Frontcourt

[PonyKris89]

SMU Front court stats:

25-30 FG 83%
13-17 FT
18 rebounds
6 blocks
1 turnover

Wow! Can't wait for Gonzaga game.

[Pony Fan]

KF got better as the game progressed. You could see his confidence building. He is going to be fine.

Absolutely he will be fine. He's a kid that needs a little time to simmer down and then he settles into his game. I want to see him commit more; there were a few times he thought about a shot or a pass and hesitated and that threw him off, but he'll keep working through that and when it clicks, watch out!

You could see Larry telling Keith several times to calm down. He gets too excited wanting to do too much.

[StallionsModelT]

The most encouraging things from last night:

1) Ben Moore is an absolute beast.

2) Yanick clearly is showing that his performance in international play wasn't a fluke. He looks so much better than at any point last season.

3) Justin Martin is going to be a great "glue" guy for us. Kid can score, defend, facilitate, etc. He's going to be a major factor.



The only slightly negative vibe I got the entire night was thinking about what this thing would look like with Emmanuel Mudiay. That said, I think we are a serious national contender without him.

[AustinPerson]

Ben Moore is the next Tim Mason.

[hoopmanx]

Emelogu/Martin>> Shawne/Nick

Soph Ben>>> Soph Markus

[StallionsModelT]

Emelogu/Martin>> Shawne/Nick

Soph Ben>>> Soph Markus

Hoop...when we get Markus back how do you think Larry and the staff will handle rotations?

[SMU 86]

Emelogu/Martin>> Shawne/Nick

Soph Ben>>> Soph Markus

Hoop...when we get Markus back how do you think Larry and the staff will handle rotations?

I will just be glad to get MK back. Near the latter part of the second half Yannick and Cannen had 4 fouls and Ben Moore had 3. And that was against a Lamar team that was not very good.

[sjackson]

Ben Moore is the next Tim Mason.

Man, that sure is a name from the past...I loved watching Big Mason get after it on the court.

[ojaipony]

Emelogu/Martin>> Shawne/Nick

Soph Ben>>> Soph Markus

I'm definitely feeling JMart as an upgrade. Not sure about BenE yet. The jury is out, but he's only been in the system for, what, a couple months tops and didn't even know he'd play this year until very recently. I hope his game improves over the course of the season which I think it will. I'm REALLY excited about JMart. We are very experienced this year, especially in the front court, which is good for this year.

[GiddyUp]

Emelogu/Martin>> Shawne/Nick

Soph Ben>>> Soph Markus

Indeed, ben and justin are scoring threats. Will be nice to have and seem more versatile

[JasonB]

Emelogu/Martin>> Shawne/Nick

Soph Ben>>> Soph Markus

I agree, that is what I was looking for last night.

Emelogu/Martin >> Shawn/NR
YM is at least a wash with MK. So that is an even trade right now.

That means we would be better than last year, but I think Ben Moore is so much better than he was last year that this team could jump forward.

Still concerned about rebounding. We got outrebounded by Lamar. Lots of second chance points. What I don't know without watching tape is if we were getting beat off the dribble, had to help, and left the rebound open on the backside, or if we weren't blocking out or doing the dirty stuff.

[LA_Mustang]

Still concerned about rebounding. We got outrebounded by Lamar. Lots of second chance points. What I don't know without watching tape is if we were getting beat off the dribble, had to help, and left the rebound open on the backside, or if we weren't blocking out or doing the dirty stuff.

We didn't get outrebounded by Lamar. It was 38-35 SMU, and a majority of their rebounds were on the offensive end because they were throwing up bricks which resulted in many long rebounds. Also, you posted last night that Yanick is not a very good rebounder, which floored me. He averaged over 8 boards a game in the World Cup this summer. Last night I can't remember a time when he missed on a rebound he should've had.

[JasonB]

Still concerned about rebounding. We got outrebounded by Lamar. Lots of second chance points. What I don't know without watching tape is if we were getting beat off the dribble, had to help, and left the rebound open on the backside, or if we weren't blocking out or doing the dirty stuff.

We didn't get outrebounded by Lamar. It was 38-35 SMU, and a majority of their rebounds were on the offensive end because they were throwing up bricks which resulted in many long rebounds. Also, you posted last night that Yanick is not a very good rebounder, which floored me. He averaged over 8 boards a game in the World Cup this summer. Last night I can't remember a time when he missed on a rebound he should've had.

Then we caught up at the end. I was tracking it for most of the game. We were behind in rebounding for most of the night. They were throwing up bricks, and I was really happy with our FG defense, but those second chance rebounds weren't flying out to the arc. They were much closer.

Again, I am not sure if we were missing blockouts, or if we were simply helping and left a guy. But where Ben is incredible with his ball control in tight space, YM struggles with that a little bit. And when there was a 50-50, I saw BM come away with those a lot (and Sterling Brown has that knack as well). I didn't really see that with YM.

last year we were 8th in FG defence and 36th in Rebound Margin, so the strong D didn't yield a lot of second chance points. If we give up the second chance opportunities against the Zags that we did last night, it is going to be a real challenge to win that game on the road barring an exceptional offensive performance.

[LA_Mustang]

JasonB,
Yanick does often go for the block if someone gets the ball in the paint and that sometimes will put him in a bad position for getting the rebound. That's when Ben, MK, Cannen, whomever need to slide over for the helpside rebound. Several times I noticed Ben doing that Friday night. And you're right about the Zags, we have to clean things up a lot to have a chance in that game.

[LA_Mustang]

BTW, I just looked and Lamar had 20 offensive rebounds! Granted when you shoot 30% from the field you're going to have a lot of chances for offensive rebounds but that is a high number, especially for a short team like Lamar.