July 8 Kenner League RECAP

[FLHoya]

I got to the Kenner League a little early today and sat through the final eight minutes of a High School game.

Then I sat through eight minutes of Tombs-Bulldogs.

I wanted the High Schoolers back.

I guess more accurately, I wanted The Freshmen and The Vern back. Chris and Nikita were off on Community Scholars duty and Vernon was sitting this one out.

Here's some fun with my notes from the game:

TOMBS 53 BULLDOGS 44

(First of all--yes, that's the real final score of a Kenner League game. In the first game I saw last weekend, the Colonials and M&A doubled that point total)

FIRST HALF

*8-7 @ 10 minute mark.
*6:47--someone breaks 10!
*2:00--Roy laughing at Jon during TO
(this was particularly funny--Jon was standing in the huddle and Roy walked behind the bench, caught his eye, and gave him one of those "I can't believe you're doing this s***" moment.
*Halftime: 21-16, WTF???

At this point, we decided when the second half started we would keep a running score in the battle of turnovers vs. field goals.

In the same way that Kenner League games are sometimes influenced by rosters stacked in favor of teams named after restaurants, this battle was heavily influence by the roster of referees. Apparently it was "offensive foul" day at McDonough, brought to you by the intentional foul. Another classic performance by one of my favorite Kenner League refs, "Wow, it must be a little cold in here."

Since offensive fouls are turnovers, it was never going to be fair.

More notes:

SECOND HALF

*5 mins in: 9 turnovers, 1 field goal.
*14:32--first Tombs points (JWall FT)
*13:18--BS breaks 20! (I can't remember why I started calling them BS)
*6:46--BS breaks 10 for the half!
(If you're scoring at home, that means a team in the Kenner League was at 26 with 6:46 to go in the game)
*3:08--BS breaks 30!
(On the plus side, they scored 14 points in the final 3 minutes, mostly because they would...not...stop...FOULING!!!!!)

Strangely, this was actually a single digit game. So was the "real" contest for second half supremacy. The turnovers roared out on a 9-1 run and then 21-10 run, but the field goals made a valiant comeback...all for naught however:

TURNOVERS 24 FIELD GOALS 19

Okay, so there was this one guy:

Jonathan Wallace: 21 points, 2-4 from two, 3-7 from three, 8-8 FT, 4RB, 2A, 4TO, 1ST, 3F

It's almost pointless to evaluate this game. Jon was playing with virtually no help on his team today, the only saving grace being that the Bulldogs were even more helpless. In all honestly, J-Wall was mailing this one in from the get-go, and I don't blame the man.

There were a few good moments--he continues to hit threes from a variety of setups NOT including being passed to at a set location, and he had a cool three-steal-layup combo in the second half. His bad moments mostly came from trying to do too much to carry his team--bad drives into multiple defenders, taking the ball up against pressure, etc.


People in attendance at various points during the day: Hibbert, Rich Chvotkin, Ronny Thompson, Porterfield, David Cox, Father Steck.


The only saving grace of this game was during the first half, as I was drifting off, someone behind me in the hallway by the basketball offices yelled down from on high:

HEY HARVEY!

AHEAD: So...there's THAT to look forward too.

[FLHoya]

Harvey Thomas.

I'll repeat that.

Harvey Thomas.

The last time I can remember myself in such anticipation of someone's arrival at McDonough Gym for reasons I cannot understand, it was...well, probably 2001 when Harvey Thomas walked over to the scorer's table to make his debut in a Hoya uniform.

All in all, I think it's probably a good thing that this time around the games don't count. We'll have more fun that way.

Clyde's featured an irresistible starting lineup of Rivers, Freeman, Wattad, Ewing Jr. and Thomas--four from Gtown, one from a galaxy far, far away.

The only thing that would have made this matchup more compelling is if Beavis Vazquez were still playing for the DC Jammers.

More points, better play, but still little drama:

CLYDE'S 83 DC JAMMERS 62

The first thing Harvey Thomas did was commit an offensive foul.

Meeeeeemmmmmoooooorrrrrriiiiieeeeeeessssss.....

In truth, this game started off a bit slow as well, though the quality of play was much higher (the point about turnovers and offensive fouls in Game 1 cannot be overstated).

The Clyde's coach does something of a modified hockey-line system, in that he'll play essentially two completely different "shifts" of players, but won't sub five at a time; rather, he'll gradually take the full lineup out over 2-3 minutes. I tend to notice this b/c I kept track of scores for 5 players on Clyde's today and there were stretches when I had nothing to do.

Interestingly, the biggest scoring run of the first half for Clyde's came when most of the GTown line was off the court. The starting lineup accounted for 25 of the 35 Clyde's points in the first half, but I wouldn't be shocked if the reamaining ten came almost consecutively. For the second time today a team failed to hit 20 in a half, as Clyde's led 35-19 at the break.

That lead stayed in the high teens for most of the second half, reaching 22 at its highest about midway through the second stanza. There were bursts of activity from a few players--Ewing and Thomas had their runs in the second half, while Freeman had the biggest impact in the first. In truth, James Gist probably made the most noise in the second half for DC Jammers, but part of it was that he had been so quiet in the first half.

This was another odd game--the margin was far greater than I thought it would be, and for a team with some good Maryland players competing--Bombale Osby, Landon Milbourne, and Gist to name three--very few "battles" developed on the court. It'd be neat to see how Ewing faired against Gist, but they really didn't take it at each other very often. Ditto pretty much everyone else.

Not to mention the last 7-8 minutes became garbage time. I guess they can't all come down to the final possession with GU pre-frosh hitting GW shots.

PLAYERS:

Jeremiah Rivers: 8 points, 4-8 from two, 0-2 from three, 1RB, 4A, 1ST, 1F

JR was really working the pull-up jumper today...he seemed to be looking almost exclusively for that shot. Every time he'd take a guy from the perimeter, it seemed he was looking to pull up from 15-17 feet. Even his three pointers were following that model.

His assists certainly earned style points--he threw two alley oop passes, one to Ewing and one to Thomas (a reverse no less). Late in the game, he had a particularly sexy feed over his back shoulder to a cutting Ewing Jr., who finished off in appropriate style.

Defensively, it was nice to see Clyde's also running some full court pressure today, as the Tombs had yesterday. Jeremiah looked pretty decent in that context.

No big surprises yet.

Austin Freeman: 17 points, 6-6 from two, 1-2 from three, 2-3 FT, 4RB, 1BL, 1TO

Austin had a good stretch in the mid first half where he was carrying the load big time for Clyde's. Good to see he's got the ability to take a game on his shoulders, although I have no illusions he's getting anywhere close to the Green-Wallace mold any time soon.

A good variety on the baskets--he scored on a post play in the first half, a floater in the lane on a fast break, a few strong drives into traffic, a pull-up three, and a couple breakout dunks. Liking the versatility--in build he seems closest to Egerson, but he's got more offensive tools (I'm not sure about the defensive side of that equation yet).

Omar Wattad: 7 points, 2-2 from two, 1-4 from three, 1RB, 1ST, 6 FOULS

In the first half, Omar was showing good hustle on defense, getting in passing lanes on breaks, and in general covering well. In the second half...not so much. He had five of his fouls in the second stanza, several of them reaching in when a ball-handler drove past him. So that seems to be an area for improvement--plus side on the court he seems to be working hard enough, not coasting.

He had the weirdest play of the game. Late in the first half, he up-faked his man at the three point line. I was screened on the play, so going only on the speed of the play, I swore he couldn't possibly have not traveled. But apparently not, and after holding his feet, he threw in a 360 spin as his defender flew by, and with the entire lane in front of him, PULLED UP from about 17-18 feet and nailed the shot.

His last two baskets were a pull-up three and a bank shot from deep two range near the end of the second half.

Patrick Ewing, Jr. 18 points, 5-8 from two, 1-3 from three, 5-6 FT, 5RB, 2A, 4F, 2S, 2TO

A bit less active than his performance in yesterday's game, Pat saved most of the heavy lifting for the second half. As I said before he didn't really battle Gist or Osby that much so it's difficult to draw a lot of constructive conclusions today.

One thing he does seem to be doing is developing his outside game and his perimeter moves. You continue to see the ball fake on the perimeter, and--as if to validate the ball fake--more actual shots taken from deep range.

His best play of the game for me, a backdoor pass out of the post to a cutting Austin Freeman. Now THAT is something we can enjoy watching next year!

He's still the most fun player to watch in the KL.

Harvey Thomas: 8 points, 4-4 from two, 0-1 from three, 2-2 FT, 8RBs, 1A, 2ST, 3F, 1TO

I feel like you need to know these things...especially if he starts challenging Pat for most fun player to watch in the KL (I believe that's the Deron Washington Memorial Trophy).

[jester]

Watched the first three games of the afternoon, have to admit the turnovers/fouls did make the games at time unwatchable. Wallace did look good when directing the team, htting the three, throwing passes to the interior...but yes, he did not have much help and turned it over when he decided to drive into the bodies by the basket. Crawford had a decent all around game, nailing the three and some outside jumpers and some quick moves towards the hole..didn't have to force much.

Found myself sitting next to Freeman and Wrights' mothers...both said they were excited to see the two playing together in DC... Austin's mom said she hopes to make it to most games...when asked about Austin's teammate Isiah Tate's being recruited to George Mason, she said he decided to go there because of the Final Four run two years ago...clearly our ability to go deep is paying dividends too. Wright's mom - very friendly and outgoing, much like her son, from what I can tell.

[hoyaboy1]

I don't think "Boom" Osby was on Jammers - mybae you are thinking of Braxton Dupree? He wasn't very impressive, btw - nor was Milbourne.

[gujake]

Great stuff as always FL.

My additional observations from the Clyde's game:

Jeremiah: Shooter! No awkward hesitations from him today, that's for sure. Some of the shots were ill-advised, but honestly I was glad to see even the bad shots. Anything that tells me he is actively trying to improve in that area is a big positive in my opinion. We'll see how it progresses.

Austin: I was impressed with him today. He seems to be able to get to the lane at will. We'll be seeing him at the free throw line plenty in the next 4 years. He played better man-to-man defense today than I've seen him display so far, though still nothing spectacular. Austin has a tendency to shoot out on fast breaks when he sees a guy on his team about to get a defensive rebound. He's gotten a number of layups like that... it's almost cherry-picking but not really. I'm going to keep my eye out on this more to see if he's just taking advantage of opportunities or if he's giving up on defensive rebounding.

Omar: I thought he played much better today. He showed in the first half that he's capable of playing solid defense. I think with some work he'll be fine on that end. Very confident shooter. Has a quick release. I would love to see him play within a system.

Pat: Showed off his finesse game today. Pat's a much better shooter than I gave him credit for at times last season. He looks really confident and comfortable with his game right now.

[FLHoya]

hoyaboy1 said:

I don't think "Boom" Osby was on Jammers - mybae you are thinking of Braxton Dupree? He wasn't very impressive, btw - nor was Milbourne.

They mentioned Osby's name at least once, whether by mistake or not, b/c I made the comment that I didn't recognize him w/o the hair. Dupree is definitely on DC Jammers.

[hoyaboy1]

From another board it looks like Osby is on Electro-lite.

[][-][ 0 `/ /-\ 5]

Anyone have more info on Crawford?

[TBird41]

Ah man...I left after the first "basketball" game to go take care of some stuff and then decided not to come back for the Clydes game b/c of how bad that first game was and the likelihood there'd be no freshman.