Impressions from this game...
I felt in some ways we played smoother vs Wofford than we had played in our first 2 but I want to give that Wofford team credit, they hung in there real tuff. They were out gunned but those kids played with an impressive degree of grit, hit some tuff shots. Thou not nearly as talented I thought their front court group played with much more grit than our front court did, especially in that first half.
With such a huge size and talent mismatch up front, why did our front court guys spend the first 10mins shooting fade away jump shots? Jackson still not hitting jumpers because he is still rushing his shot, Justin, ever hear of this really cool new thing that was invented called a pump fake? Yeah, it is neat, you receive the pass, the defender flies out at ya and you do this pump fake thingy & the defender flies by ya, it is cool, you should try it some time...
But they did settle down, finally realized the length advantage and began pounding the ball inside to Meeks and Brice and rather than fall away our bigs went straight to the cup, well until Joel came in and all the sudden once again he forgot he is 6'11" and 275lbs and should be able to establish most any position he wants against a 6'7" 230 defender. Kudos to Berry for finding them, couple sweet slips by Jackson, and Theo (who was IMO by far better last night than in either of the first 2 games, may have had some rust that needed shaking off).
Lot of times I find the game off the ball as entertaining as the one on the ball, Joel Berry and Theo were really solid off the ball last night, Britt was as well, again, for the 3rd straight game, solid. I don't know that I could come up with 3 games all last season Nate was solid on the defensive end but so far he is 3 for 3. Collectively we have got to be a little closer to the spot up jump shooters, we were consistently just a step or 2 to far from them last night and those Wofford kids hit those shots. I saw a lot of Jackson flying out to try to defend late, Pinson at times as well. Berry eat his guy alive on the defensive end, kid is just tuff minded, no bells or whistles just tuff as a Waffle House steak.
This Wofford team, projected to finish second in their conference, played Missouri all they wanted in their last game, I felt played really hard against a mush stronger opponents on the road, their coach has to be proud of his guys.
One thing that bugs me, Brice, I know it is fun & all to get that real sweet smack it back down their throat with force shot block but will ya ever consider at least trying what John Henson was so good at, blocking the shot but controlling the ball after the block, rather than blocking it 30ft away? I mean hey, it ain't volley ball where you look for that sweet spike, it is basketball and it is actually a better thing if your team can control the ball after you block it.
For me the guy I maybe focused more on last night was Theo, I love that kid, I have been waiting to see him lock on his defensive assignment thru the first 2 games, saw him begin to do that last night. Helped out a little to far at times and couldn't recover, but I didn't feel that same level of intensity from Theo in the first 2 games, I saw some of that intensity return last night, not all the way back yet but I see him really starting to settle in. Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling that Theo is what JP wanted to be but just was not able to deliver? Theo is a wonderful passer but he sets the pass up so much better than JP did. JP tended to telegraph his passes, Theo on the other hand really sets up that right angle to get his passes on target and slips it in. Jackson, thou he has not shot the ball well so far has also showed that ability to pass the ball really well for his size.
Last 2 games I would have graded them C, this Wofford game I would put at a strong C+.
