Good things
-- Spears scoring with ease. There are easy baskets to make in our offense, if you are patient and know where to be. I hope Spears fills that role.
-- Rice getting others involved. I still fear that he'll try to do too much, but nine assists shows that he is working others into the game.
-- BC continues to get to the line. This has been a strength of Al's teams. As we move towards a more perimeter-focused style, I worried that we wouldn't get to the line as often. So far, so good.
Concerns
-- Roche goes cold again. He needs to prove he is a great shooter in games. Right now he just seems like a streaky shooter.
-- Perimeter defense. New faces, same issues. I guess we are going to continue to allow teams to take and make a ton of threes. Our guys are going to have to step up on the defensive boards.
-- Sanders' minutes. He wasn't in foul trouble and was very productive. Why so few minutes?
Overall
It is still very early, but I like how the freshmen are playing. This season may be more fun than we expected.
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5 comments:
Our big problem will be rebounding. We don't have a rebounding big man - although maybe Southern can fill that role - and our two reliable guys on the boards (Dudley and Marshall) are gone.
The fact the FAU outrebounded us does not bode well for ACC play.
On the bright side, though, we didn't get upset by a team with the word "Sun" in their conference name. See: USC, Kentucky, Cincinnati.
We are going to lose a lot of games this year, but both wins have been fun to watch. Couple thoughts on your summary having seen the game in person.
-Roche missed a couple shots that we need him to hit, but he also came in late in the game and got open for a big layup. He is also consistently the only guy who gets to loose balls.
-Sanders is going to be a great player. He creates his own points inside and out, and makes shots off the dribble.
-Spears played almost Dudley-esque last night: throwing the ball off the other team while falling out of bounds, getting offensive rebounds for strong putbacks, and even talking to himself as he ran down the court. A little insanity is always good to liven up Conte.
-Finally, Rice is clearly the leader of the team. (He is even doing his pregame shootaround in a different warmup than the rest of the team, like Dudley used to do). He talks to other guys on the court, and makes sure that he's the one shooting foul shots at the end of the game.
Anyway, it's not a great team yet, but it is certainly a fun team to watch with a lot of potential.
I was at the game and had a couple of thoughts.
1. Rice played well and had some good assists. But the official scoring of stats like assists at Conte is so biased in favor of BC that you can't simply see 9 supposed assists for Rice (or 6 for Roche) and take that number at face value. Game after game, the scorers at Conte (but not on the road) credit BC with assists on 80% of their FGs and credit the visiting team with assists on only half that many. Last night, BC was credited with asists on 18 of their 23 hoops and FAU only had 9 assists on the same number of FGs.
2. Your point about Spears is dead on. He got himself into the right place at the right time and as a result got easy baskets.
3. Sanders didn't play towards the end because BC was pressing and trying to disrupt FAU's offense all over the court. That requires three guys with the speed and quickness to press and Rice, Raji and Paris all have more of both than Sanders. I guess Al could've put Sanders in for Spears, but Spears was playing well and brings at least a little more size than Sanders. When BC isn't pressing full court, I think we'll see Sanders on the court consistently at crunch time.
different matthew here... i guess someone else has chosen this name also.
anyways, it was great to see full court pressure -- this was the main turning point at the end of the game. Raji brings some serious energy off of the bench, a la Jermaine Watson. He reminds me of Haines in the way that he is very athletic/agile, and can defend very well. But I think he will actually develop and find an identity on offense eventually, as he looks to have a nice touch.
I like the look of the team with Paris at the point and Rice at the 2. However, the team is clearly at its best on offense when Rice is taking the ball to the basket. The flex is worrying me a little bit because of our passing. The offense is at its best when spears or sanders receives a pass on the block and can turn and lay it in. Rice can pass, so can Roche, and maybe Paris, but the big men cannot. I can't really judge southern, but for the offense to work at its best, Blair NEEDS to be able to pass from the elbow, and it appears that he cannot.
Also, I agree that rebounding will be a BIG problem. Spears looked OK, but who knows if he will when he has someone bigger and stronger on him. Southern seems to be a good rebounder, but Blair is not good for a big man.
I disagree with whoever said that this team will not have trouble scoring. Spears can get some baskets but he still likes to fade away and has been known to disappear. Sanders will be streaky, in my opinion, although manage to average at least a dozen. If and when good teams key on Rice, I think things may break down. Roche needs baskets to be created for him, and the big men are virtually absent. Raji cannot create at this point. It will be interesting to see if Paris can handle the point and create in order to free up Rice against better teams.
This team is fun to watch at times (except when Oates is out there... nice to see that Al is sitting him more now that SOuthern is here). They will probably lose some games they 'shouldn't', but as with most Skinner teams, hopefully it will be put together by the end and we will win some games that we 'shouldn't' also .
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