cncchris33
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I thought ZJC had said he was going to do these, but here goes.
Sparty touched on a lot of the individual efforts tonight in another thread, so I won't spend a ton of time on that, unless to add to them.
1. I thought our trap and the zone was SUPER-effective at times. As with any young team, we got lost, didn't close out on shooters, failed to recognize Melvin Johnson as the hot hand (this is becoming a trend that I don't like), and got beat back after transition buckets. These are all focus-related issues that can be corrected. Mental errors lose ballgames, and we have to be better in those areas. Overall, the defense is very exciting and I love the press. Any combination of Richardson, Punter, Hubbs, & Mostella at the front of that press has me excited. Super-quick and athletic.
2. JRich looked very uncomfortable at PG. It almost forced him into too much one-on-one action in which he forced shots and tried to do too much, which led to the 7 TOs, 2 off of offensive fouls. Perhaps it was due to the nature of VCU's HAVOC defense on this particular night, but we really need someone to step up there and allow him to play off the ball. Ian Chiles suddenly breaking through would be a Godsend.
3. Detrick Mostella is everything offensively that we want so badly for Robert Hubbs to be. Aggressive. He never met a shot he didn't like or thought he couldn't hit. As a young freshman, that will lead to some TOs and poor shot selection, but with a little seasoning and discernment, he can be special. LOVED his play, passion, & heart in this game.
4. The rebounding, especially defensively, is goingvto be our Achilles heel if we don't learn to man-up and box out on every shot. We gave up 23 offensive boards, which is inexcusable. Hopefully experience is the missing ingredient, but man, that was so hard to watch us give them 22 second chance points.
5. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. They kill you, plain and simple. 19 TOs led to 26 points for VCU. In the halfcourt, we made them earn points on first looks, and they made some tough shots. But you can't give up a combined 48 points on second chances and TOs and expect to beat a top 15 team. We have to clean up the ball-handling and silly (sometimes lazy) passes.
6. Jabari McGhee looks to be apparently miles ahead of Owens (which makes sense physically) and Carmichael. Based on preseason reports, I assumed one of the three would likely redshirt, and I had penciled in McGhee for it based on glowing reviews for WC and the defensive presence of Owens. McGhee plays with a ton of passion and heart. He cleans up well around the basket when there is little competition for rebounds, and displayed a nice little baby hook-ish looking shot for his two buckets. Above all, he hustles and shows emotion. Having said that, every single one of his 5 fouls (save for the one he got dunked on) were silly fouls where he didn't have to commit one. One came wjen he had his man (who had just gotten a rebound) pinned on the baseline under his own basket, and he bailed him out with a hip check,and two others came as he rode the hip of a guard on the sideline. Just freshman mistakes, but we need him to stay in the game. His form on his FTs is a little strange too which led to some perfect makes, and some horrible misses. AuntieDee, be proud of his effort last night, and I believe with experience and some work on refining things, he is a solid contributor.
7. Derek Reese disappeared far too often, and will be unfortunately remembered for saving the ball under the opponent's basket twice in one possession. That is inexcusable at the college level. He did grab 6 boards and was efficient on 2-3 shooting, but he passed up at least one open 3, and he needs to take that shot. Not his finest effort, but not the abysmal performance some are calling it either.
8. FTs...we missed enough FTs to lose three games. That was one thing Zo's teams did pretty well, and we just pissed away 16 uncontested set shots from 15 feet. Most frustrating is that our two best shooters (Punter and Mostella) had 5 of those misses. Armani Moore, 2-7 from the line. Inexcusable.
9. Speaking of Moore, a stat line of 8 pts, 7 rebs, 2 steals, 1 asst, 2 TOs seems like a solid night, but I spent a lot of the night wondering if he was even out there. He just seemed quiet aside from his and-1 on the back-cut. 3-9 from the field and 2-7 from the line won't cut it though. We need more from him.
10. I thought we played well in spurts. First 10 minutes of the first half and the majority of the second half, we settled in and forced a good team that like to play fast into a bunch of TOs and we controlled tempo. Unfortunately, VCU was able to flip the script on us just as easily at times. We got a little ahead of ourselves and tried to play one-on-one too often after a TO and score for VCU, and that led to another TO or bad shot on our end, and before you know it, VCU has scored 7-8 straight points in no time. We won't play many teams that play that fast, and that is a tough test right out of the gate. A lot of positives to take away from this game, and a lot of things to work on. Good to see where we match up with one of the better teams in the country, albeit with their 3rd string PG. Hopefully, we can continue to improve on our areas of weakness and we definitely need to stop letting one person beat us. It has happened in both exhibitions and VCU. We have to identify the hot hand and get out on him. Look forward to Thursday.
Sparty touched on a lot of the individual efforts tonight in another thread, so I won't spend a ton of time on that, unless to add to them.
1. I thought our trap and the zone was SUPER-effective at times. As with any young team, we got lost, didn't close out on shooters, failed to recognize Melvin Johnson as the hot hand (this is becoming a trend that I don't like), and got beat back after transition buckets. These are all focus-related issues that can be corrected. Mental errors lose ballgames, and we have to be better in those areas. Overall, the defense is very exciting and I love the press. Any combination of Richardson, Punter, Hubbs, & Mostella at the front of that press has me excited. Super-quick and athletic.
2. JRich looked very uncomfortable at PG. It almost forced him into too much one-on-one action in which he forced shots and tried to do too much, which led to the 7 TOs, 2 off of offensive fouls. Perhaps it was due to the nature of VCU's HAVOC defense on this particular night, but we really need someone to step up there and allow him to play off the ball. Ian Chiles suddenly breaking through would be a Godsend.
3. Detrick Mostella is everything offensively that we want so badly for Robert Hubbs to be. Aggressive. He never met a shot he didn't like or thought he couldn't hit. As a young freshman, that will lead to some TOs and poor shot selection, but with a little seasoning and discernment, he can be special. LOVED his play, passion, & heart in this game.
4. The rebounding, especially defensively, is goingvto be our Achilles heel if we don't learn to man-up and box out on every shot. We gave up 23 offensive boards, which is inexcusable. Hopefully experience is the missing ingredient, but man, that was so hard to watch us give them 22 second chance points.
5. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. They kill you, plain and simple. 19 TOs led to 26 points for VCU. In the halfcourt, we made them earn points on first looks, and they made some tough shots. But you can't give up a combined 48 points on second chances and TOs and expect to beat a top 15 team. We have to clean up the ball-handling and silly (sometimes lazy) passes.
6. Jabari McGhee looks to be apparently miles ahead of Owens (which makes sense physically) and Carmichael. Based on preseason reports, I assumed one of the three would likely redshirt, and I had penciled in McGhee for it based on glowing reviews for WC and the defensive presence of Owens. McGhee plays with a ton of passion and heart. He cleans up well around the basket when there is little competition for rebounds, and displayed a nice little baby hook-ish looking shot for his two buckets. Above all, he hustles and shows emotion. Having said that, every single one of his 5 fouls (save for the one he got dunked on) were silly fouls where he didn't have to commit one. One came wjen he had his man (who had just gotten a rebound) pinned on the baseline under his own basket, and he bailed him out with a hip check,and two others came as he rode the hip of a guard on the sideline. Just freshman mistakes, but we need him to stay in the game. His form on his FTs is a little strange too which led to some perfect makes, and some horrible misses. AuntieDee, be proud of his effort last night, and I believe with experience and some work on refining things, he is a solid contributor.
7. Derek Reese disappeared far too often, and will be unfortunately remembered for saving the ball under the opponent's basket twice in one possession. That is inexcusable at the college level. He did grab 6 boards and was efficient on 2-3 shooting, but he passed up at least one open 3, and he needs to take that shot. Not his finest effort, but not the abysmal performance some are calling it either.
8. FTs...we missed enough FTs to lose three games. That was one thing Zo's teams did pretty well, and we just pissed away 16 uncontested set shots from 15 feet. Most frustrating is that our two best shooters (Punter and Mostella) had 5 of those misses. Armani Moore, 2-7 from the line. Inexcusable.
9. Speaking of Moore, a stat line of 8 pts, 7 rebs, 2 steals, 1 asst, 2 TOs seems like a solid night, but I spent a lot of the night wondering if he was even out there. He just seemed quiet aside from his and-1 on the back-cut. 3-9 from the field and 2-7 from the line won't cut it though. We need more from him.
10. I thought we played well in spurts. First 10 minutes of the first half and the majority of the second half, we settled in and forced a good team that like to play fast into a bunch of TOs and we controlled tempo. Unfortunately, VCU was able to flip the script on us just as easily at times. We got a little ahead of ourselves and tried to play one-on-one too often after a TO and score for VCU, and that led to another TO or bad shot on our end, and before you know it, VCU has scored 7-8 straight points in no time. We won't play many teams that play that fast, and that is a tough test right out of the gate. A lot of positives to take away from this game, and a lot of things to work on. Good to see where we match up with one of the better teams in the country, albeit with their 3rd string PG. Hopefully, we can continue to improve on our areas of weakness and we definitely need to stop letting one person beat us. It has happened in both exhibitions and VCU. We have to identify the hot hand and get out on him. Look forward to Thursday.
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