Another game that's tough to tell too much b/c EMU simply couldn't hang athletically. That's not to say they didn't ahve some athleticism but they simply could not handle the press.
Two big takeaways:
1) This team may be developing some depth.
Cooney is obviously benefiting from JB trying to force-feed him some minutes in games that are more or less out of hand, but I thought he acquitted himself well even when he wasn't shooting the ball well. Grant was really impressive -- I can't believe I'm saying this but it may be difficult to keep him off the court. I doubt he finds a true role, but he was easily the best player tonight, IMO. DCII isn't terribly impressive, IMO, but he did some nice things.
2) This team could have some serious problems vs. a zone
Nice to have a game like this early b/c it exposed a serious weakness. The cuse had 6 points with 10 mins to go in the first half. Ouch. I don't think they effectively attacked it the entire night and, clearly, they aren't a great shooting team ... at least right now. But that was ugly.
Other stuff
-- It's funny to watch MCW, see him put up 11 assists and be able to think of at least three or four instances where he "should have" had another assist. Could easily have been at 15.
-- I like Triche. I do. But I still see Cooney as a huge key b/c Triche has a lot of mental lapses for a senior. He kind of has Devendorf disease at times. I think he's a nice contributor but he's a really streaky shooter and makes some really curious decisions with the ball. MCW does as well, obviously, but when you're leading the nation in assists and steals, essentially, I'll give you some rope.
-- If I'm ranking our three most impressive players thus far, I go Southerland/MCW in some order and then Keita. In case you weren't keeping track, he's missed a total of three FG attempts this season, is averaging 5 rebounds per game, and has a total of four turnovers. He's also, by far, our best interior defender. Which brings me to ...
-- We're soft inside. As much beef as we have in there, it seems strange to say this but we are really, really soft inside defensively and offensively.
-- Fair didn't have a great game, but I still really like his game. Really unselfish, not very many mistakes (1 turnover) and just tends to be in good positions a lot.
Two big takeaways:
1) This team may be developing some depth.
Cooney is obviously benefiting from JB trying to force-feed him some minutes in games that are more or less out of hand, but I thought he acquitted himself well even when he wasn't shooting the ball well. Grant was really impressive -- I can't believe I'm saying this but it may be difficult to keep him off the court. I doubt he finds a true role, but he was easily the best player tonight, IMO. DCII isn't terribly impressive, IMO, but he did some nice things.
2) This team could have some serious problems vs. a zone
Nice to have a game like this early b/c it exposed a serious weakness. The cuse had 6 points with 10 mins to go in the first half. Ouch. I don't think they effectively attacked it the entire night and, clearly, they aren't a great shooting team ... at least right now. But that was ugly.
Other stuff
-- It's funny to watch MCW, see him put up 11 assists and be able to think of at least three or four instances where he "should have" had another assist. Could easily have been at 15.
-- I like Triche. I do. But I still see Cooney as a huge key b/c Triche has a lot of mental lapses for a senior. He kind of has Devendorf disease at times. I think he's a nice contributor but he's a really streaky shooter and makes some really curious decisions with the ball. MCW does as well, obviously, but when you're leading the nation in assists and steals, essentially, I'll give you some rope.
-- If I'm ranking our three most impressive players thus far, I go Southerland/MCW in some order and then Keita. In case you weren't keeping track, he's missed a total of three FG attempts this season, is averaging 5 rebounds per game, and has a total of four turnovers. He's also, by far, our best interior defender. Which brings me to ...
-- We're soft inside. As much beef as we have in there, it seems strange to say this but we are really, really soft inside defensively and offensively.
-- Fair didn't have a great game, but I still really like his game. Really unselfish, not very many mistakes (1 turnover) and just tends to be in good positions a lot.