- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
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- 5,037
Olander, as always had his motor on full throttle. The kid is a worker. He showed that nice touch on a couple Js. One in particular that I remember was when AIC left him completely open at the top of the key. He immediately saw the opening, took a couple quick dribbles and drained a sweet J from the foul line. Like Roscoe, he's very active around the offense glass, but doesn't have the length. He looks a lot stronger though and should be able to out-muscle some weaker 4s.
Drummond is a man-child, though he showed the same thing I saw when I watched him play this summer during one of the AAU or some type of event. He hasn't learned to control his body when he's approaching the rim and tends to throw up some ugly stuff that has little chance of going in. The staff needs to teach him to change speeds when approaching the basket and even stop and gather when needed. There was a play in particular that one of his teammates threw the ball directly toward the basket over his head as he ran right up the middle of the paint. He caught the ball and flung it at the vicinity of the rim. It would have been better if he caught the ball, stopped, gathered and dunked. Yeah, he probably would have been fouled, which poses a whole other problem, but it's better that he gets himself under control and gets some And-1s than to throw up shots that have no chance of going in. I'm not saying he should go to a complete stop all the time, but he needs to watch some tape of Emeka, who although looked mechanical at times, was very efficient around the rim and was a good finisher by the time he left UConn. AD is a much better athlete and will eventually learn to make some spectacular plays, but for now he needs to learn to finish off plays. Gathering and Dunking is a good place to start. Most defenders are not going to be able to stop him once he's in dunking distance of the rim. His box score line is a bit deceiving since had a lot of wide open dunks late in the second half after missing a lot of first half and early second half shots.
Alex looked great. My major issue with him was similar to what I described above. Last season he would take a lot of shots while moving at strange angles to the rim. Last night he showed much better body position, square the basket, and delivered a bunch of nice close-range and mid-range shots. I think I heard in the post game report that he had some very efficient stats. He was very active on the glass on both ends of the floor, though AIC was grossly over-matched. I expect Alex to have a monster year, especially playing next to AD who's going to get a lot of attention.
There was a brief Wolf citing. He looks to be in much better shape than what we saw last season. Didn't get enough of a look to draw any conclusions. I thought he moved much quicker in the clips I saw of him back in Germany. Maybe the sped up the film.
He's going to be a work in progress. Bradley is still in a cast and is obviously many weeks away from being able to play. We seem to have plenty of depth with Alex, Andre, Olander and Roscoe manning the 4 & 5. It would be nice if one of the big fellas could eventually spell the primary rotation guys who are on the bench catching their breath or in foul trouble.
All in all it was a forgettable game. Nice to finally see some action. Hopefully Ryan's situation can be cleared up soon so that JC can get his primary player rotations in order and the team playing at the most instinctive and optimal level. I keep hearing some say that it's not a big deal that this player or that one miss some early games, but IMO they are very important for the for mentioned reason. I want to see Bazz and Boat playing the 1 at a high level, allowing Lamb to do what he does best from the 2G or 3. I hope they can clear this up by the Columbia game. They only have 4 real games before they're off to the Bahamas. I'd hate to see that they have to leave Ryan behind or throw him out there without a few more-manageable games under his belt.
Drummond is a man-child, though he showed the same thing I saw when I watched him play this summer during one of the AAU or some type of event. He hasn't learned to control his body when he's approaching the rim and tends to throw up some ugly stuff that has little chance of going in. The staff needs to teach him to change speeds when approaching the basket and even stop and gather when needed. There was a play in particular that one of his teammates threw the ball directly toward the basket over his head as he ran right up the middle of the paint. He caught the ball and flung it at the vicinity of the rim. It would have been better if he caught the ball, stopped, gathered and dunked. Yeah, he probably would have been fouled, which poses a whole other problem, but it's better that he gets himself under control and gets some And-1s than to throw up shots that have no chance of going in. I'm not saying he should go to a complete stop all the time, but he needs to watch some tape of Emeka, who although looked mechanical at times, was very efficient around the rim and was a good finisher by the time he left UConn. AD is a much better athlete and will eventually learn to make some spectacular plays, but for now he needs to learn to finish off plays. Gathering and Dunking is a good place to start. Most defenders are not going to be able to stop him once he's in dunking distance of the rim. His box score line is a bit deceiving since had a lot of wide open dunks late in the second half after missing a lot of first half and early second half shots.
Alex looked great. My major issue with him was similar to what I described above. Last season he would take a lot of shots while moving at strange angles to the rim. Last night he showed much better body position, square the basket, and delivered a bunch of nice close-range and mid-range shots. I think I heard in the post game report that he had some very efficient stats. He was very active on the glass on both ends of the floor, though AIC was grossly over-matched. I expect Alex to have a monster year, especially playing next to AD who's going to get a lot of attention.
There was a brief Wolf citing. He looks to be in much better shape than what we saw last season. Didn't get enough of a look to draw any conclusions. I thought he moved much quicker in the clips I saw of him back in Germany. Maybe the sped up the film.
He's going to be a work in progress. Bradley is still in a cast and is obviously many weeks away from being able to play. We seem to have plenty of depth with Alex, Andre, Olander and Roscoe manning the 4 & 5. It would be nice if one of the big fellas could eventually spell the primary rotation guys who are on the bench catching their breath or in foul trouble.All in all it was a forgettable game. Nice to finally see some action. Hopefully Ryan's situation can be cleared up soon so that JC can get his primary player rotations in order and the team playing at the most instinctive and optimal level. I keep hearing some say that it's not a big deal that this player or that one miss some early games, but IMO they are very important for the for mentioned reason. I want to see Bazz and Boat playing the 1 at a high level, allowing Lamb to do what he does best from the 2G or 3. I hope they can clear this up by the Columbia game. They only have 4 real games before they're off to the Bahamas. I'd hate to see that they have to leave Ryan behind or throw him out there without a few more-manageable games under his belt.