On a side note, the over in this game was easy $$. At least I have that going for me. : )
Charleston 90
SIU 80
Final
Elliott leads SIU with 23 points
Well, this was a good test. Didn't shoot well enough to win. Freshman showed flashes but struggled a bit, as expected. Game certainly changed when Massey went down with his 4th foul. Definitely some room for growth, but there's a lot to like with this group.
--Insert something witty here--
5-for-21 from 3 and -11 on the boards. Surprised it stayed that close.
I posted a few days ago defensive matchups against quality bigs was a concern with this group and it was today (though Charleston’s big is one of the best they’ll see). None of the bigs could play solid D without fouling and that, along with the poor 3-point shooting, spelled doom.
Did they just leave Massey on the bench once he got 4? If so, weird.
I was chatting with another alum on Facebook pre-game and I predicted we'd lose 89-81. Missed it by just two points there. 😉
We're gonna see a LOT of games like this - plenty of scoring on transition buckets and a quicker tempo than SIU's seen in decades, but it'll come at a cost in giving up a lot more points than we're used to as well, since that's been the Nagy style of coaching.
We're gonna take our lumps early, no doubt... Nagy should play a variety of linepus here early in the season, just to see what we've got. I'm OK with hard-fought losses as long as we're figuring out what roles all the new kids can provide. Just get this team ready in time for conference play and go from there.
I think a team grows more from a good opponent like this than a North Park. Saw some things I liked.
Outside shooting was sad though except for Elliot, Dibba, Massey and Sykes.
Davis, Hensley, and Steffe 3 - 16.
They also killed us on the boards 2nd half 21 - 10.
Surprised we didn't see Massey in the last four minutes. He might have gotten some offensive boards when we went so cold at the end there.
Nagy sounded surprised on the postgame at how poor our defense was...their big guy dominated our guys. They hit some tough shots from outside too. You have to hope they can figure some things out there to help our big guys out. It appears Moreno looked incredibly slow, so I'm not counting on him much this year, at least early on. All the other big guys are a bit undersized (which led to a lot of the fouling).
One big positive...we didn't turn it over a ton this game.
Tough matchup with the way the game was called. We will have a tough time against really good conference players of the year bigs when games are called this tight in the post. I think Massey could have handled their center better than Hensley and Aligbe if he had been able to stay in the game. 2 of his 4 fouls were pretty weak calls (Antonio Petty is the worst ref in college basketball and seems to do a lot of our games). Aligbe will get better as the season progresses and should be really good by the end of the year. Wish we had played these guys in February.
Other observations - Elliott is as good as advertised. I'm not worried about him handling the point. Sykes is a rebounding machine. I'm surprised he didn't play more in the 2nd half. We will win a lot of rebounding battles when Massey and Sykes play more minutes. Mayo had a tough game. I expect him to bounce back. Dibba will score a lot of points on drives and shoot a lot of free throws. He had 14 points and no turnovers. Davis has to hit some of his outside shots. He got to the line a lot, but killed us with 3 point misses. He will recover and continue to be one of our best players. Steffe got to sped up. We also need him to hit 3's, he missed 3 wide open 3's! Massey will be a stud. Hensley needs to stay at the 4 when we play talented big post players like tonight. He was forced to play too much 5 tonight because of foul trouble. He will be a big asset at the 4.
This team is crazy athletic and will get better as the season progresses. We will shoot better from 3 in other games. We played a really good team today that played as well as they could play. I'm very optimistic about this year.
A few observations:
All the foul calls kept us from seeing how our usual line-up will play together.
Some of our problems are fixable, like moving better on offense and not getting out of position on defense. The shooting, not so much. We seemed to be open and usually in rhythm, so let's hope it's just first game jitters. Steffe does have a history of being a shooter, so he might just have to find his stroke or confidence.
No Sharp or Bey. Guess we will see them in the next game and see if they have a chance of contributing this year.
I think this team has a lot of weapons and will get quite a bit better as the season progresses.
I don't think Moreno is hopeless. He was in the right place when he could get there and has good hands. Really needs to lose weight and have better conditioning. Not sure if he can get there by the end of the season or even by next year, as it will take a lot of hard work. I've seen guys with his build add muscle and lose weight, and become pretty solid contributors. But he has to want it.
I forgot to listen to the postgame. Anything else notable in the interview?Nagy sounded surprised on the postgame at how poor our defense was...their big guy dominated our guys. They hit some tough shots from outside too. You have to hope they can figure some things out there to help our big guys out. It appears Moreno looked incredibly slow, so I'm not counting on him much this year, at least early on. All the other big guys are a bit undersized (which led to a lot of the fouling).
One big positive...we didn't turn it over a ton this game.
I forgot to listen to the postgame. Anything else notable in the interview?Nagy sounded surprised on the postgame at how poor our defense was...their big guy dominated our guys. They hit some tough shots from outside too. You have to hope they can figure some things out there to help our big guys out. It appears Moreno looked incredibly slow, so I'm not counting on him much this year, at least early on. All the other big guys are a bit undersized (which led to a lot of the fouling).
One big positive...we didn't turn it over a ton this game.
He said things very similar to the link Saluki World provided below on the radio.
I concur fully with the announcer who said there is no way that SIU is the 7th best team in MVC.
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