uneblinst's postgame chatter: vol 16; ed 1 - Lindenwood

SH had a 3/4 length pass to CJ in traffic that would’ve given Matt Rhule a linden sized wood 

Post game presser

If Diop drains that 3 after that monster dunk, we're talking Naismith Award today.

I was listening to Kent on the radio. There was one possession in the 1st half that went something like this, “Great ball movement, great ball movement, great ball movement, LAYUP!”  I have no idea who scored or who was passing, I’m just imagining the ball whipping around the court so fast Kent doesn’t have time to say who has it. 
 

Great job of taking care of business against a lesser opponent. Especially without KT and Garry. 

10 hours ago, Dean Smith said:

Add Keisei and Gary and you’re at a 10 man rotation. I don’t think we’re going to play a 10 man rotation. Add those two and he’s not in the top 8. Minutes should be limited for Hoiberg and Rice. Both of them

are ok players.  We simply have 8 better players then those two and that’s a good thing.

Even with everyone healthy, SH could crack the top 8

Starters:

1. Lawrence

2. Keisei

3. Williams

4. Gary

5.  Mast

Bench:

6. Allick

7.  CJ

8 . Hoiberg

9.  Boogie

10.  Rice

Until my eyes tell me otherwise, I am perfectly comfortable with Sam taking minutes over Boogie.  Sam is small, but a much better athlete than most think (IMO he is FAR quicker than Cale for instance, and he is definitely quicker/faster than Boogie).  Sam also THINKS the game at a very high level, and as long as he is not completely over-sized, he is a very good defender and creates havoc on that end.  I could even see him occasionally getting some of JL's minutes in a pinch, because Sam is probably more of a natural PG than anyone on the team right now. 

Our injury report last night officially was

Lloyd

Gary

Ulis

Keita

Tominaga

If I would have told you 7-8 months ago we would go into game 1 with that injury report, you would have responded “here we go again… who’d we lose to?”

Credit to Fred for not just recruiting depth, but having 10-12 serviceable players ready to go!  It hasn’t always been easy for him here and the first 3 years I was pretty hard on him.  However, he’s got a product this year that’s going to draw some eyes.

11 hours ago, cornfed24-7 said:

And a big old pffft to the notion that if Hoiberg has to play meaningful minutes we're in trouble. 

Hoiberg was *quite literally* the best player on the court yesterday. That won't be true very night, but he can absolutely play a big role at this level.

There was a ton to like about that game. 

1. One of the craziest things was that it wasn't like "talent" was the difference in that game. Lindenwood played maybe one of the more selfish, lazy, uninspired basketball games I've ever seen. We gapped that game in the first half because we played harder, took better shots, chased rebounds, played team defense, and ran. Then of course, talent took over when it needed to. Just blows my mind there's D1 coaches out there who allow that type of product. 

2. "Sam Hoiberg won't play like that all year, once we go up against the likes of "Maryland" he'll settle back down."

"Wait? What's that? He did WHAT against Maryland the last time we played them?"

3. I'm kind of interested to see a line-up of:
              1. Boogie (knowing he needs to be a distributor not a scorer)

              2. Tominaga 

              3. Williams

              4. Allick/Gary

              5. Mast

4. Our bigs: I don't know how he'll look against B1G competition, but Mast seemed "as advertised." Different in way than Walker, but alike in many other ways. On Josiah Allick's dunk, he was the last guy behind the ball and was the first guy to the rim. Something we have been missing for A LONG TIME. Ernie Ziegler doesn't get a lot of shoutouts here on this board, but it is very clear what he is teaching his bigs, and he's teaching it well. I like the High-Low additions we are clearly going to focus a little with Mast and Allick. Diop does some stuff, guys... Exciting and bright future for that young man. I loved how all of our bigs chased rebounds and were super physical, clearly a point of emphasis. 

5. Rough night for these guys: Eli Rice, Jamarques Lawrence, Our team at the free throw line. Rice looked like a freshman. JL looked like he wasn't 100% sure what his role is or will be. Gotta shoot better than 65% from the stripe. 

6. I was impressed with how well our offense seemed to flow this early, with this many newcomers. Clear that the staff cohesiveness and them settling on a system is paying major dividends. Can't wait to see us operating even more decisively and explosively. 

7. Our defense.... man that's gonna cause some people some frustration if they aren't able to hit baseline and midrange jumpers. Dang we fly around as a unit and rotate well. 

In the sober light of the next day ...

There was lots of good last night, to be sure. A whole lot of good. Some great. That's pretty well been presented upthread already.

So, a few of the negatives I saw:

Rienk is not a very good rebounder in traffic. He had trouble finding the ball and hanging onto it when he was in there fighting for a board. And he's not getting quite as vertical as I would have hoped. I'm going to ratchet down my rebounding expectations for him for the season. Not trying to diminish the things he did well, of which there were many.

Brice struggled finding his role on offense. He's kind of a streaky shooter. Second half, I think he was really trying to assert himself offensively in the first five minutes and I do believe he took our first four shots of the second half and only connected on one of them. They were running that side weave action and he declined to pass a couple straight possessions and tried to go iso on the defense to not very good effect. He needs to let the game come to him. There's a lot of season to go.

Eli getting that 3-pointer swatted should be a wake-up call to him. This ain't intramurals, baby. This isn't high school or junior college. This is D1 basketball, and every team we play is going to have better athletes, night in and night out, than he faced in high school. So, he better learn what an open shot looks like if he's going to get zero elevation on his jumper combined with that low release.

Sixty-six percent from the freethrow line isn't gonna cut it. At one point, we were 18 of 24 for 75%. We finished 19 of 29 for 66%.

Beyond that, man, we saw some really good basketball last night. Some of those runouts would not have been runouts in past years. If you saw some of the drills they were running at the open house, you could see those drills put to practical effect last night: Heads up, looking down the floor, finding guys out in front, getting some easy buckets. One pass sailed and we failed to convert, but we really put pressure on their transition D.

I would say this is a team that checks a lot of boxes. Clearly the most competitive roster we've had under Hoiberg. Not saying they WILL make the dance, but I certainly think they COULD.

1 hour ago, kldm64 said:

Heck, even MIchigan State lost at home to open the season.  The schedule is set up for this team to get a lot of wins if they can just make that happen.

I feel like Michigan State does this every year then everyone forgets they do this every year and they still end up in the Elite 8. 

21 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

Rienk is not a very good rebounder in traffic. He had trouble finding the ball and hanging onto it when he was in there fighting for a board. And he's not getting quite as vertical as I would have hoped. I'm going to ratchet down my rebounding expectations for him for the season. Not trying to diminish the things he did well, of which there were many.

Yep. Not the athlete Walker was nor does he have his wingspan. He caught a pass that I believe Walker would have flushed on a guys head, and as soon as he went up I was like, "ope, not that kind of athlete haha." But he also knocks down beautiful top of the key threes, has crafty post moves, is super physical, and always has his head up to pass and screen. 

The guy who didn't impress me much with his rebounding instincts was Diop. Didn't seem to know when to time his jump to high point stuff while also boxing out. Also didn't seem to have great instincts on blocking shots - there were some pretty basic ones I would have hoped he would have at least contested, but he stayed grounded. Got one good block. Stuff to work on, I suppose. 

8 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

I feel like Michigan State does this every year then everyone forgets they do this every year and they still end up in the Elite 8. 

MSU won't be good this year. They weren't even that good last year but Hauser got them out of a lot of jams. With him gone, they're pretty pedestrian. 

In regards to the game last night, Allick impressed me the most. Great athleticism and nose for the ball. That's a big man. 

57 minutes ago, NUdiehard said:

 

Even with everyone healthy, SH could crack the top 8

 

Starters:

1. Lawrence

2. Keisei

3. Williams

4. Gary

5.  Mast

 

Bench:

6. Allick

7.  CJ

8 . Hoiberg

9.  Boogie

10.  Rice

 

Until my eyes tell me otherwise, I am perfectly comfortable with Sam taking minutes over Boogie.  Sam is small, but a much better athlete than most think (IMO he is FAR quicker than Cale for instance, and he is definitely quicker/faster than Boogie).  Sam also THINKS the game at a very high level, and as long as he is not completely over-sized, he is a very good defender and creates havoc on that end.  I could even see him occasionally getting some of JL's minutes in a pinch, because Sam is probably more of a natural PG than anyone on the team right now. 

One big disagreement.   Josiah starts at the 4!

I think we will see Gary swing between the 4 & 3 positions.  CJ will swing between the 2 & 3.  If Blaise ever makes it back, he and Keisei may be the only two players married to their positions/roles.

5 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

One big disagreement.   Josiah starts at the 4!

 

I think we will see Gary swing between the 4 & 3 positions.  CJ will swing between the 2 & 3.  If Blaise ever makes it back, he and Keisei may be the only two players married to their positions/roles.

I had the same thought yesterday. When Gary is back, he'll play the minutes/role rice was getting, and could eat some of Brices minutes. 

Just now, hhcmatt said:

It's sort of funny to me how people seem to be down a bit on Boogie. I saw a guy who passes like he knows where everyone is supposed to be on offense, was able to hit our bigs for easy buckets, and at least one Sam Griesel backdown on a smaller defender.

I was pretty impressed by him also. Only had 3 shots and looked to get his teammates involved pretty often. 

I've been mulling over the question: "When Keisei returns, who sits?"

Right now, I'm leaning towards ...

PG Lawrence

SG  Tominaga

SG Wilcher

PF  Allick

PF Mast

CJ scored a very quiet and very efficient 13 points last night with zero turnovers. What I was picking up about his confidence level and just overall comfort with his role beginning with the Spain trip was confirmed by what I saw last night. Right now, I start him over Brice. Brice gives you better length and athleticism, but CJ seems to understand what we're trying to do and has accepted his role within that scheme. Brice did fine off the bench for Charlotte. That might be where he's comfortable.

And, right now, I think Allick is better than the best of what I saw from Juwan Gary last year. He has a high-end motor. He's making all the hustle plays. I don't see what Gary brings to the table that you don't get with Allick. Juwan is a tremendous athlete and competitor. He gets offensive rebounds, but a lot of the time those were off his own misses. It just seems like Allick is a better *basketball* player. That's just my take.

10 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

One big disagreement.   Josiah starts at the 4!

 

I think we will see Gary swing between the 4 & 3 positions.  CJ will swing between the 2 & 3.  If Blaise ever makes it back, he and Keisei may be the only two players married to their positions/roles.

We don't have enough frontcourt depth to play Gary at the 3 unless you want to consider Rice or Williams as 4s when they're playing with Gary and a big. I would not.  That could change if or when Blaise comes back but a lineup that's 2 guards + Blaise, Gary, and Mast/Allick seems suboptimal to me in terms of spacing.

23 minutes ago, OmahaHusker said:

 

MSU won't be good this year. They weren't even that good last year but Hauser got them out of a lot of jams. With him gone, they're pretty pedestrian. 

 

Did I missed the /s ? If not, 

7 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

It's sort of funny to me how people seem to be down a bit on Boogie. I saw a guy who passes like he knows where everyone is supposed to be on offense, was able to hit our bigs for easy buckets, and at least one Sam Griesel backdown on a smaller defender.

Who's "down" on Boogie? I think the criticisms of him are pretty fair and accurate - ball stops with him, puts the ball on the floor for no reason (a major no-no and possession killer in this offense), doesn't seem to be a willing to make "no-thought, easy, simple passes" - every pass has to be "the pass," that leads to a bucket. But those are all super correctable things that can easily be addressed. 

He did a ton of good stuff - he's our best ball screen passer and our best passer in push-it offensive transition. I also saw the stuff you saw, he can do some of the Sam Griesel stuff in the pinch-post. Clearly has incredible full-court vision. I like him a lot! Can't wait to see him out there with KT on the floor spacing it. 

To me, Sam Hoiberg's floor is 'what do we do if Keisei doesn't have it' which is going to happen some games.

Also I was so geeked on his 3pt makes that I physically got out of my seat and fired Cam Mack arrows into the air both times.

18 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

It's sort of funny to me how people seem to be down a bit on Boogie. I saw a guy who passes like he knows where everyone is supposed to be on offense, was able to hit our bigs for easy buckets, and at least one Sam Griesel backdown on a smaller defender.

Agreed. Not sure what others were seeing. I thought he looked like we added a good  piece late in the process.