Anyone have a game recap?

[joober jones]

Does Tolksdorf remind anyone else of Ruslan Inyatkin? Big 4 guy who can hit the occasional outside shot.

 

[AfgHusky15]

This wasn't a good game for our guys by any stretch. Lowell was nowhere near as good as AIC yet UM-L had a lead after the 8 minute timeout in the first half. There wasn't much drive and dish to the offense, plenty of drive and shoot though. Everybody bombed 3's at will. Our guards were beat way too often off the dribble by guys they should have been able to handle. The team pulled away when Omar made a few threes and the team used their athleticism to run a bit.

AIC was picked to finish 15th out of 16 teams in their conference, Lowell was picked to finish 2nd in preseason poll (both are in the same conference). Lowell is a better team than AIC, Uconn stepped up their game against Lowell making them seem worse than AIC, when in reality they should be much better. This a very good confidence booster (well as much as can be with a preseason game against D2 competition). Overall as a team they played much better, still had a slow start but started to heat up as the first half came to a close.

Some quick player observations:

Boat: Will be the leader of the team on the court. Had an ok game against AIC, had a better game today, but still can do better and I expect him to do better. He'll prob be the leading scorer on the team during the season.

Bazz: Still seems a bit slower. I also think he is starting to transition from a shoot first guard to a pass first guard, which I think in the long term will help the team. We have scorers on the team (Boat, Omar, Daniels + contributors: Giffey, RJ, TO), his best asset will be controlling tempo and finding open guys while knocking down the open three, he passed on a few that I thought he should have taken, but it'll take time with him recovering and his changing game.

Omar: Simply a scorer. Only played 8 min in the 1st half (2 quick fouls) yet still managed 20+ tonight, knocking down 5 of 6. I'm excited to see him play against D1 competition, before I get ahead of myself in assessing his game... I also do not think he'll be a one and done. To me he's more of a 2-3 year player. NBA draft is not all about how well you score in college, its about how well experts think you'll score against bigger, taller, faster, smarter basketball players (nba players), two different levels, its why much of the draft is about physical traits; height and athleticism.

RJ: Once again love what he brings. RJ was RJ tonight. I was surprised and happy he got 5ast today, I know its against D2 competition but ball movement overall in the backcourt has been great so far.


Front Court:

TO: Was solid. Biggest strength is his passing abilities, should go well with our guards ability to knock down shots. I like his growing assertiveness on the court. Still is limited physically but he'll be asked to do a lot with Nolan in the early stages of developing into a college level big man, and Enosch being...well he's still developing too.

Nolan: Not much of a difference from last game. Great at picking up fouls...I just wish he was drawing them

NG: Loved that he was looking more for his own shot. Looks to me like he'll be a real contributor on the scoring end as well this year (b/w 8-10 range), we'll see how he fares against D1 competition, but one thing is for sure, he'll always give 110% on the floor.

Enosch: We are going to need his size. Didn't turn heads with his play (except for his lone points, the put back dunk). Game will be similar to okwando in terms of what he brings, except he's not as physically gifted but he has better passing skills; higher IQ

Leon: Only made 1 shot out of 5, but liked that he was confident enough to take those shots. Hearing he's a good shooter. Its a good sign that as a freshman he's not afraid to pull the trigger. As long as he stays confident, the laws of probability will work itself out in his favor.

DD: Played better then against AIC, was a beast on the boards. We are gonna need that production against D1 competition ( he obviously won't get 14 a night but would love to see him pull down 8 during the season). He may end up being the leading rebounder on the team. Starting to show off the skill set we expected to see as a highly touted freshman. I expect him to continually improve through the course of the year.


Overall:

After the AIC game I thought we would get run over by Mich State, however this game gives me hope that we will be competitive, and if we improve as much as we did from AIC to Lowell when we play State, who knows we may end up shocking the world. Pumped for Friday! Lets go!

 

[mauconnfan]

Thanks everyone for their observations.....

AfgHusky agree with so many of your spot on!!

One observation I have from game 1 and it means very little now, Mr Nolan is pressing as a freshman and it would've been nice for him to take the redshirt as DM siad and get stronger. I think there's a ton of potential in his game and hope he gets some confidence and finds his place because he's a good spot up 12-15 foot shooter!! Could use 5-10 solid minutes from another 6'9" kid and unfortunately his number will be called!! Hope he improves because he seems like a likable kid............

 

[jleves]

BTW, Omar Calhoun may be good enough to be one-and-done. I sure hope not though.

If you look at the history, Omar will be here for 26 years. Duh!

 

[Chief00]

They played their best when Boat and Evans were in together, in terms of energy.
Calhoun is looking more like a dead eye shooter. He is a scorer who confidently wants the ball. Good to see his parents at the game.
Looking at the box score vs. the game - I was shocked by Daniels numbers - they were quiet. Evans had modest numbers but impacted the game.
At any rate, I hope Daniels continues to improve - we need him.

Another solid coaching job by Coach Ollie. Good for him.

 

[hungry husky]

Today was really encouraging. However, I think we're about to be humbled next Friday. The guards are a real strength of this team and we definitely have one of the 3 best backcourts in the league. The lack of size is really going to be conspicuous against high-major teams. To go along with everyone else on the yard, this team is going have to score a lotta points to be competitive against the fighting Izzos.

 

[Chief00]

Who were those Boston area recruits at the game?

 

[prankster]

Player Observations:

Omar - high BBIQ and a sweat shot. Knew to throw up a shot when fouled to get to the line. He reminds me of a more athletic Lawrence Moten. Moton's J was sort of a set shot that he released early on his way up. Omar has a similar quck release where he shoots it at the beginning of his jump. Very smooth release and deadly. He really filled it in the 2nd half.

Boat is electric. He and Bazz to their share of bad early in the shot clock 3s, but RB is a jet who scores by creating space in the half-court and in transition. He had a couple nice steals and transition dunks.

Tyler had some good moments. A couple smooths Js and one nice post move where he faked the defender in the air and did a nice step under move for an and-1. Unfortunately that was the only nice post move I remember seeing all game.

Daniels had an effective quiet game. He still needs to improve his handle, strength and consistency with his J. Did seem to have a knack for the boards pulling down a bunch of them.

That's "sweat sock", not 'sweat shot".

 

[Huskies4ever]

Thanks everyone for their observations.....

AfgHusky agree with so many of your spot on!!

One observation I have from game 1 and it means very little now, Mr Nolan is pressing as a freshman and it would've been nice for him to take the redshirt as DM siad and get stronger. I think there's a ton of potential in his game and hope he gets some confidence and finds his place because he's a good spot up 12-15 foot shooter!! Could use 5-10 solid minutes from another 6'9" kid and unfortunately his number will be called!! Hope he improves because he seems like a likable kid............

Maybe this is why KO was clapping after he picked up those 2 quickies? Encouragement.

By the way, I think I like your avatar better, but I would take either one of them