I’ll start this one. I know Lope Nation is anxious to turn the page from the last game. This will be a tough test and I’m afraid our lack of depth and size down low will not serve us well.

That being said... does anyone smell upset?!? Illinois barely beat Nichols State.

(11-07-2019 03:59 PM)Country_Wisdom_359 Wrote:  I’ll start this one. I know Lope Nation is anxious to turn the page from the last game. This will be a tough test and I’m afraid our lack of depth and size down low will not serve us well.

That being said... does anyone smell upset?!? Illinois barely beat Nichols State.

I predict a final score of 76 to 54 with GCU losing. Sorry for being a pessimist so far this season but I have yet to see anything worth writing home about.

That’s not an unreasonable prediction. I’m not expecting the Illini to leave Phoenix with a loss, but I saw moments of promise. Both Blacksher and Johnson showed lots of takeover ability. Brown looked sharper in the CSUSB game, but he has maturity and I think he’s a leader.

Nothing would thrill me more than a win over a Big 10 team (albeit bottom tier), but I want to see growth. Even a close loss with signs if improvement can show the team’s potential to turn things around. We will see. I’ve waited too long during the off season for my favorite time of year to be ready to dial it in just yet.

6 hours til game time. Vegas line still at -7 Illinois. This tells me either the odds makers think the poor performance on Tuesday was a fluke, or else they have lost confidence in the Illini.

Even though the loss deflated us, I’m excited for this one. Maybe we’ll shock the world! If anyone had a reason to make a comeback run it’s GCU. Dan’s face was all sorts of scary; wouldn’t want to see that again any time soon.

Good start so far. That 7’0” 290 lb center for Illinois is a beast. Gonna be a challenge for Lever to guard without fouling.

Ali sitting with 2 fouls at the 13:00 mark in the first half. He’s just not able to guard an aggressive center without fouling. On the offense end he was trying to do soft finesse fade away stuff rather than going straight into Cockburn to get that big fella in foul trouble.

Right now no one has an answer for the big man.

18:15 left in the second half and Lever picked up foul number four on a charge.

No win but still within upset range with 3 minutes left. Not bad.

Proud of the effort. Didn’t like the end result but I think they fought as hard as they could. This shows how a team can beat us by going inside and baiting Lever into fools. The freshman center is not good; maybe he will get better but he’s not ready to be on the floor. At all.

Surprise, surprise. The Lopes actually showed up today. I was impressed. This game gives me hope for this season. Better ball movement, better spacing, more drives to the basket and better utilization of the 3-pointer. They also played fairly good defense even with the Illini having a major height advantage. The fact that the Lopes were only down 5 points with a few minutes left says the team may have some heart after all. Especially given the fact that ...
(1) Lever barely played (he played well when he was in there though)
(2) Carlos Johnson had an off night
(3) We only dressed 10 players and only 6 of those were true rotation players.
(4) We couldn't make a free throw (shot around 50%)
(5) We got out rebounded by 20 boards
Yet with all that we hung tough with the 42 ranked team in KenPom.

On the plus side:
(1) Jovan and Isiah were outstanding
(2) JJ and Lorenzo showed moments of brilliance
(3) Bangai can play some defense (just don't let him touch the ball on offense)

(11-09-2019 12:58 AM)ProfScott Wrote:  Surprise, surprise. The Lopes actually showed up today. I was impressed. This game gives me hope for this season. Better ball movement, better spacing, more drives to the basket and better utilization of the 3-pointer. They also played fairly good defense even with the Illini having a major height advantage. The fact that the Lopes were only down 5 points with a few minutes left says the team may have some heart after all. Especially given the fact that ...
(1) Lever barely played (he played well when he was in there though)
(2) Carlos Johnson had an off night
(3) We only dressed 10 players and only 6 of those were true rotation players.
(4) We couldn't make a free throw (shot around 50%)
(5) We got out rebounded by 20 boards
Yet with all that we hung tough with the 42 ranked team in KenPom.

On the plus side:
(1) Jovan and Isiah were outstanding
(2) JJ and Lorenzo showed moments of brilliance
(3) Bangai can play some defense (just don't let him touch the ball on offense)

Good points above regarding the factors that contributed to the outcome. Absolutely we felt Lever’s absence. Carlos’ rough night didn’t help either; I could see his frustration. Blacksher is going to be a beast this season, and JJ put in quality time as well.

I respectfully disagree with regard to Bangai, however. I was a post player so perhaps I’m biased, but he just looked completely out of sorts. He panicked on a simple handoff, and seemed to be all thumbs when he had the ball. He sortve reminds me of that big kid from Senegal we had a few years back; never quite found his groove, and ended up leaving after a thumb injury. All he had was size; the skill set never quite developed. I didn’t see the defense as all that great either, but guarding Cockhold is going to be overwhelming for even some seasoned post players.

Guarding a fella that big is all about positioning. You have to use quickness and your wits to put him in a position to go over your back. He will eventually get frustrated and try to move you with too much force and get called for it. Obviously easier said than done, but I’ve been undersized against some of the tallest guys I’d ever seen in state playoffs back in the day. It’s all I could do.

(11-09-2019 12:39 PM)Country_Wisdom_359 Wrote:  

(11-09-2019 12:58 AM)ProfScott Wrote:  Surprise, surprise. The Lopes actually showed up today. I was impressed. This game gives me hope for this season. Better ball movement, better spacing, more drives to the basket and better utilization of the 3-pointer. They also played fairly good defense even with the Illini having a major height advantage. The fact that the Lopes were only down 5 points with a few minutes left says the team may have some heart after all. Especially given the fact that ...
(1) Lever barely played (he played well when he was in there though)
(2) Carlos Johnson had an off night
(3) We only dressed 10 players and only 6 of those were true rotation players.
(4) We couldn't make a free throw (shot around 50%)
(5) We got out rebounded by 20 boards
Yet with all that we hung tough with the 42 ranked team in KenPom.

On the plus side:
(1) Jovan and Isiah were outstanding
(2) JJ and Lorenzo showed moments of brilliance
(3) Bangai can play some defense (just don't let him touch the ball on offense)

Good points above regarding the factors that contributed to the outcome. Absolutely we felt Lever’s absence. Carlos’ rough night didn’t help either; I could see his frustration. Blacksher is going to be a beast this season, and JJ put in quality time as well.

I respectfully disagree with regard to Bangai, however. I was a post player so perhaps I’m biased, but he just looked completely out of sorts. He panicked on a simple handoff, and seemed to be all thumbs when he had the ball. He sortve reminds me of that big kid from Senegal we had a few years back; never quite found his groove, and ended up leaving after a thumb injury. All he had was size; the skill set never quite developed. I didn’t see the defense as all that great either, but guarding Cockhold is going to be overwhelming for even some seasoned post players.

Guarding a fella that big is all about positioning. You have to use quickness and your wits to put him in a position to go over your back. He will eventually get frustrated and try to move you with too much force and get called for it. Obviously easier said than done, but I’ve been undersized against some of the tallest guys I’d ever seen in state playoffs back in the day. It’s all I could do.

If you are talking about Boubacare Toure I disagree completely with his skill set. He was smooth around the rim and is currently playing at Eastern Michigan. If you’re talking about Ibrahima Sankare I agree with you slightly but both looked far superior to Louis last night.

(11-09-2019 04:35 PM)JustALopesFan Wrote:  

(11-09-2019 12:39 PM)Country_Wisdom_359 Wrote:  

(11-09-2019 12:58 AM)ProfScott Wrote:  Surprise, surprise. The Lopes actually showed up today. I was impressed. This game gives me hope for this season. Better ball movement, better spacing, more drives to the basket and better utilization of the 3-pointer. They also played fairly good defense even with the Illini having a major height advantage. The fact that the Lopes were only down 5 points with a few minutes left says the team may have some heart after all. Especially given the fact that ...
(1) Lever barely played (he played well when he was in there though)
(2) Carlos Johnson had an off night
(3) We only dressed 10 players and only 6 of those were true rotation players.
(4) We couldn't make a free throw (shot around 50%)
(5) We got out rebounded by 20 boards
Yet with all that we hung tough with the 42 ranked team in KenPom.

On the plus side:
(1) Jovan and Isiah were outstanding
(2) JJ and Lorenzo showed moments of brilliance
(3) Bangai can play some defense (just don't let him touch the ball on offense)

Good points above regarding the factors that contributed to the outcome. Absolutely we felt Lever’s absence. Carlos’ rough night didn’t help either; I could see his frustration. Blacksher is going to be a beast this season, and JJ put in quality time as well.

I respectfully disagree with regard to Bangai, however. I was a post player so perhaps I’m biased, but he just looked completely out of sorts. He panicked on a simple handoff, and seemed to be all thumbs when he had the ball. He sortve reminds me of that big kid from Senegal we had a few years back; never quite found his groove, and ended up leaving after a thumb injury. All he had was size; the skill set never quite developed. I didn’t see the defense as all that great either, but guarding Cockhold is going to be overwhelming for even some seasoned post players.

Guarding a fella that big is all about positioning. You have to use quickness and your wits to put him in a position to go over your back. He will eventually get frustrated and try to move you with too much force and get called for it. Obviously easier said than done, but I’ve been undersized against some of the tallest guys I’d ever seen in state playoffs back in the day. It’s all I could do.

If you are talking about Boubacare Toure I disagree completely with his skill set. He was smooth around the rim and is currently playing at Eastern Michigan. If you’re talking about Ibrahima Sankare I agree with you slightly but both looked far superior to Louis last night.

Toure. That’s the one. It’s been a while but I just remember him not playing as much as we all thought he would. Did he leave when the Lever Blumberg convo arrived, anticipating less playing time? I could be misremembering some... he just never impressed me.

He ended up being crippled by knee injuries. The tribe that he came from has notoriously bad knees. Which is unfortunate because he’s such a nice genuine guy but he’s doing good in Michigan! Recently engaged too!

I hope Both have great seasons. I'm planning on trying to see a GCU game in February when I fly out to Phoenix.