Post-game thoughts

[billsin01]

So I just completed watching the second half and figured I'd post a few thoughts. Obviously overall it is a dominant performance and I think it's worth noting that a performance like last night's is what makes it OK to be mildly critical after a performance like the one vs. Colgate to open the season. Colgate was an easy victory, they played fine and it's the season opener so there is obviously going to be a few hiccups. But Holy Cross was, to my eyes, a better team and we actually were at 90 with 4+ minutes left while they were still stuck on 42. That, my friends, is how you absolutely throttle a completely outclassed opponent.

So, some observations:

Not sure this team will be quite as deep as everyone may think at this moment
I like all the players on this roster a lot but I see DC as more than a token starter and guy who gets some decent minutes against certain matchups. His place in the regular rotation feels to me like it will be trimmed significantly as we see better opponents. The same goes, maybe to a lesser extent, for Thompson (whom I love, more on that later), and maybe even Chukwu a bit, though both of those thoughts remain to be seen. With how good Lydon is, how valuable White's shooting is, at least one of the two PGs needed on the floor to run the show, how well Roberson is playing (more later) and a talent like Battle ... I just don't know that JB, given his tendencies, will feel super comfortable with any of those six on the bench for key stretches in big games. We shall see.

Lydon was back ... obviously
Great game overall for Lydon. Thought he made a concerted effort to get active inside after that rather ugly try from three early in the first half. He was really active and had an absolutely phenomenal 10 minute stretch at the start of the second half. Tipped a pass that went out off of HC for a turnover, had a cut that drew three defenders and left Battle open for 3, was all over the glass on both ends and had that ridiculous save that led to a Howard layup, had a steal in there, a great entry pass to DC and a cross-court assist on a White 3. Dominant stretch even though I'm not sure he actually scored that much in those 10 mins. He impacts the game in so many ways and is so versatile -- he's going to be fun to watch.

Howard/Gillon battle is a fun one to watch
Which of these two gets more minutes is probably irrelevant as they both seem to play really well. I would say you have to appreciate the smoothness of Howard's game as well as the pure energy and explosiveness of Gillon's game. The question for Howard is consistency -- had lazy close-out and gave up and offensive board that drew JB's ire and had a pretty bad turnover in the first half before it was completely out of hand. Just need the energy and consistency to be there and there's no telling how good a year he can have. Jumper is clearly improved. For Gillon there's really basically nothing to criticize through two games but obviously his ability to be a factor against bigger, more athletic players as the season moves on will be the key. I can't imagine he'll disappear but can he be anywhere near as efficient as he has played so far? That is the question.

White was great at what he does
White knocked down open shots consistently. That is extremely valuable and I always argue that doing one thing well is very underrated in a world of college basketball where we want every player to be LeBron. So make no mistake, White's shooting will open up other things and is a huge plus for this team. What will be interesting is to see what other ways he's able to contribute. Nice to see him go to the basket a couple times but the finishes weren't terribly pretty. He had three assists, so he moved the ball, but hopefully we see that with a few more rebounds. Again, if he's just a great shooter, I'm fine with it. It'll just be interesting to see if we see more from him in other areas.

Loved what we saw from Roberson ... again.
5-for-7 with one miss being a really tough attempted put-back on an athletic play. We'll take that. 12 points, 6 rbs in 26 minutes without forcing much of anything (maybe took one jumper too many). His overall numbers may end up fairly similar to last year's numbers but he looks like a different player to me so far and I would guess if he's not scoring it's more b/c guys like White and Battle and Lydon are as opposed to anything Roberson's not doing. Would love to see him finish with a strong year.

PC/DC ... still waiting and seeing
The more minutes the better for both of these guys and they've both had some nice moments so far. I just cringe watching DC on defense and I think Chukwu has a world of potential ... but a long road to get there.

Thompson is really composed
I don't really remember seeing a young big look as completely comfortable with the ball in his hands as Thompson. Made a great pass in the Colgate game at one point and in this one had a great drive from the free-throw line that you just don't see young (or even veteran in many cases) big guys do. He had two misses but the only one I remember was a good look from the corner on a jumper. He's a really intriguing player whether we end up seeing much of him after January or not (and I don't know the answer to that).

Would love to see us use the post more
Holy Cross threw every defensive look they had at us and none worked, essentially. But I thought, as is typical of many of JB's teams, we struggled to get an entry pass into the post. I can think, off the top of my head, of a handful of times that Chuckwu/Lydon/Roberson had their man sealed off and the ball went back up top instead of inside. Would love to see more of an effort made get some of that inside-outside offense going.

All in all, great team and really fun roster. should be interesting to watch what else we pick up in these next few games leading up to South Carolina and then Wiscy.

 

[AlaskaSU]

Monmouth and S Carolina are equivalent.

 

[jordoo]

Good stuff Bill. I think as far as the rotation goes as you have mentioned Roby, Lydon, White, Gillon, Howard and Battle are going to be the mainstays. It seems JB is going to give Chukwu every opportunity to play his way into the rotation and get used to game speed. Coleman seems to be the odd man out and its too early to see with TT. I will say TT needs to rebound better if he wants to maintain his PT.

I don't know if this will be a post team at all at this point. Still playing smaller swarming teams makes post play messy which is what we have seen so far. Playing a team with legit size is likely going to make hitting Coleman, Lydon, Thompson and Chukwu in the post much easier. We'll have to see.

 

[supp]

So I just completed watching the second half and figured I'd post a few thoughts. Obviously overall it is a dominant performance and I think it's worth noting that a performance like last night's is what makes it OK to be mildly critical after a performance like the one vs. Colgate to open the season. Colgate was an easy victory, they played fine and it's the season opener so there is obviously going to be a few hiccups. But Holy Cross was, to my eyes, a better team and we actually were at 90 with 4+ minutes left while they were still stuck on 42. That, my friends, is how you absolutely throttle a completely outclassed opponent.

So, some observations:

Not sure this team will be quite as deep as everyone may think at this moment
I like all the players on this roster a lot but I see DC as more than a token starter and guy who gets some decent minutes against certain matchups. His place in the regular rotation feels to me like it will be trimmed significantly as we see better opponents. The same goes, maybe to a lesser extent, for Thompson (whom I love, more on that later), and maybe even Chukwu a bit, though both of those thoughts remain to be seen. With how good Lydon is, how valuable White's shooting is, at least one of the two PGs needed on the floor to run the show, how well Roberson is playing (more later) and a talent like Battle ... I just don't know that JB, given his tendencies, will feel super comfortable with any of those six on the bench for key stretches in big games. We shall see.

Lydon was back ... obviously
Great game overall for Lydon. Thought he made a concerted effort to get active inside after that rather ugly try from three early in the first half. He was really active and had an absolutely phenomenal 10 minute stretch at the start of the second half. Tipped a pass that went out off of HC for a turnover, had a cut that drew three defenders and left Battle open for 3, was all over the glass on both ends and had that ridiculous save that led to a Howard layup, had a steal in there, a great entry pass to DC and a cross-court assist on a White 3. Dominant stretch even though I'm not sure he actually scored that much in those 10 mins. He impacts the game in so many ways and is so versatile -- he's going to be fun to watch.

Howard/Gillon battle is a fun one to watch
Which of these two gets more minutes is probably irrelevant as they both seem to play really well. I would say you have to appreciate the smoothness of Howard's game as well as the pure energy and explosiveness of Gillon's game. The question for Howard is consistency -- had lazy close-out and gave up and offensive board that drew JB's ire and had a pretty bad turnover in the first half before it was completely out of hand. Just need the energy and consistency to be there and there's no telling how good a year he can have. Jumper is clearly improved. For Gillon there's really basically nothing to criticize through two games but obviously his ability to be a factor against bigger, more athletic players as the season moves on will be the key. I can't imagine he'll disappear but can he be anywhere near as efficient as he has played so far? That is the question.

White was great at what he does
White knocked down open shots consistently. That is extremely valuable and I always argue that doing one thing well is very underrated in a world of college basketball where we want every player to be LeBron. So make no mistake, White's shooting will open up other things and is a huge plus for this team. What will be interesting is to see what other ways he's able to contribute. Nice to see him go to the basket a couple times but the finishes weren't terribly pretty. He had three assists, so he moved the ball, but hopefully we see that with a few more rebounds. Again, if he's just a great shooter, I'm fine with it. It'll just be interesting to see if we see more from him in other areas.

Loved what we saw from Roberson ... again.
5-for-7 with one miss being a really tough attempted put-back on an athletic play. We'll take that. 12 points, 6 rbs in 26 minutes without forcing much of anything (maybe took one jumper too many). His overall numbers may end up fairly similar to last year's numbers but he looks like a different player to me so far and I would guess if he's not scoring it's more b/c guys like White and Battle and Lydon are as opposed to anything Roberson's not doing. Would love to see him finish with a strong year.

PC/DC ... still waiting and seeing
The more minutes the better for both of these guys and they've both had some nice moments so far. I just cringe watching DC on defense and I think Chukwu has a world of potential ... but a long road to get there.

Thompson is really composed
I don't really remember seeing a young big look as completely comfortable with the ball in his hands as Thompson. Made a great pass in the Colgate game at one point and in this one had a great drive from the free-throw line that you just don't see young (or even veteran in many cases) big guys do. He had two misses but the only one I remember was a good look from the corner on a jumper. He's a really intriguing player whether we end up seeing much of him after January or not (and I don't know the answer to that).

Would love to see us use the post more
Holy Cross threw every defensive look they had at us and none worked, essentially. But I thought, as is typical of many of JB's teams, we struggled to get an entry pass into the post. I can think, off the top of my head, of a handful of times that Chuckwu/Lydon/Roberson had their man sealed off and the ball went back up top instead of inside. Would love to see more of an effort made get some of that inside-outside offense going.

All in all, great team and really fun roster. should be interesting to watch what else we pick up in these next few games leading up to South Carolina and then Wiscy.

Agree with your last bullet point. Great shooting is hiding some problems. But you can see the high level of confidence that we're going to score on every possession that maybe we've been missing since Wes. Less dribbling a rut into the court, more purposeful movement off screens than the past few years. I've been watching the shot clock. Rarely are we taking more than 15 seconds to go from the back court to an open look. A lot of that is due to the fact that they're looking to run at every opportunity. This is dangerous fast break team and that helps make up for a lack of a post offense. HC was basically conceding the offensive boards to get back on d.

 

[dasher]

Monmouth and S Carolina are equivalent.

For the most part. But we do play Monmouth at home and play South Carolina on a more neutral court.

 

[721Comstock]

Re: PC & DC -

We still got what, 11 boards and 3 blocks out of them, in like 30-ish minutes?
Pretty sure JB would take that every game from the 5-spot.
(not counting Lydon's time there, naturally)

DC had 6 boards in 12 minutes - that's outstanding.
(that's a rate of 20 rebs/40 minutes, for the math majors)

While I'm also in the camp of "any scoring we get from Chewie or DC is a bonus",
DC does have some actual skills on O, and can also hit the occasional face-up J.
PC should get a lob or putback here and there - and that's about all we need from them on O, other than setting screens and battling for any O-rebs.

 

[billsin01]

Re: PC & DC -

We still got what, 11 boards and 3 blocks out of them, in like 30-ish minutes?
Pretty sure JB would take that every game from the 5-spot.
(not counting Lydon's time there, naturally)

DC had 6 boards in 12 minutes - that's outstanding.
(that's a rate of 20 rebs/40 minutes, for the math majors)

While I'm also in the camp of "any scoring we get from Chewie or DC is a bonus",
DC does have some actual skills on O, and can also hit the occasional face-up J.
PC should get a lob or putback here and there - and that's about all we need from them on O, other than setting screens and battling for any O-rebs.

Those are all fair points. I think you could take it a step further by saying you'd rather play Lydon on the wing, all things being equal, AND if you made the commitment to bring Chuckwu in, you probably need to find as many ways to get him minutes as possible. Both of those things seem true to me. And, for the record, I like Thompson a lot too.

Where I get conflicted is thinking of playing conference games and games against good opponents. I just feel like JB won't really want any of those top 6 sitting next to him all that often. Or, more accurately the top four (Battle/Lydon/Roberson/White) since obvoiusly there'll be a PG on the floor. That's more of where I see the minutes crunch coming.

 

[Toga]

Ultimately it could all come down to fouls. We have a gazillion to give and we shoot them well. These are two huge factors.

 

[SoBristol]

Those are all fair points. I think you could take it a step further by saying you'd rather play Lydon on the wing, all things being equal, AND if you made the commitment to bring Chuckwu in, you probably need to find as many ways to get him minutes as possible. . . .

I get conflicted is thinking of playing conference games and games against good opponents. I just feel like JB won't really want any of those top 6 sitting next to him all that often. Or, more accurately the top four (Battle/Lydon/Roberson/White) since obvoiusly there'll be a PG on the floor. That's more of where I see the minutes crunch coming.

Liked your OP, and I agree with this one as well. There are reasons not to play Lydon on the wing. You need his strong play in the paint (with the option of him stepping out to the 3 point line). It gives us better balance. When you consider the tough conference games, consider that several teams will pressure our guards, both full court and in the half court. We will want ball handlers and movement on the perimeter -- and Lydon as a relief valve. Not going to handle pressure with the lineups that have Lydon on the wing.

Roberson -- he is the biggest beneficiary of what Gillon or Howard can do. He is by far our best finisher -- and assists don't happen at the same rate without him.

Thompson -- freshmen with his size, poise and skills don't lose minutes. They get better over the course of a season.

 

[721Comstock]

Liked your OP, and I agree with this one as well. There are reasons not to play Lydon on the wing. You need his strong play in the paint (with the option of him stepping out to the 3 point line). It gives us better balance. When you consider the tough conference games, consider that several teams will pressure our guards, both full court and in the half court. We will want ball handlers and movement on the perimeter -- and Lydon as a relief valve. Not going to handle pressure with the lineups that have Lydon on the wing.

Roberson -- he is the biggest beneficiary of what Gillon or Howard can do. He is by far our best finisher -- and assists don't happen at the same rate without him.

Thompson -- freshmen with his size, poise and skills don't lose minutes. They get better over the course of a season.

It's SOOO nice to see Robey rewarded for running the floor as hard as he always does.
He runs like a gazelle, but none of our prior guards ever got him the ball in transition.

TT - seems to be carving out a CJ Fair-esque Frosh season.
I don't know if he'll get as many minutes as CJ did (he averaged over 18 mins, with 6.4 points/3.8 rebs), since we're much deeper at Forward than that team was, but he'll probably be a similar glue guy/garbage man -
and you always can use a guy like that.