The Upside- St. Bonaventure

[SWC75]

- The second half looked like the Indian game in the NCAAs. Our two fifth year seniors, Gbinije and Cooney, made one drive to the basket after another to score, (they got 41 points between them), to lead the team to victory.

- G-man looked like an All-America and NBA player in the second half, completely taking over the game and making big shot after big shot, from 25 in to a lay-up, with scoop shots and floaters in between. We’ll need him to do that for 31+ games.

- I’ve always felt Trevor Cooney was a good all-around guard forced in the mold of a three point specialist. His game is so much better when he just plays, incorporating pull-ups and drives to the basket. He’s terrific at playing the passing lanes, with tremendous anticipation. He can pass the ball rebound a bit. He’s so much more than a gunner and so much less than one when that’s all he tries to be.

- Tyler Lydon is a Bunson burner: he adds energy to the game whenever he enters it. He is a forward by trade but he’s also easily our best center right now- and it isn’t even close. He’s more mobile and more kinetic on both offense and defense and is a better rebounder. He’s also more versatile. His dramatic drive to a three point play in the first half was probably the best, most athletic play of the night. Then in the second half he hit the three-pointer to tie it and the three that gave us a 10 point lead with 3:42 to go and victory in sight. He’s already better this year than the much-heralded Chris McCullough ever was last year. He’s going to be a mainstay for the team all year. (As to future years, we’ll have to see.)

- Malachi Richardson has a tendency to appear and then disappear for a while and then reappear. But he has a lot of skills. He can hit from outside, drive to the bucket and pass the ball, although JB would probably not want to look at any more no look passes. (It has two meanings: the passer didn’t look at his target and you don’t want to see the results.) But with Gbinije, Cooney and Lydon, he gives us four good players who I think will be productive in every game this year. That’s a great nucleus.

- And Tyler Roberson can join that group. He’s in JB’s dog house right now, not because he lacks ability but precisely because he has it. He contributed little in the first game not much more early in this one. But he came on to lead the team in rebounding with 12. He can do more offensively and defensively. When he gets to the point where he’s making JB happy, we’ll all be very happy.

2-0 and 29 to go…

LET’S GO ORANGE!

 

[thebigeast44]

Let's not forget that Chris Mccullough averaged 14.4 points and 8.8 rebounds in his first 8 games last year.

 

[Libero2]

Let's not forget that Chris Mccullough averaged 14.4 points and 8.8 rebounds in his first 8 games last year.

Agreed. He really was awesome early on in the "cupcake" portion of the schedule. Then he fell off miserably, and then tore his ACL and left us behind for what he hopes is bigger and better things.

 

[SoBristol]

Lydon and McCullough are very different in their skill set. Lydon is clearly the better outside shooter. In other dimensions of a PF (or sub at C), McCullough was better.

It is slightly misleading to label Lydon as playing C for us, if you mean C on offense. He takes the middle on defense, but on offense, he is like a Wisconsin big -- the tall forward who lives at the top of the key, and rarely in the low post. When he is paired with Roberson, we are playing with 2 comparable forwards, a swing, and 2 guards. With Coleman in the game, Lydon is playing the 4.

 

[MSOrange]

Another upside is the doctor put me on blood pressure medicine this past March. I have a feeling that might save me this season! I'll take the win but I'm not sensing we're going to coast to many victories this year.

 

[Dave85]

It did not feel like a cupcake. St. Bs was blistering the nets from three and making really nice interior passes to break down our zone. I thought St. Bs played very well.

This is a big learning game. That second half allowed TL and MR to get a real taste of Dome madness. Once you get hooked on that drug you just want more and more. The real test is which team will we see play the first half the next game. The first half St.Bs team or the second half St.Bs team. This team has to learn how to play on fire from the get-go.

 

[bballbeadle]

It did not feel like a cupcake. St. Bs was blistering the nets from three and making really nice interior passes to break down our zone. I thought St. Bs played very well.

This is a big learning game. That second half allowed TL and MR to get a real taste of Dome madness. Once you get hooked on that drug you just want more and more. The real test is which team will we see play the first half the next game. The first half St.Bs team or the second half St.Bs team. This team has to learn how to play on fire from the get-go.

Isn't it weird, but it seems our teams never play on fire from the get go. Even our magnificent Fab Melo (urp!) team seemed lackadaisical and then suddenly, they would go on "the run" and score 16 straight points. With that team, I never worried when we fell behind early because I knew they would go on "the run." In general, we seem to have slow starting teams, and it makes me very anxious.

I can't remember if our 2003 team was slow starting, but I am betting we weren't.

 

[SWC75]

Lydon and McCullough are very different in their skill set. Lydon is clearly the better outside shooter. In other dimensions of a PF (or sub at C), McCullough was better.

It is slightly misleading to label Lydon as playing C for us, if you mean C on offense. He takes the middle on defense, but on offense, he is like a Wisconsin big -- the tall forward who lives at the top of the key, and rarely in the low post. When he is paired with Roberson, we are playing with 2 comparable forwards, a swing, and 2 guards. With Coleman in the game, Lydon is playing the 4.

I never had the reaction to McCullough that I had in watching Lydon play last night. McCullough looked promising. Lydon looked like a mainstay of the team from the get-go.

 

[SWC75]

It did not feel like a cupcake. St. Bs was blistering the nets from three and making really nice interior passes to break down our zone. I thought St. Bs played very well.

This is a big learning game. That second half allowed TL and MR to get a real taste of Dome madness. Once you get hooked on that drug you just want more and more. The real test is which team will we see play the first half the next game. The first half St.Bs team or the second half St.Bs team. This team has to learn how to play on fire from the get-go.

Which team are you analyzing?

 

[SoBristol]

I never had the reaction to McCullough that I had in watching Lydon play last night. McCullough looked promising. Lydon looked like a mainstay of the team from the get-go.

Opinions will vary on this -- but again, I suspect you are talking offense, not defense.
Lydon is a good shot blocker, but McCullough was better. McCullough could hold his own at C on defense. If you check the reviews from the OOC games last season, McCullough was whatever is two steps above "mainstay".