Outside of Castleton, I would have liked to see a bit more from the players who were here last year, including Reeves. Also saw few drives from the guards, pick and rolls, or back door cuts. 1st game though. Castleton, Fudge, Reeves, Ric
Todd actually looked a bit uncomfortable post game, very unlike him. Kept looking down at his pages and repeating how we played with purpose. to the game, good night overall. Lots to work on. Still too careless with the ball, had 10 TOs playing against a zone defense and an inferior team. Some bad/rushed shots, especially in the first half (which Golden mentioned post game), overplayed on defense a bunch of times that led to good shots and open cuts for SB. but on the plus side, Fudge looked great, Lofton was as advertised and CC is a beast. That’s a good nucleus if they can find the other two spots. Offensive spacing is back! We didn’t play a true five out, but hard to tell how much of that was because of the zone. We controlled the defensive boards, which was a good sign. And we didn’t have our usual 8 minute lull, which I will take all day. Rotationally Colin came out at the 14 minute mark of each half, so I would assume that will be the pattern going forward. And one other thing, I won’t mention names to protect the innocent, but one player came in, made three bad plays in a row and went right back to the bench for 20 plus minutes. Will be nice to see some accountability back. Be interesting to see the growth in game 2, and how we play against man.
does anyone know if there is a link to the highlights? Floridagators.com doesn't have it for some reason
Yeah, to me the biggest difference was ball and player movement. Annoying that they played zone the whole game. I would have liked to see more of the offense against man defense. All in all, I really liked what I saw.
Definitely nice to see all the new faces, and to take care of business in game 1. Hard to make too much of the game itself as clearly Stonybrook was outmatched (and shorthanded?). I’m sure the coaches still make use of the game tape.
Fun game last night, but not sure what we can take from it, for reasons others have said (opponent, zone, first game, etc.). Castleton's passing impressed me more than even his defense or his low post scoring. Absolutely love him running things out of the high post and think he slays it in our Princeton stuff. Fudge was also pretty dynamic out of the high post and you can see the massive upside, though he had a ton of missed assignments on switches and cuts defensively. Even Felder I thought was solid on both ends. Lofton is going to be a huge asset this year. Will never get lots of flashy stats, but he silently and steadily runs the show, makes smart decisions, and plays consistently at both ends. Bonham is a total midget, but that dude is always around the ball. He is more of a pick and roll/transition guy who really struggles with a zone because of his size and game. Was hoping to see more of Kugel, but that dude looks the part: big, strong, athletic, wicked hops, unselfish with the ball, makes good reads (if not always good passes), and defends well. Hard for me to imagine Lane and Jones staying in front of him given their ongoing struggles offensively. That wing rotation will be the first to thin out. Richard was precisely what I expected (smooth, efficient, productive complementary player) but Kowacie looked like he was pressing. IMO, he is the absolute key to the season. He is about the only elite level scorer we have on this team. I don't think he played poorly at all, but he never seemed comfortable finding his spots offensively. He should be much better against m2m and get some of those looks our bigs gobbled up out of the high post. Can't wait for Friday, man. Want to see if Kugel gets more time and if Jitoboh, Jones, and Lane can produce when they are on the floor. IMO, those four are ultimately fighting for the 8-9 spots in the rotation (you could arguably add Bonham to that equation, but sounds like the staff likes what he brings off the bench behind Lofton).
Nice take. I did not even notice this at the time and had to go back to the box score to see who you were talking about. Golden kinda hinted at the response in his presser to that ("making my job easier"). Hope the kid takes that well and responds.
