Thoughts on game tonight..........

[99jc]

Moore and Iverson together are great.

1st impression of Watts is that he played out of control tonight.

we need to improve blocking out.

look decent overall Hail State

[BayouDawg]

Agree. This team has great potential. But the blocking out or lack thereof has to get fixed.

[NCMSTFAN]

It's going to be tough to take Shakeel out of the lineup. I thought when Watts returned he would take over the starting spot, but Moore can score at every level and defend. I like Moore and Molinar together. I wanted to see more scoring in the post from Garrison this game but he still played pretty solid, same with Jeffries. We have the potential to be good but we aren't there just yet.

[MetEdDawg]

Too many offensive rebounds for Detroit Mercy (12 of their 27 rebounds were offensive). Tolu coming back will help that.

We didn't take enough shots. Only 49 shots in a 40 minute game. Now we made almost 60% from the floor, so if your efficiency is high you can live with lower attempts, but not that few.

Howland has work to do to determine who can work with who. We've got a lot of talent, but tonight it was obvious that we are still working through what our rotations will look like and who's going to get the most minutes.

Sloppy game, weird tempo, and we win by 13. Davis was voted 1st team all conference. He's pretty good.

Still think we are a Top 25 team with the talent this roster has. Question is how quickly can it come together and gel.

[OLJWales]

So sloppy game; shoulda won by 20 plus?

[99jc]

Detroit may have been 0-2 coming in but they have some players. I think right now the main thing is team chemistry we could be very good if the rotation is right.

[HoopsDawg]

hopefully everyone can stay unselfish b/c there is only one ball. We are going to have to cut our rotation by SEC play.

[MCsMGs]

Too many offensive rebounds for Detroit Mercy (12 of their 27 rebounds were offensive). Tolu coming back will help that.

We didn't take enough shots. Only 49 shots in a 40 minute game. Now we made almost 60% from the floor, so if your efficiency is high you can live with lower attempts, but not that few.

Howland has work to do to determine who can work with who. We've got a lot of talent, but tonight it was obvious that we are still working through what our rotations will look like and who's going to get the most minutes.

Sloppy game, weird tempo, and we win by 13. Davis was voted 1st team all conference. He's pretty good.

Still think we are a Top 25 team with the talent this roster has. Question is how quickly can it come together and gel.

Don't know if you listened to the post game show, but the first thing Howland cited was that they got too many offensive rebounds that led to a lot of second chance scores.

[trob115]

Hopefully Davis doesn't ever see the floor again in meaningful minutes. He is a complete liability with his awful free throw shooting.

[Rawdawg]

We were +14 in rebound margin going into the game? I was there tonight and the ball just bounced in some weird ways. Long rebounds on some hero threes and just some unfortunate bounces all around. Defense was good but there?s nothing you can do about a cross over, hand in your face, fade away bad shot three ball falling multiple times in a game.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

hopefully everyone can stay unselfish b/c there is only one ball. We are going to have to cut our rotation by SEC play.

The 8 man rotation by SEC play will be

1&2 - Iverson Rocket & Shakeel

3 - DJ & Matthews

4&5 - Tolu Garrison & Fountain

Carter & JD or Murphy getting 5-8min when necessary

[HoopsDawg]

The 8 man rotation by SEC play will be

1&2 - Iverson Rocket & Shakeel

3 - DJ & Matthews

4&5 - Tolu Garrison & Fountain

Carter & JD or Murphy getting 5-8min when necessary

agree, except hopefully Matthews will still play some 4.

[revdrdawg]

It was a game of weird lucky bounces and a couple of prayers for Detroit Mercy that had no business going in. There were several times when we had a ten point lead and the ball threatening to break it open and suddenly there was a turnover and a Detroit 3. Fortunately, we always found an answer, Still, we did not get the comfortable lead until the last few minutes. We do have to do a better job of getting Garrison the ball in a good position. For some reason, we could get the ball to Davis inside (who would get fouled and miss the FT), but that never worked with Brooks.

[CadaverDawg]

I'm not a super knowledgeable basketball guy from an X & O standpoint, but it seemed to me like other than them just hitting a lot of tough shots, our biggest weakness last night was getting beaten off the dribble one on one and not having help rotate over in time, leading to some fairly easy layups at times. Not sure how you fix that, unless we just knew we had them from a talent standpoint so were playing a very basic man to man with little help? Maybe we play more help D when we play better teams? Or is that something to keep an eye on? Or just tell me I don't know what I'm talking about and I'll shut up

[chef dixon]

You can't take away much from these games this early with a lot of new pieces. We got players and they are going to get better as the season goes along. These games kind of weed out who's ready to take on the big roles.

[NCMSTFAN]

I watched the replay on the ESPN app late last night and we actually played pretty good. We shot 59% from the field and 50% from 3, we out rebounded them (even though it was only by 1) and we played good defense. Detroit was just making alot of tough shots, and thats why we didn't really separate from them like we should have. Plus our former player Prince Oduro probably had the best game of his career for Detroit, he went 7-7 scoring 14 points and also had 7 rebs. But you know you always play harder against a former team. They surely didn't look like an 0-2 team but they showed up to play us, its like that sometimes, especially in college basketball but in the end we won the game and it was never really in jeopardy.

I will say from a talent and depth standpoint, we may have the best team on paper since Howland has been with us.

[Extendedcab]

I thought we would dominate them but we didn't. It was a good win but somehow, from excitement on this board, I expected more from the team. I thought we would look cleaner, more aggressive and more dominant.

[NCMSTFAN]

I thought we would dominate them but we didn't. It was a good win but somehow, from excitement on this board, I expected more from the team. I thought we would look cleaner, more aggressive and more dominant.

Well we did look that way last game against Montana. Every game is different and College basketball is unique because upsets happen every week.. thats why the NCAA tournament is so special. We didn't play bad but we obviously still have to clean some things up

[thf24]

I will say from a talent and depth standpoint, we may have the best team on paper since Howland has been with us.

Absolutely no doubt that this is his deepest and most talented team by far. More importantly though, our best players fit what Howland wants from their position. A big problem with the '18-'19 and '19-'20 teams in my observation was that Perry and Woodard never seemed completely comfortable with the way they were being asked to play.

[msstate7]

I thought we would dominate them but we didn't. It was a good win but somehow, from excitement on this board, I expected more from the team. I thought we would look cleaner, more aggressive and more dominant.

Maybe we didn't dominate, but we covered the spread

[Coach34]

We're 3-0 and havent even been challenged yet. This team has alot of new parts and it will take some time to gel. Enjoy the ride this season. By Feb we should be one of the best 15 teams in the country

[msstate7]

Louisville (our thanksgiving opp) plays Detroit mercy on Saturday. Be interesting to see that score.

[Johnson85]

I watched the replay on the ESPN app late last night and we actually played pretty good. We shot 59% from the field and 50% from 3, we out rebounded them (even though it was only by 1) and we played good defense. Detroit was just making alot of tough shots, and thats why we didn't really separate from them like we should have. Plus our former player Prince Oduro probably had the best game of his career for Detroit, he went 7-7 scoring 14 points and also had 7 rebs. But you know you always play harder against a former team. They surely didn't look like an 0-2 team but they showed up to play us, its like that sometimes, especially in college basketball but in the end we won the game and it was never really in jeopardy.

I will say from a talent and depth standpoint, we may have the best team on paper since Howland has been with us.

It's definitely one of the deepest teams I can remember. I think fans may have to adjust their expectation some based on that. We probably matchup really well with just about anybody 1-10, but only your first 8 really matter unless their are injuries or major foul trouble, and when it comes down to it, at the end of the year, you'd usually rather have a stronger team 1-6 than a team that is not quite as strong 1-6 but can go two deeper in the rotation.

We could figure out a rotation that plays really well together and be really dangerous. Our we could just be a pretty good team with better than average players not getting good minutes.

[NCMSTFAN]

It's definitely one of the deepest teams I can remember. I think fans may have to adjust their expectation some based on that. We probably matchup really well with just about anybody 1-10, but only your first 8 really matter unless their are injuries or major foul trouble, and when it comes down to it, at the end of the year, you'd usually rather have a stronger team 1-6 than a team that is not quite as strong 1-6 but can go two deeper in the rotation.

We could figure out a rotation that plays really well together and be really dangerous. Our we could just be a pretty good team with better than average players not getting good minutes.

Good point and I completely understand your point in terms of have a nice a solid rotation of 7 or 8 players to play the majority of your minutes. But as you mentioned, injuries happen almost every year and having that quality depth will be needed at some point in the season.

I think as the season goes the majority of minutes will go to Molinar, Moore, Jeffries, Watts, Brooks, Matthews, Tolu and Cam Carter. That's a really good 8 man rotation that gives us scoring, defense and shooting. I initially thought Fountain would be in that mix but Matthews is playing really well, especially defensively, he is like that junk yard dog player every team needs. He is averaging 8 pts, 7 rebs, 3 assist on 71.4 percent shooting but where he really excels is on defense.

[NCMSTFAN]

Absolutely no doubt that this is his deepest and most talented team by far. More importantly though, our best players fit what Howland wants from their position. A big problem with the '18-'19 and '19-'20 teams in my observation was that Perry and Woodard never seemed completely comfortable with the way they were being asked to play.

I agree the chemistry is there this year. Also, I'm glad the students are coming out and showing support this year. They fill the section up behind the goal really well. I wish they would put them back on the sides again, it just looks better on t.v. but nonetheless they are showing up!

[R2Dawg]

We are really talented and most talent since way back in the Stans years. We play pretty well together for this early. Got a lot of team chemistry and rotations to smooth out but this team has got all the stuff to make a deep run.

Detroit has some good talent, we showed last night I don't think there will be many teams that can challenge us athletically. UK used to do that but not at all this year.

Molinar and Moore are a great backcourt. Moore continues to impress me. Great pickup from ACC.

Matthews has become a stud on both ends of the floor. We are different when he is on the floor.

DJ not as effective as I'd hoped. He seems lost trying to find his role on the team.

Brooks is solid but not very explosive. He is good enough. He probably gets better when Tulu returns.

Rocket has some great skills, just think he needs to learn how to blend into the team.

I can see some guys that are going to lose minutes down the road that are good players (Fountain, Davis, Carter, Garcia, etc.). Just can't play everyone. We have to get down to 7-8 getting most minutes. Tulu isn't even back yet.

[NCMSTFAN]

We are really talented and most talent since way back in the Stans years. We play pretty well together for this early. Got a lot of team chemistry and rotations to smooth out but this team has got all the stuff to make a deep run.

Detroit has some good talent, we showed last night I don't think there will be many teams that can challenge us athletically. UK used to do that but not at all this year.

Molinar and Moore are a great backcourt. Moore continues to impress me. Great pickup from ACC.

Matthews has become a stud on both ends of the floor. We are different when he is on the floor.

DJ not as effective as I'd hoped. He seems lost trying to find his role on the team.

Brooks is solid but not very explosive. He is good enough. He probably gets better when Tulu returns.

Rocket has some great skills, just think he needs to learn how to blend into the team.

I can see some guys that are going to lose minutes down the road that are good players (Fountain, Davis, Carter, Garcia, etc.). Just can't play everyone. We have to get down to 7-8 getting most minutes. Tulu isn't even back yet.

Good post, and I agree, as you said some of our good players are going to lose minutes. Fountain ended the year really strong last season and is very improved but Matthews is just so tough and athletic that you can't play Fountain ahead of him, but that doesn't take away from Fountain because he is really good in his own right. The other player you mentioned that alot of people don't talk about is Garcia. That's a tough kid who plays hard every play on both ends of the floor in only 14 minutes Garcia averages 6 points 5 rebs 2.5 steals and is shooting 66.7% from the field.. both of those guys could play alot of minutes on other teams. I do think Cam Carter stays in that 8 man rotation, Howland said he is his best on the ball perimeter defender. When Tolu gets back it's going to be really tough for JD Davis to get on the floor but he is tough also

[LC Dawg]

Our guard play should keep us in most games. Brooks should give us around 10 pts 7 boards a game. If Jeffries and Tolu can combine for about 25/10 we'll be a damn good basketball team. We have some depth to back it up.
I'm looking forward to it.

[trob115]

I wouldn't mind seeing us press some. Having this many quality players definitely lends itself to using a press.

[Rawdawg]

Our guard play should keep us in most games. Brooks should give us around 10 pts 7 boards a game. If Jeffries and Tolu can combine for about 25/10 we'll be a damn good basketball team. We have some depth to back it up.
I'm looking forward to it.

When Tolu returns you?re adding 12 points and 8 rebounds to what you already have.

[preachermatt83]

We're 3-0 and havent even been challenged yet. This team has alot of new parts and it will take some time to gel. Enjoy the ride this season. By Feb we should be one of the best 15 teams in the country

This

[PGHBulldogBG]

I?m glad we warmed up with some lower rated teams because our schedule gets tougher come December. Minnesota and Colorado State are solid opponents then we have furman who beat Louisville along with Georgia State and Winthrop who are supposed to win or be near the tops of their conference. If we can win 4 of those 5 that should get us ranked. We also play Louisville and then I believe maryland or Richmond. I think the 17-18 year taught us to schedule better in the non conference

[Johnson85]

I wouldn't mind seeing us press some. Having this many quality players definitely lends itself to using a press.

I know a coach can't just change styles, but we are deep enough to run 40 minutes of hell and I would love to see us do it.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

I wouldn't mind seeing us press some. Having this many quality players definitely lends itself to using a press.

I don't see us pressing but we have picked up full court more this year than in years past. Not a press but being more aggressive in getting after the ball handler. Cam Matthews always never just allows an easy in bound pass. He's always harassing the PG.