[quote="lawmanfan" post=403789]I'm going to widen the lens here a bit and go with "through the first two games."
Defense: it has been surprisingly terrible, both individually (for the most part) and as a team. We created our share of turnovers, but we also had an ocean of fouls, both St Peter's and and LaSalle were able to keep up with us running and up and down the floor. Apparently nobody believes in stopping the ball, Moore was woefully disappointing as a rim protector and Toro wasn't a whole lot better. Josh Roberts was the only big who played well defensively down low - and that was against two teams that had no legit big man.
Having said that, I am not concerned about the defense over the long term. It mostly looks like a group that has not had that much time to play together, and a lot of them have not had enough time in the system to play it well. I have confidence that Coach Anderson will get them to play much better defense as time goes on. There was improvement from the first game to the second game, though it's hard to tell what part of that was attributable to the competition level.
Offense: The offense was also disjointed in the first two games, and it seemed as though only a few players were comfortable in their roles. Posh knows what he's supposed to do in handling the ball and running the offense. Cole is a shooter (possibly also a scorer, not sure about that yet) and he gets that. Wusu has a very good feel for when to look for his shot. But other than that, everyone else looked lost for the most part.
Like the defense, I think it will come together over time and Coach Anderson will get it to where it needs to be. The pieces are certainly there to work with, and I don't think the team is going to be offensively challenged which was my main concern coming into the season.
A note on both of those fronts is that with Champagnie out it probably affected both sides of the ball since he's probably a key element of what was being worked on in practice.
As far as individual evaluations, go, I'll go by position:
Bigs: Moore clearly has tremendous ability on offense, but it didn't come together in the first two games. On defense, he was absolutely woeful as a post defender, and I'm not sure how much that's going to improve. Toro was better on D, but not nearly as good as I expected. Josh Roberts was the only one who played well as a post defender. And all of that was playing against teams without a legit big man. Overall we have more length down low, but we may not be much better defending the paint than we were last year unless Roberts plays more or the other two step it up some down low.
Shooters: Not sure whether Cole is James Scott or Bootsy Thornton, but he may be Bootsy. Certainly nothing to complain about the first two games, and it looks completely repeatable. Greg Williams still suffers from lack of confidence and aggression. He got better from the first game to the second game, but he needs to have the eye of the tiger every night. Cararher was atrocious - unfortunately the game is still too fast for him, at least against two teams that were willing to run with us. He may be more productive against half-court teams.
Wings. It took Marcellus 3 halves before he remembered what made him successful last year. I'm not worried about him. Wusu was a very pleasant surprise - he's like Champagnie Junior. Very nice all-around game, plays under control. He looks like a great four-year player.
Point Guards: Alexander played well overall, but I need to see him against better competition. He had a surprisingly poor handle on 3 or 4 occasions and either lost the ball or was lucky to keep it or knock it to a teammate. I expect better from a point guard in that department. Dunn just looked lost without the ball in his hands. It was nice to see him take (and make) a jump shot. I think they may be better off bringing him off the bench to back up Posh rather than trying to play them together (as someone else also noted). I thought McGriff played well in limited minutes and will improve.
The BC game will be a good test to see where we are at.[/quote]
Great & spot on post LMF
Defense: it has been surprisingly terrible, both individually (for the most part) and as a team. We created our share of turnovers, but we also had an ocean of fouls, both St Peter's and and LaSalle were able to keep up with us running and up and down the floor. Apparently nobody believes in stopping the ball, Moore was woefully disappointing as a rim protector and Toro wasn't a whole lot better. Josh Roberts was the only big who played well defensively down low - and that was against two teams that had no legit big man.
Having said that, I am not concerned about the defense over the long term. It mostly looks like a group that has not had that much time to play together, and a lot of them have not had enough time in the system to play it well. I have confidence that Coach Anderson will get them to play much better defense as time goes on. There was improvement from the first game to the second game, though it's hard to tell what part of that was attributable to the competition level.
Offense: The offense was also disjointed in the first two games, and it seemed as though only a few players were comfortable in their roles. Posh knows what he's supposed to do in handling the ball and running the offense. Cole is a shooter (possibly also a scorer, not sure about that yet) and he gets that. Wusu has a very good feel for when to look for his shot. But other than that, everyone else looked lost for the most part.
Like the defense, I think it will come together over time and Coach Anderson will get it to where it needs to be. The pieces are certainly there to work with, and I don't think the team is going to be offensively challenged which was my main concern coming into the season.
A note on both of those fronts is that with Champagnie out it probably affected both sides of the ball since he's probably a key element of what was being worked on in practice.
As far as individual evaluations, go, I'll go by position:
Bigs: Moore clearly has tremendous ability on offense, but it didn't come together in the first two games. On defense, he was absolutely woeful as a post defender, and I'm not sure how much that's going to improve. Toro was better on D, but not nearly as good as I expected. Josh Roberts was the only one who played well as a post defender. And all of that was playing against teams without a legit big man. Overall we have more length down low, but we may not be much better defending the paint than we were last year unless Roberts plays more or the other two step it up some down low.
Shooters: Not sure whether Cole is James Scott or Bootsy Thornton, but he may be Bootsy. Certainly nothing to complain about the first two games, and it looks completely repeatable. Greg Williams still suffers from lack of confidence and aggression. He got better from the first game to the second game, but he needs to have the eye of the tiger every night. Cararher was atrocious - unfortunately the game is still too fast for him, at least against two teams that were willing to run with us. He may be more productive against half-court teams.
Wings. It took Marcellus 3 halves before he remembered what made him successful last year. I'm not worried about him. Wusu was a very pleasant surprise - he's like Champagnie Junior. Very nice all-around game, plays under control. He looks like a great four-year player.
Point Guards: Alexander played well overall, but I need to see him against better competition. He had a surprisingly poor handle on 3 or 4 occasions and either lost the ball or was lucky to keep it or knock it to a teammate. I expect better from a point guard in that department. Dunn just looked lost without the ball in his hands. It was nice to see him take (and make) a jump shot. I think they may be better off bringing him off the bench to back up Posh rather than trying to play them together (as someone else also noted). I thought McGriff played well in limited minutes and will improve.
The BC game will be a good test to see where we are at.[/quote]
Great & spot on post LMF
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