bleedingTNorange
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1. Have to start with Q. Many were excited to see him, and the ones who have seen him play some were even more excited, well he didnt dissapoint. He went out there and was an absolute stat sheet stuffer; 15pts 9rbd 6ast 3stl 1to 6/9fg 2/2 3pt 1/1ft, you couldnt ask for anymore. He is as scrappy as they come, gives 100% on both ends of the floor, and showed the ability to knock down the 3 point shot. Whether its at the 4 while Jeronne is out, or at the 3 when Jeronne gets back, i expect Q to be a guy who sees decent minutes on a nightly basis.
2. That is what you want to see from Trae. 8pts 8ast 5rbd 0to in just 20 minutes. He looked a step quicker to me tonight, their PG was pretty quick and trae didnt get burnt like he would've last year. As Cuonzo stated post game, Trae led the team like he's supposed to. If we can get 10pts 7ast 5rbd a night from Trae, while keeping his turnovers down to 2 or so, he will be leading us to many victories.
3. I think our backup PG position is in much better shape than this time last year. Now, i will say Armani does seem a bit shaky with his dribble when pressed, and hes quick to give up his dribble. However, only 1 turnover in 20 minutes in his first action isnt anything to sneeze about. He showed a good ability to drive the lane, and finish, but his greatest attribute was defensively. He had 3 steals, and 5 rebounds from the PG position, and really harrased the teams opposing PG with his length, i am really excited about his future here and the opportunity he's going to have learning under Trae.
4. Defensively it was about what you'd expect. The first half, mainly the first 10 minutes, they were making some shots and we looked a step slow. The second half we ramped it up, and really took control and ended up forcing them into 25 turnovers as a team, something we had trouble doing last year. That leads me to this, 14 steals as a team for us tonight, seems very high, off the top of my head im guessing we didnt have that many in any game last year...
5. Cuonzo Martin has to be pleased with the overall perception and numbers from the game, its exactly what he wants on a nightly basis. Hold your opponent under 60 points, check. Hold your opponent under 40% from the field, check. Shoot 45+% as a team, check. Shoot 35+% from 3 as a team, check. Have less than 10 turnovers, check. Win the rebounding battle, check. These are all areas that Cuonzo emphasises and wants to see, we really excelled in all areas.
6. This could be tied into 5, but it was such an issue last year that i think it deserves its own....24 assists tonight to 8 turnovers.....that's a 3:1 assist:turnover ratio, thats freaking incredible for a team, and is part of the blueprint Cuonzo is looking for. Now a big part of that on a nightly basis will be Trae, and as discussed above he did an incredible job tonight of taking care of the ball. As a team, if we can stay around the 10 or less turnovers a night, and 2:1 ratio, it's going to be a great season.
7. Have the hours in the gym paid off, tonight they did. Last year we were um, sporadic to say the least from 3. Teams started zoning us to take away our interior strengths, and we simply couldnt make them pay. Tonight as a team we shot 43% from 3 on 9/21 shooting, thats a number Cuonzo would take on a nightly basis. Skylar Mcbee did exactly what we need him to do, he hit the open threes. He ended up 3-6 (50%, cant complain about that) but 2 of his misses were contested, he did what we all are wanting, hit the open threes when the ball is kicked out to him. If this team can hit those open threes, and as a team shoot up around 35+% from 3, they will be very hard to stop offensively.
8. I'll bunch this into one...Josh, Jordan and D'montre...i thought all 3 guys played ok, had their moments, but also had some bad moments. Good news is Josh hit some shots, showed some confidence offensively...Jordan showed a little better form on his shot, and looked willing to play defense...D'montre isnt going to blow anyone away, but he's a fundamentally sound guy, who is going to play defense, rebound the ball, and make a few shots. I think you're going to see a constant competition at the wing position, and hopefully all these guys welcome the competition and improve because of it.
9. There always is going to be a negative, and for me tonight it was Yemi and Kenny. How Kenny Hall manages to finish the game with 1 rebound is frustrating, he is a senior and still hasnt learned how to properly box out...it's no longer coaching im afraid and is just all upstairs, im pretty convinced he just doesnt get it. That perimiter shot we all heard about, yea i didnt see that either, including in warmups. As for Yemi, he just looks much of the same to me...the silly fouls, that just dont need to be made he's still making. He showed a nice hook shot late in the game, but other than that he showed no improvements offensively. If Jeronne is going to be out for any period of time atleast one of these guys needs to step up.
10. GET JARNELL THE BALL!!! Ok well it'd help if Jarnell was on the floor. Memo to Jarnell: with maymon on the sidelines injured, we cant afford you picking up early fouls and spending the majority of the night on the bench. I would like to see a more determined rebounding effort from Jarnell as well, where he goes after every ball, he should be a double double guy every night, MINIMUM. The get the ball to him was mainly the first half, 2nd half they got it to him, he went to work, then found a seat on the bench because of fouls. However, the guards continued to get the ball inside after he exited so i feel better about that part of the game than i did early on. Even with all the negative about Jarnell in this paragraph, he shot over 50% from the field, and had 9 points in 10 minutes...multiply his numbers to 30 minutes like you'd like him to play and he probably puts up 25. He is just that good though, and that much stronger than everyone...the 3 or 4 times he actually posted up and called for the ball, his man stood no chance, he bullied him to where he wanted to get, and put the ball in the hole. I'd like to see Jarnell get about 15-18 shots against Kennessaw State, assuming he plays 25-30 minutes, he's simply that good and talented he needs that many touches with maymon on the sidelines.
11. Which leads me to my final point. We played a great game, couldve definitely won by more, but we played our best guys very limited minutes, with an ALL-SEC forward on the sideline. Jeronne is a leader, he keeps things flowing offensively and defensively, and he is very vocal out there...this team went out and played great defense, executed on offense, and played probably an A- game, all while arguably their best all around player didnt even see the floor. These types of games get sloppy very easily, and that's probably the biggest thing i take away from this....the 24 assists to 8 turnovers and Trae going 8 assists and 0 turnovers...those numbers just really excite me, and to think things will just get easier when Jeronne returns.
So happy basketball season is here, GO VOLS!
2. That is what you want to see from Trae. 8pts 8ast 5rbd 0to in just 20 minutes. He looked a step quicker to me tonight, their PG was pretty quick and trae didnt get burnt like he would've last year. As Cuonzo stated post game, Trae led the team like he's supposed to. If we can get 10pts 7ast 5rbd a night from Trae, while keeping his turnovers down to 2 or so, he will be leading us to many victories.
3. I think our backup PG position is in much better shape than this time last year. Now, i will say Armani does seem a bit shaky with his dribble when pressed, and hes quick to give up his dribble. However, only 1 turnover in 20 minutes in his first action isnt anything to sneeze about. He showed a good ability to drive the lane, and finish, but his greatest attribute was defensively. He had 3 steals, and 5 rebounds from the PG position, and really harrased the teams opposing PG with his length, i am really excited about his future here and the opportunity he's going to have learning under Trae.
4. Defensively it was about what you'd expect. The first half, mainly the first 10 minutes, they were making some shots and we looked a step slow. The second half we ramped it up, and really took control and ended up forcing them into 25 turnovers as a team, something we had trouble doing last year. That leads me to this, 14 steals as a team for us tonight, seems very high, off the top of my head im guessing we didnt have that many in any game last year...
5. Cuonzo Martin has to be pleased with the overall perception and numbers from the game, its exactly what he wants on a nightly basis. Hold your opponent under 60 points, check. Hold your opponent under 40% from the field, check. Shoot 45+% as a team, check. Shoot 35+% from 3 as a team, check. Have less than 10 turnovers, check. Win the rebounding battle, check. These are all areas that Cuonzo emphasises and wants to see, we really excelled in all areas.
6. This could be tied into 5, but it was such an issue last year that i think it deserves its own....24 assists tonight to 8 turnovers.....that's a 3:1 assist:turnover ratio, thats freaking incredible for a team, and is part of the blueprint Cuonzo is looking for. Now a big part of that on a nightly basis will be Trae, and as discussed above he did an incredible job tonight of taking care of the ball. As a team, if we can stay around the 10 or less turnovers a night, and 2:1 ratio, it's going to be a great season.
7. Have the hours in the gym paid off, tonight they did. Last year we were um, sporadic to say the least from 3. Teams started zoning us to take away our interior strengths, and we simply couldnt make them pay. Tonight as a team we shot 43% from 3 on 9/21 shooting, thats a number Cuonzo would take on a nightly basis. Skylar Mcbee did exactly what we need him to do, he hit the open threes. He ended up 3-6 (50%, cant complain about that) but 2 of his misses were contested, he did what we all are wanting, hit the open threes when the ball is kicked out to him. If this team can hit those open threes, and as a team shoot up around 35+% from 3, they will be very hard to stop offensively.
8. I'll bunch this into one...Josh, Jordan and D'montre...i thought all 3 guys played ok, had their moments, but also had some bad moments. Good news is Josh hit some shots, showed some confidence offensively...Jordan showed a little better form on his shot, and looked willing to play defense...D'montre isnt going to blow anyone away, but he's a fundamentally sound guy, who is going to play defense, rebound the ball, and make a few shots. I think you're going to see a constant competition at the wing position, and hopefully all these guys welcome the competition and improve because of it.
9. There always is going to be a negative, and for me tonight it was Yemi and Kenny. How Kenny Hall manages to finish the game with 1 rebound is frustrating, he is a senior and still hasnt learned how to properly box out...it's no longer coaching im afraid and is just all upstairs, im pretty convinced he just doesnt get it. That perimiter shot we all heard about, yea i didnt see that either, including in warmups. As for Yemi, he just looks much of the same to me...the silly fouls, that just dont need to be made he's still making. He showed a nice hook shot late in the game, but other than that he showed no improvements offensively. If Jeronne is going to be out for any period of time atleast one of these guys needs to step up.
10. GET JARNELL THE BALL!!! Ok well it'd help if Jarnell was on the floor. Memo to Jarnell: with maymon on the sidelines injured, we cant afford you picking up early fouls and spending the majority of the night on the bench. I would like to see a more determined rebounding effort from Jarnell as well, where he goes after every ball, he should be a double double guy every night, MINIMUM. The get the ball to him was mainly the first half, 2nd half they got it to him, he went to work, then found a seat on the bench because of fouls. However, the guards continued to get the ball inside after he exited so i feel better about that part of the game than i did early on. Even with all the negative about Jarnell in this paragraph, he shot over 50% from the field, and had 9 points in 10 minutes...multiply his numbers to 30 minutes like you'd like him to play and he probably puts up 25. He is just that good though, and that much stronger than everyone...the 3 or 4 times he actually posted up and called for the ball, his man stood no chance, he bullied him to where he wanted to get, and put the ball in the hole. I'd like to see Jarnell get about 15-18 shots against Kennessaw State, assuming he plays 25-30 minutes, he's simply that good and talented he needs that many touches with maymon on the sidelines.
11. Which leads me to my final point. We played a great game, couldve definitely won by more, but we played our best guys very limited minutes, with an ALL-SEC forward on the sideline. Jeronne is a leader, he keeps things flowing offensively and defensively, and he is very vocal out there...this team went out and played great defense, executed on offense, and played probably an A- game, all while arguably their best all around player didnt even see the floor. These types of games get sloppy very easily, and that's probably the biggest thing i take away from this....the 24 assists to 8 turnovers and Trae going 8 assists and 0 turnovers...those numbers just really excite me, and to think things will just get easier when Jeronne returns.
So happy basketball season is here, GO VOLS!
