Drexel Postgame Thoughts...

[Sherman20]

To those who think there’s no set offensive plays.

Yeah, I’m glad you shared this. It drives me crazy when fans say we only run iso ball all game long. I think our offensive playbook could stand to become more sophisticated and the execution more consistent, but we run lots of different actions.

 

[OrangeFoo]

I'm starting to see the upside of Zephir getting minutes. I was complaining about him getting minutes over Fennell a lot the last couple weeks. He was a bit of a spark plug defensively to help start our run in the second half. He also was a little bit of a stat stuffer in his 15 minutes. Importantly, he looks more confident and sure of his role than Fennell out there. If this continues, they might be in a battle for minutes all season long, which would be very good for team depth, which was tested again today.

It’s amazing that Zephir is the 9th or 10th guy on the roster when it’s healthy. He would be 6th guy on the later JB teams and would have gotten a lot of run even last year. Amazing recruiting there.

The biggest asset for this team is that there is very little drop off between the first 5 and the next 5. Imagine when JJ gets back… the either Anthony, Kingz or JJ will be running with the bench mob.

 

[OrangeFoo]

Who said they are a good team? Definitely am not trying to overrate them to be clear. They are, however, a well coached team is my point and the comments about them developing guys who have moved on to P4 programs is accurate. They are a step up from the first two games for that reason on its own.

This was their worst non conference loss since 18-19 and outside the NCAAT the worst neutral/home loss in terms of margin than anything I could find in the past 20 yrs.

We manhandled them as we should in the second half and did so away from the Dome and with still no JJ and even losing one of the key reserves for most of the game.

The announcers made them sound like a bubble team. He kept saying “quality team”. FWIW they seem like a good squad with a few pieces but they are a one trick pony with 3s and once we took them away it was over unless they got an offensive rebound

 

[DomeHolmes]

Some good points, and not to negate the comments on SU.

But come on.

Drexel is not a good team.

I think it would be fair to say Drexel is a competent team and by far the best we’ve played so far.

They lost to Saint Joe’s by 11 and Colgate by seven. We came out with a 30 point win when the experts thought it would be 12.

Most importantly, the way their shots were falling in the first half, last years team would probably have been down 5 to 10 points at halftime and struggled to even beat this Drexel team.

Any team that could be +10 on rebounds with a fairly decent schedule so far certainly is not a cupcake.

 

[Eric15]

I’m going to be very disappointed with this roster if we leave Vegas without a win.

 

[Jake]

Some nittiest of picks..

So I don’t like Kingz shot selection at this point. The transfer portal tape of his was full of wide open shots with his feet set. Spot up shots in transition and the benefits of drive and kick, and skip passes. Which is fine. But he’s taking shots off the dribble and moving too much now because he’s not getting those kinds of looks. Would like to see his teammates look for him more in transition.

Look I love Kiyan and he’s got his dad’s scorers mentality. But we’re going to have to live with some forced shots here and there. I can see it creeping into his game. But boy he is better right out of the gate than I could have imagine. He’s got all the finishes.

Houston is going to be a bit of truth serum. They are going to try to force us into a half court game, which so far looks like a weak spot on this team. We’ll see.

The depth of length and athleticism on this team is up there with the late 80’s early 90s. It’s there top to bottom of the roster.

White is a 1-man press. His ability to blind the inbounders vision is forcing those passes to the corner. I bet we start seeing teams screen him and run the baseline on important possessions.

Overall, it’s a tremendous start to the season.

 

[billsin01]

Great start so far.

My one concern continues to be the fact that we seem to be a pretty lousy rebounding team. In our 3 games versus cupcakes, we were out-rebounded by one of them, we were equaled by another, and we barely out-rebounded the third.

That has to significantly change once we start playing the big boys.

A TON of offensive rebounds allowed in particular. It’s been great overall, but something to watch for sure.

 

[IraSez]

A TON of offensive rebounds allowed in particular. It’s been great overall, but something to watch for sure.

Rebounds matter!

 

[IraSez]

For the few minutes he played, I really liked what I saw out of Souare. Great hustle, pressured the ball, grabbed rebounds, got a block or 2. Needs to cut down on the fouls as he had 3 in not a lot of time.

 

[FrancoPizza]

It kills me that Red does not call a timeout when something inexcusable happens. There was a sequence in the first half where George lost focus and his man got two consecutive easy looks in transition. The old JB would’ve called an immediate TO to have a few words that would make nuns weep.

It’s great that Freeman was assertive and called George out here, but cmon Red, that’s your job. Nice guys who are successful in this business are extremely rare for a reason.

 

[OrangeFoo]

I

Some nittiest of picks..

So I don’t like Kingz shot selection at this point. The transfer portal tape of his was full of wide open shots with his feet set. Spot up shots in transition and the benefits of drive and kick, and skip passes. Which is fine. But he’s taking shots off the dribble and moving too much now because he’s not getting those kinds of looks. Would like to see his teammates look for him more in transition.

Look I love Kiyan and he’s got his dad’s scorers mentality. But we’re going to have to live with some forced shots here and there. I can see it creeping into his game. But boy he is better right out of the gate than I could have imagine. He’s got all the finishes.

Houston is going to be a bit of truth serum. They are going to try to force us into a half court game, which so far looks like a weak spot on this team. We’ll see.

The depth of length and athleticism on this team is up there with the late 80’s early 90s. It’s there top to bottom of the roster.

White is a 1-man press. His ability to blind the inbounders vision is forcing those passes to the corner. I better start seeing teams screen him and run the baseline on important possessions.

Overall, it’s a tremendous start to the season.

Kingz left handed shot is funky looking... It almost looks like he is shooting sideways. I wonder if they move him or Kiyan to the bench when JJ gets back. I almost think Kiyan is better as a starter where he won't be the focus of the D.

 

[bballbeadle]

I’m going to be very disappointed with this roster if we leave Vegas without a win.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I

Kingz left handed shot is funky looking... It almost looks like he is shooting sideways. I wonder if they move him or Kiyan to the bench when JJ gets back. I almost think Kiyan is better as a starter where he won't be the focus of the D.

Start Kingz with one or the other. He contributes more than just shooting and should figure it out based on track record. It’s not a Chris Bell situation.

JJ and Kiyan are a bit similar in that they are on ball dominant. I’d roll with the current starters and let JJ work his way back, but I have a hard time seeing Red doing that.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I

Kingz left handed shot is funky looking... It almost looks like he is shooting sideways. I wonder if they move him or Kiyan to the bench when JJ gets back. I almost think Kiyan is better as a starter where he won't be the focus of the D.

All I know is whether he starts or comes off the bench Kiyan is gonna get buckets.

 

[phil77]

I

Kingz left handed shot is funky looking... It almost looks like he is shooting sideways. I wonder if they move him or Kiyan to the bench when JJ gets back. I almost think Kiyan is better as a starter where he won't be the focus of the D.

If we are a defensive focused team like we look to be early on you can’t but your best wing defender on the bench. I am also scared for our wing defense with both JJ and Anthony playing at the same time.

 

[texascpa]

So, who comes off the bench when JJ comes back cause Anthony is not getting benched.

 

[upperdeck]

it will matter what kind of team we are facing as well. Some teams will make the things JJ does on offense matter and some games our D will have to be the focus. The best thing so far is that the help D and off the ball D is much better so getting by one player doesnt mean a simple layup so often

 

[Scooch]

So I don’t like Kingz shot selection at this point. The transfer portal tape of his was full of wide open shots with his feet set. Spot up shots in transition and the benefits of drive and kick, and skip passes. Which is fine. But he’s taking shots off the dribble and moving too much now because he’s not getting those kinds of looks. Would like to see his teammates look for him more in transition.

I'm the furthest thing from a knowledgeable guy when it comes to Xs and Os.

So, with that caveat, I think what may be the biggest thing in determining our success this season is how we're able to create open looks for our perimeter shooters.

We're averaging 20 three-point attempts per game, and I suspect that will grow as we hit the meat of the schedule. I truly think that the difference in this team being in the tourney - vs. not - may be the difference in making, say, 38% of our 3s instead of 32%. And that requires working for open looks, not chucking up a bunch of off-balance, contested 3s.

 

[benjams77]

Yeah, I’m glad you shared this. It drives me crazy when fans say we only run iso ball all game long. I think our offensive playbook could stand to become more sophisticated and the execution more consistent, but we run lots of different actions.

Yeah I have finished fighting this battle with other posters and fans .. TBH offense structure can be hard to see if it doesn’t produce every time and I am not sure fans can recognize the differences of offense. (Continuity, secondary, transition, sets and quick hitters)

 

[Fjoinkay]

Defense is fun! And D is a blast when you have talent and options on Offense. Go Cuse!!

 

[Niastri]

It’s amazing that Zephir is the 9th or 10th guy on the roster when it’s healthy. He would be 6th guy on the later JB teams and would have gotten a lot of run even last year. Amazing recruiting there.

The biggest asset for this team is that there is very little drop off between the first 5 and the next 5. Imagine when JJ gets back… the either Anthony, Kingz or JJ will be running with the bench mob.

I think Zephir starts last season instead of Carlos. He does a lot of little things right. Carlos did very little besides get the ball across the time line and pass it to Starling...

 

[Niastri]

To those who think there’s no set offensive plays.

Kingz with the back pick on the opposing center should get a hockey assist, even though he didn't pass the ball.

Nice call out.

 

[Cusefan0307]

This might be nitpicking, but I still think Donnie plays a bit soft. I thought early in the game he was settling too much and he needs to average more than 4.7 rebounds a game against good teams.

 

[Niastri]

This might be nitpicking, but I still think Donnie plays a bit soft. I thought early in the game he was settling too much and he needs to average more than 4.7 rebounds a game against good teams.

He doesn't have the all the time intensity you sometimes see.

When he gets a little mad, he plays a little more aggressively. Freeman isn't a natural born killa, but he has some ferocity.

Yesterday, he made a mistake on the offensive end, and you could see he was angry. He completely dogged his man the next possession, I thought he was going to get a steal or a foul with the way he was slapping at the dribble... But instead the guy got spoooked and passed it away.

Freeman needs to get that intense a little more often if he's going to achieve his potential. As it is, he's a very good college player and a lock to be a rotation guy in the NBA in the next few years. He has the prototype body of an NBA 3-4.

I hope he is just struggling to get up for cupcakes and will push his intensity to the next level when we're playing name teams like Houston and Kansas.

 

[OrangeXtreme]