Drexel 5 Thoughts

[Degaz-RU]

Geo had to play 35 minutes last night against Drexel, because nobody else was stepping up in the 2nd half.

- Harper had a good 1st half but then disappeared in the 2nd half
- Young has been erratic at best, and very turnover prone
- Mathis is good in the open floor but out of his element in the half court
- McConnell has been just okay, hasn't found his offensive rhythm, and looks a bit slow on defense (did he put on too much bulk?)
- Mulcahy has been solid as a freshman, definitely can pass, but is slow-footed on defense

Geo can't be forced to play 35 minutes every night. Other guys need to step up.

 

[soundcrib]

Get and keep Yeboah on the floor.

 

[dkostus]

Geo had to play 35 minutes last night against Drexel, because nobody else was stepping up in the 2nd half.

- Harper had a good 1st half but then disappeared in the 2nd half
- Young has been erratic at best, and very turnover prone
- Mathis is good in the open floor but out of his element in the half court
- McConnell has been just okay, hasn't found his offensive rhythm, and looks a bit slow on defense (did he put on too much bulk?)
- Mulcahy has been solid as a freshman, definitely can pass, but is slow-footed on defense

Geo can't be forced to play 35 minutes every night. Other guys need to step up.

Geo is in year 3 of playing 35 minutes every night. It would be great if this year he didn't have to do it for 32 games resulting in posters bashing him at the end of the year

 

[Eagleton96]

I'm on record preseason saying that Young was over-hyped and Mathis undervalued. Young gets my vote for most disappointing start of the year. And Mathis will continue to be an essential, and hopefully increasingly consistent, piece.

 

[bowlgoal]

1) Geo remains THE guy. Hes the voice, the leader, the guy we look to when we need a bucket and he is playing absolutely tenacious on the defensive end of the floor. Hes sticking his guy, deflecting balls, blocking shots, getting steals. Hes been a real pleasure to watch thus far and his game has taken another step up.

2) Montez Mathis GREAT in transition at the rim but on the flip side absolutely lost when teams get us into the halfcourt. When we play teams that play at a fast pace like MSU, hes going to be important but vs slower paced teams like wisconsin were best served not playing him all that much. Part of the reason he might struggle in the half court is my third point

3) We dont run a half court offense. We havent run one for 4 years now under pike. Theres a whole lot of ball watching and one on one basketball. Ball needs to rotate more, we need to run more sets to get shooters looks because just setting up and running double high screens/handoffs aint gonna cut it.

4) Less Jacob Young more Caleb McConnell. JY just simply plays too out of control and foregoes the simple play to try a complex finish in the trees. JY played way too much in the 2nd half and Caleb far too little. As soon as Caleb came in for JY he makes that beautiful quick dish to yeboah in transition for a layup where yeboah gets fouled, he pulls down an offensive board giving us an extra possession, grabs a D board and gets to the line twice and sinks some free throws. He makes it look effortless, he really needs more time in place of JY.

5) Myles needs to step it up. First half was abysmal, he was playing with soft hands and not squeezing the ball in the post, got his pocket picked, fumbled when he went up, had some bad fouls due to being in poor position. 2nd half he bounced back with some nice blocks but he really needs to be better and more of a presence on the offensive end, hes been disappointing on that end of the floor.

overall, a win is a win and drexel was a well coached team who ran some really nice offensive sets (wish we would too). Free throw shooting was encouraging. Now off to toronto and have to take care of business there

Completely agree on all points. When we played Niagra and had Paul in the high post, good things happened. Just too much sloppy run and gun and missed shots. One thing about Mathis is he gets down the court fast in transition and capitalizes on easy break away points. Nothing wrong with it; but just saying when you look at his stat line, those are most of his points. Myles needs to work a bit and get back to the gym. He looks like he lost too much weight and didnt make it up in muscle.

 

[goru7]

Last night, I agree with some posters that Pike is working out the kinks but a couple of disturbing things from Pike that I have not seen in previous years. First. His mandatory sub rotations at designated problems has been a big problem. Mathis was on fire early and off to a hot 6 point start and at the first time out 15:32 to go , he put in Young and buried Montes for 6-7 minutes. The kids lost his rhythm. Pike has to stay with a hot guy until he misses his first shot or asks out. I understand he is trying to get the rust out of Young, older player, etc. but he has affected Mathis and Caleb a lot. In the Bryant game he got pissed at Caleb and sat him for 13 minutes until the last possession . Tonight he did not help either guy.

I also disagree with those that say that Montes is terrible in the half court. First, they run very few offensive sets thru the first 3 games ( which I will discuss this second issue with Coach shortly), Mathis can be run off curls where he can drive to the hoop and score and get fouled. This hasn’t been tried . His foul shooting and three point shooting has improved in a small sample size,

but he worked real hard in the off season on both. He needs to be used more not less and properly. The same goes for Caleb. Young has forced things and is not looking to pass and set up his teammates . His defense has been good not great. Pike has to figure out Montes, Caleb and Jacob and their roles and properly use their strengths.

We cannot just rely on Geo. Ron was not posted once last night and we saw nothing really go through him on the offensive end . I know Pike will figure out the rotations but he has to put his players in a better position to succeed in order for the team to continue to climb. Neither Bryant nor Drexel were his finest coaching hours in the 4 years maybe his 2 worst in 100 games . I love Pike as a coach, as our coach , but not only do some players have to step up but he does also.

The other issue has reared its head in the Bryant and Drexel games. Both teams are lower level teams, true, but both coaches ran fabulous offensive sets that made us work our asses off on defense as well as eventually getting an open 3. Pike did not run many sets all night. Granted , teams have been playing zone a lot and we carved up Niagara all game and part of the Bryant game but not so much against Drexel as the passing was not as good as the first 2 games. But both Bryant and especially Drexel played man defense and we just ran Geo in isolation or late screen.If Pike just ran the sets Drexel ran, we would have made things easier for us. There also is a less concerted effort to get the ball down low on the block to Myles,or Shaq, or Mamadou. We have the talent, size, and bulk and length to run better offense.

 

[new jersey1]

I think Pike knows what he’ll get with McConnell (positive play) and is trying to let Young knock of the rust to see what he brings to the table.

Good point.

 

[littlenis5]

Montez is tough to nail down. I’m less concerned about his lack of half court ability than his perimeter defense last night. He seemed to be overhelping in the middle which resulted in a bunch of wide open shots for points over his outstretched arms. He’s never going to be a great halfcourt player but if he can keep getting 3-5 leakout buckets a game and play consistently tough defense (the consistent part is the question mark) he will warm his minutes

 

[JavaDunk18]

We need much better defensive rebounding. One particularly bad play was after a second missed free throw, we gave up 2 rebounds, the 2nd was put in for an easy bucket...we had our best run of the night midway though 2nd half, and he did a multi-substitution, breaking up our run, and they tied it back up, I know he’s experimenting w combinations, but at that point maybe stick with what’s working..JY will be fine. Lots of energy he will get under control. Free Throws way better..Geo clutch as usual..with this team we should fastbreak as much as possible. Fast break roles will fall into place more easily as season moves on. Will translate into more garbage buckets..

 

[brad1218]

Sure. Tell that to Geo, and Caleb, and Akwasi Yeboah. Pike is getting guys in the top 150 (Mulcahy, Harper, Mathis) and they arent even the best players on the team. Myles Johnson is better than multiple "top 150" bigs across the league. If this were a case of anecdotal evidence (like it was just Geo) that would be one thing. But it's really not.

I disagree. I am not saying the ONLY recruits we should get are top 150. I am saying we have to live there every year. We need two a year from the top 150. Some will be busts or at least may not live up to the potential. That is why you can’t miss a year.

 

[goru7]

I like what McConnell brings to the floor, but he hasn't really been scoring very well so far. He's 8th on the team in points per 40 min and last in FG% among the players in rotation - though he makes up for that in ball protection and rebounding. Hopefully his shot gets unstuck soon.

He is not being played enough by Coach, who kept him on the bench for 13 minutes straight in the second half of the Bryant game. Once Pike figures out what Young will do for us this year, hopefully he plays Caleb and Montes enough and puts them in a position to succeed. I mean specifically run plays for them which are not done at this time.

 

[Good-Knight]

1. I thought last year to start the season there was a decision to not rely on Geo and to integrate the new guys in to the offense. This year it seems we might ride Geo as far as he can take us. I think we need to work on the other pieces more.
2. If we're going to run an offense with a quick scoring philosophy, were going to need more from Young...which means he has to play. I like the deep down court passes part of this game plan are working.
3. McConnel and Mathis are both better than last year.
4. Yeboah is everything expected and can do more things but I don't like him shooting the tres. He's going to need to be a more active part of the rebounding mission.
5. 3 -0 ! One season that sticks in my craw is the 2001-02 season. Gary Waters first year (Coleman, Kent, Herve, Sean Axani, Ricky Shields). The team went 18-13 with 8-8 in the Big East. That season openned with losses to East Carolina and Virginia Commonwealth. Win those two game and we would have gone to the NCAA's instead of the NIT.

 

[winfield102]

How do you get hot with leak out buckets? That's mathis's offense. In the half court set, he was BRUTAL. 1 out of control drive happened to fall. Other than that, it was TO's and terrible shots when he tried to drive to the hoop.

 

[JavaDunk18]

I was at that East Carolina game in 2001 It was in Raleigh at PNC arena..Yeboah should be focusing more on filling the Eugene Void. Especially Offensive rebounds & outback’s. He did a good job drawing charges..

 

[RUChoppin]

4. Yeboah is everything expected and can do more things but I don't like him shooting the tres. He's going to need to be a more active part of the rebounding mission.

Don't like him shooting threes? He has as many career made threes (174) as the next two highest players on our team combined (Baker with 117, Young with 57). He also is tied with Baker for the team lead with 4 threes so far this year, but on 5 fewer attempts and a third fewer minutes.

I was at that East Carolina game in 2001 It was in Raleigh at PNC arena..Yeboah should be focusing more on filling the Eugene Void. Especially Offensive rebounds & outback’s. He did a good job drawing charges..

Yeboah should not be focused on being Omoruyi - he should be focused on being Yeboah. Yeboah's not a post player who backs down his man and makes his bones on the offensive glass because he can't consistently score from outside 10 feet - he's a stretch four who may very well be in the conversation as one of our best outside shooters this season.

 

[RUonBrain]

Montez is tough to nail down. I’m less concerned about his lack of half court ability than his perimeter defense last night. He seemed to be overhelping in the middle which resulted in a bunch of wide open shots for points over his outstretched arms. He’s never going to be a great halfcourt player but if he can keep getting 3-5 leakout buckets a game and play consistently tough defense (the consistent part is the question mark) he will warm his minutes

Hate this about Mathis.

Can’t believe either the coaches aren’t getting on him about this, OR can’t believe they are telling him but he doesn’t listen / do it (stay closer to his man standing outside the arc waiting to put it up.)