GDT - Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers

[stmdragons]

62-53 Bills. 11:12 left

[mrjoelabs]

Where is Big Bruce?  Is he hurt?  Hasn’t stepped on the floor 

[billikenbill]

Just now, mrjoelabs said:

Where is Big Bruce?  Is he hurt?  Hasn’t stepped on the floor 

Hurt. Looks like mid-November for his debut, assuming he’s eligible.

[stmdragons]

We are getting a favorable whistle, to put it mildly. 

[billikenbill]

Larry Hughes II = Baller.

[billikenbill]

Dalger, Jam Time!! Up 69-54. KWC has gone cold.

[billikenbill]

Gibby misses another 3, and a 5-0 bad guy run cuts it to 10.

[Adman]

Bills up 81-68 at 4:00.  Gibby now with 21.

[stmdragons]

85-75 final. In a word, uninspiring. 

[VeniceMenace]

1 minute ago, stmdragons said:

85-75 final. In a word, uninspiring. 

No SVB, no Magassa, no Ezwiro, no Zhang and no D…where’’s the I Wanna Die dolphin?

[slu72]

No bigs played, so hard to judge what we got. Not worried about Gibby’s 3’s. They’ll come. Impressive 3 pt shooting by Jr. 

[gabriel]

Appreciate the updates tonight. A lot of new pieces, we'll start gelling.

[Dr. Holly Hills]

Well… no one blew out a knee so that’s good.  

[Westy03]

3 minutes ago, gabriel said:

Appreciate the updates tonight. A lot of new pieces, we'll start gelling.

There’s only so much gelling you can do when Jimerson and Hargrove are your power forward and center. It’s going to be a long year…

[gobillsgo]

Hard to put a lot of stock into that performance since none of our bigs suited up.  If none are eligible we are in big big trouble obviously. 
 

some positives:

Gibson is still good. LHJ can really shoot it. Dalger moves well, very fast for a bigger body. Medley did a lot of things well, scoring will come.  Thames is bouncy. 

[wgstl]

My bad take after one exh game.

Dalger has to improve. Not even an option. He doesn’t crack a short rotation if this was a normal thing.

Cian, I like what I see there. Has a lot to improve on, such as staying in front of his man. But his passing is quality.

Meadows. Not quite as bad as dalger was tonight, But really just blah. Want him to drive more.

THJ is what we know, just a few pounds stronger.

Gibby the same, needed to add a mid range game, if so, wasn’t shown tonight 

LHJ, similar to last year but with more confidence. Want to see him add another game to his offense other than outside.

parker, he’s gonna score a lot. Aggressive driving. Him and Gibby will likely make up 40% of our scoring.

Thames I think is very useful in a fast up tempo system, on a half court setup I can’t see him being all that effective .

I know tonight wasn’t our real defense. Too many quick rotations etc, but we are rather screwed without the blessings of the ncaa committee. 12 wins looks to be about it if this is what we have. A really bad D1 team will have an absolute field day down low. 

[billiken_roy]

Can't argue with anything wgstl writes 

Hargrove tried hard but he's just not an inside player.   I don't know where it ended up but late in the game we had only 3 offensive rebounds. 

Our defense was flat out bad.   Kentucky Wesy got to the lane constantly.  

Will someone explain why we never doubled down on the slow hefty kid that just would 5th grade bully himself to the basket for bunny baskets?

Parker is a scorer.  The Billikens ran a couple of iso plays for him to drive to the lane.   He's going to be fun to watch with the ball, but I recommend you close your eyes when he's guarding the ball.

Young Hughes appears to me to be the best shooter on the team.   His shot is textbook beautiful.   His activity on defense is fun to watch.   He's a player.

Medley is fast.   Medley is a very good passer.  Medley is very little.

We had glimpses of good but all in all nothing screams this is a good team.

The 4 bigs not dressed are big.   They would have to improve the team.  Imo our size is the biggest downfall 

[Adman]

9 minutes ago, wgstl said:

A really bad D1 team will have an absolute field day down low. 

A D2 team had a field day down low tonight. We had no answer. I was surprised our guards didn’t double down in the paint. Make them beat us outside.

It was mostly fun to watch for a first game. Lots of hustle on D, presses, they played fast. But it could be a long year if the 5 isn’t fixed.

[3star_recruit]

Tonight our guys played a practice game against a mediocre team with a decent big.  The only players on our team with a reputation for good defense are Hughes, Thames and Medley, a true freshman.  None of our bigs played.  We already knew our defense would be meh.

Other than Jimerson and Parker going 1-9 from three, the game played out according to script. The incoming vets were solid but unspectacular.  Medley was our best facilitator in his debut.  The other guys did what we knew they were capable of.  We shot free throws well.

It's good to have Billiken basketball again.  Onward and upward.

 

[Soderball]

2 hours ago, billikenbill said:

Not so fast my friend. 7-0 run over the last 1:07 and the Bills are up 7.

We need our players to be eligible. A Frontline of Gibson Jimerson and TJ Hargrove is not good.

[HoosierPal]

Point guards had 6 assists and no turnovers. 
Dalger did an admirable job as the backup in the post. That’s not where he will play once we get our centers cleared and healthy. His 8 boards lead the team. 
Thames with 7 boards in 10 minutes was impressive. 

[wgstl]

10 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Tonight our guys played a practice game against a mediocre team with a decent big. 

 

This description has me thinking it’s UTEP or Maine. Not a D2 school. 

[wgstl]

12 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Point guards had 6 assists and no turnovers. 
Dalger did an admirable job as the backup in the post. That’s not where he will play once we get our centers cleared and healthy. His 8 boards lead the team. 
Thames with 7 boards in 10 minutes was impressive. 

Love the optimism Hoosier.  I don’t share it but that would be a huge win at this point 

[3star_recruit]

5 minutes ago, wgstl said:

This description has me thinking it’s UTEP or Maine. Not a D2 school. 

Considering this team lost to an eventual top 15 team last year in the same manner that UTEP would, there isn't much difference.

[wgstl]

7 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Considering this team lost to an eventual top 15 team last year in the same manner that UTEP would, there isn't much difference.

That’s fair, but using mediocre because of what they may have done last year is sugarcoating.  it may be worth revising that beating a division 2 school like them by double digits, while shorthanded may not be the worst thing..