Game 1: New Orleans

It's the first game of the year R-E-L-A-X.

While New Orleans with far less talent was playing in what, their 14th game?

I expect them to be tested by Nebraska next week.

I expect them to be tested by Central Connecticut.

- Team looked more alert defensively than last year.
- Heretofore unseen flair and panache on display at times.
- Decent crowd of 4k+.
- Dance team killed.
- Complimentary "red zone" flying saucer ice cream sandwich was nice.
- MC called out the bench in the presser for providing little.

It was good to be back.

Just got back from Cuba and didn't get to catch all of the game but its good to get the first W.

It was good to see Simon and Clark contribute early and do it without dominating the ball or taking a lot of shots.

Lovett and Ponds look stronger and more mature.

I love that Bash's role has been reduced but think his output can be the same.

The question mark will be the front court but I'm hoping small ball wins.

Just got back from Cuba and didn't get to catch all of the game but its good to get the first W.

It was good to see Simon and Clark contribute early and do it without dominating the ball or taking a lot of shots.

Lovett and Ponds look stronger and more mature.

I love that Bash's role has been reduced but think his output can be the same.

The question mark will be the front court but I'm hoping small ball wins.

Bash plays as if he’s never been coached before. He’s a black hole.

Just watched, thought you guys would be more positive.
Rebounding- I thought we tried and competed. I even saw Ahmed boxing out.
Defense- they weren’t good, but we only gave up 61 points. I think the guards played well.
Yakwe- was terrible. Hoping it was just a bad game
Amar- was horrific- still looking for his own shot immediately after coming in. His shot still sucks. He picked up 2 fouls really quick.
Ponds and Lovett were awesome. The 2 new guys were really goood. I thought amhed played a much smarter game ( for him).

Did not see the game but just reviewed the stats.  Ahmed worries me, 4 TOs in 21 minutes is awful.  Given the lines on Yakwe (4 fouls in 8 minutes is incomprehensible) and Amar this may be a 7 man team which is scary. I believe both of them will come around , if not there will be major problems.  Getting outrebounded by 15 is horrid.   I did see positives.  The D must have been good, 61 points!  After the first 3 games I'm seeing a 4 man backcourt that is excellent and should be able to carry us to a reasonable amount of wins (18-20) Clark was offensively productive but we need more rebounds from him.  Assist total good.  The winning margin was impressive especially with ponds having an off night  Time will tell.....not a bad opener....did what they were suppose to do, win big.   

Just watched, thought you guys would be more positive.
Rebounding- I thought we tried and competed. I even saw Ahmed boxing out.
Defense- they weren’t good, but we only gave up 61 points. I think the guards played well.
Yakwe- was terrible. Hoping it was just a bad game
Amar- was horrific- still looking for his own shot immediately after coming in. His shot still sucks. He picked up 2 fouls really quick.
Ponds and Lovett were awesome. The 2 new guys were really goood. I thought amhed played a much smarter game ( for him).

They started to get after it some in the second half on the glass, but Owens rarely gets position, Clark thinks he’s a scoring guard and the only one who thinks board when a shot goes up is Ponds. That’s why he’s the best player on the team. He’s everywhere.

Yakwe is rarely paying attention. Him and Amar have zero feel for the game. That, and Amar is selfish, and completely clueless. Ahmed is selfish, too. He plays like he’s only interested in showcasing his skill set for the NBA. And he’s not getting drafted even if he matures into a good player. Trimble reminds me of Ricky Torres. Slow, and only interested in shooting threes. And he’s not just a little out of shape. He’s got a belly. Maybe he’s our Bartolo?

It’s up to the staff to bring this group’s egos together and turn them into a team. It can’t be on Ponds to be the only one boxing out. How does Clark have only 3 rebounds? That’s unacceptable. Not just because he’s the center now, but because we are playing a really weak team that an MSU transfer should dominate.

Central Connecticut State shot the ball well against Hartford. If we keep up this bullshit lazy defense, it could be a close game or even a loss. Time for Mullin to be a coach. No more free passes.

Did not see the game but just reviewed the stats.  Ahmed worries me, 4 TOs in 21 minutes is awful.  Given the lines on Yakwe (4 fouls in 8 minutes is incomprehensible) and Amar this may be a 7 man team which is scary. I believe both of them will come around , if not there will be major problems.  Getting outrebounded by 15 is horrid.   I did see positives.  The D must have been good, 61 points!  After the first 3 games I'm seeing a 4 man backcourt that is excellent and should be able to carry us to a reasonable amount of wins (18-20) Clark was offensively productive but we need more rebounds from him.  Assist total good.  The winning margin was impressive especially with ponds having an off night  Time will tell.....not a bad opener....did what they were suppose to do, win big.   

There are major problems already. A lazy staff that didn’t add size combined with their inability to develop talent.

New Orleans recap: http://www.bigeastboards.com/

Quote from: TONYD3 on November 11, 2017, 09:28:22 AM

Just watched, thought you guys would be more positive.
Rebounding- I thought we tried and competed. I even saw Ahmed boxing out.
Defense- they weren’t good, but we only gave up 61 points. I think the guards played well.
Yakwe- was terrible. Hoping it was just a bad game
Amar- was horrific- still looking for his own shot immediately after coming in. His shot still sucks. He picked up 2 fouls really quick.
Ponds and Lovett were awesome. The 2 new guys were really goood. I thought amhed played a much smarter game ( for him).

They started to get after it some in the second half on the glass, but Owens rarely gets position, Clark thinks he’s a scoring guard and the only one who thinks board when a shot goes up is Ponds. That’s why he’s the best player on the team. He’s everywhere.

Yakwe is rarely paying attention. Him and Amar have zero feel for the game. That, and Amar is selfish, and completely clueless. Ahmed is selfish, too. He plays like he’s only interested in showcasing his skill set for the NBA. And he’s not getting drafted even if he matures into a good player. Trimble reminds me of Ricky Torres. Slow, and only interested in shooting threes. And he’s not just a little out of shape. He’s got a belly. Maybe he’s our Bartolo?

It’s up to the staff to bring this group’s egos together and turn them into a team. It can’t be on Ponds to be the only one boxing out. How does Clark have only 3 rebounds? That’s unacceptable. Not just because he’s the center now, but because we are playing a really weak team that an MSU transfer should dominate.

Central Connecticut State shot the ball well against Hartford. If we keep up this bullshit lazy defense, it could be a close game or even a loss. Time for Mullin to be a coach. No more free passes.

Agree with  you. My name expectations were lower going in.

Did not see the game but just reviewed the stats.  Ahmed worries me, 4 TOs in 21 minutes is awful.  Given the lines on Yakwe (4 fouls in 8 minutes is incomprehensible) and Amar this may be a 7 man team which is scary. I believe both of them will come around , if not there will be major problems.  Getting outrebounded by 15 is horrid.   I did see positives.  The D must have been good, 61 points!  After the first 3 games I'm seeing a 4 man backcourt that is excellent and should be able to carry us to a reasonable amount of wins (18-20) Clark was offensively productive but we need more rebounds from him.  Assist total good.  The winning margin was impressive especially with ponds having an off night  Time will tell.....not a bad opener....did what they were suppose to do, win big.

Lovett / Ponds / Clark / Simon all passed the ball well and crisply shared the rock. Some plays were very pretty to watch.  There were very few turnovers in the 2nd half.  In the 1st half there were a bunch of unforced, grade school level, turnovers:  ball going right through a players hand on a skip pass, stepping out of bounds with the ball when receiving a pass.  Those grade-school turnovers never fully go away, but hopefully it was just jitters.  It was a big positive that weren't many turnovers, particularly in the 2nd half.

Excluding rebounding / lack of bulk down low (the obvious issue everyone knows about):  The only overt glaring problem in watching the game, and in a continuation of last year, was Ahmed's decision making.  He thinks he's Melo and just stops the ball.  He definitely forced it a few times.  The team  has more scoring options this year, and just because more players will have the ball - he'll do this less.... But he is forcing it; and his decision-making just makes for terrible offensive production on those possessions.. the chances of generating points on that particular possession, when he does that, has to drop by a factor of 25%.  It's just such low probability math. 

It's like he can't believe his teammates will pass him the ball to take a good shot.  (And yes they will, he received quite a few good passes that gave him good open look jump shots).  This has to stop with him doing his Melo routine. 

As an aside, Ponds also took a few questionable threes, but he's such a good shooter, that the team can live with it.

FT shooting was good / passing was good / decision making was generally good (Ahmed aside).  Defensively, the wings (guards + clark + ahmed) looked quick on defense... i kinda forget though (hard to remember). how the team was on staying in front of their man and preventing dribble penetration?   Ahmed, losing weight in the off-season - he definitely looks leaner and touch quicker.

Another note about Ahmed:  Another poster pointed this out:  He definitely changed his release on his shot; he's totally "short-arming" it.  I assume this is because he wants to make his shot quicker, but really looks like he's not following through.  Even on his FT shots, he has this much more compact, jerky shot.   On his two made threes he looked like he followed-through a bit more...but still, we'll see if he's a better shooter.  Otherwise, the form looks really good.  It'll be interesting to see if this is a better shot for him.

Quote from: cjfish on November 11, 2017, 10:18:04 AM

Did not see the game but just reviewed the stats.  Ahmed worries me, 4 TOs in 21 minutes is awful.  Given the lines on Yakwe (4 fouls in 8 minutes is incomprehensible) and Amar this may be a 7 man team which is scary. I believe both of them will come around , if not there will be major problems.  Getting outrebounded by 15 is horrid.   I did see positives.  The D must have been good, 61 points!  After the first 3 games I'm seeing a 4 man backcourt that is excellent and should be able to carry us to a reasonable amount of wins (18-20) Clark was offensively productive but we need more rebounds from him.  Assist total good.  The winning margin was impressive especially with ponds having an off night  Time will tell.....not a bad opener....did what they were suppose to do, win big.

Lovett / Ponds / Clark / Simon all passed the ball well and crisply shared the rock. Some plays were very pretty to watch.  There were very few turnovers in the 2nd half.  In the 1st half there were a bunch of unforced, grade school level, turnovers:  ball going right through a players hand on a skip pass, stepping out of bounds with the ball when receiving a pass.  Those grade-school turnovers never fully go away, but hopefully it was just jitters.  It was a big positive that weren't many turnovers, particularly in the 2nd half.

Excluding rebounding / lack of bulk down low (the obvious issue everyone knows about):  The only overt glaring problem in watching the game, and in a continuation of last year, was Ahmed's decision making.  He thinks he's Melo and just stops the ball.  He definitely forced it a few times.  The team  has more scoring options this year, and just because more players will have the ball - he'll do this less.... But his forcing it; and decision making just makes for terrible offensive production on those possessions.. the chances of generating points on that particular possession, when he does that, has to drop by a factor of 25%.  It's just such low probability math. 

It's like he can't believe his teammates will pass him the ball to take a good shot.  (And yes they will, he received quite a few good passes that gave him good open look jump shots).  This has to stop with him doing his Melo routine. 

As an aside, Ponds also took a few questionable threes, but he's such a good shooter, that the team can live with it.

FT shooting was good / passing was good / decision making was generally good (Ahmed aside).  Defensively, the wings (guards + clark + ahmed) looked quick on defense... i kinda forget though (hard to remember). how the team was on staying in front of their man and preventing dribble penetration?   Ahmed, losing weight in the off-season - he definitely looks leaner and touch quicker.

Another note about Ahmed:  Another poster pointed this out:  He definitely changed his release on his shot; he's totally "short-arming" it.  I assume this is because he wants to make his shot quicker, but really looks like he's not following through.  Even on his FT shots, he has this much more compact, jerky shot.   On his two made threes he looked like he followed-through a bit more...but still, we'll see if he's a better shooter.  Otherwise, the form looks really good.  It'll be interesting to see if this is a better shot for him.

Ahmed thinks he’s the man on this team. I’d say he should come off the bench, but there is no bench. Mullin will have to take his medicine finally. As will an inept University for being foolish enough to hire a guy with zero experience. All he did all game was throw his arms out in response to a call he didn’t like. At least Lavin was good at something.

Ahmad played awful last night. No touch and no court awareness. Still think he should be 6th Man.

And it’s ponds who’s changed his shot imo

Where is this Ahmed hate coming from? This is how he always plays !

Where is this Ahmed hate coming from? This is how he always plays !

He needs to play better. Another negative on the staff for lack of player development.

Quote from: cjfish on November 11, 2017, 10:18:04 AM

Did not see the game but just reviewed the stats.  Ahmed worries me, 4 TOs in 21 minutes is awful.  Given the lines on Yakwe (4 fouls in 8 minutes is incomprehensible) and Amar this may be a 7 man team which is scary. I believe both of them will come around , if not there will be major problems.  Getting outrebounded by 15 is horrid.   I did see positives.  The D must have been good, 61 points!  After the first 3 games I'm seeing a 4 man backcourt that is excellent and should be able to carry us to a reasonable amount of wins (18-20) Clark was offensively productive but we need more rebounds from him.  Assist total good.  The winning margin was impressive especially with ponds having an off night  Time will tell.....not a bad opener....did what they were suppose to do, win big.   

There are major problems already. A lazy staff that didn’t add size combined with their inability to develop talent.

This pretty much sums it up.

Where is this Ahmed hate coming from? This is how he always plays !

Issue for me is all the talk about him being best player all off season in practice, spending time watching film and making adjustments to style.  Have not seen it to great extent in exhibition vs Rutgers or last night

Yakwe's regression from freshman season is puzzling. He was a young freshman and showed a lot of potential. I thought he may have been our next Sir Dom. Then last year he seemed lost and usually had three or four fouls in a few minutes. He showed his freshman form in the Marquette game last year but that didn't last long. With a nine man rotation (really eight considering not expecting much from Amar) Yakwe should have an opportunity to contribute. Still hoping that he can turn it around.