I liked seeing that all of our guys *could handle the ball as I think it speeds us up a bit and may get us into a fastbreak/scoring option sooner- which is what the team talked about in the preseason.
I actually think- sometimes we should get into a secondary break similar to Michigan State/ UNC do when they run the sidelines and then drive to the hoop. I *think we have some guys that can do that.
Actually Minor was 10th, and Taine was 9th, so Gertrude could have moved up to 8th.
I agree and see why Tony tried to change Shedrick’s mind. Frankly wish we’d play Robinson but hopefully Minor can be the depth that we need
was Mamadi our last serious post scoring threat recruit? think this gets exposed majorly against florida
I was thinking this too…, but I really want Jack Salt back 
Wait! Did Tony try to change his mind? I missed this reporting?
That’s… not how that works? Overtaking the 10th or 9th guy would make him 10th or 9th, not 8th.
0 turnovers, compared to 5 for the two guys the board seems to want to be points at times (Rohde and McKneely).
As an aside, Murray’s gotta pull the trigger in the corner when he catches. He put us in two really bad shot clock situations both times he hesitated. We scored once, but turned it over the second time.
Finally watched the game. We looked awesome, and it raised my expectations for the season, which are now to sit in the 15-25 range nationally.
Minor: Until a few weeks ago, I thought he was a starter, and yesterday we learned that if this were a serious game with a normal 8-9 man rotation, he wouldn’t have played. I’m fine with it since it means more minutes for Bond and Buchanan who are a nice part of the present and the cornerstones of the future.
Bond: Amazing! I don’t think we will see another 12 and 9 performance this season, but we did learn that he will be getting minutes and in those minutes he will be all over the glass and all over the ball on D. And if you give him an open look or a chance for an OR, he will get points.
Dunn: Everyone except me seemed to expect a huge leap from Dunn. It’s not that I thought it was impossible, but “huge leap” just doesn’t seem like a good baseline guess. I was wrong! HUUUGE LEAP. The best part for me was the b-2-b possessions just under 3 minutes left in second half where he played PG and drew two fouls. He has added a lot to his game, and can be a legitimate third best player on a very good team.
I-MACulate: Mostly just glad I got a good new nickname for him. He was I-MACulate.
Reece: Dominant on both ends.
Rohde: Disappointing start (and B-W scrimmage), my expectations have been lowered for him accordingly, but I understand variance, so hopefully this is an aberration.
Excited for the Florida game. Let’s see how the guys look with a little more game pressure, facing a team that can actually beat us.
My hot take is I think Buchanan and Bond are already the best rebounding bigs. Groves is clearly the worst in that specific department, but I don’t think Minor is better than the youngsters. I think Buchanan and Bond have that nose for the ball that you can’t really teach.
But the sample size is incredibly small, so you can’t take away much. Still, I’m sticking with that take until proven otherwise!
The rebounding was the thing that concerned me about Minor’s game last night. I thought his D was fine. But he’s gotta box out and get boards.
I think Minor will weirdly fill a Caffaro type role. Situational usage against back to the basket bigs. But I also like making those type of bigs guard our guys on the perimeter. If Bacot and PJ Hall are going to have an advantage on the inside, id love to play Groves and Dunn and force them to come out and guard them.
With that being said, we need Minor in those situations some still.
I tend to agree, but with the giant caveat that it seemed clear to me that things aren’t clicking yet with Minor. He looked confused on both ends frequently last night. So early season, even against a big Florida team on Friday, I think Minor is a deserving 10th. That said, I do think he will figure stuff out and move into 9th, playing more than Taine over the course of the year.
There was no decision to redshirt Mamadi lol he wasn’t academically eligible in 2015/16
Mamadi reclassed. That’s a different situation entirely.
I watched him off ball when he came in. He was completely uncomfortable in terms of positioning - constant stutter stepping / readjusting / looking around.
I don’t think he was attacked which probably minimized how exposed we were to his poor positioning, but definitely seems like a guy trying to figure things out and not playing naturally.
Gotcha - thought he looked okay on ball, and didn’t focus much otherwise. All this stuff is obviously relative to expectation – mine were fairly low for Minor off ball, given his old context. (It was really an odd marriage, tbh. Is it okay to say that?)
Yes. Fans can be selfishly disappointed not to see him this year in games. But - as you say in prior post - I trust that it is considered the best for Elijah by him, his family and Tony
On Minor (and Buchanan for that matter), this was a really weird game to evaluate big defense because of the way TSU played. Not a ton of pick and roll, just 5 out spacing with dribble handoffs and lots of iso drives, and our bigs were often guarding a 6’5-6’7 guy mostly on the perimeter. I think it tells us a little bit about how they might be able to hold up when switching onto a quicker player, and some general info about their lateral quickness, but we didn’t see some of the things they might be asked to do on defense.
I thought all those academic issues were resolved in the summer (and a session of summer school) which was why he was able to reclass and enroll. I definitely remember discussions of his redshirt at the time.