sutomcat
2024 Iggy Award (ACC Tournament Record)
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I had a family obligation so I didn't watch the game until well after it had ended, and only was able to watch 3 quarters before I crashed and burned (i.e. fell asleep).
Again, this was an extremely early exhibition game against an opponent of questionable talent, played in a foreign country, with 3 members of the team not participating. Objects in the mirror may appear closer than they are. This post null and void outside of the 48 contiguous United States and were prohibited (sorry Troop).
Given all that...
Before the McGill game, Leo Rautins, the fountain of all knowledge of basketball Canadian, compared the McGill program to Harvard.
Before the Bishop game, Leo compared their program to an Atlantic 10 team program. Just looking at their team warming up, it seemed appropriate. They had players with shaved heads and full beards, prison tats, middle aged style pot bellies, love and hate tats on their hands, bad hair cuts and a genuine gypsy quality that reeked of Temple, Rutgers, UMass, Georgetown and programs of that ilk.
McGill/Harvard had a bunch of young looking kids with très chic hair styles and good cheekbones.
But while McGill played hard and borderline dirty, Bishop played like a team cowed into shock and awe mode made by the Syracuse team that quickly destroyed its will to fight. Most curious.
Anyway, when a game starts 20-0 (I think we only gotup 11-0 on McGill), there isn't a lot of meaningful things to say. Syracuse was good. Bishop was bad. Indeed.
TE played another excellent game. His maturity is stunning to me; thought Flynn, MCW, Douglas and Pearl were poised and solid their first year starting but they made errors in judgement quite often early in their careers, learned from the experience and got better. At this point anyway, TE looks like he is going to skip all that getting acclimated to college basketball stuff and play like a savvy senior from day one. It will be interesting to see how he does against Carleton tonight.
Besides his judgment, I really like his ability to finish on the fast break and while this is based on a really small sample size, it looks to me as though he is more advanced as an outside shooter than Flynn, MCW or Scoop were during their time on The Hill. This has been a very good start for young Tyler.
Speaking of Tylers, wow, what a difference from game one to game two for TC. There are lots of things that will determine how far this team goes this season but I remain convinced that the question of whether TC emerges as a reliable outside shooting remains the biggest factor determining the ceiling for this team. So it was great to see TC playing with confidence and shooting the ball so well. Bravo.
Jerami Grant played really well last year when he was pressed into service as a starter when JS had his issue. I think we are all aware that he is capable of being a good solid starter at either forward position. He is getting an even bigger opportunity for playing time right now with CJ out and wow, is he ever taking advantage of it. Yes, the drives to the basket for the hard dunks are impressive, but he is doing so much more than that. He is rebounding the ball really well, hustling his butt off on defense, hitting shots from the outside, hitting the offensive boards, you name it, if it is a positive activity, he is doing it. It is going to be hard for JB to not play him 30 minutes a game. Going to be very interesting to see what happens regarding playing time when uber wonderful combo forward Tyler Roberson is freed by the NCAA to start terrorizing ACC teams.
Thought Silent G looked better shooting from the outside last night. Better form, quicker release, maybe he can help us out here more than I thought after that first game. No question he is going to be an important part of the team. Does everything pretty well, wish he was a little more assertive but some of that might be him just trying to find his role with a new team.
Was really happy with Rak's play. JB always wants him to be more aggressive and so far, he clearly is listening. The level of the opposition is not great so far, but it is good to see him using his athletic gifts to dominate games. I really like his passing ability from the high post, he has made a number of terrific passes from there. If he can develop a reliable mid range jumper to go with this, he will be a major force. But he is off to a very good start so far.
Thought Coleman and Keita did their typical thing. They have strengths and weaknesses, DCII continues to get rebounds and draw fouls with astonishing frequency. And his interior defense remains disturbingly bad, though somewhere improved from last year. BMK got some blocks, rebounded pretty well, hustled like he always does and got some points down low. He appears to have regressed as a FT shooter back to non post season form, where he struggles to shoot 50%. I hope we don't have to wait until mid March to see him hit a couple of FTs in a row.
Maybe the most interesting development in this game was the play of BJ, who seemed to be the focus of the game whenever he was in. He made his share of mistakes...I think he really needs to get stronger, but he took advantage of the quality PT he received and made a lot of nice plays. Almost all were scoring players, most from the outside. At this point in his career, his game is pretty one dimenional, but the dimension he has happens to be one the team really needs.
When I watch young players play, I classify them in a few categories.
The ones that are destined for true greatness make a lot of good plays and few if any bad ones. Carmelo was like that. You just don't see them very often. The level of competition is so low so far that you have to take things with a grain of salt but TE is playing at this level so far.
The next level are the players that make a lot of good plays and a lot of bad ones too. It is a great sign when a young player has confidence to play like this, and the ability to regularly make good plays. They often develop into excellent players, usually end up starting and you often see them on all conference teams later in their careers.
Guys like MCW comes to mind here. He stuck out like a sore thumb whenever he was in a game as a frosh, always made some good plays and almost always some bad ones too. DCII falls in this category as well.
The next level are the players who don't do much of anything good or bad. They are maybe too afraid to fail to try to do much. These players are destined to be career backups or maybe role player starters if they work really hard.
After two games, I think it is clear BJ falls in the lot of good and lot of bad category for now. And that is a good thing. He has confidence, he has ability and he doesn't get down when he makes a mistake. Very encouraged by his play, especially last night, when he focused more on shooting from the outside (which I think is his biggest strength right now). Am I crazy or was he rocking a Moten like set shot for most of his outside shots?
Speaking of players who do a lot of good and bad things, Buss is another player who seems to have big plays, good and bad, center around him whenever he is in the game. He is often out of control with the ball, his ball handling is at best shaky, his judgment is sometimes poor, I see no signs his confidence in shooting outside shots is justified based on his shooting ability, but the kid plays really hard, generates turnovers regularly, plays quality defense and appears to be a fine passer. He has limitations but some excellent skills too. I could see him being a player JB uses when he wants to press; he is really well suited for that type of game.
Play time is over. Carleton tonight. The greatest basketball game ever played in the history of the Great White North. Should be a fun one to watch. Can't wait for the tip off...
Again, this was an extremely early exhibition game against an opponent of questionable talent, played in a foreign country, with 3 members of the team not participating. Objects in the mirror may appear closer than they are. This post null and void outside of the 48 contiguous United States and were prohibited (sorry Troop).
Given all that...
Before the McGill game, Leo Rautins, the fountain of all knowledge of basketball Canadian, compared the McGill program to Harvard.
Before the Bishop game, Leo compared their program to an Atlantic 10 team program. Just looking at their team warming up, it seemed appropriate. They had players with shaved heads and full beards, prison tats, middle aged style pot bellies, love and hate tats on their hands, bad hair cuts and a genuine gypsy quality that reeked of Temple, Rutgers, UMass, Georgetown and programs of that ilk.
McGill/Harvard had a bunch of young looking kids with très chic hair styles and good cheekbones.
But while McGill played hard and borderline dirty, Bishop played like a team cowed into shock and awe mode made by the Syracuse team that quickly destroyed its will to fight. Most curious.
Anyway, when a game starts 20-0 (I think we only gotup 11-0 on McGill), there isn't a lot of meaningful things to say. Syracuse was good. Bishop was bad. Indeed.
TE played another excellent game. His maturity is stunning to me; thought Flynn, MCW, Douglas and Pearl were poised and solid their first year starting but they made errors in judgement quite often early in their careers, learned from the experience and got better. At this point anyway, TE looks like he is going to skip all that getting acclimated to college basketball stuff and play like a savvy senior from day one. It will be interesting to see how he does against Carleton tonight.
Besides his judgment, I really like his ability to finish on the fast break and while this is based on a really small sample size, it looks to me as though he is more advanced as an outside shooter than Flynn, MCW or Scoop were during their time on The Hill. This has been a very good start for young Tyler.
Speaking of Tylers, wow, what a difference from game one to game two for TC. There are lots of things that will determine how far this team goes this season but I remain convinced that the question of whether TC emerges as a reliable outside shooting remains the biggest factor determining the ceiling for this team. So it was great to see TC playing with confidence and shooting the ball so well. Bravo.
Jerami Grant played really well last year when he was pressed into service as a starter when JS had his issue. I think we are all aware that he is capable of being a good solid starter at either forward position. He is getting an even bigger opportunity for playing time right now with CJ out and wow, is he ever taking advantage of it. Yes, the drives to the basket for the hard dunks are impressive, but he is doing so much more than that. He is rebounding the ball really well, hustling his butt off on defense, hitting shots from the outside, hitting the offensive boards, you name it, if it is a positive activity, he is doing it. It is going to be hard for JB to not play him 30 minutes a game. Going to be very interesting to see what happens regarding playing time when uber wonderful combo forward Tyler Roberson is freed by the NCAA to start terrorizing ACC teams.
Thought Silent G looked better shooting from the outside last night. Better form, quicker release, maybe he can help us out here more than I thought after that first game. No question he is going to be an important part of the team. Does everything pretty well, wish he was a little more assertive but some of that might be him just trying to find his role with a new team.
Was really happy with Rak's play. JB always wants him to be more aggressive and so far, he clearly is listening. The level of the opposition is not great so far, but it is good to see him using his athletic gifts to dominate games. I really like his passing ability from the high post, he has made a number of terrific passes from there. If he can develop a reliable mid range jumper to go with this, he will be a major force. But he is off to a very good start so far.
Thought Coleman and Keita did their typical thing. They have strengths and weaknesses, DCII continues to get rebounds and draw fouls with astonishing frequency. And his interior defense remains disturbingly bad, though somewhere improved from last year. BMK got some blocks, rebounded pretty well, hustled like he always does and got some points down low. He appears to have regressed as a FT shooter back to non post season form, where he struggles to shoot 50%. I hope we don't have to wait until mid March to see him hit a couple of FTs in a row.
Maybe the most interesting development in this game was the play of BJ, who seemed to be the focus of the game whenever he was in. He made his share of mistakes...I think he really needs to get stronger, but he took advantage of the quality PT he received and made a lot of nice plays. Almost all were scoring players, most from the outside. At this point in his career, his game is pretty one dimenional, but the dimension he has happens to be one the team really needs.
When I watch young players play, I classify them in a few categories.
The ones that are destined for true greatness make a lot of good plays and few if any bad ones. Carmelo was like that. You just don't see them very often. The level of competition is so low so far that you have to take things with a grain of salt but TE is playing at this level so far.
The next level are the players that make a lot of good plays and a lot of bad ones too. It is a great sign when a young player has confidence to play like this, and the ability to regularly make good plays. They often develop into excellent players, usually end up starting and you often see them on all conference teams later in their careers.
Guys like MCW comes to mind here. He stuck out like a sore thumb whenever he was in a game as a frosh, always made some good plays and almost always some bad ones too. DCII falls in this category as well.
The next level are the players who don't do much of anything good or bad. They are maybe too afraid to fail to try to do much. These players are destined to be career backups or maybe role player starters if they work really hard.
After two games, I think it is clear BJ falls in the lot of good and lot of bad category for now. And that is a good thing. He has confidence, he has ability and he doesn't get down when he makes a mistake. Very encouraged by his play, especially last night, when he focused more on shooting from the outside (which I think is his biggest strength right now). Am I crazy or was he rocking a Moten like set shot for most of his outside shots?
Speaking of players who do a lot of good and bad things, Buss is another player who seems to have big plays, good and bad, center around him whenever he is in the game. He is often out of control with the ball, his ball handling is at best shaky, his judgment is sometimes poor, I see no signs his confidence in shooting outside shots is justified based on his shooting ability, but the kid plays really hard, generates turnovers regularly, plays quality defense and appears to be a fine passer. He has limitations but some excellent skills too. I could see him being a player JB uses when he wants to press; he is really well suited for that type of game.
Play time is over. Carleton tonight. The greatest basketball game ever played in the history of the Great White North. Should be a fun one to watch. Can't wait for the tip off...
