• Too early to bother checking to see if this is statistically accurate, but this may be the worst rebounding team i've ever seen. Only Taylor and Copeland have any real nose for the ball.
• McLeod is a major problem. I've said before that i was very enthusiastic about what he could be—something like what Fab Melo did for us—but, he is horrendous as a rebounder. He is anti-rebound. Please go back and watch the first half of this game. Just focus on him. He's defending a jump shot. The shot goes up. His focus is then locked on the guy who shot the ball, and he follows the offensive player away from the ball. He doesn't even look to track the ball. He doesn't even seem to always be aware the shot has gone up. It's as if he has been programmed to block out, and only block out, and the ball is someone else's responsibility. This is not an exaggeration. Please, watch the 'tape.' Naheem needs to figure out how to get rebounds. I had him down for one rebound today. ONE. And it was one that bounced on the floor first. I had many rebounds just go past him, within reach, because he wasn't ready or even looking. Inexcusable. If he gets 8-10, we're a much better team. Much.
I really need someone to tell him to forget about blocking out. The ball goes up and now your responsibility is to turn and attack the ball. Forget the shooter. The shooter has to go around and/or over you and you're 7'4". Just get the ball.
• I'm done with Griffin as the bigs coach. It's just not working. And it's most evident on what i just wrote. That performance in that aspect of his game is inexcusable. The argument in favor of former guards coaching centers seems to be, 'Well, Duke has a staff of guards and their power players go to the NBA.' But, their players start out in the top 25 and all they have to do is not slip. We're trying to develop 'projects,' and we don't have the experience or intuition to do so.
• This was a difficult game to watch. Tennessee is overrated at #7—they play tremendous physical defense, and 'Konnect' is a good college player, but that's it. No NBA talent, no elite skill or talent. And it was encouraging to see us stay within arms length for so long. But, they're tougher than we are. We don't have a dog on the team. We don't have a physical advantage at any position. Even our 7'4" mountain is soft. And that's not so harmful when we are running and 'out-quicking' the opponent, but when it's a rock fight, we are going to get beaten up.
• Coaching—okay, it's early. But, aside from running (mostly m2m), i'm seeing a lot of the same fundamental problems that plagued us over the past ten-ish years under JB. We just never look like the smarter, better-drilled, more focused team. Sometimes it looks like we've had less practice time or something. Or like we're composed of transfers who have never played together. We somewhat are, but so is everyone else. That's the state of the game. Not sure what to make of Red at this point. I wanted us to go outside for a hire, because i expected that many of our problems would just continue with the same coaching staff. I'm still seeing that. But, i think we have headroom, and it just may be that we're going to develop and evolve slowly because head coaches don't go from zero to 100 'overnight.' Too soon to tell, and we have to put some of the stuff that looks like 'bad coaching' on the players who are out there executing without high ball IQ. Some. A lot of it is training, though. And schemes. And our training and schemes look insufficient right now.
• The rotation was baffling. Not sure i want to see Peter Carey in the game with 8+ minutes in the first half, against a quality, strong opponent. He was not ready. Did he hit the side of the backboard with that 6' jumper? I guess Hima is still hobbling. That's scary. Malik—as many of us have said—is not a good solution at 5, either. For every solid defensive play or steal, he gets abused twice. Benny probably needs to be back in the starting rotation. Taylor needs a lot of space to get shots off, and we don't have the offensive scheme to provide that for him at the moment. Benny seems to be able to shoot midrange or threes, and will at least put the ball on the floor semi-effectively if he has to.
• I'm sick of the 'weave' play outside of the 3-line, where zero penetration happens and eventually it's Naheem initiating a play at the top of the circle. Our picks are completely ineffective.
• Please tell me JJ's jumper didn't look like that in high school and college. I don't remember it being that funky/bad in the clips i saw. I thought we had a great outside shooter, but good lord, he is not that now. And that wrecks his driving game. He's going to need both to be successful. Malik took a three today. Never thought i'd see that. I don't want to see it again. I guess he's been practicing well...
• We didn't get destroyed. I think a lot of that is 'heart' and a lot was that Tennessee isn't 'all that.' Not sure what this game really demonstrated, though, in terms of the direct competition between these two teams. It was officiated badly. Judah basically didn't play in the first, and Knecht didn't play a lot in the second. And i don't know what the role was of the guy who got injured early in the game. But, we weren't destroyed. That's my takeaway. Not destroyed, plenty of headroom. But, we are going to need our outside game to be better. We need better shooting from Justin and JJ. Copeland has to stop being sloppy.
