I carved this completely out of the comments section – I offer wufpup76 a well-earned hat tip:
Just got back from the game … Here is my postgame report –
– Obviously, the big news of the night is the injury to Johnny Thomas, which is very unfortunate … I did’nt see it happen (obscured view), but he was definitely in some pain … He was part of the second unit in the rotation and prior to the injury he looked like he had full range of mobility and had a nice athletic slam that said “my knee is ok” … I really hope the injury isn’t too bad for Johnny as he has had enough injuries already; if he’s healthy, he has the potential to be a major contributor
– Starting five consisted of Gonzalez, C.J. Williams, Fells, Costner and McCauley for tonight’s game … The starting five played for roughly the first five minutes and then was completely rotated out with Degand, Fergs, Thomas, Horner, and Tracy Smith
– Brandon Costner looks like an entirely different person … he has lost a lot of weight and appears to be in good shape … At the end of the first half and the start of the second half he sort of reverted back to last season and had some bad turnovers and missed a rebound opportunity … He was benched early in the second half in favor of Horner, and was clearly frustrated by his play … I’m putting this more in the category of shaky confidence left over from last season and pressing too hard to be all world again like in March of ’07 … Either way, we’ve got to find a way for him to get his confidence back all the way and keep it up … he’s vital to this team’s chances of being a pleasant surprise
– Ft. Valley State was completely overmatched, so try and temper your judgements from this game … There were some positives for the Pack, but the Wildcats were outclassed in most areas (aside from rebounding, I’ll get to that later) and in addition turned the ball over as if that was the goal of their offensive sets
– The starting five came out and looked pretty good in man D and was able to get a couple of quick and easy transition baskets … C.J. Williams looked slightly hesitant at first but quickly found his rhythm and looked pretty good for a freshman w/ no experience … He hit a nice turnaround baseline jumper about 3 minutes in which went a long way to giving him some confidence
– The best player on the court tonight was Courtney Fells and it looked like he knew it … There was a different feel about him tonight as you could see how confident he was in everything he did … Great all around game from Fells, which included leadership on the floor and some good hustle on the defensive end … No question about who our leader was tonight
– Farnold Degand looked good and didn’t appear to have any limitations associated w/ his injury … He made a great hustle play in the second half that ended with him on the floor, and he hopped right up … We’re a different team w/ Farnold on the floor, as he provides defense and rebounding from the 1 … I think he will wind up as the starting 1, w/ Javi getting plenty of minutes (as he should)
– Speaking of Javi, he had a decent game … The game got really sloppy for a 10 minute stretch in the first half and we were unable to really pull away … Sidney was clearly annoyed, and Javi turned the ball over on a particualarly bad play around the 10:30 mark of the first half … Javi was subbed out and Sidney really got into him for a few seconds, so Javi still has a little ways to go in game management and defense, but the halfcourt sets looked far better than the last half of last season and Javi had some really nice passes and knocked down an open 3
– When Javi was subbed out, we got our first look at Julius Mays … He looked ok in the first half, a little shaky w/ the ball and a couple of lazy passes as you would expect from a freshman point guard w/ no experience … In the second half, Ft. Valley State applied some on-ball pressure and Mays had a couple of bad turnovers … he looked very much like Javi did at times during his trial-by-fire last season … So, Mays has more than a few things to learn but looked ok for the most part
– Fergs nailed a couple of open three’s tonight and played really well, particularly in the second half on both offense and defense … Horner was effective but missed some open jumpers … Tracy Smith was the workhorse you’d expect him to be … McCauley had a couple of nice stickbacks including a one-hand follow jam, but got few rebounds and didn’t look great defensively
– Simon Harris – I wish this guy could see more time … He didn’t come in until the 11:00 minute mark of the 2nd half and immediately proceeded to get an offensive rebound … Within 3 minutes, he had 4 points and 3 rebounds – 2 of them offensive rebounds … Harris finished w/ 9 points and 7 rebounds in 11:00 of play … Sure, it was Ft. Valley State, but Harris did this when he came into games last season … Nothing defines hustle as much as defense and offensive rebounding, and Harris is the best offensive rebounder we have without question … The guy has a nose for the ball and I hope he’s able to work his way more into the rotation
– Now for the really bad stuff … Rebounding was awful … Way too many offensive rebounds allowed and they out-rebounded us for the game … Poor effort here …
– We again allowed way too much easy dribble penetration, particularly in the 2nd half … We’ve got to find a way to plug this up immediately or last season’s fate awaits … The few times we switched to a 2-3 zone we looked particularly awful with the first possesion resulting in a wide open lob for them and the next few in our 2-3 we gave up wide open shots … Kinda scary
Overall, pretty fair effort – aside from rebounding and lax D in the second half … I certainly came away much more enthused about this exhibition as opposed to last season’s against Pembroke where we looked lethargic and severely overrated … Tempo was ok and Degand and Gonzalez played fairly well, and the halfcourt sets went pretty well tonight … As usual, we need to get tougher defensively and find away to get some boards … We’ll see what happens Tuesday night
Go Pack 🙂
