Is anyone else in love with Whitman. I've never seen one of our post players look like such an effortless scorer as a freshman. There are still holes in his game and he needs to put on some mass but I like what I see through 3 games.

Anyone else watch Schlotman and get reminded of Brendan Connor? Size/hair/style of play

(11-21-2014 09:02 AM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  It's hard to know what to take away from a game like this. Tony presumably had some goals in mind, things he wanted to work on -- and they probably weren't the same ones I would have chosen.

That said, a few thoughts:

- It was great to see the free throw situation improve so drastically over games 1 and 2. Hopefully that accuracy will continue when the pressure is back on.

- I thought Schalk had some nice moments, both in the high post (a couple times) and along the baseline. I'm assuming Tony was pleased as well, if he brought him to the postgame interviews as mentioned above. (Didn't hear it myself).

- While Marcus was Marcus, what I noticed was a lot of individual playmaking -- whether driving to the hoop or shooting long distance 3's. While that's certainly his game -- and we need it -- if I were Tony my goal for this game would have been to work on executing the offense and getting all the new guys more practice in running it against live opposition. I saw more of that later in the game with the reserves, but even the starters need some real-game work to gel.

Follow-up edit: I just watched the postgame interview video, and I think Tony obliquely made the same point: "I thought we shared the ball pretty well. I honestly think the last two groups probably played better offensively than our starters did. The ball gets stuck in our hands sometimes in that starting group. Those are things we’re learning and growing with right now." (No sign of Schalk in the video -- maybe he was on the radio interview?)

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Schalk was interviewed on the radio

The performance of Omar Prewitt was perplexing to me - he played the most minutes of the starters, yet took only two shots, and made one. I almost had the sense that he was being reigned in so other players got more chances to shoot. Was that possible?

I wondered about Omar's stat line myself. I don't know if he got the "let's share the ball and work the offense" memo while others did not, or if he just didn't get that many touches. It would be interesting to go back and look at the video again.

I know that Johnson is a walk-on senior, but please, can we put his name on his back so that he looks like he belongs? He deserves it.

And the same for Glover.

(11-21-2014 11:40 AM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  And the same for Glover.

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I, too, noticed the missing names. It doesn't look good.

Coach Shaver probably makes them earn the right to have their surname sewn on their jersies.

I know you are kidding, but honestly it looked like crap. I can't believe that they couldn't get the names on their jerseys. Any company that sells jerseys (to youth leagues) could do it in five minutes. Or maybe these kids won't be walk on players all season.

(11-21-2014 07:01 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Coach Shaver probably makes them earn the right to have their surname sewn on their jersies.

In fairness, these kids have only been on the roster for two or three weeks and the game with Bluefield was only scheduled a week ago so until the Bluefield game there was zero probability they would be actually playing in a game this quickly. All the Tribe players wear their warm-up shirts until they are actually put into a game so their jerseys are not seen until then. [The two players were included in the Team picture, but that picture only shows the fronts of the jerseys]

I am sure the jerseys with the names are on order thru the normal, required, state procurement process

(11-21-2014 11:08 AM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  I wondered about Omar's stat line myself. I don't know if he got the "let's share the ball and work the offense" memo while others did not, or if he just didn't get that many touches. It would be interesting to go back and look at the video again.

Omar wasn't aggressively looking for his own shot. Whereas Marcus has been a little off so far this season, there wasn't any need for Omar to find his groove, so I think he was focusing on moving the ball around. He already does a good job of spotting up and attacking the basket, so I don't think those were things he was working on.

(11-22-2014 12:57 AM)TribeInTheBurg Wrote:  

(11-21-2014 11:08 AM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  I wondered about Omar's stat line myself. I don't know if he got the "let's share the ball and work the offense" memo while others did not, or if he just didn't get that many touches. It would be interesting to go back and look at the video again.

Omar wasn't aggressively looking for his own shot. Whereas Marcus has been a little off so far this season, there wasn't any need for Omar to find his groove, so I think he was focusing on moving the ball around. He already does a good job of spotting up and attacking the basket, so I don't think those were things he was working on.

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I agree, I was just wondering whether it was part of a plan or something Omar decided to do on his own.