Some quick thoughts after watching tonight
- Cokley and Lee need to toughen up
- Mehinti impressed me tonight. He plays tough
- Madison has really played well all year but tonight he earned more PT going forward
- I'm starting to like Lavender, he could cause some problems for opponents with his size at PG. He just needs more reps
- Dirk was solid again
- I would have liked to have seen Javien get more minutes
- Hakeem is getting better and better at killing us in critical moments. He plays out of control too often. Probably needs to play reduced minutes. Give some off them to Javien, Madison and possibly Darling.
- Let Darling and Smallwood get some more opportunities
- Still can't guard the 3pt line.
Thats my quick thoughts. Overall, I came away encouraged. Go Blazers
Make Lee and Baxter the first 2 guys to come off of the bench.
Good points.
Start Madison and Mehinti. Bring Lee or Cokley off the bench. Both of them played very soft with questionable shot selection. Boxing out seems to be optional.
Agree on Baxter. Wish Ehsan would go ahead and play Javien Williams ahead of Baxter and Watts. I think it could pay big dividends late in the season.
He still has a ways to go but Lavender is improving. I thought he was reasonably poised considering the setting and opponent.
Hope we can regroup and play well tomorrow.
Here's my starting five:
Lavender
JD
Dirk
Madison
Cokley
Madison is a smaller Draymond Green, so I think he can play the four in spurts. More importantly, his presence at the beginning of games should set the intensity. Unless there's an obvious mismatch, Madison's offensive touches should be limited.
First sub would be Lee for JD, so if the opposing coach was matching our four guards with four guards, he has to make a choice with Lee. If the opposing coach didn't adjust to our four guards, hopefully, we made them adjust, but if they didn't, then Lee is the correct counter-sub anyway.
Also, I hope the coaching staff doesn't overreact and make Mehinti a focal point on offense. He had a decent game tonight when others were MIA, but tonight is his ceiling.
On another note, Deion needs to be more of a shoot-first point guard. He has some sneaky athleticism, so I want to see him attack the rim more. In doing so, he's going to open up the game for guys like Lee.
I really like Lavender. I think he is going to be a special player for UAB. Madison should be the vocal leader of the team; he just went out there and played and didn't care it was Kansas. Dirk need to share his confidence with Cokley and Lee. Those two for whatever reason seem to have taken a step backwards. You have to question their development and this falls on the coaching staff. Cokley nor Lee have adequate low post moves at this stage in their careers.
No major changes will be made for tonight's game. Not enough time in practice to implement it.
(11-22-2016 07:15 AM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote: [ -> ]I really like Lavender. I think he is going to be a special player for UAB. Madison should be the vocal leader of the team; he just went out there and played and didn't care it was Kansas. Dirk need to share his confidence with Cokley and Lee. Those two for whatever reason seem to have taken a step backwards. You have to question their development and this falls on the coaching staff. Cokley nor Lee have adequate low post moves at this stage in their careers.
I would disagree about Cokely. He has some good low post moves. He was just over-matched last night.
Great game from Mehinti he took on contact and got over his normal 6 and 5. Madison should start and he should probably be in the post. Dirk should be more aggressive and take more than 6 shots, (once saw a guy go 0-17). Baxter should get Darling/ Smallwood mins. Watts should start at point.
Lee and Cokley looked awful. If Lee is just going to shoot jumpers play him on the perimeter. Smallwood and Mehinti both in the paint trying to rebound was encouraging.
Lavender should play off the ball more really like his upside. Smallwood shouldve gotten more minutes at the end with Darling.
JD really make great plays he just doesnt finish right now and covets the ball. He's also like a step behind but should be find in acouple of games. Darling has some game like his aggressiveness in mop up duty. He hit his only shot and moved around pretty good you can see his bball IQ and upside dont know why some was dogging the kid out few weeks ago.
(11-22-2016 09:13 AM)hooverblazer Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 07:15 AM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote: [ -> ]I really like Lavender. I think he is going to be a special player for UAB. Madison should be the vocal leader of the team; he just went out there and played and didn't care it was Kansas. Dirk need to share his confidence with Cokley and Lee. Those two for whatever reason seem to have taken a step backwards. You have to question their development and this falls on the coaching staff. Cokley nor Lee have adequate low post moves at this stage in their careers.
I would disagree about Cokely. He has some good low post moves. He was just over-matched last night.
And that is on the coaches first and Cokley second. You can't go strength against strength if your opponent is bigger and stronger than you. You must be in position to use your speed or develop another skillset, like a baseline 12 footer.
(11-22-2016 10:31 AM)BlazerPhil Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 09:13 AM)hooverblazer Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 07:15 AM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote: [ -> ]I really like Lavender. I think he is going to be a special player for UAB. Madison should be the vocal leader of the team; he just went out there and played and didn't care it was Kansas. Dirk need to share his confidence with Cokley and Lee. Those two for whatever reason seem to have taken a step backwards. You have to question their development and this falls on the coaching staff. Cokley nor Lee have adequate low post moves at this stage in their careers.
I would disagree about Cokely. He has some good low post moves. He was just over-matched last night.
And that is on the coaches first and Cokley second. You can't go strength against strength if your opponent is bigger and stronger than you. You must be in position to use your speed or develop another skillset, like a baseline 12 footer.
Cokely needs to be wide open to hit those. I might have tried bringing him out to the elbow and using his quickness against Kansas' bigger guys driving to the goal.
I agree and I'm pretty shocked to say it, but I thought mehinti looked good last night. I pray he will play that aggressively and confidently the rest of the year.
I would start giving Darling more minutes. This guy is deadly accurate. Both freshman can help us. I would speed the game up and start pressing teams from stem to stern but it seems coach like the half court press more.
Baxter had the most difficult assignment, he was exerting a lot of energy trying to guard and play offense.
To those who wanted to take Baxter minutes, who would you have to guard the 1 or the 2.
(11-22-2016 12:36 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]I would start giving Darling more minutes. This guy is deadly accurate. Both freshman can help us. I would speed the game up and start pressing teams from stem to stern but it seems coach like the half court press more.
Darling and Smallwood need some minutes. Ehsan doesn't owe any of these guys anything and he needs to make that clear. Nothing I have seen out of darling would make me hesitate to throw him out there. We need some shooters, and he does that. He may be a step slow on defense, but you can see he has a strong understanding of what we are trying to do out there. Let's see what we have and sure up this rotation for conference play.
(11-22-2016 10:38 AM)hooverblazer Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 10:31 AM)BlazerPhil Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 09:13 AM)hooverblazer Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 07:15 AM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote: [ -> ]I really like Lavender. I think he is going to be a special player for UAB. Madison should be the vocal leader of the team; he just went out there and played and didn't care it was Kansas. Dirk need to share his confidence with Cokley and Lee. Those two for whatever reason seem to have taken a step backwards. You have to question their development and this falls on the coaching staff. Cokley nor Lee have adequate low post moves at this stage in their careers.
I would disagree about Cokely. He has some good low post moves. He was just over-matched last night.
And that is on the coaches first and Cokley second. You can't go strength against strength if your opponent is bigger and stronger than you. You must be in position to use your speed or develop another skillset, like a baseline 12 footer.
Cokely needs to be wide open to hit those. I might have tried bringing him out to the elbow and using his quickness against Kansas' bigger guys driving to the goal.
Cokley is wide open to hit those 12 to 15 footers because opponents will dare him to shoot them instead of him driving to the post. Cokley and Lee need to improve their foot work because sometimes it looks like they are going to trip over themselves.
(11-22-2016 02:46 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 10:38 AM)hooverblazer Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 10:31 AM)BlazerPhil Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 09:13 AM)hooverblazer Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 07:15 AM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote: [ -> ]I really like Lavender. I think he is going to be a special player for UAB. Madison should be the vocal leader of the team; he just went out there and played and didn't care it was Kansas. Dirk need to share his confidence with Cokley and Lee. Those two for whatever reason seem to have taken a step backwards. You have to question their development and this falls on the coaching staff. Cokley nor Lee have adequate low post moves at this stage in their careers.
I would disagree about Cokely. He has some good low post moves. He was just over-matched last night.
And that is on the coaches first and Cokley second. You can't go strength against strength if your opponent is bigger and stronger than you. You must be in position to use your speed or develop another skillset, like a baseline 12 footer.
Cokely needs to be wide open to hit those. I might have tried bringing him out to the elbow and using his quickness against Kansas' bigger guys driving to the goal.
Cokley is wide open to hit those 12 to 15 footers because opponents will dare him to shoot them instead of him driving to the post. Cokley and Lee need to improve their foot work because sometimes it looks like they are going to trip over themselves.
Baxter is the worst at tripping over himself. I thought it was the shoes at first.
(11-22-2016 01:58 PM)blazers9911 Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 12:36 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]I would start giving Darling more minutes. This guy is deadly accurate. Both freshman can help us. I would speed the game up and start pressing teams from stem to stern but it seems coach like the half court press more.
Darling and Smallwood need some minutes. Ehsan doesn't owe any of these guys anything and he needs to make that clear. Nothing I have seen out of darling would make me hesitate to throw him out there. We need some shooters, and he does that. He may be a step slow on defense, but you can see he has a strong understanding of what we are trying to do out there. Let's see what we have and sure up this rotation for conference play.
Can of Worms... Somebody said they were going to leave if UAB didnt hire Ehsan. So maybe he does owe them something...
(11-22-2016 01:55 PM)Rebounder2u Wrote: [ -> ]Baxter had the most difficult assignment, he was exerting a lot of energy trying to guard and play offense.
To those who wanted to take Baxter minutes, who would you have to guard the 1 or the 2.
Anybody could
(11-22-2016 03:50 PM)Big Dee Wrote: [ -> ] (11-22-2016 01:55 PM)Rebounder2u Wrote: [ -> ]Baxter had the most difficult assignment, he was exerting a lot of energy trying to guard and play offense.
To those who wanted to take Baxter minutes, who would you have to guard the 1 or the 2.
Anybody could
That's not true. Baxter is by far away the best one on one defender on his team. Does he need to be starting or taking 8 to 10 shots a game? No but he is still a valuable commodity on this team.