I know a lot of us are unloading game thoughts, so sorry if this is overkill but I'm excited...
Devin McGlockton: A+ - 10/10 from the field, 4/5 from the stripe, 24 points and 13 rebounds. I doubt he matches that performance again this year, but it shows that he comes ready to play and contribute. Glock is our glue guy because he can score around the bucket, gets tough rebounds and fights for everything on both ends.
Jaylen Carey: B - the only reason his grade isn't higher is 3/9 from the free throw line. I was most impressed with Carey's ability to go get a rebound out of his area and if that truly is one of his qualities, we have a special player. His footwork for a man his size is elite. His shooting needs work.
Jason Edwards: C- - To be clear, this is his one game grade, not what I think of him. To score 19 and dish out 5 dimes and for a fan to say that was a C- performance for him sounds crazy, but I think he was a little off. For those that didn't watch him play, wow, this dude is fast. I was telling my son that I believe he could score as many points as he wanted to every night because he appears to be unguardable. So fast, so quick, very snakey into the lane and just has a bunch of different ways to get to his spots. His jumper isn't great technically speaking, but he works hard at it and I think he's going to be a fan favorite. I can see nights where he scores in the 30's.
Grant Huffman: B- - I don't think we're going to need a lot in terms of points from Grant and I don't think he cares. He was 0-1 from the field scoring 1 point, but I liked what he brought on both ends of the floor. Huffman also grabbed 3 boards, had 2 assists, a steal, and a block. On offense, he moves the ball well and helps get the ball to open spots for his teammates. GH is a guy we can depend on.
Tyler Nickel: B - Nickel is a big key to this team and how he performs is going to say a lot about how good of a season we have. At his size (6'7), he is going to get a lot of open looks from 3. He only had 1 rebound last night but that's mainly because Glock and Carey took them all, but his ability to defend and defensive rebound are going to be big keys to watch for this team. Because we really only have 3 Bigs, Nickel and will have to box out and board to make sure teams don't crush us on the offensive glass.
MJ Collins: C- - MJ is another wildcard for this team. I thought he defended well and had a couple of nice passes but defenses are going to force the ball into his hands A LOT and he's going to get a lot of wide open looks so he needs to be working his tail off on his jumper. My preseason bias on this kid may be clouding my judgment here but I'm worried about his ability to produce on offense.
Tyler Tanner: B - Tanner is a little better than I thought. He is an extremely smooth athlete and probably the most skilled player on the team as a freshman (due to the way he trains) but the big surprise was his defense. He is a tenacious on ball defender AND a solid help defender and that bodes very well for his ability to help this team. He won't get into AJ Hoggard's minutes, but when he gets on the court, there is no significant drop off and what that means is that the opposition is going to have to guard our backcourt for 40 minutes of high paced action. Having a guy like Tanner means opposing guard will be exhausted by the end of our games. They may be playing 35 minutes while our backcourt studs will be 25-28 with little drop off.
Chris Manon: C - Manon was fine, but missed a few he probably makes. I do like this dude's game though. Because of the style we play, the scouting report for our entire team is close out and get a hand up (because we're going to chuck 30-35 3's per game) and a guy like Manon just feeds off of that close out energy. He will pump fake and get to the rim in 3 steps and that is a really nice compliment to the rest of the guys and why I think he's a nice fit on this team. I believe he can defend and rebound as well so Manon is a nice piece.
JQ Roberts: B+ - The first thing I noticed was that Roberts appears to have worked on his body with the trainers to be able to play the 4 and 5 exclusively. I could be making that up, but that's what it looked like. If Wright doesn't come back, JQ is going to be a big part of how we're able to compete with bigger teams. There is no way to survive a 30 game schedule with only 2 bigs and not have foul trouble become an issue and that's where JQ comes in. His ability to box out, grab defensive boards and be physical enough to hold his ground on that end could be one of the biggest story lines this season. I don't love typing that, but it seems inevitable to some extent....
DNP: AJ Hoggard, Alex Hemenway, Karis Bilal, Kijani Wright
We didn't learn a ton from MES but we found out that we have some very nice college basketball players on this team.
