Starters Bishop, Freeman, Harris, Adams, Brown

You can follow along to the stats live here: https://gwsports.com/sidearmstats/mbball/play-by-play

brown & dean in at the same time?
 

GW with a big height advantage in the post and wing.  Passing real well to neT the zone. Bishop, Dean, Harris...basically everyone looks good.  GW up 29 with a minute left in first half.

Bamisile, Lindo and Lee in street clothes.

Last edited by BM (11/01/2021 6:14 pm)

Any MAYHEM detected?

Well Good is playing with two wangs...does that count 😉

Hard to really come up with to much given that Hood was very athletically overmatched.

1.  We are much more athletic than in years past and that athleticism probably goes 7-8 deep when you add those in street clothes.
2.  Bishop has tremendous range.  Did not see much of last year obviously but he by far was our 3 point threat.
3. Playing Bishop off the ball with Freeman seems to work.  Probably will not have that run the entire time but it gives Bishop a break.
4. Decent ball movement.  Did not see the “pound the dribble” until the shot clock expires that we heard so much about.
5. Our big men can hit free throws.
6.  Our defense still needs work - lots of gurds driving by and into the paint.
7.  GREAT to be back in the Smith Center again

Some observations:

* Dean looked bouncier and more skilled than I remember
* Brown , on the other hand, looked a bit slow
* Freeman has some time to go before he can start against A-10 guards
* Bishop was fantastic with or off the ball
* Hood got three open layups on under the basket inbounds plays.  We have to fix that
* We actually ran structured offensive plays for most of the game.  A huge improvement over last season where I only saw that against URI
* Samuels was taller than I thought and played passable PF in the absence of Lindo.  Remains to be seen if he can do that against A-10 front lines
* Having Lindo and Bamisile back on what looked like a much improved squad moves my needle to the optimistic side of the line (modestly)

* We’re not going to be shooting 71% from 2-pt range any other time this season

Last edited by BM (11/02/2021 7:42 am)

It was so great to be back in the Smith Center for a game after a year and a half. 

Team looked much faster and more athletic, but there’s no way to tell anything because Hood basically played 5 guards on the perimeter and no one bigger than like 6’3” in their starting lineup. Hood played kind of a modified, uptempo Princeton offense and the spread floor did create some lanes for straight line drives - but when you hold a team to like 50 points, not much to complain about.  (And for whoever worried about their offensive rebounds, those were almost all off long shots that missed wildly and came crazy off the rim.  Not worried, especially when Lindo is back).

My player observation:

Amir Harris - starting with him because I was really pleasantly surprised by how good he looked.  He blocked 3 shots in the first 4 or 5 possessions (two of them were threes he blocked) and played great defense. His day was cut short by foul trouble on some soft D3 calls, but he looked again like a really versatile defender who will help.  Offensively he’s like another point guard.  He handles the ball, and can slash, but not shoot from outside.  His passing was very solid. 

Brendan Adams - there’s no other way to say it than Adams had a bad game.  He hit his first three and then missed 6 in a row (before making his last two  He also got burned off the dribble several times.   That said I’ve seen him enough to know he’s a good defender and his shot looked good, even he missed a few. He also got in ticky tack foul trouble.  He will definitely help our athleticism, and I think his shooting will be crucial to our half court offense against good teams - I could see an unexpected loss when he’s off and an upset when he’s on because his presence will loosen up the defense if he’s hitting. 

James Bishop - looked fantastic, under control.   Rarely drove to the hole, which was interesting and I only recall one of his patented pull up mid range shots that he hits at such a high rate.  Mostly he kept the ball moving and hit threes.  His shooting was great and made a couple with hands in his face.  He also looked really good leading the break, with multiple long passes to guys underneath (some were converted, some didn’t work).  22 points on 8-13 shooting, 6-11 from three, 5 boards and 7 assists is a strong game, but the best part is it looks like he was really focusing on passing and keeping the ball moving and not playing hero ball at all.  Only downside was that sometimes against the zone, especially in the second half he was holding the ball or running the offense slowly, instead of puttting pressure on the defense, which won’t work vs D1 teams. 

Brayon Freeman -  Terrific debut.  I was really impressed, especially with the way he attacked the zone.  He is very quick and penetrated the zone multiple times, usually with a kick out to a 3 point shooter.   He made a 3 which was nice and dished 5 dimes.  Need to work on defensive positioning, like all freshman.  I was really impressed with him, at least vs this competition because he gives us another ball handler and let’s Bishop play of the ball. 

Noel Brown - he looked skimmed down but really really strong.  This was a bad matchup for him because even if they were D3 guards, he was chasing them around the perimeter, which is not his strength.  He did get his offense going in the second half, powering over smaller guys and even going 3-3 on FTs.   Against teams with a center, he’ll be the guy to bang down low, but against teams that pace and space, he’ll be less useful. 

Hunter Dean -  sure looked confident and active.  Had a double double and just repeatedly went up over small guys to score or rebound, but was athletic enough to chase on the perimeter. I still worry that his game is all finesse, so I want to see him hold his own and perform vs a physical team.  It was cool to see him and Brown play together vs this small team. 

Qwanzi Samuels - long and athletic.  very active, but raw.  He was pretty effective in high lows with either him dumping it down or being the recipient from Brown or Dean.  His passing was solid with 3 dimes, though he missed some shots around the basket.  It’s going to take him a while to get confident and comfortable, but he did seem like a useful 8th or 9th man.

Daniel Nixon - didn’t play as much but hit a late three.  Really the only thing to say about him is that he has a high major frame. He’s not Omar Williams or David Pelion with the skinny legs.  I know they want to bring him along slowly, but I saw a guy who had the body to really bang with anyone, but also some raw athleticism and skill.  While he didn’t do much yesterday, I’m impressed by his size and athleticism. 

Walk-ons:  Knapp’ didn’t get to do much other than swing the ball when he was in.  The other walk ins got about 5 minutes at the end.  Galley is big.  Laziz was very fast with the ball.  He’ll be a fan favorite if he gets in games.


Lastly, Jamion Christian’s new beard makes him look like a young Mike Jarvis.  That works for me.