It's nice to have written proof of how wrong I will ultimately end up being, so here we go:
Tyler Tanner
He looks like he belonged. Looks super comfortable playing fast. He wasn't just surviving his first college minutes, he was helping us. But what I was most impressed with was his defense. His size will never allow him to be elite on that end, but his play on that end was actually good. Not saying he'll ever be a stopper for us, but he's more advanced?useful? than I expected from a 6'0 thin freshman whose rep out of HS was not exactly glowing on the defensive side.
Grant Huffman
Pretty much exactly what I expected. Solid ball handler and passer. Good on ball defender. Tougher than he looks. Never going to stuff the stat sheet, but he does enough good things that he doesn't hurt you. Side note: Looks like he has Tourettes when he shoots FTs.
MJ Collins
Probably the player I was least focused on. I kind of just assumed he was going to play competently. I'm sure he'll have games where his play demands more attention. The 2-7 from the field last night isn't ideal, but it's one game.
Jason Edwards
He's just fun to watch. A jitterbug who can shoot. He also led the team with 5 assists, which was a pleasant surprise. He could have very easily chosen to be more selfish. He was getting to the rim at will. Nice to see him buy in to the team philosophy from game 1. Seems like the natural pick to be the fan favorite. He's going to have some massive scoring games.
Chris Manon
Did not like his first half. Seemed a step slow. Looked out of place on both ends. Then in the second half looked like a different player. Will never be a stat stuffer. But second half Manon does a lot of little things well and contributes in enough ways to justify minutes. He's a connector. We put him in the high post a few times with the ball, and he looked comfortable in that role. One thing that bothers me is that he takes long strides on D rather than short, controlled steps. If it works it works (and historically his D has been good), it's just a little off-putting. I have a bad feeling that he'll be a guy that gets a lot of heat, because at the end of the night fans will look at the box score and feel his shooting/scoring won't be good enough. If you choose to think of him as a more athletic Scott Hundley, I think it'll be easier to appreciate his game.
Tyler Nickel
Would like to see more impact outside of scoring. That said, clearly a good shooter. Can get it off super quick. His man D wasn't bad. MES hit a lot of mid-range fallaways. Nickel had more than his fair share of those against him, but honestly you live with those. His positioning and contests were fine. Ultimately if he shoots like he can shoot, and if he's not hurting you on D, you live with it.
Devin McGlockton
Holy $#!+. Clearly, he won't be able to replicate that production each game. Especially against larger teams. I absolutely love watching guys who play that relentless style of ball. I enjoyed every single part of that 24 pt 13 rb game from him. I said in the offseason he'd be a fan favorite. That effort is why.
And there's more to his game than we saw. He can legitimately play on the perimeter.
Jaylen Carey
Hoss. With his weight, athleticism, length, touch and skill around the basket - completely comfortable with him at the 5. This dude's going to put up some numbers for us. His defense needs work, but it's not bad. I have a feeling a lot of our fans watched the game and realized he was much better than they realized.
JQ Roberts
The athleticism and potential are still there. But right now it still feels more like potential than something that will actually turn into production. He had some nice moments in cleanup duty. But it just kind of seems like some of the natural basketball hand-eye coordination isn't quite there. The balance, footwork, weight shifting, body movement once you've left the ground, etc... it's all got a way to go. I think the goal this year with him might be getting him to a point where you feel comfortable putting him in the rotation. That might feel like a low bar, but right now he isn't on the level of the guys in the rotation ahead of him.
Jordan Williams
Yep, he's still on the team. He made a nice hustle play. But with Hoggard coming back, we probably don't need to see him again. We have plenty of depth with the scholarship guys.
Offense
Organized Chaos. It's just a touch stressful to watch. Probably much more stressful to defend. Guys actually move and pass the ball. It doesn't always accomplish something, but it makes the defense move. I will take that all day over what we've seen since Stallings. Passing the ball around the perimeter is the worst offense to watch and the easiest offense to defend. The defense gets to relax. And it forces terrible end of shot clock shots. Were all of our shots good? Nope. But it got Nickel some good looks. It got Edwards some layups because guys were in rotation. It got Glock some open layups and dunks. It got Carey a mismatch or two inside.
As hectic as we felt, we didn't feel out of control. Edwards, Huffman, Collins, Tanner, and second half Manon all felt completely in control of what they were doing. No panic. Hoggard only going to make that better.
We're not going to be a great % shooting team. But taking a high number of 3s is important in this offense. You've got to keep those driving lanes open. And we move so much it's going to invalidate scouting reports to a degree. When everyone is moving and passing quickly, it's wildly difficult for a defender to say "oh, I can back off of Huffman". You're just in scramble mode.
Defense
This is where we're going to lose games this year. As often as we'll go on runs on offense, we're going to have some had defensive spurts. One issue is we're not where we need to be with everyone knowing where they're supposed to me. The man concepts of when to switch, when to go over, when to go under, etc. are going to take time. And when you shoot a lot of 3s you have a lot of long rebounds that lead to breaks. There were a lot of times where guys didn't seem sure of when to go after the long rebounds vs when to go back on defense.
The good news is that a lot of this is playing together. We should get better. If it was all freshman, we'd be in trouble. These guys have been around, and they'll figure it out.
Tyler Tanner
He looks like he belonged. Looks super comfortable playing fast. He wasn't just surviving his first college minutes, he was helping us. But what I was most impressed with was his defense. His size will never allow him to be elite on that end, but his play on that end was actually good. Not saying he'll ever be a stopper for us, but he's more advanced?useful? than I expected from a 6'0 thin freshman whose rep out of HS was not exactly glowing on the defensive side.
Grant Huffman
Pretty much exactly what I expected. Solid ball handler and passer. Good on ball defender. Tougher than he looks. Never going to stuff the stat sheet, but he does enough good things that he doesn't hurt you. Side note: Looks like he has Tourettes when he shoots FTs.
MJ Collins
Probably the player I was least focused on. I kind of just assumed he was going to play competently. I'm sure he'll have games where his play demands more attention. The 2-7 from the field last night isn't ideal, but it's one game.
Jason Edwards
He's just fun to watch. A jitterbug who can shoot. He also led the team with 5 assists, which was a pleasant surprise. He could have very easily chosen to be more selfish. He was getting to the rim at will. Nice to see him buy in to the team philosophy from game 1. Seems like the natural pick to be the fan favorite. He's going to have some massive scoring games.
Chris Manon
Did not like his first half. Seemed a step slow. Looked out of place on both ends. Then in the second half looked like a different player. Will never be a stat stuffer. But second half Manon does a lot of little things well and contributes in enough ways to justify minutes. He's a connector. We put him in the high post a few times with the ball, and he looked comfortable in that role. One thing that bothers me is that he takes long strides on D rather than short, controlled steps. If it works it works (and historically his D has been good), it's just a little off-putting. I have a bad feeling that he'll be a guy that gets a lot of heat, because at the end of the night fans will look at the box score and feel his shooting/scoring won't be good enough. If you choose to think of him as a more athletic Scott Hundley, I think it'll be easier to appreciate his game.
Tyler Nickel
Would like to see more impact outside of scoring. That said, clearly a good shooter. Can get it off super quick. His man D wasn't bad. MES hit a lot of mid-range fallaways. Nickel had more than his fair share of those against him, but honestly you live with those. His positioning and contests were fine. Ultimately if he shoots like he can shoot, and if he's not hurting you on D, you live with it.
Devin McGlockton
Holy $#!+. Clearly, he won't be able to replicate that production each game. Especially against larger teams. I absolutely love watching guys who play that relentless style of ball. I enjoyed every single part of that 24 pt 13 rb game from him. I said in the offseason he'd be a fan favorite. That effort is why.
And there's more to his game than we saw. He can legitimately play on the perimeter.
Jaylen Carey
Hoss. With his weight, athleticism, length, touch and skill around the basket - completely comfortable with him at the 5. This dude's going to put up some numbers for us. His defense needs work, but it's not bad. I have a feeling a lot of our fans watched the game and realized he was much better than they realized.
JQ Roberts
The athleticism and potential are still there. But right now it still feels more like potential than something that will actually turn into production. He had some nice moments in cleanup duty. But it just kind of seems like some of the natural basketball hand-eye coordination isn't quite there. The balance, footwork, weight shifting, body movement once you've left the ground, etc... it's all got a way to go. I think the goal this year with him might be getting him to a point where you feel comfortable putting him in the rotation. That might feel like a low bar, but right now he isn't on the level of the guys in the rotation ahead of him.
Jordan Williams
Yep, he's still on the team. He made a nice hustle play. But with Hoggard coming back, we probably don't need to see him again. We have plenty of depth with the scholarship guys.
Offense
Organized Chaos. It's just a touch stressful to watch. Probably much more stressful to defend. Guys actually move and pass the ball. It doesn't always accomplish something, but it makes the defense move. I will take that all day over what we've seen since Stallings. Passing the ball around the perimeter is the worst offense to watch and the easiest offense to defend. The defense gets to relax. And it forces terrible end of shot clock shots. Were all of our shots good? Nope. But it got Nickel some good looks. It got Edwards some layups because guys were in rotation. It got Glock some open layups and dunks. It got Carey a mismatch or two inside.
As hectic as we felt, we didn't feel out of control. Edwards, Huffman, Collins, Tanner, and second half Manon all felt completely in control of what they were doing. No panic. Hoggard only going to make that better.
We're not going to be a great % shooting team. But taking a high number of 3s is important in this offense. You've got to keep those driving lanes open. And we move so much it's going to invalidate scouting reports to a degree. When everyone is moving and passing quickly, it's wildly difficult for a defender to say "oh, I can back off of Huffman". You're just in scramble mode.
Defense
This is where we're going to lose games this year. As often as we'll go on runs on offense, we're going to have some had defensive spurts. One issue is we're not where we need to be with everyone knowing where they're supposed to me. The man concepts of when to switch, when to go over, when to go under, etc. are going to take time. And when you shoot a lot of 3s you have a lot of long rebounds that lead to breaks. There were a lot of times where guys didn't seem sure of when to go after the long rebounds vs when to go back on defense.
The good news is that a lot of this is playing together. We should get better. If it was all freshman, we'd be in trouble. These guys have been around, and they'll figure it out.
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