatives from this scrimmage.

Positives:
3pt% and FT% were very good.

Negatives:
Ponds had a lot of turnovers. Not a good start to "being more efficient".
Keita only 6 rebounds and almost fouling out.
Roberts not getting minutes. I was thinking he was going to be Keita's primary backup.

On a side note, I would of liked to see the young guys get at least 10 mins to play and get some D1 experience under the belt before the bright lights come on (even if they probably won't get a lot of playing time come the season).
 
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