Absolutely love how he fit in last night. Just the perfect complement to what we have. Plays with such great pace, never gets out of control or too sped up. Kugel and Clayton get going so fast downhill that they sometimes have a hard time reading the help and making adjustments, but that looked like Pullin's strength. Was also surprised at how strong and physical he played, defensively and on the glass. Just reminds me a lot of Newton from UConn last year. May not always hit his jumpers, but is solid at both ends and gets the offensive settled in the halfcourt. Golden mentioned getting a fifth perimeter player involved going forward. I suspect that will be Rishwain. The two areas we've struggled so far have been with turnovers (especially live ball) and perimeter shooting. Rishwain is particularly solid in both of those areas. Was second and third best in the rotation at SF under Golden in turnover rate, and hasn't committed on yet in three minutes here. And he of course is an elite shooter.
He looks like one of those mature, experienced, smart, skilled, tough point guards we see in the final 4 every year.
Rishwain has been quite good, considering he just got back from a serious injury and could put in very little time over the better part of the year.
And he was. Pullin is similar in terms of pace, mid range game, experience, etc, but he is longer, more athletic, and more dynamic off the bounce.
The way Pullin handled himself after being thrown down in a headlock was pretty impressive. Not only that, the rest of the team kept their cool. A few on last years team probably would have been ejected. Kugel has been close to a couple of tech’s with some cheap crap……he needs to grow up quickly.
I wonder how long it will take for Golden to put Pullen in the starting lineup, and when that happens who becomes the sixth man?
I would think it would be Richard (previously listed Clayton in error) as the sixth man but he will be on the court at the end of close games. Interesting he played 35 minutes against FSU…..the next highest was Kugel’s 30.
The difference is day and night IMO. Lofton to me looked like old school Mark Jackson at the point...Not a good fit for today's game. Too soon to know Pullin's ceiling, but he's legit and his floor is much higher than any recent PG we've had.
My take is that they aren’t gonna make changes until they see how this works out for a few games. Who says Pulllin has to start? He is gonna play the same number of minutes regardless. Maybe bringing such an experienced, steady guy off the bench actually helps the freshmen bigs when they hit the floor. The next month or so should give Golden some changes to experiment a bit. Besides, it’s not like we have started off games poorly. We pretty much dominated the first 5-10 minutes in 3 of our 4 games so far.
Yes, but after just a few games last year, which was my point, I was feeling like Lofton was that steadying force we needed at point guard, unlike Appleby. By the end of the year I wasn't that high on Lofton.
IMO, different level of play. The "gimmies" were over when he hit the floor. And recall, he hit the game-winning shot against a feisty and quality Miami team...allegedly. We have us a damn good 1. Clayton is 1.5. The real question is, who will be the 3?
Indeed. Pullin will be better on the court than AN was for us (he played better after the transfer). Not a knock to AN, just like Pullin’s PG skills
I mean right now it should be Kugel, but I like rserina's suggestion that we keep things the same and bring Pullin off the bench.
Hmm. It would never have made me think of Weaks, who was a tremendous shooter but just average in other areas.
