Overall decent start...

Philly Dawg

Heisman
Oct 6, 2012
16,262
10,988
113
... the two things we need to focus on improving are turnovers and defensive rebounding.
 
Sep 9, 2012
2,803
0
0
Turnovers are going to be an issue until Nick gets back. Got to rebound better though. Overall about what you’d expect for a first game.

Just got to keep getting better and survive the next 9 games.
 

Philly Dawg

Heisman
Oct 6, 2012
16,262
10,988
113
We out rebounded them but gave up too many offensive rebounds where we simply didn’t block out. Even when Nick is back, Carter will have the ball and we need better.
 

MSUDC11

Redshirt
Aug 23, 2012
7,316
0
0
We are a bit lacking in the depth department, especially without Nick. Only 7 guys played significant minutes tonight. Our returning guys looked about the same as last year, you pretty much know what you’re getting with those guys. Molinar was impressive and Feazell looked improved.

Not a ton to take from tonight, which is fine considering most takeaways from these types of opponents can only be negative. We were sloppy but still won fairly comfortably without Nick. On to the next one.
 
Nov 12, 2007
26,116
10,276
113
I was impressed with our younger guys. I think we might be able to keep this resurgence going. Howland seems to have a good eye for folks that are ready to contribute like Molinar and guys we can "slowly" develop into role players like Feezel.
 

Hankp22

Redshirt
Oct 17, 2012
1,060
0
0
A few things

1. I was impressed with Molinar. I was worried about the first 10 without Nick. Now I want to see Molinar play. When Nick gets back, that will be a solid rotation between Nick, Molinar and Carter.

2. Carter can create. His improvement over the last year or two has been fun to watch. He is having to take on a more point role at times. He confident on the offensive end.


3. Ado, Perry and Woodard create problems with their length and athleticism. You can add Feazell to that too.

I thought FIU played well. That was a good test to start the year. With Nick out, their pace/style can create issues. We responded well. That was a fun game to watch.

I like our options and lineup combo pieces.....from a way too early observation.
 
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Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,704
8,022
113
The lack of rebounding was a little frustrating to watch at times. There were points in the game when we had some combination of three different guys out there(Feazell, Ado, and Stewart) where all you’re looking for out of them is defense and rebounding. Yet no one was boxing out, and the result was basically our guys standing around looking at each other while some FIU player scooped it up for an uncontested layup.

That aside, I felt that there were a lot of positives

1. Carter quietly taking command of the team exactly when we needed him to all night

2. Molinar being ready to play from day 1. He’ll take his lumps, but I really like his will to charge the basket and draw fouls

3. Slow start in both halves, but rather than hang our heads or get frustrated, the team fought back. I think we have some improved personality this season

4. Lots of young talent that may need to find its niche for now, but that can develop into solid players in the not so distant future
 

engie

Sophomore
May 29, 2011
10,763
106
63
Saw flashes of really good and fun to watch team basketball last night personally against an above average early test. Will be interesting on Friday night
 

Trojanbulldog19

All-American
Aug 25, 2014
10,157
5,947
113
Molinar will be good. He is very good slash to the basket point guard unlike tyson. put tyson at the 2 and let molinar play the 1 until nick gets back. tyson can fill that barry stewart type of roll.

have to get rid of the turnovers and have to learn to feed the post early. Perry not having but 2 points going into the 2nd half can't happen. i think this will get better after a few games. i enjoyed tyson hitting the 3's but I also don't want us to turn in to what we would do last year and just throw them up all game. I think we resemble a team from the 90's. get the ball to the post.

next game i would go 1. Molinar 2. Tyson 3. Woodard 4. Perry 5. Ado
 

dawgman42

All-American
Jul 24, 2007
6,349
6,562
113
Agreed. We've got to be more aggressive in the post. Their 4'-10" guard was getting offensive rebounds from our trees down low, and that's ridiculous.

I'm also very concerned about our 3-pt. shooting. Other than Carter, I'm not sure we have any one that can reliably (>30%) hit them. That's going to be a problem. That's where we'll miss Q and Lamar very badly.
 

Trojanbulldog19

All-American
Aug 25, 2014
10,157
5,947
113
The lack of rebounding was a little frustrating to watch at times. There were points in the game when we had some combination of three different guys out there(Feazell, Ado, and Stewart) where all you’re looking for out of them is defense and rebounding. Yet no one was boxing out, and the result was basically our guys standing around looking at each other while some FIU player scooped it up for an uncontested layup.

That aside, I felt that there were a lot of positives

1. Carter quietly taking command of the team exactly when we needed him to all night

2. Molinar being ready to play from day 1. He’ll take his lumps, but I really like his will to charge the basket and draw fouls

3. Slow start in both halves, but rather than hang our heads or get frustrated, the team fought back. I think we have some improved personality this season

4. Lots of young talent that may need to find its niche for now, but that can develop into solid players in the not so distant future


that's the biggest thing i noticed out of our issues last night. we weren't crashing the boards on the defensive end. We need Perry, Woodard, and Ado to find their inner Roberts and become rebounding machines. They did pretty good at this down the stretch last year. Ado has come a long way from two years ago. I like his defense.
 

AlCoDog

All-Conference
Feb 27, 2008
5,870
1,435
113
Those guys are in damn good shape. Some grown *** men. Feazell impressed me most from an improvement standpoint. Free throw shooting was horrendous and there were spells where our rebounding effort was pitiful, but that can be fixed. Overall a really good first game. A lot to like about this team.
 

The Situation

Redshirt
Oct 6, 2019
1,098
0
0
Molinar will be good. He is very good slash to the basket point guard unlike tyson. put tyson at the 2 and let molinar play the 1 until nick gets back. tyson can fill that barry stewart type of roll.

have to get rid of the turnovers and have to learn to feed the post early. Perry not having but 2 points going into the 2nd half can't happen. i think this will get better after a few games. i enjoyed tyson hitting the 3's but I also don't want us to turn in to what we would do last year and just throw them up all game. I think we resemble a team from the 90's. get the ball to the post.

next game i would go 1. Molinar 2. Tyson 3. Woodard 4. Perry 5. Ado
I like that lineup. I would also slow the game way down.
 

DoggieDaddy13

All-Conference
Dec 23, 2017
3,998
2,385
113
Concerns:
We didn't seem all that aggressive on defense and we looked confused way too often, thus the poor rebounding.
Not sure we have enough outside shooting.

Positives
We got athletes.
Some good ball movement on offense.
The team seems to have a good vibe about them. Hope Nick fits in when he comes back.
 

MSUDC11

Redshirt
Aug 23, 2012
7,316
0
0
I’ll concur with the comments about our athleticism. This is the best looking team we’ve had from an athletic standpoint in some time. The returning guys all appear to be in better shape, and Molinar and Stewart don’t physically look like freshmen.
 

Trojanbulldog19

All-American
Aug 25, 2014
10,157
5,947
113
I’ll concur with the comments about our athleticism. This is the best looking team we’ve had from an athletic standpoint in some time. The returning guys all appear to be in better shape, and Molinar and Stewart don’t physically look like freshmen.

i've noticed this difference in the last two classes Howland has brought in. Our freshmen look like grown men compared to years past. that's going in the right direction.

it's kind of funny to me that in years past we complained that basketball player S&C was terrible when football was good and now it's the opposite. Basketball conditioning appears to be on the right track and football has taken a step back there.
 

DeeBostJumper

Redshirt
Mar 20, 2019
75
0
0
Excited for Molinar to get some experience with Nick being out. Just makes us more dangerous hopefully in SEC play. Was yelling at my TV to box out and stop them from getting second chance points but should be correctable.

Glad Howland knows what it takes to get to the tournament. Wish they could have gotten those 2 points at the end, would have been nice for our tournament resume in March
 
Sep 15, 2009
524
317
63
First, Woodard was a turnover machine last night - and not in a good way. His turnovers were the result of him trying to do too much. I love his energy, and he is a beast, but he has to give the ball up and stop acting like he is trying to earn a starting spot on the roster.

Carter's turnovers, on the other hand, were mostly the result of the failure of our team to recognize a trap and come back to him to help, and he was stuck trying to pass the ball over far too much distance, which were easily intercepted. I'll take Carter's offense all day, because even if he is not scoring, teams are forced to defend him, and to defend him deep which takes them away from the middle where we have some grown *** men.

Again, those are two things that can be easily fixed. I'm overall impressed with the team, especially the new players which will give us some added depth for SEC play.
 

8dog

All-American
Feb 23, 2008
15,216
7,512
113
Stewart isnt a true freshman so thats part of it. Im still not sold on perry as a dynamic scorer. We will struggle to get buckets if tyson is cold or shut down. Love the athleticism
 

Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,704
8,022
113
Yeah, I’m trying not to get too concerned after one game, but that was a game that guys like Austin and Roberts would’ve absolutely dominated. Perry has all the tools to be a legit star, but it’s as if there’s still something missing from his all around game
 

MSUDC11

Redshirt
Aug 23, 2012
7,316
0
0
Stewart isnt a true freshman so thats part of it. Im still not sold on perry as a dynamic scorer. We will struggle to get buckets if tyson is cold or shut down. Love the athleticism

We did lose our top two leading scorers from last year, and without Nick we are down 4 of our Top 6 leading scorers from a year ago. Nobody outside of those guys averaged more than 5 points a game.

Perry is a great talent, but he still has plenty to prove. Less than 10 points a game for the year last season, we will probably need that to be a good bit higher for this team to have success. For what it’s worth, I think it will be higher for him. He was quiet last night but still finished with 13 and 7, which were above his season average last year.
 

ToxicTimberDawg

Sophomore
Dec 14, 2008
322
195
43
Perry just needs to get down in the post and do work. It took him a little while to figure it out last year, too. It may not serve his NBA scouting profile as well but he’s not quite ready to score 20ppg hanging around the arc shooting jumpers and/or driving to the rim from out there -like it appears he wants. That’s my observation, anyway.
 
Nov 12, 2007
26,116
10,276
113
Molinar will be good. He is very good slash to the basket point guard unlike tyson. put tyson at the 2 and let molinar play the 1 until nick gets back. tyson can fill that barry stewart type of roll.

have to get rid of the turnovers and have to learn to feed the post early. Perry not having but 2 points going into the 2nd half can't happen. i think this will get better after a few games. i enjoyed tyson hitting the 3's but I also don't want us to turn in to what we would do last year and just throw them up all game. I think we resemble a team from the 90's. get the ball to the post.

next game i would go 1. Molinar 2. Tyson 3. Woodard 4. Perry 5. Ado

You put a guy who scored over 20 points on the bench.
 
Nov 12, 2007
26,116
10,276
113
i've noticed this difference in the last two classes Howland has brought in. Our freshmen look like grown men compared to years past. that's going in the right direction.

it's kind of funny to me that in years past we complained that basketball player S&C was terrible when football was good and now it's the opposite. Basketball conditioning appears to be on the right track and football has taken a step back there.


View attachment 14492
 
Nov 12, 2007
26,116
10,276
113
We did lose our top two leading scorers from last year, and without Nick we are down 4 of our Top 6 leading scorers from a year ago. Nobody outside of those guys averaged more than 5 points a game.

Perry is a great talent, but he still has plenty to prove. Less than 10 points a game for the year last season, we will probably need that to be a good bit higher for this team to have success. For what it’s worth, I think it will be higher for him. He was quiet last night but still finished with 13 and 7, which were above his season average last year.

Last season we could only count on Q and many games had to wait until he got going to do well. I think we have several options to score points with this year's edition. Some of them are young and will go up and down. Perry was pressing the other night, I'm not worried about him.

If Woodard can find his role amongst the rest we might have a team that can play with just about anyone other than the Kentuckys of the world.
 

Joe Schmedlap

Redshirt
Aug 11, 2010
1,334
33
48
Failing to block out has been an issue since Ben Howland arrived. I don't understand why this remains a problem. Maybe no one learns fundamentals in high school anymore.

We out rebounded them but gave up too many offensive rebounds where we simply didn’t block out. Even when Nick is back, Carter will have the ball and we need better.
 

Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,704
8,022
113
Yep, a one game sample size is pretty worthless in the grand scheme of things, but I guess it just stood out to me because it basically seemed like the exact same play that we saw out of him last year. Flashes of dominance, but not commanding the glass and lane like a guy his size should be doing.

I have a suspicion he’ll get it going soon
 

Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,704
8,022
113
It’s funny to me as to how many people keep either forgetting or dismissing all this. All those guys that you listed had their ups and downs, but they were collectively a HUGE core of our team.

I think this group does have a legitimate chance to eventually be better if for no other reason because their attitudes are better, but there will be some growing pains. This is a very young and inexperienced group
 

mstateglfr

All-American
Feb 24, 2008
16,963
6,791
113
Failing to block out has been an issue since Ben Howland arrived. I don't understand why this remains a problem. Maybe no one learns fundamentals in high school anymore.
A lot of FIU's shots from deep were horrible and horrible deep shots create chaotic long rebounds. That in turn creates chances for offensive rebounds.
TNot saying thats why all offensive rebounds happened, but a good number were due to really bad first shots. Cant blame the defense too much when that happens, its in part just **** luck.
 

VegasDawg13

Freshman
Jun 11, 2007
2,191
80
48
A lot of FIU's shots from deep were horrible and horrible deep shots create chaotic long rebounds. That in turn creates chances for offensive rebounds.
TNot saying thats why all offensive rebounds happened, but a good number were due to really bad first shots. Cant blame the defense too much when that happens, its in part just **** luck.
That was definitely part of it. Our big men going for blocks they had no chance of making was another part, though.
 

Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,704
8,022
113
Completely agree with that. There was an 8-minute stretch early in the game where there were probably a dozen 50/50 bounces, and every single one fell into the hands of an FIU player.

I was just glad that we kept battling, and after a few things went our way, our guys ended the half on a really nice run.
 
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