Game Thread for NU vs. High Point

[Alan Smithee_rivals156293]

With these games I hedge with the positives while appreciating the dearth of negatives.
Every Cats team is capable of hitting a dry spell in games, including this one.

But scoring 61 in a half, even against air, isn’t something we could do every year.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

If he did , it was to keep their hopes high.

Thats fair, but Gato watches the interviews, so I am confident Collins said it.
My fear is that he means it.

 

[hdhntr1]

Young settles the team and scores 6 so he gets pulled?

Mater of managing minutes. He and Greer basically saved first half

 

[GatoLouco]

NU is winning by the margin it should. Doing this without a starter. Team looks improved in every area over last year as they should against this level of competition. No idea how this will translate as the competition improves. I have more optimism than I did before the season that this is a team that can compete night in and out.

I am torn between the optimism that we are not losing to Merrimack or Hartford (in fact we are not even keeping it close) and the pessimism of seeing signs we will struggle, perhaps even more than last year, with rebounding.

 

[GatoLouco]

Thats fair, but Gato watches the interviews, so I am confident Collins said it.
My fear is that he means it.

It was on the floor, just as the game ended. There’s a chance I misunderstood, and I have no way to go back and review it. I can’t quote him verbatim.

Maybe he was referring to the next few games. Maybe he was referring to a subset of players. But it just sounded to me like beginning of last season, with talks of playing fast and that we had 9 starters on the team. Wonderland of an imagined roster that does not match reality.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

It was on the floor, just as the game ended. There’s a chance I misunderstood, and I have no way to go back and review it. I can’t quote him verbatim.

Maybe he was referring to the next few games. Maybe he was referring to a subset of players. But it just sounded to me like beginning of last season, with talks of playing fast and that we had 9 starters on the team. Wonderland of an imagined roster that does not match reality.

Well that "I have 9 starters" stuff from last year, which I heard with my own ears multiple times, that was a severe mis-evaluation. Buie is a starter, Nance is a starter. Young is a starter.

To me Audige is a question mark. He may start by default, but we got crushed when he was on the floor last year. He's a good athlete and plays hard, but his sense of the game lags well behind Berry and Buie and Greer. If Simmons and Williams can't produce at the 3, I wouldn't mind seeing Audige there for a trial.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Well that "I have 9 starters" stuff from last year, which I heard with my own ears multiple times, that was a severe mis-evaluation. Buie is a starter, Nance is a starter. Young is a starter.

To me Audige is a question mark. He may start by default, but we got crushed when he was on the floor last year. He's a good athlete and plays hard, but his sense of the game lags well behind Berry and Buie and Greer. If Simmons and Williams can't produce at the 3, I wouldn't mind seeing Audige there for a trial.

Nance should lead the team in minutes and Boo should be second. After that, you go with who is playing well that game.

 

[NJCat]

Nance should lead the team in minutes and Boo should be second. After that, you go with who is playing well that game.

Nance will never lead the team in minutes because he commits too many careless fouls. You'd think that having started 47 games in his career he'd have figured it out but after two games this year the answer is No.

 

[hdhntr1]

Cats look good. This could have turned into Merrimack after that hot start from High Point.

In the second half they looked good. First half, not so much. At one point they were 4/15 and High Point had something like 8 O rebounds and were outrebounding us by 10. Second half brought us to 60% shooting but the D also improved considerably

 

[hdhntr1]

Greer's game was a high point for sure. Damn.

Funny

 

[hdhntr1]

More specifically, I thought that defense was soft and not very physical in the first 8 minutes. Im concerned an average B10 team would've had them down by much more than 9.

A lot more

 

[hdhntr1]

We also won 3 games to start conference play. So?

I was seriously concerned with CC’s words that “these guys know they will all play 20 minutes or so a night”. You play your best players more than 20. Unless you have all players of equal quality. Which, for as promising as our frosh are, or Williams, Greer or Beran, they’re not at the level of splitting minutes. They’re at the level or resting Nance/Buie/Young/Berry/Audige.

i hope he meant in non conference play. Because in conference that utopia of perfectly interchangeable players will come to a quick halt once we get punched, hard, in the throat.

Why would that concern you at this point? Many of our players seem at comparable levels and you do not lose much going to them. Just telling them if they are deserving they are going to get their minutes

 

[Styre]

With these games I hedge with the positives while appreciating the dearth of negatives.
Every Cats team is capable of hitting a dry spell in games, including this one.

But scoring 61 in a half, even against air, isn’t something we could do every year.

Largely true, although we scored 60 in a half against Chicago State just last year.

 

[CSCatFan1]

Well that "I have 9 starters" stuff from last year, which I heard with my own ears multiple times, that was a severe mis-evaluation. Buie is a starter, Nance is a starter. Young is a starter.

To me Audige is a question mark. He may start by default, but we got crushed when he was on the floor last year. He's a good athlete and plays hard, but his sense of the game lags well behind Berry and Buie and Greer. If Simmons and Williams can't produce at the 3, I wouldn't mind seeing Audige there for a trial.

Pretty sure the stats tell me Nance and Young will rarely, if ever, be on the floor together.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Pretty sure the stats tell me Nance and Young will rarely, if ever, be on the floor together.

I think you meant "stars" not "stats"