Post by MCIGuy on Nov 29, 2020 4:05:48 GMT -5
Watched a recording of the game on Thursday night. Finally got time to write this after having to deal with a lot of family responsibilities. My opinion: Some good I saw. Lots of bad though. Here is my rundown.
I thought the effort and execution on defense was mostly there, although I never seem to be as critical on that front as others. Didn’t think we were just allowing guys to get open looks. There were only a few moments I can recall in which the Hoyas were caught on screens to allow the opponent to get a shot off without someone defending closely. Defense was especially impressive in the interior. Lots of blocked shots and lots of intimidation which led to misses.
Even more impressive than the defense was the rebounding (which can be classified as defensive I suppose for most occasions). The Hoyas dominated the boards which made all the difference. It would be interesting how many second chance points UMBC got because I imagine it couldn’t have been much.
Offense? Ugh. Should point out that the offense for Ewing’s teams, even in better conditions with more prep and more returning players, has almost always been weak in its first week of games. I am certain improvements will be made eventually after more time on the court but outside of a few individuals the team looked unimpressive on that side of the ball. Especially two individuals in particular. Let’s start there.
Pickett was pretty disappointing on the offensive side of the ball. I am not sure if I ever seen him shoot that terribly but then again he has been an inefficient shooter all this time. What troubled me was his continued demonstration of looking timid on driving and displaying no ability to create off the bounce rather than turning it over. He even looked timid when getting the ball on the perimeter as if he was still lacking confidence in his ability. And a couple of times when he drove into the middle for a hot he let loose with weak scoop shots rather than a simple pullup or an extended finger-roll. Goes without saying our chances are sunk even worse if Jamorko plays even close to this for much of the season. Fortunately its just one game. Unfortunately we have already seen this movie for much of three seasons and who knows how many games will be available in season four to correct it. Besides one play in which he was blown by for a dunk his defense was good and of course he crashed the boards.
J. Harris. Yeesh. Again….one game. His assist total was impressive but even that was undermined by his inability to look like even a Division III capable scorer. He wasn’t taking outside shots for the most part so he had to settle for drives and his attempts looked awful. Hopefully he’ll show improvement on this.
Blair impressed me with his mostly steady play when bringing the ball up the court although I’m not convinced he can handle too much of this responsibility against better competition. Props to him for his aggressiveness on offense too but I don’t think 22 shots is anywhere near ideal for this team. He was jacking it up. Wish some of that let-it-fly mentality would rub off on Pickett to be honest. Goes without saying we don’t win the game without his points. Props to his work on the boards by the way, specifically his rebounds off his own misses.
I am sold on Carey. I sound like a hypocrite I know because its only one game for him too, but I like what I saw. He was my MVP for the first half and allowed Georgetown to gets some separation. For some reason he didn’t look for his shot much in the second half. He has to take some of Blair shots away.
The MVP of the second half was Wahab. Really did work inside with great post moves largely because he was allowed to get touches, something that wasn’t available for some reason in the first half. Dominated the boards and got in a couple of nice blocks. Only issue were the fouls but I think that was largely because the refs don’t seem to know how to handle making calls regarding true big men. But I am biased.
Speaking of fouls Ighoefe picked up a lot too in ways that were more frustrating. Maybe it was a little over zealousness because maybe all or all but one of the fouls came on the offensive end. An alternative take would be that it fuels the argument of his lack of court awareness. We’ll find out soon enough. I believe those fouls led him to ease up on defensive challenges in the second half. Having two back-to-back years of not being able to participate in summer league games may be a bigger disadvantage than I thought. He had four post up moments that were disastrous. Two ended in wild shots worse than anything I saw from him last season. One ended up in a charge. The other ended badly as a help defender came in to swipe the ball. It was as if sometime he rushed it and other times he didn’t go fast enough. And can’t forget that awful goaltend. He finished in the paint well though and pulled down some boards. A mixed bag at best indeed. Yet I’m still on the Ighoefe train. Those early positive reports will translate to the court sooner or later.
Meanwhile what a debut for his counterpart Malcolm Wilson. A most welcome surprise to see on the floor. Right away Wilson displayed the qualities that many of us had assumed or hoped he had based on his high school footage: quick feet, bouncy athleticism, great timing on defense. His standout moments occurred in one extended sequence in which he recovered on a drive by an opponent for an outstanding block and on the other end put a bow on the final seconds of the first half with an equally outstanding followup dunk, a four-point difference that kept UMBC from having complete momentum on its side. Wilson didn’t get any more play after that but he showed enough glimpses of potential to get fans excited.
Kobe Clark’s first game should similarly have the fanbase fired up. His ten rebounds in 12 minutes has to be some kind of record. He was grabbing boards he had no business getting. It was JYD-esque if you ask me. When you add him to the fold with the bigs and Pickett, you have a Hoya team who could potentially lead the nation in rebounding. Clark also made the boldest and best-executed fullcourt pass I’ve seen a Hoya make in a long, long while. That long assist to Wahab displayed both guts and skill. It’ll be interesting to see if he can add some offense to his game in the coming weeks.
Two moments stood out for Dante in his limited action. First of all he made a confident and explosively quick drive to the basket and unlike the other Harris was able to finish when he got there. The second moment started off with his displaying his quick foot speed once more as he drove into the defense and delivered a low bounce bullet pass (and I mean BULLET) to Ighoefe. Unfortunately Ighoefe was either not expecting the pass or was caught off guard with its speed and therefore could not take advantage of the pass to get off a shot (the good news was his hands were still good enough to corral it anyway). Hard to come away with an early evaluation of Dante considering his limiting minutes, but it seems his speed will translate to this level.
Wouldn’t be fair for me to comment on Holloway so I won’t bother to fake it. Will say I am surprised he saw the floor ahead of other freshmen.
I thought the effort and execution on defense was mostly there, although I never seem to be as critical on that front as others. Didn’t think we were just allowing guys to get open looks. There were only a few moments I can recall in which the Hoyas were caught on screens to allow the opponent to get a shot off without someone defending closely. Defense was especially impressive in the interior. Lots of blocked shots and lots of intimidation which led to misses.
Even more impressive than the defense was the rebounding (which can be classified as defensive I suppose for most occasions). The Hoyas dominated the boards which made all the difference. It would be interesting how many second chance points UMBC got because I imagine it couldn’t have been much.
Offense? Ugh. Should point out that the offense for Ewing’s teams, even in better conditions with more prep and more returning players, has almost always been weak in its first week of games. I am certain improvements will be made eventually after more time on the court but outside of a few individuals the team looked unimpressive on that side of the ball. Especially two individuals in particular. Let’s start there.
Pickett was pretty disappointing on the offensive side of the ball. I am not sure if I ever seen him shoot that terribly but then again he has been an inefficient shooter all this time. What troubled me was his continued demonstration of looking timid on driving and displaying no ability to create off the bounce rather than turning it over. He even looked timid when getting the ball on the perimeter as if he was still lacking confidence in his ability. And a couple of times when he drove into the middle for a hot he let loose with weak scoop shots rather than a simple pullup or an extended finger-roll. Goes without saying our chances are sunk even worse if Jamorko plays even close to this for much of the season. Fortunately its just one game. Unfortunately we have already seen this movie for much of three seasons and who knows how many games will be available in season four to correct it. Besides one play in which he was blown by for a dunk his defense was good and of course he crashed the boards.
J. Harris. Yeesh. Again….one game. His assist total was impressive but even that was undermined by his inability to look like even a Division III capable scorer. He wasn’t taking outside shots for the most part so he had to settle for drives and his attempts looked awful. Hopefully he’ll show improvement on this.
Blair impressed me with his mostly steady play when bringing the ball up the court although I’m not convinced he can handle too much of this responsibility against better competition. Props to him for his aggressiveness on offense too but I don’t think 22 shots is anywhere near ideal for this team. He was jacking it up. Wish some of that let-it-fly mentality would rub off on Pickett to be honest. Goes without saying we don’t win the game without his points. Props to his work on the boards by the way, specifically his rebounds off his own misses.
I am sold on Carey. I sound like a hypocrite I know because its only one game for him too, but I like what I saw. He was my MVP for the first half and allowed Georgetown to gets some separation. For some reason he didn’t look for his shot much in the second half. He has to take some of Blair shots away.
The MVP of the second half was Wahab. Really did work inside with great post moves largely because he was allowed to get touches, something that wasn’t available for some reason in the first half. Dominated the boards and got in a couple of nice blocks. Only issue were the fouls but I think that was largely because the refs don’t seem to know how to handle making calls regarding true big men. But I am biased.
Speaking of fouls Ighoefe picked up a lot too in ways that were more frustrating. Maybe it was a little over zealousness because maybe all or all but one of the fouls came on the offensive end. An alternative take would be that it fuels the argument of his lack of court awareness. We’ll find out soon enough. I believe those fouls led him to ease up on defensive challenges in the second half. Having two back-to-back years of not being able to participate in summer league games may be a bigger disadvantage than I thought. He had four post up moments that were disastrous. Two ended in wild shots worse than anything I saw from him last season. One ended up in a charge. The other ended badly as a help defender came in to swipe the ball. It was as if sometime he rushed it and other times he didn’t go fast enough. And can’t forget that awful goaltend. He finished in the paint well though and pulled down some boards. A mixed bag at best indeed. Yet I’m still on the Ighoefe train. Those early positive reports will translate to the court sooner or later.
Meanwhile what a debut for his counterpart Malcolm Wilson. A most welcome surprise to see on the floor. Right away Wilson displayed the qualities that many of us had assumed or hoped he had based on his high school footage: quick feet, bouncy athleticism, great timing on defense. His standout moments occurred in one extended sequence in which he recovered on a drive by an opponent for an outstanding block and on the other end put a bow on the final seconds of the first half with an equally outstanding followup dunk, a four-point difference that kept UMBC from having complete momentum on its side. Wilson didn’t get any more play after that but he showed enough glimpses of potential to get fans excited.
Kobe Clark’s first game should similarly have the fanbase fired up. His ten rebounds in 12 minutes has to be some kind of record. He was grabbing boards he had no business getting. It was JYD-esque if you ask me. When you add him to the fold with the bigs and Pickett, you have a Hoya team who could potentially lead the nation in rebounding. Clark also made the boldest and best-executed fullcourt pass I’ve seen a Hoya make in a long, long while. That long assist to Wahab displayed both guts and skill. It’ll be interesting to see if he can add some offense to his game in the coming weeks.
Two moments stood out for Dante in his limited action. First of all he made a confident and explosively quick drive to the basket and unlike the other Harris was able to finish when he got there. The second moment started off with his displaying his quick foot speed once more as he drove into the defense and delivered a low bounce bullet pass (and I mean BULLET) to Ighoefe. Unfortunately Ighoefe was either not expecting the pass or was caught off guard with its speed and therefore could not take advantage of the pass to get off a shot (the good news was his hands were still good enough to corral it anyway). Hard to come away with an early evaluation of Dante considering his limiting minutes, but it seems his speed will translate to this level.
Wouldn’t be fair for me to comment on Holloway so I won’t bother to fake it. Will say I am surprised he saw the floor ahead of other freshmen.