Drexel 5 Thoughts

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

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

 

[FrankZ]

Agreed

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Also I think our best lineup is Geo-Caleb-Ron-Yeboah-Myles. Yeboah is just such a smart reliable guy. Always in the right place and does all the little things too

 

[RUHouston]

Myles seems to be struggling when he gets the ball thus far. His defense seems ok, though.

 

[DennisHajekRC84]

Not gonna trash Young but I agree. I'd trade Caleb's length , presence, and shooting for Young's extra quickness. I also think Young is out of position and not playing that drive and dish guard as we seem to still want Geo up top in control.

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

Myles seems to be struggling when he gets the ball thus far. His defense seems ok, though.

Agreed he hasnt look comfortable in the post with the ball, havent really seen any post moves or footwork out of him

 

[FrankZ]

Not sure what’s going on with Caleb’s minutes

 

[RW90]

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

Agree on all these plus your props for Yeboah.
Someone also had it right in another thread that Pike needs to settle on a rotation and shorten his bench sooner than later.

 

[RutgHoops]

Not sure what’s going on with Caleb’s minutes

Until the last four minutes tonight Caleb hadn’t stood out to me.

Yeboah is better than I thought.

 

[Shell21]

Caleb was awesome on d tonight , but just hasn’t been aggressive on o or looked for his shot much. We need to get him involved more .

regarding Young , I think Pike is giving him more minutes now to shake the rust off and see what he has in him . If he continues to struggle with decisions and finishing moving forward those minutes should and will go elsewhere .

he has the signs of potential , but needs to put it together . I like his on the ball defense but he gambles too much sometimes

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

I think Mulcahy took some of Caleb's minutes and Drexel just screened and attacked Paul off the dribble. Young was either very good on defense or seemed to assume his quickness was enough.

Summary was excellent and defense generated dunks and layups.

In watching other B1G games and other typical teams we are used to watching, there are some coaches that are already shortening their lineup and rotations. I think if these teams expand their rotations, they would look a little more erratic but probably better in the long run.

Pike is doing a lot of experimenting and seeing what happens. I will save what I believe are some wrinkles or adjustments seen that will set up some open looks down the road....I don't think Pike is really interested in showing too much right now while we are learning on the fly.

 

[bac2therac]

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

agree with everything FULLY

 

[winfield102]

I agree that montez is great at the rim...but only when he is ahead of everyone else. Outside of that, he can't finish and plays out of control. I think he had 10 points because he released early. Anyone can do that.

He had one forced drive that went in during the 1st half.

 

[RU-ROCS]

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.

 

[RutgersMO]

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

FT's: 80%~~~ Great.

Last game 7-8: Great.

Hoping this is a trend.

MO

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

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.

Thats my thought as well. Last year, early on, pike played kiss alot as well to see what he had in him, maybe hes doing the same here? I really think Young should be a 15 minute a night role player. As it stands right now, when JY is on the court 26% of our possessions end with the ball in his hand, the highest % on our team and thats not a good thing

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

FT's: 80%~~~ Great.

Last game 7-8: Great.

Hoping this is a trend.

MO

Yup, this would be huge if it continued

 

[Scarlet Swede]

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

 

[Scarlet Swede]

Do you think Myles misses Jay Young? Maybe that good big man coaching hasn't been replaced.

 

[Scarlet83]

Also I think our best lineup is Geo-Caleb-Ron-Yeboah-Myles. Yeboah is just such a smart reliable guy. Always in the right place and does all the little things too

Agreed. This is the lineup that played most of the end game minutes.

 

[Local Shill]

Also I think our best lineup is Geo-Caleb-Ron-Yeboah-Myles. Yeboah is just such a smart reliable guy. Always in the right place and does all the little things too

Agree and those were the 5 on the floor the most in crunch time.

 

[RU677381]

There is nothing Way that coach does not see what we are seeing. My guess is that there is a
potential that he feels can be reached and non conference against crummy teams is the
place to try to do it. If he does not learn, then my guess his time on the bench will make his stay more painful then last year’s.

 

[brad1218]

The reality is this is not an NCAA tourney team. Until we pick it up recruiting wise we aren’t dancing. Have to live in the top 150. Year after year. No other way to do it.

 

[RUJMM78]

The season has just started and Pikiell is still tinkering with substitutions which he can get away with against mediocre competition.After three games,the team is 3-0 which is needed for a winning season.At the same time ,Rutgers had difficulty scoring against Bryant and Drexel with really bad 3 point shooting.Baker clearly is the go to scorer but his lack of scoring early in games has allowed opponents to hang around and make games closer than they should be.

The power forward and center positions clearly need to score more points.McConnell has played a good game defensively but needs to be more of a scoring threat to remain a starter.Johnson and Carter were having a hard time against Drexel finishing around the basket but to his credit Johnson stepped up in the last minutes of the game.Yeboah has a nice 3 point shot and more plays should be run to get him open for shots.

I was impressed with the ball movement of Drexel which resulted in more open shots than Rutgers was getting.Rutgers won the game because of better talent and playing at home.Road games are totally different situations and fans will see how well Rutgers performs.

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

Agree and those were the 5 on the floor the most in crunch time.

This is your preferred FT shooting lineup that gives you a rebounder in Myles and capable rebounders with some arm length to bother shooters etc

 

[anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy]

One of the biggest reasons calebs needs to be on the court more is when JY is in he floats, hes not going after boards, in fact of players who have usage rates of JY, he has one of the single lowest rebounds rates in all of division one basketball at 3.5%, whereas Caleb is closer to 16%, it’s HUGE. Caleb is a TREMENDOUS rebounder both offensively and defensively, for a guard. Hes always sticking his nose in there and coming down with big boards and thats something this team desperately needs

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

The reality is this is not an NCAA tourney team. Until we pick it up recruiting wise we aren’t dancing. Have to live in the top 150. Year after year. No other way to do it.

I don't know if it is or isn't but we can talk "150", but the key is how far away is your 8th 9th and 10th players from your Top 5 to 7....or how steep is the dropoff.

I don't want to crush prior rosters but it's hard to imagine Thiam, Matt Bullock, Souf Mensah being contributors off the bench on this years roster. The better teams cover up minutes with solid play, when their Top players dont perform that night.

There's a reason why there are 20 bubble teams every year and it usually becomes a matter or what the bench does to sustain being productive. RU has survived 2 games already with starters not having high production.

In years past, those games were losses...now they're wins.

 

[RUKnights86]

Agreed that Pike is absolutely trying to tinker with rotations, combinations & minutes at this point in the season. You have to remember you have 3 new guys who will play 15+ minutes a night that he previously did not have. This plus the new position less type game for this team/running more is going to take some more time to gel.

Observations last night from me:

Caleb has the ability to be a force on the defensive end with his length, IQ & hustle. Yes it was a non Power 5 team but you can see the matchup advantage he provides. I do want him to be more aggressive on the offensive end, last night he missed his first shot or two & then did not look for his shot the rest of the game. He has a nice mid range game & can drive so he needs to keep that in mind.

The Bigs: It is slightly concerning 3 games in that we have not seen much production out of Shaq/Myles combo on the offensive end. I thought they were progressing nicely at the end of last year. Now it could just be getting back into it & still early, but we need them to find the forum they had last year with confidence, moves in the paint & rebounding otherwise teams in the BIG will get a lot of 2nd chance opportunities.

FT Shooting: What a welcome sight for sore eyes to shoot 80% as a team, Myles to go 3-4 and a couple of those misses were from Yeboah who I know will be fine. If they can keep it up this will keep us in a lot of games.

Overall much less flow offensively compared to the other night when they shot well, shot in the flow of the possession & even the misses looked fluid. We need more of that, several times yesterday we got caught inbetween on what to do with the ball.

 

[kcg88]

Please spare me the "in past years we lost games like this" talk. We've won close games against worse competition and then also lost other games against worse competition.

Last year we played 7 sub-200 opponents in KenPom. We blew out three of them (FDU, Drexel, EMU).

We needed OT to beat Columbia, and the Boston U game was a 1-point game with 8 to play. We played just as sloppy against Maine, but Maine was so horrid that we still beat them by 15 playing our D-game. And, of course, we lost to Fordham after blowing a 10-point lead (sound familiar?)

2018 (calendar 2017) we played ten sub-200 opponents. Seven of them were not really competitive.

We trailed with 10 minutes to go against Central Connecticut, and lost the Stony Brook and Hartford games. We led Stony Brook by eight and Hartford by 7.

The year before that, we didn't lose any games we shouldn't have. We needed big comebacks against Stony Brook and Hartford, but we won all the games we were supposed to. A lot of good that did come conference time, we went 3-15.

My point is that when you play with fire you're likely to get burnt. It's not a guarantee, but if you consistently play close games you're going to lose some of them.

Last year couldn't you have said after the Boston U game "wow, we lost games like that last year against Stony Brook and Hartford. But this year we're winning them!" But then we went and lost to Fordham anyway.

 

[AshCatchEm]

McConnell should be getting 28 minutes a game. Consciously choosing to not play one of our top 3 players and I don't like it.

 

[RU-ROCS]

Thats my thought as well. Last year, early on, pike played kiss alot as well to see what he had in him, maybe hes doing the same here? I really think Young should be a 15 minute a night role player. As it stands right now, when JY is on the court 26% of our possessions end with the ball in his hand, the highest % on our team and thats not a good thing

Agreed!

 

[AshCatchEm]

IDK we add in McConnell and mulcahy with both getting 22+ minutes per game and we will have some fun offense to watch.

 

[Proud NJ Sports Fan]

 

[RUChoppin]

Please spare me the "in past years we lost games like this" talk. We've won close games against worse competition and then also lost other games against worse competition.

Last year we played 7 sub-200 opponents in KenPom. We blew out three of them (FDU, Drexel, EMU).

We needed OT to beat Columbia, and the Boston U game was a 1-point game with 8 to play. We played just as sloppy against Maine, but Maine was so horrid that we still beat them by 15 playing our D-game. And, of course, we lost to Fordham after blowing a 10-point lead (sound familiar?)

2018 (calendar 2017) we played ten sub-200 opponents. Seven of them were not really competitive.

We trailed with 10 minutes to go against Central Connecticut, and lost the Stony Brook and Hartford games. We led Stony Brook by eight and Hartford by 7.

The year before that, we didn't lose any games we shouldn't have. We needed big comebacks against Stony Brook and Hartford, but we won all the games we were supposed to. A lot of good that did come conference time, we went 3-15.

My point is that when you play with fire you're likely to get burnt. It's not a guarantee, but if you consistently play close games you're going to lose some of them.

Last year couldn't you have said after the Boston U game "wow, we lost games like that last year against Stony Brook and Hartford. But this year we're winning them!" But then we went and lost to Fordham anyway.

You're using a different definition of "games like this" than the people making that case.

You're seeing it as "games against this level of competition", while they are seeing it as "games where we're outscored from the floor and need to win with FTs".

We were beaten 51-42 from the floor last night, but won because we outscored Drexel at the line 20-6. Had we shot our season-average .637 from the line, it would have been a 1 point game.

We went 2-12 in games where we were outscored from the floor last year, and 12-5 in games where we weren't. So, twice we were able to overcome deficits and win on the FT line, and five times we lost at the FT line despite scoring more points on the floor.

Looking at those 7 games:
@Wisconsin - Tied 59-59 from the floor, lost 10-6 at the line (we shot 5-6, 83%)
@Seton Hall - Ahead 56-51 from the floor, lost 21-10 at the line (we shot 10-15, 67%)
Columbia (OT) - Behind 50-53 from the floor, won 18-12 at the line (we shot 16-24, 67%)
Nebraska - Behind 59-66 from the floor, won 17-3 at the line (we shot 17-26, 65%)
@Illinois (OT) - Ahead 81-76 from the floor, lost 23-13 at the line (we shot 13-21, 62%)
Iowa - Ahead 59-58 from the floor, lost 13-10 at the line (we shot 10-18, 56%)
Penn State - Ahead 54-52 from the floor, lost 14-11 at the line (we shot 11-16, 69%)

Those last three games were all lost at the line. Each was a single score game where we outscored our opponent from the floor that could have been a win if we could have shot even 75% from the line... which may have made us 17-14 instead of 14-17. Against Columbia, shooting 75% would have prevented it from going to OT, but we came away with the win anyway because we shot 26 FTs to their 16.

 

[RUChoppin]

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.

 

[BillyC80]

Caleb has one of the best shooting strokes on the team (along with Kwasi, followed by Geo, imo).

He shoots in rhythm, balanced, squared up, good release, good ball rotation — it all looks solid. With his length he’ll get some great looks and he’ll start to knock them down, no doubt.

Wouldn’t surprise me if he starts burying threes at a high clip (2-5, 3-6, etc.) over the next few games.

 

[dkostus]

The reality is this is not an NCAA tourney team. Until we pick it up recruiting wise we aren’t dancing. Have to live in the top 150. Year after year. No other way to do it.

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.

 

[MOBFreehold]

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

Just said this in another post. I just think it is Pickell working out kinks
Finding what pieces fit what situation. Believe he is trying guys at times he knows they arent the best choice to see if they can survive (and hopefully give them a bit of cockiness for when it is needed) and hopefully thrive when we need them. When push comes to shove the right parts will be on the floor at the right moments in games. Pickell has proved to be a chess master with his ability to use his bench.

 

[rubaseball78]

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

Pretty much agree but 3 games in still a work in process.

 

[BigRnj]

I agree that montez is great at the rim...but only when he is ahead of everyone else. Outside of that, he can't finish and plays out of control. I think he had 10 points because he released early. Anyone can do that.

He had one forced drive that went in during the 1st half.

Really, it’s that easy. Why doesn’t everyone do it ... imagine everyone in the rotation scoring 10 a game. Cut down the nets!