...and folks, that was a damned good win.
Lots to talk about, but let's start here: I've seen more than enough of Arky down here in SEC country, and they are a dirty team with a coach who teaches that crap --- grabs, elbows, undercuts, illegal screens, body-blocks... plus they travel constantly even just catching a pass. What's funny is that for about 8 minutes I actually thought we had a zebra crew that was gonna call that nonsense, but of course they started letting it "even out", which never goes well for us.
SO.... the question, as it is so often. was how would we react? Answer: Generally speaking, way better than yesterday., especially in the second half....
- On the down side, pointing at Mando and Withers --- guys. TAKE THE BALL THE RACK STRONG, especially against teams like this. Aggression usually gets rewarded more than finesse, unfortunately. On the plus side up front, we all but shut Arky out inside. Their 1st team ALL-SEC Big got a big fat ZERO today.
- We also outrebounded a physical and athletic team by 11.
- Speaking of plus up front, after getting bullied yesterday. our man JWash came to play today, by gum, mixing it up and playing strong vs flailing arms. Good and valuable 11 minutes with 6 and 5.
- We eventually managed to get to 70% at the line (largely thanks to RJ and Mando), but we need to be closer to 80 in these games. Too many pts given away.
- There were stretches in the first half when you could plainly see us missing Ryan, especailly when RJ went out with a second "foul" --- one of the most GAWDAWFUL opposite-of-correct calls I can remember (which BTW caused a 5-point turnaround)--- Hubert was justifiably LIVID). That's when we needed our role-players to step up.
- However, the good news is they did exactly that in the second half. Just when we were clicking and turned a 3 pt halftime deficit into an 11 point lead, we lose Cadeau for a dangerous stretch (on another dirty play, go figure) and that's when things got predictably sketchy. Kudos to Seth for really stepping up in crucial moments to help keep them at bay --- couple of big-time rhythm 3s and got on the glass with those hops --- best game as a Heel, and Woj made a couple of HUGE timely plays down the stretch after we lost EC for good.
- An ironic side-effect of that awful call on RJ was that he got a lot of rest, and I'll tell ya, it absolutely showed with fresh legs in the second half. Little guy was spry whilst his opponents were running on fumes
- Although we hafta be careful about overdoing it, having a wide-body tweener with long arms like Ingram to iso is a HELLUVA luxury --- reminds me of trying to guard Adrian Dantley back in the day --- and folks, we saw how much our SPACING has improved from last season. Being able to always have an open man available to pass outta doubles is what I love to see.
- Eliot Cadeau --- meet me at Camera 3, young fella: You're the vital and frankly, irreplaceable ingredient for this team to reach its goals. Play with the swagger with which you toyed with elite high schoolers, and embrace the lessons you're getting at the college level. I saw you over there beating yourself up after that last foul. Good! Learn from it, little brother. Yes, I know you once again got hosed a couple of times to be in that situation, and the last one was ticky-tack, but you just can't give any away. We are a different and better team with you at the helm. Period.
- Generally speaking, although I would still like us to come up with more loose balls (that was glaring yesterday, BTW), we took care of the rock pretty darn well vs a ball-hawking and grabby team. 10 TOs today ain't so bad, and one of those came because they had clearly scouted the set play we ran before the half.
- Back to the dirty stuff: First, major props to #12 (the Houston transfer). Dude was on fire and hard to guard (for a really old-school reference, there was a lotta Dick Barnett in his game). With that said, there's no place for the leg kick-outs and offensive flops. That is supposed to be a point-of-emphasis over recent years, and for good reason --- it is friggin DANGEROUS to everyone involved. I really hope the kid is alright of course, but I have to point out that the ugly fall he took came from once again kicking out his leg and trying to pick up a cheap one on Mando (who avoided it). Again, let's hope he's ok.
- Finally, these super-cool early tourneys are not only great for hoops junkies like me, they are when you ideally learn some key things about your own team. And some things are becoming --- at least to my eyes --- very clear this week:
1. JWash will be key as our backup 5. If he continues to play tough like today, there's no reason for Mando to not go 110% during his minutes.
2. Withers is best suited as our first backup 4, NOT a starter. He just needs to play like his size when he goes inside and and play defense with his feet. We've also got High and/or Oko for spot/energy minutes.
3. What we saw from Seth and Pax today is exactly fitting of their perfect roles as our backup 2/3 "swing" men, enabling us to rotate five capable guys amongst the three perimeter slots (with an occasional sixth with Ingram if/when go "big").
4. It is painfully obvious that our best and default starting lineup needs to be EC/RJ/Ryan/Ingram/Bacot. No ifs, ands or buts. If some still can't see how much better we are with EC at PG, then welp... I can't help ya...
Anyway... contrary to what some doom & gloomers whine about, this is a strong roster that just handled a preseason SEC favorite while short-handed. Yes, that Nova game still irks me, BUT... are you guys seeing the ass-whuppin' they're putting on media-darling Memphis right about now? And think about it --- as I pointed out yesterday, Nova had to have EVERYTHING come out their way just to snatch one from us in OT. Yes, we have more of the grinder on the horizon. and all teams are works-in-progress this time o' year. but if, and I say IF, we embrace what I pointed to above, we have a helluva ceiiing...
Lots to talk about, but let's start here: I've seen more than enough of Arky down here in SEC country, and they are a dirty team with a coach who teaches that crap --- grabs, elbows, undercuts, illegal screens, body-blocks... plus they travel constantly even just catching a pass. What's funny is that for about 8 minutes I actually thought we had a zebra crew that was gonna call that nonsense, but of course they started letting it "even out", which never goes well for us.
SO.... the question, as it is so often. was how would we react? Answer: Generally speaking, way better than yesterday., especially in the second half....
- On the down side, pointing at Mando and Withers --- guys. TAKE THE BALL THE RACK STRONG, especially against teams like this. Aggression usually gets rewarded more than finesse, unfortunately. On the plus side up front, we all but shut Arky out inside. Their 1st team ALL-SEC Big got a big fat ZERO today.
- We also outrebounded a physical and athletic team by 11.
- Speaking of plus up front, after getting bullied yesterday. our man JWash came to play today, by gum, mixing it up and playing strong vs flailing arms. Good and valuable 11 minutes with 6 and 5.
- We eventually managed to get to 70% at the line (largely thanks to RJ and Mando), but we need to be closer to 80 in these games. Too many pts given away.
- There were stretches in the first half when you could plainly see us missing Ryan, especailly when RJ went out with a second "foul" --- one of the most GAWDAWFUL opposite-of-correct calls I can remember (which BTW caused a 5-point turnaround)--- Hubert was justifiably LIVID). That's when we needed our role-players to step up.
- However, the good news is they did exactly that in the second half. Just when we were clicking and turned a 3 pt halftime deficit into an 11 point lead, we lose Cadeau for a dangerous stretch (on another dirty play, go figure) and that's when things got predictably sketchy. Kudos to Seth for really stepping up in crucial moments to help keep them at bay --- couple of big-time rhythm 3s and got on the glass with those hops --- best game as a Heel, and Woj made a couple of HUGE timely plays down the stretch after we lost EC for good.
- An ironic side-effect of that awful call on RJ was that he got a lot of rest, and I'll tell ya, it absolutely showed with fresh legs in the second half. Little guy was spry whilst his opponents were running on fumes
- Although we hafta be careful about overdoing it, having a wide-body tweener with long arms like Ingram to iso is a HELLUVA luxury --- reminds me of trying to guard Adrian Dantley back in the day --- and folks, we saw how much our SPACING has improved from last season. Being able to always have an open man available to pass outta doubles is what I love to see.
- Eliot Cadeau --- meet me at Camera 3, young fella: You're the vital and frankly, irreplaceable ingredient for this team to reach its goals. Play with the swagger with which you toyed with elite high schoolers, and embrace the lessons you're getting at the college level. I saw you over there beating yourself up after that last foul. Good! Learn from it, little brother. Yes, I know you once again got hosed a couple of times to be in that situation, and the last one was ticky-tack, but you just can't give any away. We are a different and better team with you at the helm. Period.
- Generally speaking, although I would still like us to come up with more loose balls (that was glaring yesterday, BTW), we took care of the rock pretty darn well vs a ball-hawking and grabby team. 10 TOs today ain't so bad, and one of those came because they had clearly scouted the set play we ran before the half.
- Back to the dirty stuff: First, major props to #12 (the Houston transfer). Dude was on fire and hard to guard (for a really old-school reference, there was a lotta Dick Barnett in his game). With that said, there's no place for the leg kick-outs and offensive flops. That is supposed to be a point-of-emphasis over recent years, and for good reason --- it is friggin DANGEROUS to everyone involved. I really hope the kid is alright of course, but I have to point out that the ugly fall he took came from once again kicking out his leg and trying to pick up a cheap one on Mando (who avoided it). Again, let's hope he's ok.
- Finally, these super-cool early tourneys are not only great for hoops junkies like me, they are when you ideally learn some key things about your own team. And some things are becoming --- at least to my eyes --- very clear this week:
1. JWash will be key as our backup 5. If he continues to play tough like today, there's no reason for Mando to not go 110% during his minutes.
2. Withers is best suited as our first backup 4, NOT a starter. He just needs to play like his size when he goes inside and and play defense with his feet. We've also got High and/or Oko for spot/energy minutes.
3. What we saw from Seth and Pax today is exactly fitting of their perfect roles as our backup 2/3 "swing" men, enabling us to rotate five capable guys amongst the three perimeter slots (with an occasional sixth with Ingram if/when go "big").
4. It is painfully obvious that our best and default starting lineup needs to be EC/RJ/Ryan/Ingram/Bacot. No ifs, ands or buts. If some still can't see how much better we are with EC at PG, then welp... I can't help ya...
Anyway... contrary to what some doom & gloomers whine about, this is a strong roster that just handled a preseason SEC favorite while short-handed. Yes, that Nova game still irks me, BUT... are you guys seeing the ass-whuppin' they're putting on media-darling Memphis right about now? And think about it --- as I pointed out yesterday, Nova had to have EVERYTHING come out their way just to snatch one from us in OT. Yes, we have more of the grinder on the horizon. and all teams are works-in-progress this time o' year. but if, and I say IF, we embrace what I pointed to above, we have a helluva ceiiing...
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