UCLA vs. Concordia: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Nov 4, 2009 11:34 PM PST
in Basketball
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PrintOuch. That was ugly. I think we were all braced for an up and down season with inconsistencies, poor performances and plays that make you scratch your head, but needing a late three to top Concordia by one in an exhibition game? I don't think anyone expected that. UCLA has a lot to fix, from the coaches on down to the players and getting Michael Roll, Jerime Andersen and Brendan Lane won't be enough, although it will most definitely help.
The Good
James Keefe- In my opinion, Keefe was the Bruins' best player on the night. He knocked down a couple threes, was sound on his rotations and was strong on the boards, not just getting rebounds himself, but also boxing people out so teammates could rebound. This senior came to play and while he wasn't spectacular, he was solid all the way around and was a stabilizing force on a team that clearly lacked stability. It was nice to see one guy out there that you knew what you were going to get from him and it was clear from the opening tip who the senior on the court was.
Drew Gordon- He led UCLA in scoring with 17 on 8-11 shooting and was also the Bruins' top rebounder with 11. Gordon showed a much improved outside shot and feel for the game, jumping some passing lanes and even delivering some outstanding passes. He was very active and was able to get a tip to some rebounds, keeping them alive for others. While Gordon still have moments where he is out of control, I think that he was better than he was last season. He will always be a bit out of control, but that is okay because it will play him into as many plays as it plays him out of.
Pac-10 Logo- The John and Nell Wooden Court now has a Pac-10 logo out of bounds along the baseline. I assume that this will be on the floor of every Pac-10 school and I'm glad. While I don't think it looks great, it's a step in the right direction for the conference. Having the logo on the court gives the conference some brand recognition and helps to promote the conference, something other conferences have been doing for years, but the Pac-10 has been well behind on. New commissioner Larry Scott has the right idea and is moving in the right direction, even if the look isn't the greatest.
The Bad
Coaching- Admittedly, this is a bit unfair because Ben Howland and Co. were coaching as much to teach and get a feel for the team as they were to win, but the coaching staff will have to adjust to this team. We've discussed Howland's offense in the past and I've defended it, but I think that he will have to change things up some this year. The offense is dependent on strong all-around players, good decisions and precision. Because of this team's youth, those things will be hard to come by and the athleticism on this team is unmatched by any past UCLA teams, making the offense not the best fit for the team. Too often tonight we saw players in the wrong spot and players in situations that don't suit their strengths. This team needs to create space all the way around and let the players' athleticism go to work, not create room in specific areas and put all players in all places, as is the case in Howland's offense. Howland's offense is effective, just not as well suited to this team as past teams. Using it some, but add and change some things up as well.
Communication- It wasn't a rare sight for a Concordia player to get a bucket, then see the UCLA players looking at each other pointing at things as they tried to figure out what happened. The switches were sloppy and too often players were surprised by screens because no teammate called out the pick. Many, although not all, of the defensive miscues could be traced to a lack of communication. Meanwhile, on the offensive end, UCLA threw a number of passes to a player who wasn't looking for the ball. They threw passes to expected cuts that weren't being made and they set screens that went unused. Now, you could attribute all of this lack of communication on both ends of the floor to the injuries that kept players from practicing together, nerves or the youth, but it needs to get better.
The Ugly
Mustafa Abdul-Hamid- I don't want to pick on a walk-on who has worked his tail off, but there's no way to possibly overlook the game Abdul-Hamid had tonight. Sure, he hit the game-winning three pointer, but the fact that he easily makes the ugly list despite that big shot gives you an idea just how poor he was. He finished with seven turnovers and had the Bruins not been such a superior athletic team, it would have easily been double digits. Abdul-Hamid spent an inordinate amount of time on the ball and was beaten badly on some cuts, including one late that allowed Concordia to stop a Bruin run. Jerime Andersen and Mike Roll better get healthy soon and those two, along with Malcolm Lee need to stay healthy all year long because Abdul-Hamid, for all his effort and pluck, will not cut it against decent teams.
Tentative Offense- I've already mentioned that I think the coaching staff will have to adjust their offense to this team, but that doesn't account for all of the offense's struggles. Even running an offense that they aren't perfectly suited for and routinely struggling to execute the offense, there were openings to be aggressive within the offense and the players were too tentative to take advantage. Tyler Honeycutt showed promise and vision going to the rim, but he passed up three openings to take it to the middle. Lee finally showed aggressiveness late, but early on he passed up a couple open shots, while Mike Moser passed up a wide open lane to the rim and an open 12 foot jumper. The inexperience showed as the players were thinking so much out there that they were overly tentative. Loosening up and getting aggressive will be key next Tuesday.
Nikola Dragovic- While Keefe was doing a good job playing the role of senior, Dragovic did not look the part. He tried to take the lead, launching 13 shots, but he made only three. He didn't show any aggressiveness going up in the paint and he had five turnovers. Yeah, Abdul-Hamid had seven, but he was on the ball for huge chunks of time. Dragovic has no such excuse. Trying to take the lead is nice from the senior, but you've gotta follow through and Dragovic did not do that. He looked like an over-eager freshman out there.
Free Throw Shooting- Dragovic did one thing well on the night and that was convert from the charity stripe, where he hit five of six. Despite his five of six effort, the team finished just 9-19 on the night. Reeves Nelson was poorest on the team, going 0-4, although he did show some promise and great tenacity when not at the line. Keefe missed a free throw, Honeycutt missed his only chance and Abdul-Hamid missed both of his chances. This team isn't what we've gotten used to at UCLA and they will be in their share of close games so free throwing shooting will be paramount. 9-19 won't get it done.
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Rye, you are in midseason form
I agree with you on a lot of your points, but I think a lot of your concerns are things that will clear themselves up with practice and time. This was the first exhibition game for a team who only has one player (ND) who has gotten significant minutes of college basketball. Yes we barely won, but I think you nailed it in saying that this was a teaching game for CBH and not a coaching game.
TH, MM, and RN were lost on offense, but they have only been practicing in it for a limited amount of time. While I would like to see a lot more high-low post action between our bigs this season, I don’t think the offense this season is going to be any different. If anything, with the shaky ball control and inexperience of this team, they need the structure of CBH’s offense more than ever.
I think structure is what this team needs
I just don’t think it’s the same structure that we’ve seen from CBH’s offense in the past. It’s not that it’s not a good offense because it is and I’ve defending it when it’s come under fire, but I don’t think it best utilizes this team.
That offense creates small space of room for players to do specific things. Whether it’s the double downs along the baseline to free our 2 for a corner jumper or the 4 coming across the weakside for his jumper, the offense creates small spaces to accomplish certain things. The problem is that it also asks everyone on the floor to do a bit of everything. We would often see 4’s at the three point line on the ball and point guards setting two or three screens. I just don’t think we have the all-around skills at every spot to accomplish such things with consistency. I think we need to try and create general space instead of specific space and allow the offense to be a bit more instinctual.
Of course, this is all based on one exhibition game, but that’s what really stood out to me and I just don’t see the offense we’re used to best fitting the athleticism and skill set at our disposal this year.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Nov 5, 2009 12:27 AM PST up reply actions
The movement on offense
Seems stilted. The guys are thinking a lot out there about where they’re supposed to be and not just playing, which is to be expected considering the circumstances. CBH’s normal sets require at least 4 out of the 5 guys on the floor to execute very well, and we may not see that for a while. In the short term, we may be better off (like the football team) going simple while these guys are trying to learn and utilize sets that require fewer players to execute. I would have liked to see more screen roll last night to relieve some pressure on Mustafa and give him some breathing room along with opening up a passing lane to a big to take advantage of our size. Insomniac mentioned last night that we should be looking at backdoor cuts which would be another option if we had Lee or JA handling the ball more. Mustafa was having problems not turning the ball over so that probably wouldn’t have been an option for him last night, but it’s something to go to with our other guards if opponents continue to overplay our passing lanes.
Not complaints about the offense already guys!!!
The biggest problem yesterday was spacing. I don’t know how the feed was, so at might not have been as evident, but in person our spacing was poor. It is impossible to make passes, whether they are entry passes to the post or swing passes around the arc, when players are standing within three feet of each other, or in a couple laughable cases, running into each other to catch a ball.
This year’s offense will be more like the 2007 offense (KL’s year) because CBH finally has players capable of scoring on the low post. Having MR and JA back to make those passes and better spread the floor on the perimeter will give the bigs space to work. That said, DG, JK, and JMM have to work harder to get better post position. There was no reason for JMM to be pushed out from the basket against an undersized Concorida team.
That's interesting
The camera angles were terrible yesterday, so I wasn’t able to see the post play the entire time. Do you really feel that we have a low post threat? By the time our guys took shots from there, they seemed to have decent position, but we didn’t really finish any of those inside chances. You do your work as a post player before you ever get the ball, so if we’re establishing position (albeit against an undersized front line) then I suppose I have no problem with us going to the post more as long as we start converting those chances into points.
I hope you’re referring to us having a more 2007 offense purely in terms of philosophy and adjustments though, because asking this team at this time to reproduce the efficiency with which that offense did its work is way too much. One adjustment that I liked that year was pulling KLove out of the post and having him initiate the offense from the top and letting the rest of our team play off of that. Not only did it take advantage of Love’s high BBall IQ and passing ability, but it put the opposing center in a very tough spot. If DG is the one that ends up starting at the 5, we may be able to run some variation of that (from a few feet closer). I saw a nice entry pass by him with good touch from the top of the arc last night, and he has shown the ability to hit the elbow jumper. It’s not something that I’d like to see us do as frequently as we did with KLove, but to throw a different look at the defense, I think inverting the floor that way could be effective for a few possessions per half. Of course, that only works if the rest of our team gets familiar with the offense and knows who they want to clear space for.
Hahaha. Yeah 2007 style, not 2007 performance
What I meant was that besides for Love, we havent had any low post threats under CBH. I think DG and JMM have both shown that they have potential to be very good low post back to the basket scorers. I would through JK in there too, but he is more of a crafty rebounding big than a post up big.
I’m not so sure of having DG up top, but I definitely could foresee and think it would be a good move to have JK and ND on the high post with DG or JMM down low. The thing about having good entry passes to the post is that to be effective, the defense has to honor the passer’s shooting (this is why MR is the best on the team at it). ND and JK have both become pretty good outside shooters and pretty good passers, so I think it would definitely work. The added benefit of JK and ND is they can stretch the defense all the way out to the three line and can do the pick and pop routine that keeps defenses off balance.
Time
This year is gonna take a lot of patience from us the fans but I completely understand. We have 3 seniors on the team. Micheal Roll, Nickolai Dragovic, and James Keefe. We have 5 freshman and 7 sophomore, and a lot of the sophomores didn’t get a lot of playing time last year. We are just really young raw and inexperienced. All these problems aren’t going to go away for a while. I think we will be in contention for the pac ten title next year or the year after that. But all i would want out of this season is for our players to show hustle and heart on the court and and show improvement during the season. GO BRUINS!
improvement during the season,
is something BH teams excel at. The progression of this team is going to be really fun to watch.
by bornagainbruin on Nov 5, 2009 11:43 AM PST up reply actions
You're absolutely right about Mustafa
Jerime Anderson’s health will probably be the most important factor this year. Lee does not look comfortable at the point and seems to have poor court vision from the position, and Mustafa wouldn’t start for Concordia. We can’t afford to give him any minutes, unfortunately.
A lot of our problems will probably look much smoother with some solid PG play. Looks like Jerime can make or break this season.
Dragovic
To me he was the biggest disappointment of the night. Perhaps he is still sick and getting well from stomach flu. But he looked atrocious.
He has never
been one to pass the ball if there’s a shot to be had from under 30 feet. Even with that, though, he certainly wasn’t in the form we saw much of last year.
Come on, guys
Ease up. This was an exhibition game. This was a game for learning and experimentation. It’s a game we wanted to win, but it’s not a game to define our team. Let the coaches coacn and the kids play. And the fact that Concordia is … well, I don’t know what it is because I had never heard of it. Anyway, each one of those kids was a star growing up, and each is working hard and doing his best. It’s not like we were playing the little sisters of the blind.
I’m disappointed that several players were singled out as being “poor” or “atrocious.” Saying a guy had a bad game is not the same as saying a guy is “poor” or “atrocious.”
If this is way the the responses are going to go following a win in an exhibition game, I really am not going to want to read the BN following a loss in a non-conference or a conference game.
No, just looked at what was being said here.
I assume we played poorly as a TEAM. We’ve done that before and will do it again. But basically it was a practice against another school. I don’t think that justifies what seemed to me to be a fixed bayonets charge against our guys who I assume were trying their best.
I like sjh’s approach below, which says much of the same things, but without quite so much invective.
Agreed, 71. It's like the NBA pre-season, not the Final Four. It doesn't mean much.
33 Wins. Yeah, I said it.
My .02 worth --
Rye nailed it when he said the coaches were “teaching” more than “coaching”.
We played a ton of combinations, played almost all the way through the bench and, therefore, had absolutely no consistency or continuity.
That said, what stands out are problems that are not a function of the line up switching: turnovers and very poor FT shooting.
FT shooting has been an issue at different parts of the last few seasons. With superior, experienced talent, it may be possible to be a dominant team while shooting FT’s poorly. But, with a “new” team, like ours, it won’t be.
We never established ourselves on D and I think that’s because it takes a while to learn our D and to develop a team sense of man D. And, over the years, it’s our D that keys our O.
I was impressed with many of the youngsters — in their shifting cameo appearances. Bobo looks much stronger and faster. ML can handle the ball when he needs to and but for that dumb reaction foul that took him out of the game, he was part of the resurgence that brought the game back to where it could be won.
Nelson will have to Mata up (learn to shoot FT’s at even a respectable clip so that he can be in when we need him). He looked very strong and aggressive.
I think ND was simply trying too hard to be a “senior leader” and trying to take on too much of the game. He played hard.
As to the turnovers, I’m wondering whether we are seeing some of the same problems we are seeing on the football field — balls being thrown to the right spots but the receivers are not there.
I thought Tracy Murray did a good job of pointing out what we were doing wrong.
We have some incredible athletes who need time to become a CBH team, to learn the system, to get used to playing at the speed of the college game (Concordia was fast) and how to play lock down D.
It will be a long road but I was excited about “meeting” our new kids last night and will enjoy watching them grow this season. (That may be the parent in me speaking. I remember Jen’s early dance classes and now watch her perform with her color guard and toss flags, sabres and rifles while dancing and chuckle at some of her early “dance” steps. I think the same thing will happen with this team. We will find our reward in the process of growth and it will culminate in performances, in a couple of years, that are things of beauty.)
sjh
My husband wanted to barf
Outstanding and very mature analysis—so good it was Woodenish. And Rye’s hard nosed yet loyal discussion is what we will need.
Where I was sitting last night in Pauley, the fans were mindlessly muttering and complaining about the Bruin’s play. At one point, when NAIA powerhouse Concordia was up by like 7 points, my husband turned to me and announced he was about to vomit he was so angry.
This year, Bruin fans will have to recognize there are 12 freshman and sophomores on our roster and we lost 3 fabulous seniors last year. We need some real Rye-like maturity from Bruin fans this year. Sitting in the stands listening to some guy with an MBA bitterly complain (I mean the guy was bitter) about one of Coach Howland’s timeout decisions, (like at Anderson do they have class in calling timeouts) is amusing. Fans in Pauley need to help impose a real home court advantage and recognize there will be nights like last night again.
Finally, give credit where it is due—Concordia, for 39 minutes and 44 seconds, played better than we did. That being said though, if I get a fund raising call from Concordia—I will angrily hang up on the caller (I mean I’m gonna really slam down the phone).
Go Bruins!
.
by peggysue69 on Nov 5, 2009 7:13 AM PST via mobile reply actions
Starters
Coach needs to find his 7 players. Last night he played almost everyone except Stover to find any kind of combo’s that would work. These kids looked lost as if they had no idea where they had to be on both sides of the court. I know this was the first game, but you’d think that these highly recruited players could wear an NAIA school out on just sure talent. I agree with posts above that this offense isn’t made for this team. Hopefully, coach “gives in” and gets away from his point guard dibbles for 20 secs then just passing or throwing the ball away to the wing. Who ever saw this game has to realize that this may be a very long season.
I don't think so
It’s not a matter of throwing anything at the wall and seeing what sticks. We were missing JA and MR, which means that trying to see which unit plays well together is going to be meaningless in the long run because you’ll have to start over from scratch once those guys are available. For CBH, this amounted to another practice for his players. If they looked lost, well then maybe that’s because they were after only being in practice for a week. It’s FAR more important to establish fundamentals, which is done in practice, and what CBH was doing during this game as well, hence why rye refers to this as a game to teach rather than a game to win. We’re not going to go out and play jungle ball and try and “out-talent” Concordia just to have a more impressive result because it’s a waste of what is essentially practice time, and that stuff won’t fly when the games start to count for real.
Expectations
It’s only one exhibition game, but even before this game I had my doubts about ucla projected to finish third in the PAC. The recruiting class is good, but they are really young. Everyone should really temper their expectations this year. The talent that we lost over the past few years will be hard to overcome.
by hongerelli on Nov 5, 2009 7:50 AM PST via mobile reply actions
We've got 6 days before Humboldt
I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that what we see next week will be very different from last night – assuming Jerime and Mike play.
(Actually, I may even be willing to say this if they don’t play!)
I believe there is mainly one big take-away from what we saw last night: we need Jerime to be solid, healthy and out of foul trouble this year!
Some observations that I have not seen is this thread
From my seat in Pauley I noticed that Howland absolutely coached the game. With 8 minutes left he said “enough is enough”. Benched all the freshmen and focused on the win. Lee ended up fouling out so we put in one freshman, TH, but he coached for 8 minutes. I think CBH had confidence (maybe too much given the shoting and free throw woes) in his “elder statesmen” to pull it out with 8 minutes left. Though interestingly, last night the “elder statesmen” were 2 seniors and 3 sophmores.
Cant figure out why you would rant about CBH’s timeout strategy yesterday—he did not call many and had them at the end of the game.
Cant underestimate the lack of chemistry. Many of MAH’s turnovers were caused by the fact he was isolated with few teammates even paying attention to the ball. Not trying to defend him…we are in desperate need of more speed at guard….but it was clear these guys did not know what to expect. I agreee that it looked like many of the players seemed to be playing out of position. The facts are they were. We had a serious shortage of true guards yesterday.
Lee shows a lot of potential but I felt he was simply trying to hard (maybe because of the injuries to the guards). He tried to take over the game a few times and forced it. I think he will settle down as the team settles down.
But like others have said, this is not going to be an easy year to watch this team. We are going to get lots better but we are going to be vulnerable to speedy guards even with JA and MR back.
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Nov 5, 2009 8:37 AM PST reply actions
There was one curious timeout
After UCLA tied it up with 5 minutes to go, Howland called timeout. Concordia then made a 3 on the ensuing possession led the rest of the way until Abdul-Hamid’s shot to win.
by SuperBruinMan on Nov 5, 2009 10:58 AM PST up reply actions
Good Points Tydides
Good observation, Tydides. Apparently, you were at the game and could see the entire floor and what the players were trying to run. The internet feed only follows the ball and sometimes at floor level where I could watch only the obvious. This team will perform so much better with Roll & Anderson. Still looking forward to traveling from New Orleans to attended the Bakersfield game with my family. Go Bruins!
Of course not
I was watching the feed. But when you’ve watched nearly every game played in the CBH era, the differences become easy to pick out both with individuals and in the team concept even with the terrible camera angles from last night. I wouldn’t expect a huge jump with JA and MR, because Anderson is going to have his own share of problems stemming from his own inexperience on top of lack of practice time. Roll may help spread the floor to open up lanes for other people, but from what we saw from Dragovic last night, it’s not a sure thing that the seniors are going to step up just because they’re seniors. Their biggest advantage is that they know where to go and what to do. Keefe had a big game last night on both ends of the floor due in large part to his experience.
Didn't watch the game
so I am not going to make any comment any than this general observation. I don’t believe it is likely that we will do any more running and gunning or taking shots early in the clock than we usually have because using up clock on offense is a key part of CBH’s overall approach to winning basketball games. I don’t believe that he is completely inflexible, but he has his coaching philosophy.
Bad shooting night does not mean the senior did not step up
ND did not have a great night. But it seemed like he took shots within the offense and when he should. They did not fall. Even leaders have games like that. Most games he would have ended with a higher shooting percentage with the shot selection he had.
Defense has never been his strongest suit…and he was uneven last night.
But I think when we look back at this year we will likely have said that the seniors stepped up.
And, MR injury hurt. He and ND are likely to be the guys we depend on for their outside shot. ND was not hitting and MR was not available.
I think there would have been a “huge” jump with both JA and MR back but I would also say that only gets us to competitive against a real team. We are going to have real issues with our lack of depth and speed at guard against the better teams.
Here is hoping and praying that JA gets and stays healthy, ML settles down, and MR shots the lights out and defends.
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Nov 5, 2009 9:49 AM PST reply actions
ND was not taking shots within the offense
I saw an ND that was chucking up shots like he was doing two years ago. He was soft around the rim and simply careless with the ball. Instead of looking for team-mates down low he was jacking up one ill advised shots after another. He was fairly atrocious.
I didnt get to watch first hand
but is there anything to note about his hustle and defensive effort. I really lose my patience with Nikola when he slacks off on that end of the court, and seemingly lacks intensity. I know that Nikola will throw up a lot of ill advised shots, but it really it really stands out when it appears he’s not giving a 100% on both ends of the court, how was his defense, hustle, and rebounding tonight?
William Doolittle at your service, a.k.a. will do.
Nothing to write about
It was sloppy all around. I am hoping this was a case of him recovering from the stomach virus. Most of his shots were off balance. He was jacking them. In one instance, I believe he totally missed a wide open JK under the rim.
Also, this is worth repeating. He is a senior and he plays in the frontcourt. And yet he had 5 TOs. He needs to get better in a hurry because he looked like the listless ND from two years ago.
I remember one really good play Nikola made defensively
He kind of got into his man’s space and was able to get his hands on the ball. He continued to grapple with the guy and eventually went completely to the floor to get a jump ball. For a big man going to the floor like that is a pretty impressive effort, imho.
That was near the end of the game
I remember that one. I feel like Drago is one of those guys who has to be “on” to be effective, and I don’t mean hitting shots, I mean asserting himself. With him it’s difficult because he’s really hot and cold, so if you tell him to go out there and get aggressive and look for his shot, then you run the risk of what happened last night. If you tell him to sit back and let the game come to him, he might not put up any shots and make himself a non factor. If he could adjust his play to be more like MR and find that happy medium, I think he’d be far more effective overall as a result, and wouldn’t find himself in bad situations that lead to 5 turnovers.
I actually thought ND played very hard
and was working his tail off. That wasn’t the problem IMO. I thought he was actually trying too hard out there to be the senior and the leader. He was pushing it offensively and doing far too much, most of the time not in the flow of the offense. On defense, he was overplaying some passing lanes, trying to make the big play. He did do a good job coming back to the boards though.
I think ND’s shot selection and play on the offensive end was very different that what we saw from him two year ago. Two years ago, it was “I can see the rim, throw up a shot.” Yesterday, I thought it was more, “I need to lead this team.” Same result in the end, but his attitude yesterday at least is a team first one that can be used to have a successful season, both personally and for the team.
Formerly ryebreadraz
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Nov 5, 2009 12:20 PM PST up reply actions
I think we agree
I was more just stating that I think he only has one of two modes. Last night he was “on”. Looking for his shot, trying to be aggressive. It’s plausible, and dare I say even likely, that he felt the need to step up and lead, and this is how it manifested itself. I just hope he realizes he can be effective and lead in more ways than just scoring. I can’t even fault him for all of his shots because some of them were probably against the shot clock (can’t tell because the video feed didn’t have a shot clock last night). I also think that as a senior, he’s going to have to take on some additional playmaking responsibility. He can’t be the black hole anymore, and he will have to be aware of his passing options when he puts the ball on the floor or we’re going to see more 5 turnover games from him.
One thing we’re not talking about a whole lot is defense, and in that regard, I think Drago did a pretty good job on that end. That’s where the leadership needs to come from. I don’t see him ever being a lockdown defensive stopper, but in this team concept, I’ll take an alert and aware Dragovic over some of our other bigs (who had their backs turned as Concordia went in for layups).
I completly disagree about ND
While ND didn’t have a particularly good shooting game, form my vantage point at the game he seemed to be the steadiest player out there (besides JK who still has a tendency to dissapear). ND did a great job helping to break the press and as I discussed in my post, showed a lot more playmaking ability in getting to the free throw line / high post area to either kick it back out or get the ball down low to DG. To be honest, until I saw the stats when I got home, I thought he had a very effective game and he looked like an improved and more mature player than the ND of last year.
thanks Rye
this was very insightful, thanks for putting in this kind of analysis for an exhibition game.
William Doolittle at your service, a.k.a. will do.
This is why
I don’t watch Basketball until the end of Football season.
Either we don’t look good against smaller teams, or we crush smaller teams, neither of which is highly enjoyable.
A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden
Dragovic will get better, no question
As will the communication issues, but I think the free-throw shooting may remain a problem, as is usually the case with young teams. Howland’s squads have overcome that in the past (remember the 2006 Elite Eight game vs. Memphis?), so I’m not too worried. What I am worried about, though, is JA’s health; without him, we’re completely screwed; if he misses extended time, ML will inevitably have to play out of position at PG because, God bless MA-H, he won’t be able to cut it against even the worst Pac-10 teams. Come back soon JA.
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