After 5 Games (And With A Week Off)

[Aargh]

I'm encouraged after 5 games. Compared to what they did against Catawba and La Tech, this is already a different team. With only 3 games in the next 20 days, there's a lot of practice time and a lot of film to look at.

I'm still expecting some games worse than what they did against 'Bama, but the next 6 games are Rice (W), Baylor (L), OU (?), Jacksonville State (W), Southern Miss (W), and Oral Roberts (W). That's a good combination of challenges and games that should be won.

Encouraging signs:
Torres - starting to figure out how to help the team
Dennis - starting to realize he can compete against more experienced D1 players
Burton - seems to be playing better than the recruiting hype, that's rare
McDuffie - actually dribbled, got all the way to the basket and still had the ball, made the shot - whew! that was a long time coming!
Stevenson - even if he turns out to be a 35% shot from 3, he's got a lot of other elements in his game Might be a Wessel type of player.
Echenique - might actually score more this year than he did last year in JuCo.

Discouraging signs:
Haynes-Jones - Right now - he's easily the best we have at his position. That's discouraging.
Midtgaard - I keep hoping for him to do well, but I kind of cringe when he goes into a game.
Pick-n-Roll / Screening game - Nothing about the screening game seems to be effective.
Zone - Still a work in progress

A month and 4 days until we finish up the OOC @ VCU. By then, we should be in a position to win that game. Interesting that we start conference play with Memphis.

[proshox]

Discouraging - no ability to make the other team uncomfortable.

Encouraging - just about everything since losing by 13 at home.

[choida]

Just wait for the the light bulbs to turn on one of these games... Then it's off to the races... Just a waiting game... Either this year or next for sure

[AndShock]

Baylor is 2-1 against the SWAC and hasn’t shown themselves worthy of any praise. That’s definitely a winnable game. Opening the season against La Tech was rough. Stick that game late in the non-con and I think we win. Who knows with OU and VCU. Other games are should-wins.

Anything more than 2 losses is a disappointment and if we finish the non-con undefeated I wouldn’t be shocked. This season certainly isn’t a throwaway one yet.

[WuDrWu]

Really? We're 2-3. 6 and 6 seems the most likely outcome to me. Lots of people talk about how we could be 5-0 at this point (ignoring we would have played Purdue instead of Ap State but ok) well we could easily be 0-5 too. EASILY. What I like so far is that it seems our offense is ahead of the defense. We can fix that.

[Blackmag]

I’m not cashing in this season after 5 games. Let’s make a tourney run. Eight straight sounds good. With or without teddy buckets.

[AZ Shocker]

Aside from the LA Tech game...we've been in every game. That's a positive for so many new players (and coaches let's not forget). Really like our improving "energy". Still not AWESOME...but it's getting there each and every game and that is VERY encouraging!!!

The D-1 game is still too fast to learn how to play ALL the faucets of the game this early for so many newbies. The shots will start to fall. At least they are hustling and getting better on defense. Keep that up and the shots will start to fall. When they do...WATCH OUT!!!!

[wufan]

Good analysis Aargh! I agree 100%.

I will add that I am probably most impressed with the play of our post. Jaime is a big skilled baller. He needs to continue to develop his hands and learn to play like the monster he is. Udeze is a bull under the basket. He knows what to do with the ball inside of 8 feet, and that’s to get within 2 feet and put it in the basket. Both these guys need to improve playing pick and roll offense and hedging screens on defense.

It’s also quite obvious that Stevenson and Burton are ballers. It’s too bad they have to play 25 mpg, because they would be dynamite in a 15 mpg reserve role. They are going to be good.

Dennis is close! Improve the handles and play d w/o the hands and watch out! Could be an all-aac player sooner rather than later.

Markis is is the other guy that is a pleasant surprise. I expected him to lead the team, but not with 20+ ppg. Hopefully he keeps up his 50%+ shooting from 25 foot and in.

[im4wsu]

Good analysis Aargh! I agree 100%.

I will add that I am probably most impressed with the play of our post. Jaime is a big skilled baller. He needs to continue to develop his hands and learn to play like the monster he is. Udeze is a bull under the basket. He knows what to do with the ball inside of 8 feet, and that’s to get within 2 feet and put it in the basket. Both these guys need to improve playing pick and roll offense and hedging screens on defense.

It’s also quite obvious that Stevenson and Burton are ballers. It’s too bad they have to play 25 mpg, because they would be dynamite in a 15 mpg reserve role. They are going to be good.

Dennis is close! Improve the handles and play d w/o the hands and watch out! Could be an all-aac player sooner rather than later.

Markis is is the other guy that is a pleasant surprise. I expected him to lead the team, but not with 20+ ppg. Hopefully he keeps up his 50%+ shooting from 25 foot and in.

What do you want his percentage to be from 25 and beyond?

[wufan]

I don’t want him shooting any from outside of 25 foot.

[FadedCrown]

My question is why does our opponents 3 point shooting become god like everything we play them?

[Shockm]

My question is why does our opponents 3 point shooting become god like everything we play them?

Actually La Tech only shot 25% from 3 and they still beat us.

A deeper question may be why did Bama shoot almost 95% from the free throw line against us when their free throw percentage was in the 60 perecnt area prior to our game? Our free throw defense definitely needs to improve.

[asiseeit]

I would agree that the future is bright but think it's going to be a rough ride from now to at least
mid 2019 season. We will be around .500 this season BUT dangerous enough at the end to
make a run at the conference tournament title if we get hot at the right time. I like JB a lot but
teams sagging on him is a concern. I still believe that ES can shoot and is just in a temporary
slump. I'd like to us us try a bigger lineup and play a 3-2 match up zone with ES at point, DD at
the two guard, MM at small forward, JE at power forward and either AM or Udeze at center. I
think that would be a great defensive line up able to guard the perimeter and the paint.

[proshox]

No matchup zones, please. They just ask for too much thinking and communication amongst an inexperienced team. I think we need a zone, but it has to be executable by all players.

[ShockerFever]

Baylor is 2-1 against the SWAC and hasn’t shown themselves worthy of any praise. That’s definitely a winnable game. Opening the season against La Tech was rough. Stick that game late in the non-con and I think we win. Who knows with OU and VCU. Other games are should-wins.

Anything more than 2 losses is a disappointment and if we finish the non-con undefeated I wouldn’t be shocked. This season certainly isn’t a throwaway one yet.

I agree. Baylor isn’t much of anything this year. Easily winnable.

Im actually more concerned with Southern Miss. They are pretty decent. I don’t know if I could fathom the possibility of losing to two CUSA teams at home this year.

[ShockTalk]

I'm a little surprised that you would think any game with this young of team, especially in the first half, would be "easily" winnable.

[Dan]

If Stevenson is really an Evan Wessel, he needs to stop shooting like he’s Ron Baker. Both he and Burton need to live in the gym the next 10 days and work on those shots. We can’t afford to have 2 starting guards that can’t make threes.

[Shocktoberfest]

And Torres. As a whole we missed a ton of wide open 3s yesterday. They sag off of Burton. That ain't good. RT missed several open looks and ES did as well. Gotta hit some of those fellas!

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

If Stevenson is really an Evan Wessel, he needs to stop shooting like he’s Ron Baker. Both he and Burton need to live in the gym the next 10 days and work on those shots. We can’t afford to have 2 starting guards that can’t make threes.

Burton especially. Bama was GIVING him great looks from three. He has to be able to knock down a couple per game just to keep the defense honest on his perimeter game and allow him to drive some more.

[TheShocktocles]

Three guys that really need to spend some time praticing shooting 3pointers are Ricky Torres, Burton, and Stevenson. They have to start knocking down open shots. On another note what's wrong with Chandler and Roderick at the 4 position? We don't seem to get anything from them.

[wufan]

I’m guessing Chandler and Brown aren’t as good as the guys seeing time.

[pie n eye]

It’s hard not to like this team. They have a lot of talent and potential and they play hard. Only gonna get better as the season progresses. How much better? Well see.

It’s tough to watch them give away a couple games (LA Tech, Davidson) and come up just short in another (Alabama) but as long as they’re learning and improving, which it seems like they are, I believe the wins will come.