1. After the Buffalo game, we had some discussion here about playing Dickinson and Diabate together. I'm just not concerned about going forward. In NBA2K I hate playing unless we have at least 4 shooters because of spacing issues, but this isn't NBA2K. John Beilein used to talk about getting his best 5 players on the court and going from there. Everything else those two offer outweigh spacing concerns. Our best stretch came with them on the court together.
2. Adrian Nunez needs to be a 40% three point shooter to be a net average with how mismatched he is on defense. 0 for 3 tonight and now 13 of 63 for his career (20.6%). I get that he lights it up in practice but I'm really over it. Give all those minutes to Frankie and Kobe (Zeb when he’s back, too) and let one of them earn it. Nunez is in year 4 and is what he is at this point. We know what we have in him if we need him later.
3. That being said, I don't think Nunez played at all in the 2nd half. That seemed odd because he was the first guard off the bench in the 1st half and you'd figure he'd at least get some run. But what happened instead? Kobe Bufkin came out of his shell. Bufkin looked passive in the first two games. He had a really nice move to get to the rim followed by a silky corner three two possessions later. I don't know how many minutes Bufkin ended up with but they should probably close to double next game. Edit: He ended up with 17 minutes after playing much of the 2nd half. That sounds about right going forward if he is our 1st guard off the bench.
4. Free Throw shooting should be a strength with this team. Devante Jones (86%) and Eli Brooks (91%) are were elite FT shooters last year. Dickinson (74%) and Johns (80%) are well above average for PFs/Cs. And we know Caleb Houstan can shoot. I know 53% (tonight) and 60% (Buffalo) is ugly but I'm not worried about this being a theme at all. There will be regression to the mean.
5. 19 turnovers against a team from the SWAC is absurd. We only had 10 vs Buffalo so I'm not going to make too much out of it but that was pretty sloppy and everyone contributed to that but T.Will.
6. This opponent: I saw a tweet that said Prairie View A&M is a solid program because they made the tournament in 2019 and are 44-5 in the SWAC since then. Keep that in perspective because the SWAC is just about the worst conference in Division 1 year in and year out. Prairie View would finish towards the bottom of the MAC. But as Josh said in the game thread, we did what we should do against them. The spread was 23.5 and won by 28.
7. Next opponent: Seton Hall will make the tournament this year and provide a tough test for us Tuesday. They are very long and athletic. Transfer Kadary Richmond was 13th in the country in steal rate with Syracuse last year and Ike Obiagu averaged 3 blocks per game. They'll test us. Jared Rhoden was preseason 1st team Big East this year, he missed their 1st game with an ankle injury so I'll be interested to see if he plays tomorrow vs Yale.
2. Adrian Nunez needs to be a 40% three point shooter to be a net average with how mismatched he is on defense. 0 for 3 tonight and now 13 of 63 for his career (20.6%). I get that he lights it up in practice but I'm really over it. Give all those minutes to Frankie and Kobe (Zeb when he’s back, too) and let one of them earn it. Nunez is in year 4 and is what he is at this point. We know what we have in him if we need him later.
3. That being said, I don't think Nunez played at all in the 2nd half. That seemed odd because he was the first guard off the bench in the 1st half and you'd figure he'd at least get some run. But what happened instead? Kobe Bufkin came out of his shell. Bufkin looked passive in the first two games. He had a really nice move to get to the rim followed by a silky corner three two possessions later. I don't know how many minutes Bufkin ended up with but they should probably close to double next game. Edit: He ended up with 17 minutes after playing much of the 2nd half. That sounds about right going forward if he is our 1st guard off the bench.
4. Free Throw shooting should be a strength with this team. Devante Jones (86%) and Eli Brooks (91%) are were elite FT shooters last year. Dickinson (74%) and Johns (80%) are well above average for PFs/Cs. And we know Caleb Houstan can shoot. I know 53% (tonight) and 60% (Buffalo) is ugly but I'm not worried about this being a theme at all. There will be regression to the mean.
5. 19 turnovers against a team from the SWAC is absurd. We only had 10 vs Buffalo so I'm not going to make too much out of it but that was pretty sloppy and everyone contributed to that but T.Will.
6. This opponent: I saw a tweet that said Prairie View A&M is a solid program because they made the tournament in 2019 and are 44-5 in the SWAC since then. Keep that in perspective because the SWAC is just about the worst conference in Division 1 year in and year out. Prairie View would finish towards the bottom of the MAC. But as Josh said in the game thread, we did what we should do against them. The spread was 23.5 and won by 28.
7. Next opponent: Seton Hall will make the tournament this year and provide a tough test for us Tuesday. They are very long and athletic. Transfer Kadary Richmond was 13th in the country in steal rate with Syracuse last year and Ike Obiagu averaged 3 blocks per game. They'll test us. Jared Rhoden was preseason 1st team Big East this year, he missed their 1st game with an ankle injury so I'll be interested to see if he plays tomorrow vs Yale.
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