What say ye?
As for me, Semenov needs to shoot more 3's. Lukic needs to step up and play like the 20 year old he is. Curry looks like the same player which means trouble. If Bessick is going to foul, he needs to mean it - no sissy fouls please. Vodanovich plays hard and will be an asset even when he doesn't score. Dalembert needs to use his fouls every game since the Dukes are soft inside...block or foul every interior shot attempt. Jackson Kent will have to be a point forward as he isnt good enough to be a winning point guard right now. Cooke needs to venture inside more and stop being easy to defend.
The team was good enough on first shot defense, but got crushed on rebounding and 2nd attempts.
1/2 court offense needs work as it appears Curry hasnt elevated his penetration skills. If he cant do it, Brady will have to install a W&M style offense with back cuts, screens galore, and quick perimeter passing.
We saw what we thought we would see tonight and there is lots of room for growth with everyone except Semenov.

Vodanovich played well. He might be our #3 scorer. Bessick was invisible.

Vodanovich looked great, the other freshmen you could really tell they were freshman. Like a lot thought, I think this year might start out a little rough and hopefully gets better towards the end. But man I think we're really going to be good in a year or two. Early on neither team could make anything and I was hoping we'd be the ones to start hitting first, could've at least made a game of it for a while that way. Nation might have really made a big difference early on with that being the case, who knows. I'm looking forward to seeing the rematch next year when all these guys are a year older and it's at the Convo.

We learned that UVA is really good.

We went toe to toe with them the second half, no?

We settled for too many outside shots. We had almost zero dribble drive penetration. Guys like D. Moore, A. Davis and Nation could/can beat their defender off the dribble and get inside the lane for lay up or foul. We really missed that last night.

Overall, I was not too bummed about the game. I kinda expected our freshman might get a little star eyed playing in front of a big crowed in a big arena against a good team for their first ever collegiate basketball game. I was surprised Curry and Cook did not assert themselves more as an offensive presence.

Here were my quick impressions from watching last night's game on my flat screen after going to the exhibition game just a few days earlier.

1. This team has completely changed its philosophy in terms of the types of players it recruits and the way it runs its offense and defense. I had difficulty trying to understand at the exhibition game what they were trying to do on offense. With some help from the color man and some distinct improvement over the last several days, it looked like they were running something akin to a Princeton motion offense. A year ago, they were almost playing four guys on the perimeter with one man on the low block and they relied heavily on beating people off the dribble. On defense last night, they played both switching man to man and matchup zone and they kept changing up their defenses. A year ago, they hardly played much zone as I recall and they relied on switching man to man (no change with respect to that piece), but they didn't seem to change up defenses from possession to possession that much.
2. Personally, I like the Princeton system, as it allows teams to make marked in-season improvement and does not necessarily require great athleticism, although good length and basketball IQ are extemely helpful (which is what these new recruits bring to the table).
3. Very difficult to project how much this team will improve and when it will reach critical mass to the point that they become a good team (although I sense the coaching staff thinks it will happen by the end of this season). Statistical service (Sagarin) predicted a 19 point or so differential last night and they were pretty much spot on. Another statistical service that I saw from a betting site had JMU winning about 11 games, as I've already posted. We'll see if that's accurate.
4. I also believe that most prognosticators' top 4 of Towson, Charleston, Delaware and Drexel is probably accurate at this point.
5. If you watch Kent, he doesn't waste time dribbling the ball up court if there are players up ahead to pass the ball to. That shows tremendous IQ on his part -- yes it's pretty basic, but so many young players don't do it.
6. I was happy to see the improvement in the play of Curry from a week ago. Cooke started to get untracked in the second half last night.
7. Semenov, as the announcers correctly pointed out, forced too many shots out of the flow of the offense.
8. Vodanovich is most advanced freshman at this point, obviously.
9. Should be an interesting season to watch unfold.

One other point (make it no. 10): Dalembert shows some real flashes of his tremendous potential, but also makes some bone-headed mistakes (like not getting back on D and giving up on a play).