My thoughts through 5 games

[Hoop Fan]

I think Nic looked a little better last night. He has to score for us. I think Larry or some scout told him he has to be more of a distributor and he has been overdoing it, but the problem is he is not a great passer. Anyway, my takeaway from the past two nights is we are just not strong enough physically. we couldn't dominate Tx Southern physically. Nic and Cannen have noticeably lost alot of weight. I dont know why cannen did that, he was really coming into his own last year. I'm afraid seeing MK in street cloths he lost alot of weight too. hopefully he can still be a force and take up space when he gets back. Ben Moore is just as skinny now as he was the day he got here. Yanick, same thing. we are not physical enough to say the least. If i was LB, i might sacrafice a little X and O work over the next month and send this team to boot camp on the weights. And we have to have MK back. We are really a frail and weak team without his presence at least.

[Treadway21]

Agree Hoopfan. Good news is that Keith looks thicker to me. Nic is the key and he hasn't been as steady as he was last year. Last night he looked like he got his some of his stroke back.

[SMU2007]

It's all about the thickness.

[PonySnob]

It's all about the thickness.

That's what she said


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[hoopmanx]

1) Moreira should have gone to Baylor where they're far more open court. He's an African big, soft and lengthy, but w/good feet. He's like the prototype. You don't use those kids how we're using them. Still, he's been effective enough for us to win. He pretty much played Portis even which was a huge key going in, everyone else sucked, see Nic Moore.

2) Nic Moore finally seems 5'8. He's effortless and mean w/o effort on the defensive end. He hedges off snipers like he has a tumor.

3) I didn't have Martin expectations b/c despite his numbers, I respect Chris Mack and he didn't really want MArtin back. He's a 5th yr kid that his other coaches never really liked as a person ie chemistry.

Now, I love Emelogu and laughed my arse off when people around here touted his shooting ability. He's a bricklayer of the highest order and was at Va Tech too. THat said, he was a very good defender, great rebounder for his position, and slashed and grinded very well. Not much of any of that so far. Color me perplexed.

4) We play a pace that makes no sense given the athletes we have on the floor post MK.

5) Dear Sterling Brown, you are MIA. GReat frosh year, expected a sizable jump offensively, but he doesn't look at the rack from 3, he doesn't drive and no mid range. Glorified garbage man.

6) Losing MK doesn't hurt our stat line as much as it puts the rest of the team of position. Poor Ben Moore. Lengthy kid, developing skill set facing, but locked on the blocks. Even if MK were there, how exactly is Ben scoring 12+ feet from the hole?

7) Keith isn't playing better all over the court, he's just hitting shots and actually playing w/effort. Kudos to him. THe reality is that NIc stinks right now, Brown won't shoot, our personal has changed so we're not inside out right now, and there is nowhere else to turn for buckets. KEith isn't playing great, we just desperately need him to score 12-16 a night, cause what options are there? Beyond that, by year two that's what they expected of the kid.

LB has been nothing short of bad this year. His lineups of kids like Emelogu/Brown/Manuel offend the concept of a jump shot. Moreira leads us back vs Ark, straight to the bench for a few, then gets the TV timeout, and still doesn't come back. Meanwhile, Portis is playing mini-Kevin Garnett and just popping uncontested 12 ft jumpers.

9) Cannen doesn't really like basketball, he's just really tall and coordinated. He has everything you could want to be effective but desire. When you have 2.5 capable bigs, always a bummer when one decides to spend his senior year being a quim

[gostangs]

agree with all of that - and really surprised the most by Cannen - when he is on he is really fun to watch - he just hasn't been on at all this year yet.

[GiddyUp]

Thanks Hoop, good points. I wish they would run a little bit sometimes. Yanick does seem to work better in transition than a half set offense. This offense doesn't work with the personnel.

Cannen typically looks disinterested. Plays with zero energy most of the time.

I do think LB has been outcoached and made some weird decisions so far.

[Sacco]

What's the deal with all the missed layups and putbacks? You can hear the crowd groan when we miss those. Those missed easy points remind me of the Doh years. We've had lots of opportunities under the basket, but they just aren't falling nearly often enough. I'm sure MK will help there.

[GiddyUp]

What's the deal with all the missed layups and putbacks? You can hear the crowd groan when we miss those. Those missed easy points remind me of the Doh years. We've had lots of opportunities under the basket, but they just aren't falling nearly often enough. I'm sure MK will help there.

Certainly seems excessive. Very easy misses so far.

[JasonB]

Watching RM run off of Nic Moore made me wonder how much better of a player he would be now if we didn't have to force him to be the backup point. To me, him and Sterling are the same player right now, except RM is better defensively.

[LA_Mustang]

Watching RM run off of Nic Moore made me wonder how much better of a player he would be now if we didn't have to force him to be the backup point. To me, him and Sterling are the same player right now, except RM is better defensively.

Manuel is nowhere near the offensive player Sterling is. He's struggled early but as we saw last season he can knockdown the open 3. Manuel is a senior and he will not shoot the ball outside of the paint.

[Terry Webster]

Looking forward to seeing what happens with the team as MK comes back. Hopefully he will be able to play on the 17th ahead of the Michigan game.