1. Vescovi, Bailey, Springer, Johnson and James are all excellent shooters. It was an off night. We missed 54 shots, more than half those were open looks. We probably won’t shoot that bad again all year.
2. We had a horrible shooting night, had our best defender on the bench in foul trouble for half the game, played a team that shot 20% over their normal 3 pt percentage and we’re still in the game at the end....that’s a team that will win a lot of games.
3. Vescovi needs to know he can’t drive a crowded lane. He’s a great player until he thinks he needs to be great, then it all falls apart. More than almost anyone on the team he can benefit from Barnes style of coaching.
4. Nkamhoua has to develop. We need reliable minutes from him off the bench. He has a huge upside, but has been really, really slow getting there. This is the problem with having to start Fulky, we don’t really have anyone to come in to add energy to the inside. ON seems your best bet, Uros still looks lost out there and Anosike is a one trick pony. One of those 3 has to be that guy. Fulk was brilliant at that a couple seasons ago.
5. Barnes doesn’t like to call timeouts. I get not wanting to break the flow of the game, but with a team this young it seems like they could benefit from a reset every now and then.
6. I see very little to be worried about at this point. It’s college basketball, you’re going to have games like this. The best team only wins about 80% of the time. We shouldn’t have lost to Bama, hopefully it’s a learning experience. There’s a good Arkansas team coming to town on Wednesday. Let’s see if things get back to normal before panicking.