Kenner League 7/15/06 RECAP

[FLHoya]

Two guys overheard behind me during the Clydes/M&A game:

Well, Roy definitely got better.

Yeah, I heard.

My only regrets from the game were that I missed the first five minutes, didn't take notes until the second half, and didn't keep a running tally of how much Roy had scored.

Clydes took the game 98-66, and perhaps even this didn't reflect the true course of the game. M&A seemed to be allergic to the following:

--Defense
--Defensive rebounding
--Roy Hibbert

This was the highest scoring output I'd seen so far this summer, and I've been to a few overtime games. Really came too easy for the Men in Black, particularly Big Roy who lived up to the Dunkosaur(us) label he is sometimes given by Hoya fans. Goodness.

As I said, I didn't really keep notes until the second half, in part b/c I was conversing with some folks, and in part b/c that conversation was frequently punctuated by that sort of smile/half head shake move people do when they're expressing a "there he goes again!" type sentiment.

What I can tell you about the players:

Roy Hibbert: This is a guess, based on what I was told by 007 when I got there, what I recall from the first half, and what I wrote down in the second half.

I would say Roy had something in the 35-40 point range. Further, an educated guess would say he had about a dozen dunks.

The subject of Roy's abusive performance was allegedly Will Thomas of GMU--I needed a cross-reference from the Maryland folk on that one. Roy had a couple moves in which he abused Octavius Spann as well.

What's rather astounding is: it's a given in most Kenner League (and NCAA games in general) there won't be another player on the court who can match Roy's height. But today, there was anyone even in the arena/ballpark/Beltway when it came to gracefulness in the post position. I'd liken it to a baseball player who goes on a run of homers during batting practice--it's incredible to watch, a great show, but they're lollipop pitches that don't offer much resistance.

Furthering the metaphor, Roy was hitting the ball to all fields. Name a post move, and he probably did it at some point today. Back to the basket stuff, over the top lob feeds, going to the left and right, reversing.

Just for the second half, his scoring came on 3 dunks, 2 layups, a putback, and a hook shot. He continues to stick it to Hoya fans by refusing to take three pointers. ;D

An impressive defensive performance today with several blocks and contested shots.

Another interesting development is his fitness. Going the distance in the game, Roy was hustling down the court with greater speed than I'd ever seen from him well into the second half. He did start to lag at around the 10-12 minute mark of the half, but one wonders whether it was genuine fatigue or him just taking the foot off of the gas.

Still getting better...rather scary thought isn't it?

Octavius Spann: Well Tay/Octopus didn't exactly do much for himself defensively against Roy, but neither did I or anyone else. The good news is that he cleared double digit points today, including a rapid succession run of 6 in the first half on a coast-to-coast drive, an offensive putback, and a 3-on-1 break layup. Also hit a nice three point shot. Good to see him getting the time to play/work on his game, which is rather more versatile than I'd have expected given what I've seen of him previously (aka: very little). Seems to have a decent handle and much better range than you'd (read: I'd) have thought. Now he's gotta just work himself in practice and learn some Princeton offense to get time on the court. Certainly a logjam in front of him for the frontcourt however.

Jessie Sapp: Nothing really special from him today, probably a single digit point performance. Aggressiveness is the name of the game here, as he continues to really crash the boards and sometimes seems to slip into almost a 3-spot role depending on the lineup his team has out there, which often results in him playing interior defense. Probably could use more control/direction on some of the drives, but let's balance that with the notion that this skill could obviously be more on hand in our toolbox.

Marc Egerson: Similar to Jessie in that I didn't see anything that stood out. He had a few nice aggressive moves (though who knows what translates from Kenner and what doesn't in this area) to the goal. Seemed to be playing something of a two guard role for this game. Friend of mine suggested he seemed to have lost some weight, but I couldn't tell.

AHEAD: The Greivis Vasquez Smile Time Variety Hour Tombs vs. DC Jammers game.

[hoyaboy1]

I had Roy at something like 37 points and 15 or so boards. Maybe 6-7 blocks. Spann guarded him at first, then Thomas after he showed up. Didn't really matter. He is by far the most dominant player in the league. He was also very vocal, yelling at teammates who weren't doing what he wanted, and being visibly Editeded while sitting at the scorers table and not being able to egt back in during a sloppy stretch in the 2nd half.

Sapp played OK - made a 3, maybe had 10 points, but probably also had close to 10 boards.

Spann was being guarded by Roy early on, but missed two fairly open threes and airballed a lefty runner. Spann and Egerson started scoring well after things got out of hand, so hard to read anything into that.

In game two, the Tombs took down the Jammers. FlHoya will surely have a better recap than me, so I'll be brief. Jeff was only OK, as his jumper was off and he had some sloppy turnovers. Macklin had by far his best game, probably scoring somewhere in the teens. He had some nice hooks today Summers was solid again as well, hitting two threes and probably also scoring in the teens.

Rivers was pretty bad - he couldn't hit a shot and was sloppy with the ball. Wallace struggled a lot with some guy named Kreppy - I think he had in the low single digits.

Gist hit a three early but then got jumper happy, and missed 2-3 dunks. He made at best 1/3 of his shots. Vazquez had a much tougher day today than he had so far, and chances for shimmies were few and far between. He made a halfcourt three at the end of the first, but other than that struggled. He missed 2 3s near the end with a chance to tie, and was clearly outplayed by Summers, who he was matched up with for most of the game.

Tomorrow Clyde's and Tombs play, in what is probably a preview of the Kenner title game.

Edit - I also saw the 2nd half of the DeMatha game. I intentionally showed up late since they are usually 15 minutes behind, but today they were on time. Oops.

Anyway, it wasn't very eventful. Austin barely got the ball, and in the 2nd had 5 points on 2/3 and 1/2 FTs. Braswell played very well, getting a lot of boards and 9-10 points in the half. He also had a nasty block or two.

[FLHoya]

For the first time, the Tombs had the full compliment of players on the roster this afternoon when they took on DC Jammers (who wore the gray uniforms...see, this conclusively proves they want to be like us sooooo badly ;D). And the GTown players formed the starting five for the game, with Vernon Macklin winning the opening tip (on the second try).

If the Clydes/MA game was a offensive explosion (for Roy anyways) with little defensive resistence, the Tombs and Jammers played a defensive struggle, with early turnovers and sloppy play increasingly turning into strong defense and a score of blocked shots.

The Tombs led for the full distance, peaking at roughly 10-12 points ahead at a few moments in the second half. Most of the game was played at a 7-8 difference it seemed, though the halftime deficit was cut to 5 after Beavis Vasquez made a halfcourt shot off an inbounds play at the horn, then made sure to let us all know (as if there were a doubt) that he believes himself to be a number somewhere between 0 and 2.

The second half began with either Green or Macklin (I didn't catch which) fiercely swatting Vasquez on a drive down the lane. Strangely, nobody proclaimed themselves to be number 1 after this particular play. It did set the tone for what I felt was a well played if low scoring second half...great defense played by both teams...Tombs shined on the interior while DC Jammers played exceptional perimeter defense, including forcing 2 five-second violations almost on consecutive possessions in the final minutes of the game--one each against Wallace and Rivers.

DC Jammers pulled within three points in the final minute thanks in large part to their aforementioned defensive surge. They called a timeout to set up a possession, but could get no better than two contested three pointers from Vasquez (who was guarded, as he was for long periods of the game, by Jeff Green) that never looked like they had much of a chance. Few free throws later and you had a 61-55 victory for the Purple People Eaters.

I did manage to keep a pretty accurate score sheet for this one, so I'll go ahead and include those stats with the player evals. I noticed, incidentally, that a lot of people are now keeping score at Kenner League games, another sign that GTown fans are really starting to get into the KL and taking the year-round approach to obsessive Hoya fandom.*

(*Depending on your viewpoint, this may also be a sign of the Apocalypse.)

Jeff Green: Roughly 6-9 from two point range, 0-4 from three point range, 5-9 from the line for 17 points.

Jeff played really more of the 3 position today, as Vernon and Dajuan got the work on the interior. This led to some interesting developments, including Jeff handling the ball in the halfcourt offense at stretches more than Rivers, and (more interestingly) spending long stretches of the game matched up defensively against Vasquez, who's a guard. He's a 6 foot 5 or so guard, but it was an interesting matchup. I think Jeff did rather well in it, I can't recall GV scoring much at all straight up against him...he drew and foul off a baseline drive under the basket and made the FTs in the first half, but otherwise he didn't get much to work with via penetration and had a number of shots contested by Green. I wonder how often he'll receive that kind of treatment as a freshman in the ACC...perhaps a larger defender, but a point forward of Jeff's size is prob. a stretch.

So a good defensive performance in that matchup from Jeff. The anticipated (I guess) Green vs. Gist matchup wasn't really much, as they didn't lock horns frequently at all...Summers and Macklin took that assignment. Early on in the game Jeff sprinted down the court to go for a patented blocked shot of his on Gist's fast break. Gist missed the finish but it was hard for me to tell on the other end whether Jeff got a piece of the shot or Gist contorted his way out of the bucket.

Jeff showed some aggressive moves on the offensive end, featuring an across the lane drive (he does this already) and some nifty low-to-mid range jumpers, including one from the foul line and my personal favorite of the day, a fallaway bank shot from right in front of me.

One small bad spot was at the end of the game during the Tombs' offensive slowdown, Green turned the ball over trying to take on Gist at the top of the key. But as I mentioned he played exceptional defense on the key possession of the game holding Vasquez to two contested three pointers.

Dajuan Summers RBHoya's Homeboy was okay today, going 4-10 from two, 2-2 from three, and 1-4 from the line for 15 points. He actually started both halves off slowly, missing his first 3 two point baskets in both stanzas before making the rest of his shots from the field. Showing a good variety and depth of skills so far, think he can contribute off the bench from Day 1 with no problem (still personally putting him in the two relevant "battles" behind Ewing Jr. but ahead of Macklin).

Vernon Macklin: 7-11 from two point range and 0-1 at the line for 14 points. The featured low-post player of the game, as his baskets were almost exclusively from the inside. To his credit we have an and-1 off a hi low feed from Dajuan, a dunk, a post layin from a Jeff Green feed, a post move over Vasquez, a putback hook shot, and a reverse follow of a Jeff Green miss. He was featured mostly on Gist on the defensive end, and did fine...Gist didn't break out but at the same time Macklin wasn't swatting stuff into the stands or dominating JG. Really the anticipated (by some, I guess, I couldn't really care less) GU-UMCP battles didn't develop.

Vernon did have a few blocks today, including one near the end of the game with the lead only at three. A defensive game such as this really showcased Vernon's better half, which is why I tend to remember his performance today more than Summers as I'm writing this.

One interesting thing about Macklin was that today he worked in the reverse pattern to Summers, in that Macklin scored a lot at the beginning of each half before stalling a bit or seeing the offense go elsewhere. He also took only 3 of his 11 shots in the second half.

Jon Wallace 1-3 from two, 0-2 from three, 2-2 from the line. Really almost invisible today which is a surprise. Neither of the GU guards really stood out in any notable way today--I could recall/tell you much more about what Jeff Green did as a ball handler than either JW or JR. JWall's one basket was a coast to coast drive that was nice. But he was also twice whistled for charging violations for sticking his shoulder into a defender/pushing off, and he was victimized by a five second call (legit) late in the game.

Jeremiah Rivers: 2 for 5 from two, 0-2 from 3 for 4 points. Much more anonymous than Wallace in that I can scarcely remember him even touching the ball. A drive for a basket but also an airballed three pointer. Also victimized by a five second violation...and probably some over-agressive penetration moves.

To quote russkyhoya: "Too fancy...not by a half, by a full."

Tomorrow we have I believe the Tombs vs. Clyde's showdown, and I think I'll be at that one, looking forward to seeing if anyone from GEORGETOWN can stop Roy Hibbert in the post.

[FLHoya]

hoyaboy1 said:

Gist hit a three early but then got jumper happy, and missed 2-3 dunks. He made at best 1/3 of his shots. Vazquez had a much tougher day today than he had so far, and chances for shimmies were few and far between. He made a halfcourt three at the end of the first, but other than that struggled. He missed 2 3s near the end with a chance to tie, and was clearly outplayed by Summers, who he was matched up with for most of the game.

Was it Summers on him a lot or Green on him a lot? I noticed the times when Jeff was on him. In either case an interesting defensive alignment, I guess what do you do w/ a 6-5 guard in a Kenner League game.

Oh the Tombs vs. Clydes Championship game preview gives me a chance to ask a question--any way of evaluating how the Tombs has played so far? I told 007 who missed today's Tombs game that they won by six and he said darn, should've been 20. But then they havent had the whole roster until today so can you realistically say anything about them so far? They're 2-2 right, including that bad Bethesda Magic loss.

[MCIGuy]

flhoya said:

I did manage to keep a pretty accurate score sheet for this one, so I'll go ahead and include those stats with the player evals. I noticed, incidentally, that a lot of people are now keeping score at Kenner League games, another sign that GTown fans are really starting to get into the KL and taking the year-round approach to obsessive Hoya fandom.*

My influence perhaps.

Great job one again, FL. We owe you our thanks. Shout out to hoyaboy1 as well.

[RusskyHoya]

And also...

Roy: ANGRY DUNKS. When he slaps the floor and starts exclaiming, it's scary, eve nif its summer league.

The Tombs: Takin' it easy

DC Jammers' coach: Way too into it

Stevie Weingarden: How did he talk his way onto this team?

Grievus Vasquez: Would be more liked if he was General Grievious in Star Wars: Episodes 2 & 3. That whole "#1 finger in the air because I hit a halfcourt 3" thing wasn't especially endearing.

Gist: Maryland still isn't that good, but they're not gonna go the way of Cinci any time soon.

[lichoya68]

thanks for the summaries go hoyas

[Nitrorebel]

Roy is a real choleric if he wants to be. He's best when he's angry IMO. The coaches should do A Clockwork Orange-type conditioning thing before every game and then let him loose on the opposition! Release the Mr Hyde in him!

Also, who can forget his amazing fight with Brendan "think I'm hot" Haywood 2 Kenners ago. Roy went from usual tame lamb to Ron Artest and played a really good game against Haywood in the end.

[1227]

Beavis was as annoying as advertised. I think this was the first time I have seen a player actually booed at Kenner.

[JimmyHoya]

It may be sad that I was heckling someone during a summer league game, but I certainly don't regret it. Beavis deserved much worse. I hope he trips and dies.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I'm pretty sure Jimmy started that booing and I greatly contributed as well.

[hoyaboy1]

flhoya said:

hoyaboy1 said:

Gist hit a three early but then got jumper happy, and missed 2-3 dunks. He made at best 1/3 of his shots. Vazquez had a much tougher day today than he had so far, and chances for shimmies were few and far between. He made a halfcourt three at the end of the first, but other than that struggled. He missed 2 3s near the end with a chance to tie, and was clearly outplayed by Summers, who he was matched up with for most of the game.

Was it Summers on him a lot or Green on him a lot? I noticed the times when Jeff was on him. In either case an interesting defensive alignment, I guess what do you do w/ a 6-5 guard in a Kenner League game.

Honestly, now I'm a bit confused. What I am sure of is that Vazquez spent most of his time guarding Summers. On the other end I'm now very messed up. I remember that both Jeff and Summers guarded him at times (and I think you are right that it was Jeff at the end), but as for who did it more I'm at a loss.

As for how the Tombs has played so far, I'll say a C. I didn't see the first game though, and Green missed 2 games. Summers has been pretty consistently good, Macklin up and down, and really besides one half Rivers has struggled. Nobody has really had a great game in the 3 I have seen, except maybe Wallace's 26 point performance - although he struggled mightily against tougher D today.

I expect that as times passes the freshman will play a lot better and now that Green is back things will open up more for them. However, I actually think Clyde's should be the favorite to win the league.

[MCIGuy]

Roy said in a Comcast feature on the Kenner League (remind me to provide a link sometime) that he is going for his third KL title (his Tombs won in '04 and his Clyde's team in '05 went undefeated).

[SirSaxa]

Thanks for the extensive reports from Kenner!

Roy sounds astounding!
I am pleased, but not surprised, that Jessie is so aggressive -- especially on the boards.
Spann -- I think we all might be surprised at his game and his minutes this coming season.
Macklin & Summers -- we will be enjoying their time on the Hilltop for quite a while, even if it takes them some time to work into the rotation in a meaningful way.
Rivers -- Dunno.. sounds like a work in progress, and it may take quite a bit of work. He is also facing the possible "all star" backcourt arriving next fall.

OK -- obviously the above is purely speculation, which is perfectly appropriate in the summer.

Lastly, in the past I have always said the KL really tells you nothing -- other than how athletic someone might be, how tall, whatever. The lack of coaching, defense, and intensity leads to mis-perceptions. But, I think Jersey, FL, MCI and others have been giving us good insights into these guys, the skills they show, their attitudes/determination and how they are developing. Reports on ROY, for example, are probably very good indicators that he is continuing his rapid improvement across the board -- starting with conditioning and strength, and including post moves and leadership. I am beginning to believe that JT3 will be proven right about his predictions that before Roy leaves, he'll be considered among our better big men... and that is really saying something!

Keep the reports coming... they are appreciated!

[FairfaxHoya]

The question remains. Other than Wallace, who are next year's long-ball threats?

[williambraskyiii]

exactly doogie. I am still very concerned about outside shooting. The strength of our frontcourt has never been in doubt. But if we don't have anyone that can consistently knock down the 3-ball, it is going to be a tough battle with collapsing defenses on Big Roy and the Predator (unless he can up his 3-ball %).

I mean great that PEJr and Summers can hit 3s in Kenner and in practice. I also can his 3s at a pretty good clip in practice - and I am 5-foot nothing, 100 and nothing without an ounce of athletic ability - but we need someone who can be the Dagger (maybe/maybe not Thornton) and nail that big 3 when the inside has gotten a bit sluggish b/c of overplay on defense.

Nothing yet this summer to allay those concerns.

[HoyaDestroya]

the consensus where i was sitting was that there is an opening in college basketball for the most hated player (with jj's departure) and vasquez is a natural for the role.

[JustAfan]

For what is worth.

I arrived in the middle of the Bethesda Magic/Custom Uniforms game. So, I got no numbers for Patrick although he looked pretty good. Izzo did not get off the bench while I was there.

Myers & Altman vs, The Clydes or as it would be better know as the Roy Hibbert Show. Just the scoring totals from JustaFan, I will leave the analysis to the basketball gurus. As always I could have missed a few.

Hibbert 34 points
Sapp 11 points
Eggerson 7 points
Spann 18 points

The Tombs vs. DC Jammers

Macklin 11 points (He would have had a lot more if he could shoot foul shots.)
Green 16 points (He was missing his foul shots also)
Wallace 4 points
Summers 16 points
Rivers 2 points (considering the show he put on last week we may have a Good Rivers/Bad Rivers to replace the Good Bowman/Bad Bowman.)

[FairfaxHoya]

williambraskyiii said:

exactly doogie. I am still very concerned about outside shooting. The strength of our frontcourt has never been in doubt. But if we don't have anyone that can consistently knock down the 3-ball, it is going to be a tough battle with collapsing defenses on Big Roy and the Predator (unless he can up his 3-ball %).

I mean great that PEJr and Summers can hit 3s in Kenner and in practice. I also can his 3s at a pretty good clip in practice - and I am 5-foot nothing, 100 and nothing without an ounce of athletic ability - but we need someone who can be the Dagger (maybe/maybe not Thornton) and nail that big 3 when the inside has gotten a bit sluggish b/c of overplay on defense.

Nothing yet this summer to allay those concerns.

Otherwise this is going to look and feel a lot like those Hoya teams of Mourning and Mutombo, and ultimately undone by the 2-3 zone as well.

[GIGAFAN99]

I hope Ewing takes as close to zero threes as possible this year. We have absolutely no business taking almost 20 threes a game like we did last year during the conference season especially with our pace of play. We have even less business this year with our frontcourt.

Move the ball, attack the basket with a penetrating guard (like Sapp), hit a mid-range jumper, force turnovers and run an effective secondary break...there are a lot of ways to loosen up a defense without being a slave to that line.

I'm more afraid of how many threes we take than make. I want Wallace and Green to take more threes than the rest of the team combined. If we go 4-11 from three in a game this year, we win that game.

And as for the Mourning/Mutombo comparison, Jeff Green himself will surpass the combined career assist total for Dik and 'Zo by the third game of the season. We're not talking "twin towers" where one center has to play out of position. We're talking about a versatile "point forward" who can do a lot more to soften the defense.

I'd go as far as saying Hibbert-Green is better than Mutombo-Mourning because while they may not be better individually (though with Hibbert vs. Dikembe it is certainly debatable), they don't have this fatal flaw.