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Sorry Fb team but I’m ready to move past Fb and on to bb and hopefully some more positive news.
Anyone here at the bb game yesterday that would care to provide any insights? I wasn’t. Just read about it. Sounds like the Freshmen stole the show which is exciting and worrisome at the same time. Some nice D played against an overmatched foe.
I’m not too worried about Lacey’s poor shooting night. He’ll come around I expect. We’ll just mark it up to first night jitters.
Boxscore
I was there. As has been written, a tale of two halves. The freshmen were outstanding and are really going to push for minutes. Abu is going to be a special player. Lacey still trying too hard, but he will settle down. It is really good to have a complementary ball handler and distributor in at the same time as Cat. Beejay was fun to watch as usual. The guy is a human fly swatter. Kyle had a nice all around game. But my main takeaway was the defense in the 2nd half. I cannot wait for the season to start so everyone can see and start believing this is going to be a hell of a defensive team. On the perimeter and in the paint. These guys are relentless, and they all know an equally talented guy is sitting on the bench waiting to take their minutes from them.
Lacey’s shot was off last night, or at least I hope it was. Nonetheless, he was still very involved and appears to be a good defender (though admittedly, the level of competition makes it hard to be certain of anything).
Martin I (Caleb) looked lights out good on both ends of the floor. Very smooth offensively, both from the perimeter and in close, and also a pretty darned good defender. Also looks to be a leader on the floor, which can only help. Martin II (Cody) looks noticeably lagging behind his bro, but again, first time out is hard to judge.
Abu will likely be a force in time. Better jump shot than I expected, very active on the glass, and he appears way comfortable at the FT line (thank Christ) knocking down 6/6 and looked comfortable doing it. The crowd is already nice and vocal with the “Abuuuuuuuu” chant.
No surprise, Barber is still very quick. Despite an overall rough night shooting, he was able to just go by his defender at times, but (again, thank Christ) he didn’t seem, at least at any time that I remember, to decide to drive into a crowd and force anything. Hopefully that holds.
KW is still KW, and I mean that as a compliment. Nice and steady. Ol’ Reliable.
ALMKH (Anya) is noticeably quicker with the shed lbs, but not yet noticeably better. Had a couple of nice offensive moves that wouldn’t have been possible with his former frame, but mostly he’s still learning to play under control. Defensively, he’s still a nightmare for the opposition if they bring it inside.
Freeman is still Freeman (solid D, no O even on point blank put back opportunities), Lee is still Lee (mostly the same as with Freeman, but with occasional flashes of O), and Turner is still Turner (likes to shoot himself out of a slump and will do so frequently, so just accept it, and mostly just taking up space on D).
Pack used both man and zone D (2-3 mostly) at various times.
But as I said earlier, the level of competition was sorely lacking and it was the first time out for the frosh and the first time playing together as a team. Very little should be concluded, good or bad, from this game.
New court looks pretty snazzy, but I’m not sure the Tuffy head shouldn’t be a tad bigger (/sarcasm)
Thanks for the color commentary. I’m looking forward to the season. Re: defense – IMO that’s an area where effort is contagious. Hopefully these kids will feed of each other.
I skipped to the photo before reading the last bit of your post, and said to myself “I really like the size of Tuffy there” 🙂
Are you guys not embarrassed that Queens is on the schedule? Why not Hardbargers? Or does that place even exist anymore?
Just go ahead and get out of the ACC and go as low as you can go! Makes me want to “do things in a trash can that I used to do when I was a “young and dumb fresh and soph undergrad”!
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
I’d rather a shool like Queens or Shaw be on the preseason schedule than the Serbian national team. I guarantee you for the Queens players and coaches it means alot to have the opportunity to play an in state ACC school.
And Gott is a master scheduler, so I’d think twice before questioning him. Seriously. When it comes to scheduling he is A ok.
Are you guys not embarrassed that Queens is on the schedule? Why not Hardbargers? Or does that place even exist anymore?
Just go ahead and get out of the ACC and go as low as you can go! Makes me want to “do things in a trash can that I used to do when I was a “young and dumb fresh and soph undergrad”!
I’m not getting your comment. It was a preseason exhibition game, and is something every D1 program does.
Kentucky for example played an exhibition game against Pikeville. They did play a second exhibition against Georgetown, but it was Georgetown Kentucky, not the Washington guys.
I skipped to the photo before reading the last bit of your post, and said to myself “I really like the size of Tuffy there”
LOL. It actually does look pretty good, but when you first walk in from the concourse and see it for the first time, it looks way big.
I would rather have Queens (or the like) as a preseason game that some we have seen in the past. I listened to the game on the radio broadcast which introduces some bias but it seems that Caleb Martin is quick out of the box. A higher level of competition will answer all the questions but at this point I like what I heard.
The advantage of playing small schools in the Nov-Dec…. is that it allows the players and coaches to concentrate on the TEAM… not the opponent… and is exactly what the correct move…
There will be plenty of Big Games later on…
I remember Coach Sloan’s great idea one season of playing “everybody else” in NC in December…
UNC-A, UNC-W, Pembroke, ECU, ASU, NCCU, NCA&T…. etc… and iirc some of those games were on the road…Wasn’t a bad idea then…
Good for the team…
Good for recruiting (in NC)…
Good for Pack Fans who couldn’t come to Reynolds…#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Not that we care but thought I would give Purvis’ stats for last night.:)
6 points and 5 TO’s in 16 minutes of play. Started the game
He will never be a point guard if he continues with the turnovers.
Sam Cassell’s (AKA Admiral Akbar for you Star War fans) kid will take his job. He played well in their first exhibition game. 18 pts and 1 TOI listened to part of the first half on the radio. It was as I feared — we’d struggle to score in the half court when things bog down. We have a lot of people that can step up, but I think they’ll have to do it in the framework of the offense. The UCLA high post can generate great looks, but people have to be disciplined, make the cuts and the passes. That can be tough for a young team. There will be nights where we’re really going to miss TJ Warren, and it will be against teams like UVA, Syracuse, Clemson and Pittsburgh where they want to slow it down, take the air out of the ball, clutch and grab and force us to beat them in the half court.
The news of a 2-3 is promising. I think that sets up very well for our personnel. We’re tall at every position and this lets Anya roam freely on the inside. We didn’t see that in the Red and White scrimmage.
We did see the defensive effort in the Red and White scrimmage. Lee, Martin and Cat in particular really got after it out on the perimeter, and Anya was a cleaner inside. If you get good on the ball pressure and pair that with someone who can alter shots inside, then you will be a good defensive team.
Outside of scoring in the half court, I’m most concerned about PG. We really have no depth there other than players rotating over and we really need Cat to develop.
^ a little early to have those “fears,” don’t ya think? EVERY team has a rough start; it’s just how things go at the beginning of the year. and with us, it’s even more pronounced given the inexperience. having dez [defense], turner [court stretcher], and lacey [clutch offense and a level head] should prove to be very valuable in tight, end-of-game situations.
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