Some baskteball thoughts

After watching at least a half of all our game so far there are a few general observations we can make:

1) Our defense is a long way from resembling anything close to good. We simply don't have a lot of guys that seem to take pride in their efforts on that end. In the post we're limited with size and bodies and that won't change until next year so we have to go with what we have. But we're pretty bad on the perimeter as well. We get beat off the dribble consistently with relative ease and that creates easy shots or we foul. We're going to continue to play man-to-man under Howland so we just have to hope it improves.

2) I don't even really know what our defensive philosophy is. I don't think we're doing anything other than straight man. No trapping or pressing and we're not trying to funnel guys anywhere. There's nothing wrong with straight man if you've got the horses to do it, but I think with our limitations we should be trying something a little unusual or disruptive.

3) Offensively we rely way to much on the 3-ball. Last game against UTEP was a little better of going inside-out, but the first few games had visions of Stans offense where 4 people stood at the 3 point line and just passed the ball around until someone shot a 3.

4) Offensive we really spread the floor out and run our offense very deep in the court. It's unusual and not sure what we're trying to accomplish as we don't have a lot of guys trying to get to the rim. Maybe one of you sees something I'm not, but for Howland saying we like to play fast, we spend a lot of time passing aroud past NBA range.

5) Somebody has got to step up and be a leader. Q was a offensive leader as you could always go to him for points, but I'm looking for that vocal leader that imposes his will to win on the rest of the team. I haven't seen one of those in a long time at State and we need one bad.

Some quick hit thoughts on the freshman:

Carter - Is going to be a good scorer. Before the Q injury i really like him off the bench more, but he's looking for his shot and taking good shots. He's ok on defense but room to improve. Impressed overall by him so far.

Peters - I think has the most growth potential with the Q injury. He's capable of creating his own shot and for others but he's playing a bit restrained/nervous right now as you can tell he's thinking too much. He could be a very good defensive player as he moves his feet better than the others right now.

Kegler - this guys looks like a mix of Ravern and Kodi Augustus right now. Shows flashes on offense but it's most spot shooting and he seems to exert very little effort on defense which is why he's picking up fouls so rapidly. Stands really flat footed on D. Everyone raves about the talent oozing out of him but looks like there is still some work for him to do on the effort side. He could become great or be Kodi 2.0

Herard - he'll give effort but doesn't have particular quick feet or great hands. Basically he's what a lot of people said coming in - just raw. But he does play with effort and shows some offensive ability in Italy that hasn't shown up yet. He's been a decent passer out of the post as well and that's encouraging.

Wright - we need this guy to focus on being a defensive stopper. He needs to be our Pippen at this point. His offensive game is raw, but he's really athletic and has nice size. Offensively just needs to slow down some. Always looks his brain is racing when he has the ball.

Hatcher - this guy might be the next brandon vincent we've been waiting on. A pleasant surprise so far. Plays hard and throws his body around. a ton to learn, but he always gives solid minutes. Doesn't have the upside as some of the others but won't surprise me long-term is he winds up a better player than some of them.

Agree about Peters on defense. The way he takes position and moves his feet reminds me of Barry Stewart. I just worry that style of in-your-face man defense isn't viable under the new contact rules.

Eli is the one that surprises me so far, thought he would be abusing people with his speed.
In terms of a vocal leader, it has to be IJ. Q will be the #1 cheerleader on the bench, but IJ is the man in the position to do something.
My initial prediction of MSU being #3 in the SEC was pre-Ado/Q. I hope we can be better than #10 now.
NIT, if we are lucky. Hope they surprise us all and show that freshmen other than UK can win.

IJ hasn't been that guy yet so doubt it's going to happen now. I'm just not sure who it is but could be Peters or Carter although i know nothing of their personalities. Ideally you want it to be your best player but it doesn't always have to be that guy.

I couldn't agree more about your statements about the offense the first few games. The UTEP game was better. I would really like to see us have better ball movement and movement without the ball. We have to move the defense. We had a beautiful possession last game where we made about 5 or 6 passes and had the defense out of position. IJ gets it about 16 foot out and instead of making the extra pass he settles for mid range jumper and completely bails out a defense that was out of position. These guys just need to learn how to pass up a good/decent shot for a great shot. As far as defense goes, our foot work is really bad at times. It looked better last game though. I think we should mix in some 2-3 trap every now and then just to throw something different at offenses. That's one thing I like about Randy Kennedy is how he mixes up his defenses and it usually result in a couple of cheap baskets due to turnovers.