Was able to rewatch the entire Minny game this morning. Upon review, came away with far more positives than negatives. Kids played well for first real test in a hostile environment. Yes, our transition defense definitely killed us, and the inability to adjust to Coffey's dominating Ponds and Mussini in the paint was a glaring weakness, but we rebounded well, moved the ball well, and had tons of good shots. LoVett and Ponds appear to be two very special freshmen, and Ahmed did enough to show that he can be an impact guy at this level.
Yes, Mussini, Ellison, and Amar went scoreless, but they had many good and open looks and the shots simply didn't drop. That'll all even out and they'll drop the next time. Only Ellison was guilty of a couple of out of control heaves, but even he got inside several times and failed to finish. I guess to be fair, Ponds and LoVett both made some very difficult shots, and maybe they too will level off -- unless they happen to be that good, in which case we should all enjoy the next couple of years a great deal.
LoVett was far more efficient in the second half, eliminating the wild drives into traffic in the first half which padded his shot totals. While only four guys scored, this team will get contributions from our bench as the year progresses. While Izzo and State will be tough, I'm looking forward to seeing what we learned from this game as we move through Atlantis. All in all, we're ahead of where I thought we would be and there are solid reasons to hope that this team can and will overachieve this season.