My Take

[sutomcat]

I watched the game from lot 14 of Hard Rock Stadium, on my iPad, using WiFi provided by VTAaron (thanks Aaron and sorry your phone overheated).

Couldn’t hear the commentary and sometimes it was hard to tell who some of the players were. And I was talking to people about the game and the team all game long, so I missed some things.

That said, I thought this was another encouraging outcome. Again, the effort on defense was vastly improved from the last few years, and the overall athletic ability of the team was evident from the opening tap.

I think Freeman is going to be out next guy drafted. Scored 20 points a variety of ways in 23 minutes. Only 5 rebounds but he got in foul trouble early and I think Red wanted to give the bench a good look. But man, he is so athletic and can do almost everything you want. Good rebounder, was stripping guards near mid court, had another weak side block, can score from pretty much anywhere. He is going to be fun to watch play this season.

Anthony is insanely confident for a frosh. He is taking a lot of shots right now. Has no trouble getting to the rim, can pull up to make a mid range jumper and of course he can score from the 3 point circle too. It all looks effortless. He reminds me a lot of Moten. So smooth and smart. If you give me a lane he will take it. If you take your eyes off him he will move and get open under the basket. We will see what happens when he encounters rim protectors but for now, he is a problem to defend and his defense has been surprisingly good as well.

Kyle was probably the player of the game. We all knew he could jump and would dunk it if he got it close to the basket. But i was struck by how well he is rebounding, blocking shots and passing. It is refreshing to see such a good athlete playing center for us.

We again used full court pressure. Looks like it is designed more to force the other team to waste 5 seconds or so getting the ball up court.

Our man defense was consistently extended and we tried to deny any attempts to get to ball into the paint. When it happened, we would double the ball. Ran through screens well, worked hard on defense all game long. Huge improvements here. White is probably our best defender but I don’t see anyone that is clearly a weak link right now.

We are getting a lot of movement off the ball am there is very little dribbling when we have the ball. Just a series of quick passes and then a great scoring opportunity.

George is a terrific passer but there will be games when guys like Freeman, White, Kyle and Starling will have the most assists and yesterday, it was Kyle.

Make no mistake. Delaware State is not good. They shot the ball so ooorly. Believe they were 5-33 from the field in the first half. So many bricked 3s. They really struggled to get good shots and I think a lot of those shots came on offensive rebounds. They were quite capable rebounding the ball.

We played our best players late into the game, which is crappy sportsmanship and something I dislike. But the NCAA has decided to put a lot of value in destroying overmatched teams and we have to do this if we want to compete for NCAA bids with other schools.

I hope the NCAA realizes they are idiots soon and fix this. Not optimistic on it…..

 

[Oakland]

Did we play a lot of zone? It sure looked like a 2-3 setup, but Delaware's offense was so over matched that I'm not sure.

 

[Consigliere]

As good as Kyle may have looked on your iPad, he was so much more impressive in person. Constant motion and energy on defense. Comes out to hedge on screens and instantly gets back to his man. His help defense is vastly improved from the Buffalo game already. Really keys the defense. His stat line - 21m, 13 r, 4a, 6 bs, would have been even more impressive had he not missed 3-4 bunnies. A real pleasure to watch.

 

[bballbeadle]

Tom, I agree about the NCAA dictating that we MUST massacre the cupcakes or it will go against us. I know Boeheim would always pull back if the score was getting out of hand, and I liked that. Duke would NEVER let up and maybe there was a method in their madness. I always thought it was such crappy sportsmanship.

It’s been a loooong time since I walked to the Dome knowing we would win soundly. It’s a great feeling.

 

[OrangeFoo]

Did we play a lot of zone? It sure looked like a 2-3 setup, but Delaware's offense was so over matched that I'm not sure.

M2M the whole way. This team would be an amazing zone team actually. I wish Red didn’t shift so far from the zone.

 

[Orangezoo]

I watched the game from lot 14 of Hard Rock Stadium, on my iPad, using WiFi provided by VTAaron (thanks Aaron and sorry your phone overheated).

Couldn’t hear the commentary and sometimes it was hard to tell who some of the players were. And I was talking to people about the game and the team all game long, so I missed some things.

That said, I thought this was another encouraging outcome. Again, the effort on defense was vastly improved from the last few years, and the overall athletic ability of the team was evident from the opening tap.

I think Freeman is going to be out next guy drafted. Scored 20 points a variety of ways in 23 minutes. Only 5 rebounds but he got in foul trouble early and I think Red wanted to give the bench a good look. But man, he is so athletic and can do almost everything you want. Good rebounder, was stripping guards near mid court, had another weak side block, can score from pretty much anywhere. He is going to be fun to watch play this season.

Anthony is insanely confident for a frosh. He is taking a lot of shots right now. Has no trouble getting to the rim, can pull up to make a mid range jumper and of course he can score from the 3 point circle too. It all looks effortless. He reminds me a lot of Moten. So smooth and smart. If you give me a lane he will take it. If you take your eyes off him he will move and get open under the basket. We will see what happens when he encounters rim protectors but for now, he is a problem to defend and his defense has been surprisingly good as well.

Kyle was probably the player of the game. We all knew he could jump and would dunk it if he got it close to the basket. But i was struck by how well he is rebounding, blocking shots and passing. It is refreshing to see such a good athlete playing center for us.

We again used full court pressure. Looks like it is designed more to force the other team to waste 5 seconds or so getting the ball up court.

Our man defense was consistently extended and we tried to deny any attempts to get to ball into the paint. When it happened, we would double the ball. Ran through screens well, worked hard on defense all game long. Huge improvements here. White is probably our best defender but I don’t see anyone that is clearly a weak link right now.

We are getting a lot of movement off the ball am there is very little dribbling when we have the ball. Just a series of quick passes and then a great scoring opportunity.

George is a terrific passer but there will be games when guys like Freeman, White, Kyle and Starling will have the most assists and yesterday, it was Kyle.

Make no mistake. Delaware State is not good. They shot the ball so ooorly. Believe they were 5-33 from the field in the first half. So many bricked 3s. They really struggled to get good shots and I think a lot of those shots came on offensive rebounds. They were quite capable rebounding the ball.

We played our best players late into the game, which is crappy sportsmanship and something I dislike. But the NCAA has decided to put a lot of value in destroying overmatched teams and we have to do this if we want to compete for NCAA bids with other schools.

I hope the NCAA realizes they are idiots soon and fix this. Not optimistic on it…..

Delaware State is definitely not good but they are better than Binghamton and probably 10-15 pts better. I think the Temple team they stuck with for a while isn’t very good either but they came in with a team returning a couple key guys from a winning record last year and they didn’t get all but maybe a handful of decent open looks. They are a relatively older team with two 5th/6th year guys and not a single player scored in double digits after they had 3 vs Temple.

Not only that but the moment their top shooter came on the court the attention to the scouting report was obvious as the kids made sure he was not going to get a clean look.

 

[Nicknack]

I watched the game from lot 14 of Hard Rock Stadium, on my iPad, using WiFi provided by VTAaron (thanks Aaron and sorry your phone overheated).

Couldn’t hear the commentary and sometimes it was hard to tell who some of the players were. And I was talking to people about the game and the team all game long, so I missed some things.

That said, I thought this was another encouraging outcome. Again, the effort on defense was vastly improved from the last few years, and the overall athletic ability of the team was evident from the opening tap.

I think Freeman is going to be out next guy drafted. Scored 20 points a variety of ways in 23 minutes. Only 5 rebounds but he got in foul trouble early and I think Red wanted to give the bench a good look. But man, he is so athletic and can do almost everything you want. Good rebounder, was stripping guards near mid court, had another weak side block, can score from pretty much anywhere. He is going to be fun to watch play this season.

Anthony is insanely confident for a frosh. He is taking a lot of shots right now. Has no trouble getting to the rim, can pull up to make a mid range jumper and of course he can score from the 3 point circle too. It all looks effortless. He reminds me a lot of Moten. So smooth and smart. If you give me a lane he will take it. If you take your eyes off him he will move and get open under the basket. We will see what happens when he encounters rim protectors but for now, he is a problem to defend and his defense has been surprisingly good as well.

Kyle was probably the player of the game. We all knew he could jump and would dunk it if he got it close to the basket. But i was struck by how well he is rebounding, blocking shots and passing. It is refreshing to see such a good athlete playing center for us.

We again used full court pressure. Looks like it is designed more to force the other team to waste 5 seconds or so getting the ball up court.

Our man defense was consistently extended and we tried to deny any attempts to get to ball into the paint. When it happened, we would double the ball. Ran through screens well, worked hard on defense all game long. Huge improvements here. White is probably our best defender but I don’t see anyone that is clearly a weak link right now.

We are getting a lot of movement off the ball am there is very little dribbling when we have the ball. Just a series of quick passes and then a great scoring opportunity.

George is a terrific passer but there will be games when guys like Freeman, White, Kyle and Starling will have the most assists and yesterday, it was Kyle.

Make no mistake. Delaware State is not good. They shot the ball so ooorly. Believe they were 5-33 from the field in the first half. So many bricked 3s. They really struggled to get good shots and I think a lot of those shots came on offensive rebounds. They were quite capable rebounding the ball.

We played our best players late into the game, which is crappy sportsmanship and something I dislike. But the NCAA has decided to put a lot of value in destroying overmatched teams and we have to do this if we want to compete for NCAA bids with other schools.

I hope the NCAA realizes they are idiots soon and fix this. Not optimistic on it…..

Good write up!

Going into the season, I was probably most concerned with our center position. Not so much anymore with Kyle and Donnie/Sadiq also there to help. Kyle is really good on many levels. Love his athleticism. You can tell he LOVES to swat the ball away too. Looks like he enjoys embarrassing the shooter.

Kiyan is special and Donnie will be huge this year. Glad to see Kingz nail his first 3ptr of the year. Once he starts contributing more offensively, he will be solid all the way around.

George played decent overall but not nearly as good as last game. He took a couple of early 3s when he probably should have created a better shot for one of his teammates. Also, way too many turnovers.

I think this team can be good as long as guys don't settle. That's exactly what Kiyan avoids. He rarely forces shots. Also love when Donnie takes it to the hoop rather than fade away jumpers or launching 3s.

I thought Zephir played solid. Nothing spectacular, but played well. Nice to have another guy out there that Red can depend on.

Good to see Betsey not heave a shot every time he got the ball. This game is more what we need from him versus against Binghamton. He contributed across the board in scoring (7pts), rebounds (4), an assist, a couple steals and only one turnover. This all in 16 min.

Luke didn't seem to contribute at all in this game. Not really sure what he brings to the table other than giving George a few minutes of rest.

Our free throw shooting MUST get better. That was painful to watch and we will likely lose games this year if that isn't cleaned up. 68% our first game and 57% yesterday is just not good. So far, that's the only glaring weakness in Kiyan's game. We're only two games into the season so I believe he will get more reliable from the line.

Lastly, I liked Red's substitutions this game. They seemed more intentional.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Good write up!

Going into the season, I was probably most concerned with our center position. Not so much anymore with Kyle and Donnie/Sadiq also there to help. Kyle is really good on many levels. Love his athleticism. You can tell he LOVES to swat the ball away too. Looks like he enjoys embarrassing the shooter.

Kiyan is special and Donnie will be huge this year. Glad to see Kingz nail his first 3ptr of the year. Once he starts contributing more offensively, he will be solid all the way around.

George played decent overall but not nearly as good as last game. He took a couple of early 3s when he probably should have created a better shot for one of his teammates. Also, way too many turnovers.

I think this team can be good as long as guys don't settle. That's exactly what Kiyan avoids. He rarely forces shots. Also love when Donnie takes it to the hoop rather than fade away jumpers or launching 3s.

I thought Zephir played solid. Nothing spectacular, but played well. Nice to have another guy out there that Red can depend on.

Good to see Betsey not heave a shot every time he got the ball. This game is more what we need from him versus against Binghamton. He contributed across the board in scoring (7pts), rebounds (4), an assist, a couple steals and only one turnover. This all in 16 min.

Luke didn't seem to contribute at all in this game. Not really sure what he brings to the table other than giving George a few minutes of rest.

Our free throw shooting MUST get better. That was painful to watch and we will likely lose games this year if that isn't cleaned up. 68% our first game and 57% yesterday is just not good. So far, that's the only glaring weakness in Kiyan's game. We're only two games into the season so I believe he will get more reliable from the line.

Lastly, I liked Red's substitutions this game. They seemed more intentional.

They always look better when you can bring in guys who can play. Most of our second unit would have started last year. Red is showing us how he wants to play. He wants to play 9-10 guys a game to keep defensive intensity for the entire game. People seem to have stopped talking about how Red can’t teach defense.

 

[kuethstheman]

They always look better when you can bring in guys who can play. Most of our second unit would have started last year. Red is showing us how he wants to play. He wants to play 9-10 guys a game to keep defensive intensity for the entire game. People seem to have stopped talking about how Red can’t teach defense.

That this team can play defense is really puzzling. We've had two full years of Red with bad fundamental defense that didn't improve over the course of the season. Doesn't make sense that suddenly he can teach defense.

 

[RedtheGOB]

Autry is still gonna catch heat from his haters saying that he still doesn’t run a real offense and we still don’t look good with the free throws and 3’s. Why isn’t he making them shoot a thousand free throws in practice and have a real half court offense, the usual stuff.

I’m saying it now. They should keep spending all their focus on defense. Spend 80% of practice on defense, 20% on offense whatever they’re doing now. I’m willing to live all year with mediocre free throw shooting and weird iso sets. If we drop a game this year cuz we can’t execute a perfect half court set then so be it.

I’m just not willing to go back to the piss poor defense that has plagued this team for the longest time.

 

[Nicknack]

They always look better when you can bring in guys who can play. Most of our second unit would have started last year. Red is showing us how he wants to play. He wants to play 9-10 guys a game to keep defensive intensity for the entire game. People seem to have stopped talking about how Red can’t teach defense.

Definitely true and that's crazy when you think about it. The talent level is far better and it clearly shows.

 

[CardiacCuse]

I watched the game from lot 14 of Hard Rock Stadium, on my iPad, using WiFi provided by VTAaron (thanks Aaron and sorry your phone overheated).

Couldn’t hear the commentary and sometimes it was hard to tell who some of the players were. And I was talking to people about the game and the team all game long, so I missed some things.

That said, I thought this was another encouraging outcome. Again, the effort on defense was vastly improved from the last few years, and the overall athletic ability of the team was evident from the opening tap.

I think Freeman is going to be out next guy drafted. Scored 20 points a variety of ways in 23 minutes. Only 5 rebounds but he got in foul trouble early and I think Red wanted to give the bench a good look. But man, he is so athletic and can do almost everything you want. Good rebounder, was stripping guards near mid court, had another weak side block, can score from pretty much anywhere. He is going to be fun to watch play this season.

Anthony is insanely confident for a frosh. He is taking a lot of shots right now. Has no trouble getting to the rim, can pull up to make a mid range jumper and of course he can score from the 3 point circle too. It all looks effortless. He reminds me a lot of Moten. So smooth and smart. If you give me a lane he will take it. If you take your eyes off him he will move and get open under the basket. We will see what happens when he encounters rim protectors but for now, he is a problem to defend and his defense has been surprisingly good as well.

Kyle was probably the player of the game. We all knew he could jump and would dunk it if he got it close to the basket. But i was struck by how well he is rebounding, blocking shots and passing. It is refreshing to see such a good athlete playing center for us.

We again used full court pressure. Looks like it is designed more to force the other team to waste 5 seconds or so getting the ball up court.

Our man defense was consistently extended and we tried to deny any attempts to get to ball into the paint. When it happened, we would double the ball. Ran through screens well, worked hard on defense all game long. Huge improvements here. White is probably our best defender but I don’t see anyone that is clearly a weak link right now.

We are getting a lot of movement off the ball am there is very little dribbling when we have the ball. Just a series of quick passes and then a great scoring opportunity.

George is a terrific passer but there will be games when guys like Freeman, White, Kyle and Starling will have the most assists and yesterday, it was Kyle.

Make no mistake. Delaware State is not good. They shot the ball so ooorly. Believe they were 5-33 from the field in the first half. So many bricked 3s. They really struggled to get good shots and I think a lot of those shots came on offensive rebounds. They were quite capable rebounding the ball.

We played our best players late into the game, which is crappy sportsmanship and something I dislike. But the NCAA has decided to put a lot of value in destroying overmatched teams and we have to do this if we want to compete for NCAA bids with other schools.

I hope the NCAA realizes they are idiots soon and fix this. Not optimistic on it…..

i agree with most of this...just think we have to be cautious drawing conclusions vs the quad 4 squads

i really like the idea of pressing on defense proactively, as a base set instead of a hail mary when down by a lot. i think del state struggled bc of the su defense, whch is very promising

i dont think going for max margin of victory is bad sportsmanship, though, dont see any issue with it regardless of whatever wacky NET rules are in place...if opponents arent evenly matched, they shouldnt be in the same division, imo...for me, teams like binghampton and del state should be in a division 2 or something like that

 

[Giants1973]

Did we play a lot of zone? It sure looked like a 2-3 setup, but Delaware's offense was so over matched that I'm not sure.

Zone .what is that?

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

That this team can play defense is really puzzling. We've had two full years of Red with bad fundamental defense that didn't improve over the course of the season. Doesn't make sense that suddenly he can teach defense.

You realize there are only 2 guys Red has coached before. Maybe the other guys just refused, or were unable, to do what Red coached.

 

[pfister1]

Too bad we couldn't have arranged a double header and picked up Rhode Island State University on the rebound.

 

[llandz]

Zone .what is that?

I don’t think we have played zone once so far this season.

 

[hoopsupstate]

I don’t think we have played zone once so far this season.

That’s correct. No longer playing zone on under the basket inbounds plays either.

 

[OrangeinDC]

Tom, I agree about the NCAA dictating that we MUST massacre the cupcakes or it will go against us. I know Boeheim would always pull back if the score was getting out of hand, and I liked that. Duke would NEVER let up and maybe there was a method in their madness. I always thought it was such crappy sportsmanship.

It’s been a loooong time since I walked to the Dome knowing we would win soundly. It’s a great feeling.

I also think these guys need reps together, doesn't look good in blowouts, but they need it.