Peggy Po's
No Lip to Gip “I told the team at halftime that I did not want to lose this game. I put the team on my shoulders and really wanted to come out in the second half and make a statement and the rest of my teammates followed my lead.”
We had struggled to get the ball to the post in the first half, the zone had disrupted our passing lanes, caused turnovers and prevented Gip from getting in good positions. Hurt could get the ball at the high post, but he's not a skilled passer. Gip had not got to the line ONCE the entire half. Then Gip came out in the second half and took the post, took the doubles, took the slaps and got to the line and hit 9/10 and caused a ton of problems for the Roos. Kreuer their big guy was visibly frustrated with Gip's girth, patience and old man pivot game. AND HE DID IT FOR THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES! If you had told me he would be capable of that his freshman season I would've never believed it.Gip is a highly underrated asset to this team and he just shows it again and again.
Edwards wants to be the Maine Man you can tell there is a healthy competition between Foster and Edwards. So far, so good. They seem to push each other, they both want the ball, they both want to take the shot, they both have incredible confidence. This team mentally is very tough. Being down to UMKC at half time is not fun, they play a frustrating defensive style and they want you to melt down. We could've very easily settled for guarded three's, forced dribble drives into their trap or forced entry passes in to the post because oscar was telling them to. But we were resilient. Edwards was all over the place rebounding, running backdoor cuts, he hit a 3. He is a solid player.
Foster- All the other kids can't out run his gun He is 6-9 from beyond the arc thus far. He was 39.5% last year with 200 shots. If he improves upon 40% at that rate, considering that likely 2 of the 3 of Wes/Justin/Nigel would really help space. If Hurt can consistently get off baseline jumpers or is given the green light to pick and pop we will be able to get Gip more opportunities, we will get better spacing for Foster and Jevon to drive and we will have by far the best offense of the oscar era.
Wild Wild Wes 24 minutes in the first game back. Ok then. He still looks hurt, but I hope he gets back to balling.
Nigel's play was offensive is he going to be the instant offense off the bench guy with Jevon taking the ball to start? It certainly looks that way thus far. 12 points on 5 shots is pretty great. He had 3 steals too!
JT is 6 of 8 from the free throw line He also had 9 assists and 5 boards! WOW!
Hurt's jumper is sweet.
Big Meat's d-reb
A 7 man rotation in November?!!
Nancy Neg's
Jevon played aggressive D against Martez Harrison who ended up with 21 points. Martez only got to the line 5 times, but pretty much did everything he wanted driving, dishing, running off screens and getting off 3's. He also wore out our guards with his on-ball defense at the top of their matchup zone and made entry passes a chore for the entire first half.
Our defense in general is very worrisome the lack of a rim protector or solid post defender, the lack of a guard capable of shutting down an opposing guard in a conference with Juwan Staten and Buddy Hield is concerning to say the least. We played much better in the second half, but most of that had to do with turning the ball over less on offense. Too many uncontested 3's, too many dribble drives and not enough interior D from Hurt.
Stephen is Hurting us with his terrible post defense
JT is bringing sexy back and with it completely insane decision making. I guess oscar feels that his upside and defense is worth the ups and downs, but I would prefer Nigel getting more minutes and JT getting 20ish with some 2 guard stuff while Hurt develops, Wes and Malek get healthy and Bolden gets whatever
No Bolden would've liked to see him get some minutes, but we had to go small against the Roos
