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Message: [QUOTE="zepfan, post: 2901341, member: 8094"] I was at the game. Observations for whatever they're worth. 1. Gilbert staying healthy is the difference between 7 or 8 wins vs. losses. Plays every aspect of the game well. May be our best player. His defense is relentless and he is a constant weapon on offense. Played under control for the most part - gets a little too one on one minded at times but can really make things happen so must live with some of his mistakes. 2. Vital's passion and grit is much needed on this team. However, he still tries to play beyond his abilities offensively. He does not have a jump shot off the dribble. His form is off and there is little sign that he can hit a pull up jumper very well. He can hit the open set shot 3 pointer. Also, on several occasions he took very bad shots driving to the basket. Hurley tolerated a couple but then ranked him somewhere early in the second half and did not put him back into the game. Good! Despite his grit, he kills us with his bad shot selection. He is just not as good of an offensive player as he'd like to be. He has to control himself or he wont play. 3. Brendon Adams is a shooter and a strong freshman. He has a confident nice-looking stroke and god knows we can use a shooter! Worked hard on defense also. Seems very coachable. He should be very much in the rotation. 4. Smith is a nice player. Liked his D and the manner in which he ran the offense. Has some offensive skills. Can't tell if he can shoot or not. 5. J. Adams didn't start. Played under control and hit 2 threes! Need him to shoot well this year. These 5 guards will be the key to the team this year. Played full court pressure man the whole game. We will go as far as they can take us. All will play. Front court is very weak. Carlton is still soft and can't finish inside (brings the ball down below his waist when he gets the ball 2 feet from the basketball and gets stripped).Shot very poorly from the line. He is still a work in progress. Whalley was active on D put otherwise barely noticed. Cobb shows the best offensive skills and should be good in spurts. Polley looks a little stronger, moves well for his size, hit one 3 but is often invisible. I think he is still a work in progress. Unless Yawke or Diarra (sp) are much better, our 4 and 5 positions are going to be filled by 5 guys in and out, looking for the someone to be having a good game to give more time to. Ball movement looked better at times. Team was noticeably less selfish. Also, I loved that Hurley has the bigs hedging very hard on the screens. They actually chase the ball handler back until the guard can recover. I have always preferred this way of handling screens. They did it very consistently and effectively. With one good post player emerging on this team, our guard play can carry us to a winning season. If we can land one of the top bigs we are recruiting now our team could be right back in the mix next year. [/QUOTE]

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