My Take

[sutomcat]

Basketball is a weird game. In a given season, for a normal team there are a couple of games each year where everything clicks and you are going to win against just about everyone. And a couple of games where nothing goes right and a loss is almost inevitable.

So this was one of those good type games. Was it something you see once or twice a season or is this kind of performance going to happen regularly?

Not sure. But a man can hope.

For the first time in a while, a couple of year I think, I am watching the SU men’s team play basketball and thinking, wow, this team could be special.

I don’t think there are any AAs on this team. Probably not 1st or 2nd team All ACC players either. But even now, there is a chemistry I see developing that I really like to see. A lot of players being unselfish. A lot of players hustling, boxing out, working hard on defense. This team looks hungry and really motivated.

Adding Buddy to the mix made the team better. You can see that JGIII and Buddy have played together a lot and know how to work with each other. It isn’t like there is bad chemistry with JGIII and Kadary but you can see them feeling each other out playing together. Also, Buddy had a nice game on defense (and JGIII was way better defensively as well).

BC played a passive man to man. Not a recipe for success when you have a major disadvantage in size and athletic ability at every position. Kind of surprised they didn’t try to at least get up in Joe’s face and try and disrupt the SU offense. But that is what they did and it didn’t go well. The BC defenders gave the SU players a lot of room...looked like they wanted to take away their ability to drive into the paint. This gave SU a lot of open looks with 3s. SU also worked the ball around in their half court offense really well, which usually also got them wide open looks from the outside or easy shoots in the paint.

Special props to Marek, who got the ball at the high post a lot and made a lot of nice passes from there. Good to see us having success running the offense through MD from the high post a lot, even against a man defense.

All the starters scored in double figures. All made some good passes. Everyone was very unselfish. Props to JGIII, who was pass first today and did a terrific job at the point. He ran the offense a lot too and made the right play consistently. When he was open, he took the shot (usually made it too). Made a lot of good passes, didn’t over dribble. Really encouraging to see.

There were a lot of matchup problems for BC but the biggest was with QG. I think BC usually played with 1 big and 4 guards, and they tried to cover Quincy with a guard much of the game. It was a disaster and he got a lot of easy baskets beating the little trying to cover him. I think he took a couple of 3s, but spent a lot more time in the paint this game, which is where he needs to play for this team to be successful. QG is really playing well and with a lot of confidence. Might be one of the top PFs in the ACC.

Alan is an interesting player. He isn’t really big or really jacked but he has a knack for getting rebounds. Really scraps around hard down low. If he has just a tiny bit of room when he has the ball on the perimeter, he is gonna shoot it. Looks like he will make a lot of them too. Today, I didn’t see any forced shots, or any shots taken from more than 23-24 feet. Same goes for JGIII. We are a lot better when we have good shot discipline. Alan had 4 assists and looked to be trying to be unselfish from the start. He had a lot of turnovers again but most happened when he tried to feed the post and made a poor pass. He needs work on that; makes quite a few bad passes. But I like seeing him play so unselfish. He can score in transition, in the paint and of course, from the perimeter. You can see him going through growing pains trying to learn how to score off the dribble right now. Hopefully that pays off down the road.

The top subs, Kadary and Woody, were again solid. Kadary makes a ton of steals in the playing time he gets. Again seems to get a lot of rebounds and assists and makes a lot of good decisions out there. He plays like an upperclassman. Woody is similar. Rarely makes a bad decision. Keeps hitting 3s when he gets an open look. Keeps getting junk baskets being in the right place at the right time. Keeps rebounding and he might be our best forward defensively already. That might change when Marek gets a chance to play forward again.

The battle for the backup center position is fascinating and seems to change with each passing game. Today it was Edwards’ time to play the best. He was around the ball a lot, made a basket, almost had a great offensive reb/follow slam and looked fearless out there.

Anselem was looking good and played well, except he had 2 awful passes for turnovers that seemed to happen in the span of 10 seconds. Bol Ajak didn’t seem to do much good or bad in his playing time.

But none of them played a lot. You can argue they all should have gotten more playing time today. But I won’t. I will say I wish JB would start subbing with just one sub. He has a tendency to bring in 2 or 3 at the same time, which I think makes it likely the team will not play well...too many inexperienced players playing at the same time. Another minor quibble, but in a game like this, no biggie.

Good to see what this team is capable of when it plays well. I know BC is not great team but they have played a lot of P5 teams so far this year and have been very competitive. They are at the least not a bad team.

I am very interested to see what happens when Bourama comes back and Marek is able to return to playing forward most of the time. At that point, Alan or Quincy is going to start coming off the bench and play starters minutes. But Woody appears to have carved out a role in the rotation too. My guess is that JB finds PT for 4 forwards by also playing Marek as the backup center.

And now he is establishing a rotation at the guard positions with JGIII, Buddy and Kadary.

That is by my count a 7 player rotation. Hard to see Robert Braswell getting some PT too with all those talented forwards but who knows what might happen. If we play an 8th guy, it will be Robert or maybe one of the backup centers, if one emerges. Right now, it is not clear to me at all that one of them is clearly playing better than the others. It would be great to see one step up. I think Marek is a lot better playing as a forward, where his not so great rebounding doesn’t hurt us as much as when he plays center.

Awesome game. Look forward to pounding UB next week.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Basketball is a weird game. In a given season, for a normal team there are a couple of games each year where everything clicks and you are going to win against just about everyone. And a couple of games where nothing goes right and a loss is almost inevitable.

So this was one of those good type games. Was it something you see once or twice a season or is this kind of performance going to happen regularly?

Not sure. But a man can hope.

For the first time in a while, a couple of year I think, I am watching the SU men’s team play basketball and thinking, wow, this team could be special.

I don’t think there are any AAs on this team. Probably not 1st or 2nd team All ACC players either. But even now, there is a chemistry I see developing that I really like to see. A lot of players being unselfish. A lot of players hustling, boxing out, working hard on defense. This team looks hungry and really motivated.

Adding Buddy to the mix made the team better. You can see that JGIII and Buddy have played together a lot and know how to work with each other. It isn’t like there is bad chemistry with JGIII and Kadary but you can see them feeling each other out playing together. Also, Buddy had a nice game on defense (and JGIII was way better defensively as well).

BC played a passive man to man. Not a recipe for success when you have a major disadvantage in size and athletic ability at every position. Kind of surprised they didn’t try to at least get up in Joe’s face and try and disrupt the SU offense. But that is what they did and it didn’t go well. The BC defenders gave the SU players a lot of room...looked like they wanted to take away their ability to drive into the paint. This gave SU a lot of open looks with 3s. SU also worked the ball around in their half court offense really well, which usually also got them wide open looks from the outside or easy shoots in the paint.

Special props to Marek, who got the ball at the high post a lot and made a lot of nice passes from there. Good to see us having success running the offense through MD from the high post a lot, even against a man defense.

All the starters scored in double figures. All made some good passes. Everyone was very unselfish. Props to JGIII, who was pass first today and did a terrific job at the point. He ran the offense a lot too and made the right play consistently. When he was open, he took the shot (usually made it too). Made a lot of good passes, didn’t over dribble. Really encouraging to see.

There were a lot of matchup problems for BC but the biggest was with QG. I think BC usually played with 1 big and 4 guards, and they tried to cover Quincy with a guard much of the game. It was a disaster and he got a lot of easy baskets beating the little trying to cover him. I think he took a couple of 3s, but spent a lot more time in the paint this game, which is where he needs to play for this team to be successful. QG is really playing well and with a lot of confidence. Might be one of the top PFs in the ACC.

Alan is an interesting player. He isn’t really big or really jacked but he has a knack for getting rebounds. Really scraps around hard down low. If he has just a tiny bit of room when he has the ball on the perimeter, he is gonna shoot it. Looks like he will make a lot of them too. Today, I didn’t see any forced shots, or any shots taken from more than 23-24 feet. Same goes for JGIII. We are a lot better when we have good shot discipline. Alan had 4 assists and looked to be trying to be unselfish from the start. He had a lot of turnovers again but most happened when he tried to feed the post and made a poor pass. He needs work on that; makes quite a few bad passes. But I like seeing him play so unselfish. He can score in transition, in the paint and of course, from the perimeter. You can see him going through growing pains trying to learn how to score off the dribble right now. Hopefully that pays off down the road.

The top subs, Kadary and Woody, were again solid. Kadary makes a ton of steals in the playing time he gets. Again seems to get a lot of rebounds and assists and makes a lot of good decisions out there. He plays like an upperclassman. Woody is similar. Rarely makes a bad decision. Keeps hitting 3s when he gets an open look. Keeps getting junk baskets being in the right place at the right time. Keeps rebounding and he might be our best forward defensively already. That might change when Marek gets a chance to play forward again.

The battle for the backup center position is fascinating and seems to change with each passing game. Today it was Edwards’ time to play the best. He was around the ball a lot, made a basket, almost had a great offensive reb/follow slam and looked fearless out there.

Anselem was looking good and played well, except he had 2 awful passes for turnovers that seemed to happen in the span of 10 seconds. Bol Ajak didn’t seem to do much good or bad in his playing time.

But none of them played a lot. You can argue they all should have gotten more playing time today. But I won’t. I will say I wish JB would start subbing with just one sub. He has a tendency to bring in 2 or 3 at the same time, which I think makes it likely the team will not play well...too many inexperienced players playing at the same time. Another minor quibble, but in a game like this, no biggie.

Good to see what this team is capable of when it plays well. I know BC is not great team but they have played a lot of P5 teams so far this year and have been very competitive. They are at the least not a bad team.

I am very interested to see what happens when Bourama comes back and Marek is able to return to playing forward most of the time. At that point, Alan or Quincy is going to start coming off the bench and play starters minutes. But Woody appears to have carved out a role in the rotation too. My guess is that JB finds PT for 4 forwards by also playing Marek as the backup center.

And now he is establishing a rotation at the guard positions with JGIII, Buddy and Kadary.

That is by my count a 7 player rotation. Hard to see Robert Braswell getting some PT too with all those talented forwards but who knows what might happen. If we play an 8th guy, it will be Robert or maybe one of the backup centers, if one emerges. Right now, it is not clear to me at all that one of them is clearly playing better than the others. It would be great to see one step up. I think Marek is a lot better playing as a forward, where his not so great rebounding doesn’t hurt us as much as when he plays center.

Awesome game. Look forward to pounding UB next week.

Great write up as usual. Love your comments about too many subs in at one time.

 

[rrlbees]

Basketball is a weird game. In a given season, for a normal team there are a couple of games each year where everything clicks and you are going to win against just about everyone. And a couple of games where nothing goes right and a loss is almost inevitable.

So this was one of those good type games. Was it something you see once or twice a season or is this kind of performance going to happen regularly?

Not sure. But a man can hope.

For the first time in a while, a couple of year I think, I am watching the SU men’s team play basketball and thinking, wow, this team could be special.

I don’t think there are any AAs on this team. Probably not 1st or 2nd team All ACC players either. But even now, there is a chemistry I see developing that I really like to see. A lot of players being unselfish. A lot of players hustling, boxing out, working hard on defense. This team looks hungry and really motivated.

Adding Buddy to the mix made the team better. You can see that JGIII and Buddy have played together a lot and know how to work with each other. It isn’t like there is bad chemistry with JGIII and Kadary but you can see them feeling each other out playing together. Also, Buddy had a nice game on defense (and JGIII was way better defensively as well).

BC played a passive man to man. Not a recipe for success when you have a major disadvantage in size and athletic ability at every position. Kind of surprised they didn’t try to at least get up in Joe’s face and try and disrupt the SU offense. But that is what they did and it didn’t go well. The BC defenders gave the SU players a lot of room...looked like they wanted to take away their ability to drive into the paint. This gave SU a lot of open looks with 3s. SU also worked the ball around in their half court offense really well, which usually also got them wide open looks from the outside or easy shoots in the paint.

Special props to Marek, who got the ball at the high post a lot and made a lot of nice passes from there. Good to see us having success running the offense through MD from the high post a lot, even against a man defense.

All the starters scored in double figures. All made some good passes. Everyone was very unselfish. Props to JGIII, who was pass first today and did a terrific job at the point. He ran the offense a lot too and made the right play consistently. When he was open, he took the shot (usually made it too). Made a lot of good passes, didn’t over dribble. Really encouraging to see.

There were a lot of matchup problems for BC but the biggest was with QG. I think BC usually played with 1 big and 4 guards, and they tried to cover Quincy with a guard much of the game. It was a disaster and he got a lot of easy baskets beating the little trying to cover him. I think he took a couple of 3s, but spent a lot more time in the paint this game, which is where he needs to play for this team to be successful. QG is really playing well and with a lot of confidence. Might be one of the top PFs in the ACC.

Alan is an interesting player. He isn’t really big or really jacked but he has a knack for getting rebounds. Really scraps around hard down low. If he has just a tiny bit of room when he has the ball on the perimeter, he is gonna shoot it. Looks like he will make a lot of them too. Today, I didn’t see any forced shots, or any shots taken from more than 23-24 feet. Same goes for JGIII. We are a lot better when we have good shot discipline. Alan had 4 assists and looked to be trying to be unselfish from the start. He had a lot of turnovers again but most happened when he tried to feed the post and made a poor pass. He needs work on that; makes quite a few bad passes. But I like seeing him play so unselfish. He can score in transition, in the paint and of course, from the perimeter. You can see him going through growing pains trying to learn how to score off the dribble right now. Hopefully that pays off down the road.

The top subs, Kadary and Woody, were again solid. Kadary makes a ton of steals in the playing time he gets. Again seems to get a lot of rebounds and assists and makes a lot of good decisions out there. He plays like an upperclassman. Woody is similar. Rarely makes a bad decision. Keeps hitting 3s when he gets an open look. Keeps getting junk baskets being in the right place at the right time. Keeps rebounding and he might be our best forward defensively already. That might change when Marek gets a chance to play forward again.

The battle for the backup center position is fascinating and seems to change with each passing game. Today it was Edwards’ time to play the best. He was around the ball a lot, made a basket, almost had a great offensive reb/follow slam and looked fearless out there.

Anselem was looking good and played well, except he had 2 awful passes for turnovers that seemed to happen in the span of 10 seconds. Bol Ajak didn’t seem to do much good or bad in his playing time.

But none of them played a lot. You can argue they all should have gotten more playing time today. But I won’t. I will say I wish JB would start subbing with just one sub. He has a tendency to bring in 2 or 3 at the same time, which I think makes it likely the team will not play well...too many inexperienced players playing at the same time. Another minor quibble, but in a game like this, no biggie.

Good to see what this team is capable of when it plays well. I know BC is not great team but they have played a lot of P5 teams so far this year and have been very competitive. They are at the least not a bad team.

I am very interested to see what happens when Bourama comes back and Marek is able to return to playing forward most of the time. At that point, Alan or Quincy is going to start coming off the bench and play starters minutes. But Woody appears to have carved out a role in the rotation too. My guess is that JB finds PT for 4 forwards by also playing Marek as the backup center.

And now he is establishing a rotation at the guard positions with JGIII, Buddy and Kadary.

That is by my count a 7 player rotation. Hard to see Robert Braswell getting some PT too with all those talented forwards but who knows what might happen. If we play an 8th guy, it will be Robert or maybe one of the backup centers, if one emerges. Right now, it is not clear to me at all that one of them is clearly playing better than the others. It would be great to see one step up. I think Marek is a lot better playing as a forward, where his not so great rebounding doesn’t hurt us as much as when he plays center.

Awesome game. Look forward to pounding UB next week.

When Sid comes back that would be an 8 man rotation with Woody as #8.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

That was an odd game. As nice as it was, i think it's hard to judge anything based on what happened today. 100 points and a blowout in a conference game? That's rare and special. And yet i hesitate to get giddy about our prospects.

• Really good to see Joe shooting the ball well. Again. Whether he regained his confidence or never lost it—whatever. Irrelevant. But, just about all of those threes were of the Fool's Gold variety. It was bizarre that he got those looks—more open than he's ever been, even when you factor how far behind the line he was. I don't think that's going to be a regular thing, and even if it is, will he make them at the same rate?

• Buddy can shoot. Looked great on the first two, and then maybe he came back down to earth after the initial rush. I would really like to see more of Kadary and Buddy together, and a lot less of Joe + Buddy. Kadary can get Buddy a lot of clean looks.

• Kadary didn't command the game or his own presence today. Too many pick ups of the dribble too early, some carelessness. I hope he wasn't mentally put off by the re-relegation to bench duty after having performed so well in Buddy's absence.

• Woody is about a year and a half better/more advanced than i expected. Really quick and in control at the same time on corner closeouts, and he's an agile defender and rebounder. And he has no hesitation on 3s, and seems to know quicker than anyone i've ever seen when he's 'off,' and he goes after his own rebound almost as soon as he's shot the ball. I'm enthusiastic about him now, when i thought we'd have to wait, both for him to even get minutes and also for him to develop and get used to big time play. Not that this was big time, but...

• Marek is still both a willow and a tiger. Somehow.

• So good to see Griffin exercising infinitely better judgment on the shot. [Does he read the forum?]

• Edwards/JBA/Frank — they're all the same. Unfortunately. I don't know who to blame for that. Frank, no issues—he's a raw freshman who i didn't expect to see at all. JBA and Edwards—it's almost as if we don't have a clue how to coach up a center. Somehow, we get 3 and 4 star 'centers' who can't do the simple things that 2-star centers from small insignificant programs can do. They're long and 'quick,' i guess, but not skilled in centerness. Catch a pass in the post, back a dude down, toss up a jump hook that makes it look like you've held a basketball before, for chrissakes. This isn't new technology.

• I feel bad for Bobby Braswell. So glad he's healthy. I think he probably should have transferred, though.
[Not that I wanted him to. I just think it might be hard for him to find a place and minutes with who we have now, and with Benny coming in.]

 

[bballbeadle]

That was an odd game. As nice as it was, i think it's hard to judge anything based on what happened today. 100 points and a blowout in a conference game? That's rare and special. And yet i hesitate to get giddy about our prospects.

• Really good to see Joe shooting the ball well. Again. Whether he regained his confidence or never lost it—whatever. Irrelevant. But, just about all of those threes were of the Fool's Gold variety. It was bizarre that he got those looks—more open than he's ever been, even when you factor how far behind the line he was. I don't think that's going to be a regular thing, and even if it is, will he make them at the same rate?

• Buddy can shoot. Looked great on the first two, and then maybe he came back down to earth after the initial rush. I would really like to see more of Kadary and Buddy together, and a lot less of Joe + Buddy. Kadary can get Buddy a lot of clean looks.

• Kadary didn't command the game or his own presence today. Too many pick ups of the dribble too early, some carelessness. I hope he wasn't mentally put off by the re-relegation to bench duty after having performed so well in Buddy's absence.

• Woody is about a year and a half better/more advanced than i expected. Really quick and in control at the same time on corner closeouts, and he's an agile defender and rebounder. And he has no hesitation on 3s, and seems to know quicker than anyone i've ever seen when he's 'off,' and he goes after his own rebound almost as soon as he's shot the ball. I'm enthusiastic about him now, when i thought we'd have to wait, both for him to even get minutes and also for him to develop and get used to big time play. Not that this was big time, but...

• Marek is still both a willow and a tiger. Somehow.

• So good to see Griffin exercising infinitely better judgment on the shot. [Does he read the forum?]

• Edwards/JBA/Frank — they're all the same. Unfortunately. I don't know who to blame for that. Frank, no issues—he's a raw freshman who i didn't expect to see at all. JBA and Edwards—it's almost as if we don't have a clue how to coach up a center. Somehow, we get 3 and 4 star 'centers' who can't do the simple things that 2-star centers from small insignificant programs can do. They're long and 'quick,' i guess, but not skilled in centerness. Catch a pass in the post, back a dude down, toss up a jump hook that makes it look like you've held a basketball before, for chrissakes. This isn't new technology.

• I feel bad for Bobby Braswell. So glad he's healthy. I think he probably should have transferred, though.

Marek a willow AND a tiger! Niiiiiiiice.

 

[721Comstock]

Marek a willow AND a tiger! Niiiiiiiice.

Crouching willow, hidden tiger.

 

[kcsu]

How about a willow and a Barn cat

 

[kuethstheman]

Great write-up (as expected ).

I think Frank's bad passes were because no one seemed to be trying to get open for a pass. Frank gave up and forced the passes. This happened a few other times, too.

 

[kuethstheman]

• So good to see Griffin exercising infinitely better judgment on the shot. [Does he read the forum?]

I think JB reads the forum and just passed the info along to Griffin.

 

[upperdeck]

i think any game were we have 7 guys with 9+ pts we are gonna be in good shape..

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I think JB reads the forum and just passed the info along to Griffin.

Bulletin Board Material.

 

[CardiacCuse]

I think JB reads the forum and just passed the info along to Griffin.

he 100% reads the board lol...or at the least gets whats on here passed along somehow...

haha the press conference rant was epic though...great answer game by the team...

us bloggers don't mean any harm...we all want the same thing at the end of the day!

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Basketball is a weird game. In a given season, for a normal team there are a couple of games each year where everything clicks and you are going to win against just about everyone. And a couple of games where nothing goes right and a loss is almost inevitable.

So this was one of those good type games. Was it something you see once or twice a season or is this kind of performance going to happen regularly?

Not sure. But a man can hope.

For the first time in a while, a couple of year I think, I am watching the SU men’s team play basketball and thinking, wow, this team could be special.

I don’t think there are any AAs on this team. Probably not 1st or 2nd team All ACC players either. But even now, there is a chemistry I see developing that I really like to see. A lot of players being unselfish. A lot of players hustling, boxing out, working hard on defense. This team looks hungry and really motivated.

Adding Buddy to the mix made the team better. You can see that JGIII and Buddy have played together a lot and know how to work with each other. It isn’t like there is bad chemistry with JGIII and Kadary but you can see them feeling each other out playing together. Also, Buddy had a nice game on defense (and JGIII was way better defensively as well).

BC played a passive man to man. Not a recipe for success when you have a major disadvantage in size and athletic ability at every position. Kind of surprised they didn’t try to at least get up in Joe’s face and try and disrupt the SU offense. But that is what they did and it didn’t go well. The BC defenders gave the SU players a lot of room...looked like they wanted to take away their ability to drive into the paint. This gave SU a lot of open looks with 3s. SU also worked the ball around in their half court offense really well, which usually also got them wide open looks from the outside or easy shoots in the paint.

Special props to Marek, who got the ball at the high post a lot and made a lot of nice passes from there. Good to see us having success running the offense through MD from the high post a lot, even against a man defense.

All the starters scored in double figures. All made some good passes. Everyone was very unselfish. Props to JGIII, who was pass first today and did a terrific job at the point. He ran the offense a lot too and made the right play consistently. When he was open, he took the shot (usually made it too). Made a lot of good passes, didn’t over dribble. Really encouraging to see.

There were a lot of matchup problems for BC but the biggest was with QG. I think BC usually played with 1 big and 4 guards, and they tried to cover Quincy with a guard much of the game. It was a disaster and he got a lot of easy baskets beating the little trying to cover him. I think he took a couple of 3s, but spent a lot more time in the paint this game, which is where he needs to play for this team to be successful. QG is really playing well and with a lot of confidence. Might be one of the top PFs in the ACC.

Alan is an interesting player. He isn’t really big or really jacked but he has a knack for getting rebounds. Really scraps around hard down low. If he has just a tiny bit of room when he has the ball on the perimeter, he is gonna shoot it. Looks like he will make a lot of them too. Today, I didn’t see any forced shots, or any shots taken from more than 23-24 feet. Same goes for JGIII. We are a lot better when we have good shot discipline. Alan had 4 assists and looked to be trying to be unselfish from the start. He had a lot of turnovers again but most happened when he tried to feed the post and made a poor pass. He needs work on that; makes quite a few bad passes. But I like seeing him play so unselfish. He can score in transition, in the paint and of course, from the perimeter. You can see him going through growing pains trying to learn how to score off the dribble right now. Hopefully that pays off down the road.

The top subs, Kadary and Woody, were again solid. Kadary makes a ton of steals in the playing time he gets. Again seems to get a lot of rebounds and assists and makes a lot of good decisions out there. He plays like an upperclassman. Woody is similar. Rarely makes a bad decision. Keeps hitting 3s when he gets an open look. Keeps getting junk baskets being in the right place at the right time. Keeps rebounding and he might be our best forward defensively already. That might change when Marek gets a chance to play forward again.

The battle for the backup center position is fascinating and seems to change with each passing game. Today it was Edwards’ time to play the best. He was around the ball a lot, made a basket, almost had a great offensive reb/follow slam and looked fearless out there.

Anselem was looking good and played well, except he had 2 awful passes for turnovers that seemed to happen in the span of 10 seconds. Bol Ajak didn’t seem to do much good or bad in his playing time.

But none of them played a lot. You can argue they all should have gotten more playing time today. But I won’t. I will say I wish JB would start subbing with just one sub. He has a tendency to bring in 2 or 3 at the same time, which I think makes it likely the team will not play well...too many inexperienced players playing at the same time. Another minor quibble, but in a game like this, no biggie.

Good to see what this team is capable of when it plays well. I know BC is not great team but they have played a lot of P5 teams so far this year and have been very competitive. They are at the least not a bad team.

I am very interested to see what happens when Bourama comes back and Marek is able to return to playing forward most of the time. At that point, Alan or Quincy is going to start coming off the bench and play starters minutes. But Woody appears to have carved out a role in the rotation too. My guess is that JB finds PT for 4 forwards by also playing Marek as the backup center.

And now he is establishing a rotation at the guard positions with JGIII, Buddy and Kadary.

That is by my count a 7 player rotation. Hard to see Robert Braswell getting some PT too with all those talented forwards but who knows what might happen. If we play an 8th guy, it will be Robert or maybe one of the backup centers, if one emerges. Right now, it is not clear to me at all that one of them is clearly playing better than the others. It would be great to see one step up. I think Marek is a lot better playing as a forward, where his not so great rebounding doesn’t hurt us as much as when he plays center.

Awesome game. Look forward to pounding UB next week.

Great write up. I know generally you don't lose your starting spot with an injury but Marek, Q and AG are playing so well, so it will be very interesting. Today could have been Marek's best all around game in Orange.

Also I bet practices with Woody and Kadary are probably interesting with them pushing for minutes. It's a great thing

 

[moqui]

I don’t think there are any AAs on this team. Probably not 1st or 2nd team All ACC players either

i don't know about the latter . . . yes, it is way, way early, but both quincy & marek looking like they could make a run at 2nd team, at least. and early on, kadary looks like he could be both all-freshman and all-defense (currently leads the acc in steal percentage)

 

[Consigliere]

Last piece of the rotation puzzle is to find a clear backup 5. The fact that JB is rotating all three makes it pretty clear no one is standing out in practice. Of course you can make the case that Quincy, Griff and Marek have been our three most consistently good players so it would make sense for all three to be on the court when Sidibe needs a rest or gets in fould trouble. Would be nice to pick one and give him 20 minutes in the next two games.