Good report, thanks.
Cal Tech is horrible. A couple guys might get minutes on a DII squad. The rest looked like average HS ballers at best. But those mighty Cal Tech Beavers can solve a quadratic equation in the blink of an eye!
Coach Acker has a nice presence on the sideline, always prowling and barks some but exudes good confidence. Vinovich was a ref. Now onto the game.
Team Defense: solid. And when anyone blew an assignment being lazy, Acker pulled em. Called timeouts just to pull a guy. Didn't get into much of anything with players, some pleading here and there. Sideline demeanor was good.
Team Offense: ball movement very good. Had a different feel to it. The ball almost never stopped, lots of quick decisive passing in the perimeter game, dribble drives and kicks, pretty good ballhandling by the guards.
Team Rebounding: Dominated as they should have. The 4 bigs all got time (Johnson, DMX, Richardson, Nagy). All were active and on the ball. Guards did a decent job rebounding. Can't wait to see us vs a solid opponent and see how we do boxing out opposing guards for defensive rebounds.
3 pt shooting: Awful. Reminded me of last year. Feels like we will be better they just missed a lot of open 3's. Best guess we shoot decently as a team from deep but its not a strength. Biggest weakness tonight.
FT Shooting: ok. DMX looks to have a good stroke for a big.
What I liked is the team stayed focused for about 37 minutes, took a break here and there and Acker yanked guys who took a quick nap. Kinda hard to stay focused against such a low level opponent and up over 60 points but they pretty much did.
Surprises
Chris Richardson: 7-1 and well coordinated, very engaged and got plenty of offensive boards and putbacks. If he can hone interior defensive footwork and block timing he could be a huge rim protector, just has that look. 18 pts 12 boards against guys 4-8 inches smaller is still good for a young raw talent. I can see him having some decent games against like competition.
DMX: Really like his game and hustle. Lets see how he does against guys his size. Made 1-2 from deep. Could be a nice stretch 4 type. Seems like a dynamic kind of player potentially.
Nagy: kid is tough. Has an edge. Some skills inside scoring. If he can add 20 lbs of muscle he'll be a bully and our rivals will hate him.
Kam Martin: wow against the little boys he owned em on drives to the hoop. He'll get muscled against bigger guards a bit but he's got some size himself and really explosive first step speed and determination. Plays 'd' so he'll get minutes.
Expected
Askew and Wainwright are good, about what I expected, both need to hit 3's consistently and they'll be solid.
Johnson let the other bigs get it going, he'll be a solid force in the BW.
Cam Denson looks promising, rugged more like a combo forward playing guard he and Ramel Lloyd will bully some smaller guards.
Ramel has some higher level potential than anyone probably. Feels like he's scratching the surface and if we can keep him around could be really good. Quick hands, good hops, had a nice steal and dunk of the game. Is both smooth and sturdy if that makes sense.
Hart and Lewis got some time and looked fine. Walkon Zack Buley got some late minutes and tried to get some points but not yet. Bench rooting for him. No one else played, in street clothes.
Feels like the team has the talent to compete in the top half of the BW. Focus on the defense, be at least decent from 3, and that is the formula.
Team tried to run in transition but still working out some kinks. Not bad, just not connected very well. Ran a really nice half court offense.
Message Thread
« Back to index