My Take

[pearl31]

Worst call of the night was when they called Kyle for a moving pick.

And one of the only times of the night Okafor's commentary was accurate!

 

[McCuse]

Nice to get a win against anyone when your best players don't play well. I know Donnie had 18 points but I don't think we beat many good teams with him only making 3 shots. It was good for Kiyan to struggle a bit. Things came a little too easy for him the first 3 games. Not worried about his FT shooting a bit. It was telling to me that Red let him shoot the techs. I'm glad he probably feels he has a little to make up for as we head to Vegas. George needed to to demand the ball the last few minutes. He needs to be the team leader as PG and be in control. Another solid all around game from Kingz plus his shot started to drop. You can just see the kid is a shooter but I really like his all around game. That's our 4 guys this year. I really like Kyle in the middle but he will be more of a complementary player. Sadiq is going to be so good. He's one of those 6'9" guys you can put on the point of the press and slashes to the rim on offense. Even last n ight he managed 8 points in 10 minutes. He earned at least 3 of those foul calls which is too many in that few minutes. We missed Betsey as I think he's an other solid wingman with some shooting/scoring ability.
Which brings us to JJ. What is he? A senior leader, veteran, experienced, athletic. Those things don't mean anything if you, or the coaches, can't identify your role. He had no business starting last night and I really don't want to hear all the "he earned it, you don't lose your position due to injury, hometown kid came home" crap. He was a leading player on 2 rudderless teams that accomplished nothing but make people question their coaches ability. Last nights game looked a lot like the last 2 seasons. JJ can't be the guy other players defer to, especially George. What I see in JJ is a Houston style guard that comes off the bench and does a little bit of everything and makes the team not miss a beat when he is on the floor. That is what this team needs from him. I only hope Red is able to see that instead of pushing the team leader we need him on the court narrative I fear. With a healthy Betsey I think we have a very strong 8 with Souare providing a little more defensive help up front when needed.

Interesting take. Definitely have to love Kingz, and I think he's just getting warmed up from the 3. His past stats show he's a for real threat from 3. I like Square's defensive energy, he is a great back up for defense.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Got to the dome early. Took a brother who hadn’t been there for about 10 years. He was impressed by the renovations.

Saw a familiar face with the coaches for Monmouth. Our old friend Rick Callahan, who was on the SU staff long ago, is working for them. Nice.

Saw King Rice play at the ESG when he was maybe 16. It’s pretty disturbing when you look at him now, and see all white hair and gaunt features of an old man. Time marches on. In any event, it looks like he and Autry are good friends, and they had a good time discussing things. I think King and Reese played together at UNC.

I haven’t read any posts on the board yet. I’m sure it’s been discussed, but I saw Betsey on the sideline pregame wearing one of those plastic walking boots on his bad ankle/foot. We all knew he wasn’t going to play, but man I am worried about him playing Vegas now. He does have six more days to heal.

I thought the refs were terrible. I don’t care if you want to let the guys play, if you want to call it tight; whatever. But be consistent. On both sides of the ball. From possession to possession. The two clowns we got last night were a mess. Both coaching staffs were continually screaming at them and pulling their hair out in frustration. As were the fans.

They let Monmouth play extremely physical defense early, the. Reversed course and started calling almost everything. Come on guys. It’s a 930 start. People want to get home and go on their lives. It’s not all about you blowing a whistle and showing how much of a big shot you are.

At one point there was a loose ball right in front of Autry. Sadiq got to it first, Big Fro guy from Monmouth smashed into him a half second later, and the refs somehow called the foul on White. Autry lost it. Ad did every fan in the building. It was the single worst call I’ve seen in 50 years of college basketball fandom. Yes Froggy, you piece of dung. You are finally off the hook.

That was a huge call because he and Big Fro guy both got in foul trouble. Big Fro guy would’ve played a lot less minutes and this would’ve really hurt their chances to stay in the game. Sadiq was our best player off the bench and he ended up barely playing in the second half, lately because of this awful call. Don’t remember seeing these clown refs before. I assume they’re from whatever conference Monmouth plays in. I hope we never see them again.

I am happy Monmouth played physical defense. That was good preparation for Houston, who will give us the same thing times 10. They like to double the ball and did it regularly. It didn’t bother us much, except for Kiyan, who really got flustered by it. People are going to see that film, and double the crap out of him. I hope he works on getting rid of the ball quicker and being tougher. And then he was asked to shoot 3 FTs when Monmouth got a technical and missed them all badly.

It was a tough day for KA. At one point he had two or three shots blocked under the basket all in one possession. It was his first adversity in college basketball, and I hope it helps him.

Big Fro guy did almost nothing in the first half but caught fire in the second, hitting a bunch of threes and drawing a disturbing number of fouls. I don’t like certain players, he made all his free throws. Sitting quiet is very talented, but he’s young and Martha, and files too easily. This won’t be the only game this is the thousand oI don’t like certain players, he made all his free throws. Sadiq White is very talented, but he’s young and wild, and fouls too easily. Falls for the head fake every time. This won’t be the only game this season he fouls out of.

Monmouth had a big Greek guy who also hurt us inside. He was able to power Freeman down lowand drive him close to the basket so he could get an easy shot repeatedly. We had to switch William Kyle on him to get him to stop scoring.

Again, major problems on the defensive boards. Might be our biggest weakness right now. That or free throw shooting.

Was interested to see what JJ would bring to the table. That is defense was great but wasn’t awful. Was happy he didn’t take a lot of four shots. He played well in the second half, when we really needed him. The three he made late was the biggest play in the game. But the free-throw shooting……

I was mad at Autry when he left JJ in late and Monmouth fouled him intentionally. Smart move on their part, and it worked out well. I do give Adrian credit for being smart enough to start subbing out JJ situationally after that, so he couldn’t hurt us further. I’m sure that was tough to do.

Thought Nate George was excellent. My only quibble about him is late in the game, he didn’t fight to get the ball hard when we inbounded it. We really need him to have the ball late the game.

In the second half, for the first time this season, we saw Autry tighten the reins and really only play five guys. With White in foul trouble, he only played 3 minutes. The starters all played 16 minutes or more. We’ll see more of this in Vegas. It will be very interesting to see how much run the bench gets. Adrian has to play the bench quite a bit at least in the first game or two because we’re playing 3 games in 3 or 4 days. It would be really nice to get Betsey back. We missed him last night.

Yup, Red and Brian Reese grew up together and starred with Riverside Church and Tolentine. And then, of course, Reese and King Rice played at UNC.

Unfortunately, there were some negatives to take from the game, and it appeared the team regressed, but I think the biggest takeaway is that the team wasn't ready. Either the coached under prepared them, or they read all their clippings and felt that Monmouth was going to roll over.

Up 14 with 7 minutes to go, is a good spot to be and then the wheels came off. Blame the coaches, blame the players, blame the refs. Cuse were very lucky they held on. Against most teams, they wouldn't have. But, hopefully they learned something that they can use vs Houston and Kansas.

 

[AlaskaSU]

If Torres was not in foul trouble we would have lost.

 

[Madbiker]

This team has more size and athleticism that the last 2 Autry teams. But it looks like they have no idea what they're doing out there. The offense is all freelance. How is Donny being utilized? He's too far out, takes too many bad shots. Get in the paint and score. I expect the next 2 games are going to be a rude dose of reality.