Last night I sat right in front of LBG. How did I sit in front of a first row'r? Well.... I'll let you figure that one out.
Front row guys could be better, but can't we all? I will say that they don't curse. I think this is a negative, but it could also be a positive. Not sure.
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Nancy Neg'sWally got dominated by Big Baby and the Bangers (my nickname for JMU big men). Kind of worried about this. 21 minutes/2 boards/3 points/4 fouls/4 turnovers.
Jamar looked like crap. Showed zero game when he should be taking these slow turds off the blocks and beating them to the rim. Go watch some tape of Wayne Simien and Joey Graham and start taking notes. Frank needs to help him figure this out. Do we have anyone coaching the bigs? And rough ridin' board. rough ridin' board. 2 points/2 boards/2 turnovers/3 fouls.
Asprilla looked like crap/was not dominant against Big Baby and the Bangers. 0 points/2 boards/3 fouls.
JHR. Buddy. You are taller than everyone. Just wait until the moron with the ball starts jumping, then you jump straight up and block the ball. No need to swat, no need to reach, no need to do anything. Just be tall and block the ball. Right now he reminds me of Bennett when Huggy was trying to explain how to be 7 feet tall to his dumbass. JHR, don't be a dumbass. You could be a very valuable bball'r. 8 boards though. This is a huge improvement. Really being a little too hard on him, but he needs to come up big because I'm worried about the group as a whole.
Peggy Po'sOJ- 7 minutes/1 board. Perfect.
Tay- 16 minutes/2-2 3p'rs/8 points Perfect (although sketch as crap with the ball handling. His 0-3 from the line was hilarious.)
GRUUUUUDS!- 30 min/9points/8! boards/3a-1to/1blk/1stl FILLING UP DAT STAT LINE! Needs to hit his open 3's.
Nick Russell has arrived (bounce pass false alarm notwithstanding) and I am happy. Someone really took Frank's talks to heart. He ran the break (this is huge), he found his way into the lane, he used his size, he hit jumpers, he got to the line, he scored from the G spot. Maybe he will never be a "PG" but that is kind of overrated. It isn't like we run pick/rolls and he is an average passer and dribbler. The "Pullen adjusting to PG" line getting concern trolled by national media trying to be contrarians is getting rough ridin' annoying. Who will Frank run off now?
SPRADS!- Unbelievable. Clear that Frank appreciates Sprads because he listens and executes. Then again, he is not hard on him at all, which makes me wonder if his minutes go away if/when Jamar and McGruds move up a spot on the court. So far I think he is a much more confident and reliable ball handler than Tay and could cut in to Tay's minutes. He can play with Pullen on the court because of his size, but at this point is the clear favorite to bring the ball up the court when Pullen is resting. I still am worried about his meltdown potential when faced with backcourt pressure, but he is a hell of a lot more confident and smarter with the ball than Clent. He knows when to turtle, but he can still throw a head fake or a feint. He is slower than I had hoped, but he still plays very decent D on a 2. His shooting is looking as advertised.
PULLEN I don't think enough can be said here. 24 min/20pts/3-5 3p'rs/7-11ft/5a-1to/3 stls Cruise control. His swagger is going to drive the team. He is not a huge talker on the court, but he can lead. And his
swagger! The winks to LBG and the front row all-stars. The smile. The transition pull up. The twisting and turning in traffic. The drives to the lane. The defense. He is an All-American and the stink of 3 stars has never been better for him and us. He isn't really a JYC, but he relishes being the leader of them and seems in on the secret that we really are good. We really are ready for this.
Overall:
If we made a Faustian bargain and traded the transition speed of Denis for the confident 3pt shooting of Russell/Sprads/McGruder/Tay then it was worth it as long as the bigs play to their ability. If Jamar turns in to Dom and Kelly/Judge/Asprilla can't take the next step in their respective games, then we are in serious trouble. If I had to guess, I would say that one of them really does not get better and JHR plays too many minutes all year.
The rebounding is really disconcerting. I know we got 13 O-boards. I know we out rebounded a big and physical team. But our bigs did not do it. Asprilla and Wally look scared and Jamar just looked frustrated all night. They need to handle the ball better, they need to board better, they need to pass out of the post better, they need to work on their post moves. It is not there yet.
All in all, Frank is playing games. We are good enough to go out there and cruise and play head games and put on a show to try to improve. V-Tech will tell us if the head games worked. I think they will, but the crowd is going to be crap and it just seems like a loss. Is the first step towards telling us if we are a #1 seed. Right now hard to say we're a 1.
