Exhibition Game

[Old guy]

I just came back home from the game and these are my impressions about it. First disclaimers: I do not know much about the technical aspects of basketball playing. I know Greenville was a DIII team, and I know DI is a different animal. That said, let's proceed:

First of all Greenville is not a bad team. They had a lot of players that could shoot 3 pointers with no difficulty and they were trying to play a homegrown copy of VCU's havoc with lower quality players. The tempo was very fast and they were trying to block our guys and grab the ball, and cause us to make mistakes every single second of the game. There were fouls galore and turnovers galore for both teams with several players fouling out of play (for both teams). All of their players were listed as Juniors or Seniors.

What was important for me was to see the team play, I have not checked the stats either so what I am going to say is just my visual impression:

Mike Crawford, played well with absolutely no sign of limitations, this was a very good thing to see. Let us hope it remains that way after the first regular games, then we may have a better season than what has been predicted for us. Mike was fast, active, scored a pile of points and did very well. One thing was that he missed a number of 3 point attempts. Again no sign of limiations.

Reggie played very well, was particularly noticeable by his rebounds but made a lot of points and was very effective in countering them. 

Roby was a disappointment for me. Attempted a number of shots without making them, low scoring. Was very good with ball handling and played effectively for the team, may be a very good defender, did not see the stats yet. Low scoring.

Bishop, played very well, very fast and took over play, at least at times. Good passer, high scoring. Big problem, he fell at one point in the game because one foot gave up and could not walk well after this. Came out of the game got taped and tried playing again with again no success. Then they took him back to the lockers and did something or the other to his foot. He managed to play the rest of the game nicely. The issue here is what is going on, and is this a recurrence of whatever it was that kept him from practice recently, also long term effects.

Gilmann was labelled by my wife as the new Jolly of the team. He was semi lost in there, would miss set ups from underneath the basket with no defenders anywhere close and just did not seem to want to ge the ball in his hands. He did score towards the end of the game, but in my opinion he was the worst of all the bigs in there.

Neufeld, did better than Gilmann, whatever that may mean to you. Moved better and acted better in the court. Could not get a field goal in for the love of God, needs to  practice a lot in this regard. Did not score as high as Gilmann but I thought he played better. 

Hines played a lot this game, scored a lot was very fast and could handle the ball well. I know he cannot do well against bigger better organized opposition but I think it is good to have him in reserve if Bishop is out of comission. He scored a lot of points

The new guys:

Wellmer played very well, mixed into the fray, rebounded, blocked and scored, did handle the ball well. I think he is by far the best of the bigs we have and look forward to see him developing into his full potential as a player, this was his first full college game. Scored well and shoots free throws well. Liked him a lot.

Moore and Johnson. I liked them a lot. Appeared a bit shocked, shy, and out of it initially, but later on in the game they opened up and started playing. I thought they played very well for their first college game. They both scored a lot and took part fully in the action around the basket. They both can shoot free throws. I liked both a lot and look forward to see them developing into full players at DI.

One last thing, this game had lots of turnovers and fouls on both sides. Greenville may well be the DIII version of VCU, and one thing I noted every single one of their very numerous players ran over to shake Ford's hand before the start of the game. I know they are DIII but this was a good test for our team that allowed them to start moving out of the Crew's mold in play.

This was my impression of the game and how our kids played. The most important thing I saw was Crawford playing fully and with no noticeable limitations, again let's hope he stays that way for the rest of the season.

[Billikenswin]

25 minutes ago, Old guy said:

I just came back home from the game and these are my impressions about it. First disclaimers: I do not know much about the technical aspects of basketball playing.

 

I agree with your comments about the technical aspects of basketball. Gillman played much better than Neufeld. He was active, made some nice passes against the press, blocked some shots and really looked better than last year. He had a couple of time where he got too far under the basket but one was due to a late pass. Overall, he played long minutes in a hectic running game and even at the end he was going for steals as the back man on the press. Matt did very little.

[AnkielBreakers]

13 minutes ago, Billikenswin said:

I agree with your comments about the technical aspects of basketball. 

So, you prefer the backhand? 

[White Pelican]

I don't know what impressions can be had of a run-and-gun game against a DIII team but my goodness, this ain't your Uncle Rick's basketball team any more. I don't think I ever looked at the shot clock the entire game. Neither team had the ball long enough for it to come into play. I don't think we're gonna be very good this year, but it ought to be entertaining if tonight was any indication.

[johnbj14]

3 hours ago, CBFan said:

Giordanos 5 6 blocks from the Chicago Hilton, do you recommend Gino's?

Gino's is trash. Get Lou Malnati's. Or Pequods. 

[CBFan]

5 hours ago, johnbj14 said:

Gino's is trash. Get Lou Malnati's. Or Pequods. 

Thank you for tip I will be in Chicago through Wednesday and try one of them.