Agreed. I guess I just thought we’d see something on the defensive end that gave us an idea of what they’re trying to accomplish over there. Don’t feel like saw that though. To your point, however, the second scrimmage will be interesting to see after they have some time to watch film and address things.
Great thread! I really wanted to post something about the game. But just couldn't find the time. Luckily your observations are very close to what I saw.
I, personally, am concerned about the defense. I was even in the first half when Daemen only scored 27 points. They made several bad decisions that lead to pick-six's which I feel masked some pretty uninspired defense. I get that it's exhibition and you are going to play a vanilla version of your D, but I didn't see any overarching philosophy our guys were hanging their hat on. I saw a lot of reacting, mostly switching off screens and sometime fighting through them with poor results (especially from JJ). Nothing to dictate how the other team plays.
Red did a lot of talking about aggressive man to man D, but I didn't see anything aggressive about what we were doing.
Obviously you don't get a full view of the playbook during an exhibition, so we can't know anything for sure, but what we saw wasn't impressive and is definitely something to keep an eye on.
Other things we learned from the game ...
JJ does not have a pull up jumper. Hopefully he can hit a set jump shot (something he didnt have an opportunity to do in this game) otherwise he needs to get all the way to the rim to score which is limiting.
McLeod is 7'4 and Deamen's center is 6'5. What's the name of that movie where Adam Sandler needs to go back to kindergarten? This game reminded me of the basketball scene from that movie. I actually think there was a bigger height difference between McLeod and the basketball player trying to guard him than there was between Sandler and the kid actors he was playing against, maybe someone can research it? Anyway, it's not just that McLeod was blocking shots without jumping, he actually had to lower his arm and make himself smaller to meet the ball where they were putting it up. It was weird.
Lots of talk about more running in practice but the guys looked in worse shape than normal to me. Never saw anyone gassed in an exhibition before and we saw a few guys really struggling at the end of this game. Expecting 20 minutes a game from McLeod might be too much. I think Hima is going to play a part this year of he's healthy. Hope his injuries aren't chronic.
One guy who didn't look gassed at all is Copeland who I thought looked out of shape in high school. I've always thought he had the highest ceiling on the team and you saw some of it in that game. At the end when Daemen had all the momentum and JJ was gassed and wanted no part of the ball Copeland took over the offense single handedly AND was the best defender on the court as well. Literally every point we scored for a long while down the stretch came from Copeland creating off the bounce either for himself or for teammates. I know its D2, but usually those small D2 guards are pains for bigger D1 guards to get around. I'll never forget Flynn struggling against LeMoyne guards and like 5 days later scoring 28 in this first ever D1 game.
Daemen isn't a bad team. They are a peer school with Pace who easily beat St John's (who also has a new coach and a new system) so let's not underestimate that this was an easy win without the two guys who would have been the biggest difference makers, Mintz (our best player) and Brown (who looked like he could have scored 100 before pulling a groin muscle).
