Observations So Far..and Kudos to Crews

[mrjoelabs]

The new offense looks good...at times...when the right players are out there.

Big props to Jimmy tonight for making in game adjustments. This sort of thing has escaped him for a few years. The defense locked down when needed and the correct rotation got back in for offense.

After 2 games, biggest issue I see are the sophs and their progress. It isn't good, so thankfully it is earlier.

But...

Jolly...looks the same..or worse. totally useless

Gillman...looks the same, HUGE 3 tonight though. Upset he didn't put on more weight

Roby...seems to have regressed.

Bartley.....seems to have regressed a bunch

Reynolds...has improved vastly.

Milik....looks the same, but was already good.

So out of 6 sophs, only one really taking a step forward in early looks. That is a bad sign. Jolly is a train wreck.

Other positives. Ash looks like he is ready to have a Jett/Kwamain type "give me the ball when we need a bucket" season. Senior leadership we need. His skills are not where those guys were but the effort is appreciated.

Crawford looks bigger, stronger and ready to be a full time player. Huge if we get 2 solid years out of him.

Reggie is still an enigma

and next practice...3 balls and free throws...please!.

But Chris May..please get rid of that new logo...its really bad.

In summary, A good start. Bring on some cupcakes before louisville...

[SLUfan_42]

It's funny how 3 players I thought would be huge contributors/potential starters in Roby, Bartley, and Gillman have looked less than improved from last year. Each showed promise in their freshman year, but look a little shaky to start their sophomore campaigns. It's early, and I beleive each are too talented to not find their footing.

[SLUfan_42]

Jolly the next John Manning??

[billikenbill]

Manning was always going to be a stiff. Why RM talked him up about the NBA mystified me. Unfortunately for us, Jolly < Manning. He's not an A-10 level player. He's about at the level of the Big Sky Conference or any of the WAC teams below New Mexico State. Why he sees the floor for us defies explanation.

[gravilst]

I don't think Roby has regressed, just don't think we have seen any sign of improvement yet...but its only been 2 games. Bartley was pulled after he fouled a 3 point shooter...yet again. Miles seems to be the best improvement thus far. Aside from MY at FT last night, we improved our %. Seeing MN in person suprised me. He is a lot more filled out that I thought. His biggest issue seems to be getting accustomed to the NCAA rules on defense and getting into foul trouble. Especially this year, I wouldn't be suprised if most freshman have issues with this. But he does have a nice touch and I think he could be a huge contributer down the road. Jolly just looks so lost on defense, and doesn't handle the ball very well.

[Billboy1]

Would agree that Jolly is just taking a roster spot. Have little hope that AG will ever come close to a Rob Loe type. Really impressed with MR so far.

[Bills_06]

Reynolds has looked really good so far. Last year even in the big game he had early he would just run to the rim and hope to get fouled. He is much more in control and running the offense. I'm not worried about Roby yet because it is early and he is a guy that seems to be in the gym all the time working so would be difficult for him not to improve. Just hoping he hasn't had his breakout game yet. Bartley did have the broken foot so that may be a contributor to his slow start as it could be taking him some time to get back.

[mrjoelabs]

Reynolds has looked really good so far. Last year even in the big game he had early he would just run to the rim and hope to get fouled. He is much more in control and running the offense. I'm not worried about Roby yet because it is early and he is a guy that seems to be in the gym all the time working so would be difficult for him not to improve. Just hoping he hasn't had his breakout game yet. Bartley did have the broken foot so that may be a contributor to his slow start as it could be taking him some time to get back.

Forgot about the foot, good call. We can only hope.

[Old guy]

The problem is that his foot was not broken he had and inflammatory disease which was not made clear in detail. Inflammatory conditions can and do recur when the affected site is placed under stress (as in a foot while playing basketball). If this is the case there may be problems with Bartley. Broken bones heal, inflammatory diseases are not the same. We will see

[slufan13]

To be honest, Bartley plays kind of dumb. He fouls way too much and on offense he'll dribble to the same spot every time and pick up his dribble immediately. He did both of those things last year too. He can really shoot but not sure how he fits in to a major role in the rotation at the moment.

[cheeseman]

Anybody on the roster who can consistently stoke the 3 fits in - Bartley has a chance to make his presence felt that way. He was not good last night. Roby brought the ball down often and maybe that throws him off his game some - who knows. Crews did a good job last night but remember who he was up against - a first year coach at an OVC school. Lets see if he can out coach better ones. I do like the offense much better than whatever that was last year.

[DoctorB]

SIUE game showed me something as far as movement on offense. Once they get better with that we will be scoring a lot more than last year. There were periods of stagnation but they were always moving and screening without the ball. work in progress but encouraging this early. The other VERY encouraging aspect is the coach settling on more of a firm line-up/ rotation, and the best 5 that night getting the most minutes. I do not think each play will be getting their 15-18 minutes. I see about 4 or 5 players getting at least 25-30 minutes or more, in most games. I am a bit disappointed in our 3-pt shooting but the movement in the offense is really exciting, and some of the passing has been excellent. It seems like each night there were about 8 or 9 really great dimes in there...

I disagree about MR being the only sophomore showing improvement. That's incorrect. In particular MY is much improved, in several ways. I think sample size on DR is pretty small but he'll be just fine. Bartley missed a lot with the injury. AG is much stronger and more physical, he has a chance to be pretty good by the end of the year. I also would say, all 3 of the upperclass players are improved. I think MN has the tools but I'm not sure how much he will help this year -- earlier I had thought he could do a lot, right away. Patience for all of them is a key, I think.

ps: as for cupcakes, Tuesday night should be entertaining = North Florida; hope we can keep them under 75 to give us a chance!

[jimbofive]

AG is much stronger and more physical, he has a chance to be pretty good by the end of the year.

AG doesn't look any stronger or more physical. If he was, he would get gotdamn rebounds. And be running the gotdamn Mikan drill. If we have this surplus of wings, then why the fuok do we have all our "bigs" floating around on the perimeter? This is yet another symptom of anyone can do anything! Trophies for everyone! Guess what, you big fuoks! You're a big gangly slow-footed fuok. Get under the basket and use your ass like a gotdamn bulldozer.

I assume since you didn't even mention BJ that you're both just nice guys and that's your way of saying that Jolly should not be on the roster and we should all move on. Fair enough.

Bigs gotdamn sucked last night and there's no other way to put it. Yarbrough and Yacoubou want the ball and they gotdamn go and get it.

[kshoe]

I'm generally encouraged by what I've seen so far but in my mind the huge question mark that will make the difference between 14-15 wins and 18-19 wins is whether we can get somebody to step up and play the 5 spot effectively. If nothing else, can someone step up and make it so that Jolly never plays. This could be a combo of Neufield playing better, Gillman playing more minutes, Reggie staying out of foul trouble or Crews getting comfortable with a smaller lineup. This is where the Elliot Whelmer injury really hurts as he could have taken a lot of Jolly's minutes.

I'm very pleased with what Reynolds has done at the point spot. He'll undoubtedly have some rough games but so far he's done some really nice things. As others said, we need to find ways to get Bartley into the mix.

[TheChosenOne]

Reynolds has looked really good so far. Last year even in the big game he had early he would just run to the rim and hope to get fouled. He is much more in control and running the offense. I'm not worried about Roby yet because it is early and he is a guy that seems to be in the gym all the time working so would be difficult for him not to improve. Just hoping he hasn't had his breakout game yet. Bartley did have the broken foot so that may be a contributor to his slow start as it could be taking him some time to get back.

Ash has been the most impressive player for me, but Reynolds would probably be #2 (tied with Milik I guess, but Milik looks pretty similar to last season so far). Miles is playing much more under control (still has moments where he drives the lane out of control and almost appears to be just seeking contact to draw a foul, but those are limited thus far). I am not sure how much I agree that he is really facilitating offense, but his energy and ability to penetrate have been big for us. He has also proven to be disruptive on defense and gives us a guy who can run in transition. Definitely been a pleasant surprise.

I don't think I would say the team is better than I expected, but it is certainly not worse. We still have similar issues as last season, but the offense at times shows signs of being improved with good movement and guys attacking. Completely agree with kshoe's post above about the need to figure out the 5 position (I would strongly consider playing small and turning up the tempo).

[JMM28]

My observation so far - seems better than last year, but have only played sub-300 teams. North Florida is probably a legitimate top 100 team and a team that would be mid-pack A10 so that will be a decent marker of progress.

[Pistol]

Yeah, this is about where I thought we'd be - I guessed 13 wins and had both of these (and the next one) in the W column. I didn't think they'd be pretty, either, and that's pretty much been the case. We've closed out both strong, which is good, but had some really poor stretches, as well.

I thought Roby, Gillmann, and Bartley would look better but Gillmann looks the same and the other two appear to have regressed. I also thought Bishop and Hines would have at least small roles and that obviously has not been the case.

I didn't think Reynolds would be as solid as he has been, nor did I know if Ash would ever harness his abilities as usefully as he's done.

Otherwise, the early going has about lined up with my own expectations.

[Old guy]

Thinking about Reynolds and Bartley with Bartley becoming more active as the season progresses, I would like to point out that we have Bishop who should optimally be getting his feet wet this season. I think this kid has a lot of potential and would like to see him getting some playing experience this year.

[ACE]

On the first game, Scott Highmark credited Larry Hughes for some of his offseason work with Ash When is the last time we had two players get double-doubles in the same game? MY has gotten rid of some of baby fat and looks more under control in the early going. MR has allowed us to play more uptempo. MB may be a bit behind due to the injury. MY, DR and MB all coming off the bench is potentially very strong. Since the 5 appears to be a problem, our best lineup may be to go small with RA at the 5.

[majerus mojo]

We played SIUE to a 50-50 game before having a nice stretch to close them out. Ash grabbed 15 boards because a.) our bigs can't and b.) he was out-jumping some borderline D2 athletes. Nice to get a W, but hard to take away a lot of positives going forward. If Reynolds can keep this up into the conference slate he will be nothing short of a revelation at the PG position.

[majerus mojo]

Also totally agree with going small with RA at the 5

[wgstl]

I dont remember the last time I saw so many fast breaks.

[Pistol]

Also totally agree with going small with RA at the 5

So then what to do we do against Louisville and its frontcourt? If our toothpick centers are too weak to stop them (and they are) and our "power" forwards are too small (and they are), what's the answer? Louisville's bigs in the rotation are 6-10, 245; 6-9, 225; 6-10, 220 and they have a 6-7, 200+ kid on the wing, not to mention a couple 7-footers on the bench.

We won't have the luxury of being able to go small against everyone.

[thetorch]

With our wing heavy team it is time to go with a 4 guard lineup. Let Yarbrough play the 5. The only downside is we only have 1 guard Miles who can matchup against opposing teams pgs even adequately.

I had this game as a possible loss so a step up in my expectations for the team. My prediction of less than 10 wins still stands but 11-13 may be more in line now.

[thetorch]

So then what to do we do against Louisville and its frontcourt? If our toothpick centers are too weak to stop them (and they are) and our "power" forwards are too small (and they are), what's the answer? Louisville's bigs in the rotation are 6-10, 245; 6-9, 225; 6-10, 220 and they have a 6-7, 200+ kid on the wing, not to mention a couple 7-footers on the bench.

We won't have the luxury of being able to go small against everyone.

We have to play our best lineup. Let other teams adjust to us. Sure elite teams' bigs will be able to run with us but they would beat us with our regular lineup in anyways.