Pre-Game Thread: vs. Richmond (11/17/22)

[ShockTalk]

I was going to say something about Okafor, but I wanted to verify that he played as little as I thought he did before doing so.

Only six minutes? He hasn't played that poorly and is one of the few guys who has actually hit from behind the arc so far.

I haven't gotten into analyzing all of the numbers yet.

4-10 FG, 3-7 3pt, 6 rebounds. In only 6 minutes in the 3rd game, he had another 4 rebounds.

[Dan]

I personally thought Oakfor underperformed the first 2 games considering he was hyped to be a high motor guy. Maybe he does have a high motor but it wasn’t translating to being real productive in either scoring or rebounding. He and Bell were the 2 guys I wanted to switch out and I guess IB saw the same things.

[ShockTalk]

That’s quite a rebuttal to a statement about Fred’s minutes 2 games into his freshmen season. Talk about drawing conclusions. I suggest you re-read the post I was responding to.

That was 4 games into his freshman season for Fred.

How about that Jake White, who was probably at the bottom of the totem pole, played in every single game, including the tournament, for a team that had 9 losses to go with their 30 wins.

Most of the players on this team need a little playing time either for experience or because they have some experience elsewhere and need to feel just a little wanted on the team.

How he handled the playing time in the Richmond game screamed of "I gotta have a win at all costs". You're right. It was only 1 game. I just hope this doesn't continue very long or he'll be looking for another 7+ players next year to groom, not counting replacing seniors.

[Atxshoxfan]

Offensive execution - C /
Defense - B- /
Fight - B+ /
Rebounding - C- /
Coaching - C+ /
But the drive and composure to come back in the final few minutes, after being down - A+

[Dan]

That was 4 games into his freshman season for Fred.

How about that Jake White, who was probably at the bottom of the totem pole, played in every single game, including the tournament, for a team that had 9 losses to go with their 30 wins.

Most of the players on this team need a little playing time either for experience or because they have some experience elsewhere and need to feel just a little wanted on the team.

How he handled the playing time in the Richmond game screamed of "I gotta have a win at all costs". You're right. It was only 1 game. I just hope this doesn't continue very long or he'll be looking for another 7+ players next year to groom, not counting replacing seniors.

Maybe he will be looking for another batch after this season, no way to tell in this new day and age. I kinda hope the NCAA is gonna get stingier about handing out waivers to 2nd time transfers, I don’t think any school wants players that are notorious school hoppers.

[ShockTalk]

I personally thought Oakfor underperformed the first 2 games considering he was hyped to be a high motor guy. Maybe he does have a high motor but it wasn’t translating to being real productive in either scoring or rebounding. He and Bell were the 2 guys I wanted to switch out and I guess IB saw the same things.

Cannot speak to the high motor not happening for Oakfor as I didn't see the games live as I have for the last 50 years where I can zero in on things like that, but he has the highest 3pt % on the team and his number of 3pt shots and rebounds adjusted for minutes played are in line with the other 5 starters. Just don't see the 35-minute average (or 26 for one player) to only 6 minutes disparity. But I am only an armchair coach and don't know what goes on in practices.

[Atxshoxfan]

Curious what you folks think of Rojas play.
To me he appears to move like he's running on his heals when he moves. He looks like some high schoolers, burying his head when he drives to the hoop, and just doesn't quite look the part of a nice fluid player. But somehow he was effective yesterday.
So what do you all think?

[ShockTalk]

Maybe he will be looking for another batch after this season, no way to tell in this new day and age. I kinda hope the NCAA is gonna get stingier about handing out waivers to 2nd time transfers, I don’t think any school wants players that are notorious school hoppers.

If a locker room becomes toxic, a coach will want to sign waivers if the players want them. Otherwise, if he won't or the NCAA won't allow it, he's caught between a rock and a hard place. That's where we are now.

[Kel Varnsen]

While IB has to take some of (or most of) the blame for all the transfers out last season, I think it's impressive that he was able to put together a team, and frankly, a somewhat talented team in such a short time.

This team isn't perfect by any stretch. They are ALL (including IB) learning on the job.

Each player on the team has pluses and minuses, but is there any one player you think can't provide help at times? Of the 12?

I don't want Q shooting a ton of FTs but outside of that....I think it's somewhat remarkable that we will have 12 guys that can help somewhere every night.


The challenge is getting consistent effort and execution. Last night was a pretty darned good effort. The execution lacked quite a bit but the defense and effort were able to carry the day, against a decent team, not great by any means, but a group that is very experienced and used to winning. They were tough enough to take Charleston to OT, and Charleston destroyed a good Davidson team last night and were competitive with #1 UNC. Healthy (and yeah they were down a big guy last night and that matters) this Richmond team is around a top 75-100 team and that kind of road win always counts.

Our team is little more than a blank canvas at this point. They're just learning to play together. I don't know what the stat is, but fewest games/minutes together returning has to be something we're in the lowest 5% or so. Only CP3 and Kenny last year, and a little IPBC & CP3 the year before have been on the floor together before a couple weeks ago. That matters. We mostly have single dudes out there, but we've got some dudes.

Can they come together and play like a team? I don't know. I probably wouldn't bet on it. But I'll take the effort put forth last night, and I'll take the "want to" when faced with adversity in the 2nd half. All day long.

This may be the first time in a really long time that a bunch of stiffs on the schedule is something that COULD really help this team. They need some success, some feeling of accomplishment, some wins to get together and figure out who they are and what they can do best.

Interesting game last night. Kind of didn't think I'd be in the place I am now, but I'm looking forward to the next game. And I'm fully prepared to accept that feeling could disappear after it.


Also, I don't care who you are playing, 42% 22% & 67% isn't going to beat hardly anyone. For now, I'm going to believe this group will improve those numbers, perhaps substantially. Again, I'm prepared to be wrong.



But I can live with that kind of effort. Proud of the guys. They wore the black and yellow with pride last night, and I don't think that was easy after ASU, and as a fan that's really all I can expect.

Sometimes I think I really know basketball and then I read your posts.

[Kung Wu]

Curious what you folks think of Rojas play.
To me he appears to move like he's running on his heals when he moves. He looks like some high schoolers, burying his head when he drives to the hoop, and just doesn't quite look the part of a nice fluid player. But somehow he was effective yesterday.
So what do you all think?

I don't care about style points. If he gives us that effort and output every night, we finally have a glue guy that is effective and will give us that MTXE hustle. I just hope he can do it consistently and that wasn't a one shot deal.

[Dan]

Curious what you folks think of Rojas play.
To me he appears to move like he's running on his heals when he moves. He looks like some high schoolers, burying his head when he drives to the hoop, and just doesn't quite look the part of a nice fluid player. But somehow he was effective yesterday.
So what do you all think?

He plays like a savvy old man in the Y. Not pretty, but effective.

[asiseeit]

Has a quick first step

[WstateU]

[1972Shocker]

Nice to get the win especially on the road and against an okay team. Much better effort than against Alcorn State. But still managed to make it a game when they probably could have and perhaps should have cruised to the win. Best thing was the way the team responded after falling behind by 6 with 9:30 to play led by Craig Porter who had not played all that well to that point. Shockers were helped by Richmond's 8-29 (27.6%) shooting on 3-pointers. The Shockers were even worse at 4-17 (23.5%) but fortunately did not fall in love with the 3.

It appears that Jaykwon Walton is a player and Porter was good over the final 9 minutes. Not totally sold on James Rojas yet be he was certainly effective in this game. I thought Poor Bear gave the team some nice minutes off the bench. So far Jaron Pierre isn't living up to his hype nor is Gus Okafor and Xavier Bell. Kenny Pohto was vey disappointing in this game. Not sure what his upside is. If Kenny is going to be promoted as a stretch 5 then he needs to start making some perimeter shots. He doesn't bring much else to the table and certainly doesn't get much out of his 6-11 height.

I am jsut not sure that a team that can only generate 6 assists (vs 13 turnovers) can be consistently successful.

I guess we'll see how we do in Kansas City.

[Ashockalypse]

Pierre will get there with some coaching. Hope that comes from someone on our staff.