From tonight's game, obviously Loving started getting rolling in the second half but there was next to no defense on some of those plays where he scored. Same goes for a couple of Trey's baskets. Thompson lighting it up early on was good to see, he was scorching hot from the perimeter, I think one of his shots he only got credit for a 2 but it was practically a 3, then he cooled off after he got taken out of the game. Started off flushing a lob. Obviously Russell missing this game exposed a weakness of the OSU team, 3rd string PG. Kam Williams is not a PG, he should not be playing in that role on this team & I think one turnover where he couldn't catch the ball and get it up court against a 1-man press pretty much explains why. Russell was sitting there on the bench with everyone else, just didn't get to play and didn't go through pregame warmups really - reports are that he had flu-like symptoms.
Anyway, I liked what I saw of Kam notwithstanding his PG performance. Scott did a good job, really delivered a couple nice assists that I recall, doing all the work to get a basket handed to Trey at one point and Tate at another. The game was played loose at times again in terms of teams not valuing the ball properly and making passes that get intercepted in the backcourt. Honestly, I would be worried that Keita Bates-Diop will eventually overtake me if I"m Marc Loving. I thought Loving struggled in the first half and he also had a poor turnover in the second half driving into traffic and not being able to handle the physicality of the game, he had 19 points which was the team high but it seems like he's the type that can feast on poor defense & can get rolling when he is open in catch & shoot situations. Loving still can't play through contact very well, and needs to be in situations where he doesn't have to create his shot to be effective - he still likely has a sizeable role on this team, but I wouldn't expect him to be leading the team in scoring regularly. Truth be told this Providence Storms team was bigger size-wise compared to yesterday's team but they lacked the same level of scrappiness and skill as the Bahamas All-Stars. Loving and McDonald were left more wide open on some of those shots today than they will be the entire season. But if you bet me that Trey McDonald would score 10+ in both of these games I would've taken that bet and been wrong, he was in the right place at the right time at least. Again a lot of 2-3 zone from OSU on D. I like the activity that Scott, Kam and Tate have in the zone. Tate really gets after it, gotta expect him to find some minutes with that effort - at one point he crashed the offensive glass and jumped in front of Amir for a rebound and ripped it away from him.
Perhaps the biggest concern from these 2 games has been Anthony Lee is nowhere near Q Ross offensively. Lee was just another frontcourt guy out there for OSU, playing the 4 but not really showing any range. The boxscore says Lee fouled out, I was wondering what happened to him since he wasn't in the game late. He got locked up in an arm wrestling match of sorts with an opposing player and it got pretty heated, then he went to the bench. That was right after he got a basket, he was trying to deny position in the mid-post area and got tangled and neither guy wanted to let go. He did play some in he second half but I think he fouled out on a closeout on the perimeter, sending a guy to the line for 3 shots. Lee I'm afraid is going to fall short of what he did at Temple last year (10 & 5 would probably be a good year out of him, 13 and 8 like last year seems unrealistic to me on this team), Temple was really bad last year and they didn't have a lot of good options. Bell again struggled at times, just makes a lot of mistakes out there, and lacks the skill to make up for his mistakes.
Overall I feel good about the team at this point. Bates-Diop, Tate, and Kam look like they are ready to be part of the rotation and make an impact in one way or another. Lee can help out some in the frontcourt, although he's not as good as Q was. Obviously Russell will be in the mix as well to help at PG at least. I have to expect now that Trey will be a regular option in the frontcourt. I believe Scott and Amir are the only for sure starters, due to their unique skills for this team (Scott's pure PG skills and Amir's size). A lot of good options to round out the starting lineup at the 2 & 3, but the 4 is the biggest position of unknown to me, you just don't know what they are going to get from it. If they are going to play mostly zone as it appears, they can play Loving and KBD at SF almost entirely, and then kind of use a 3-man rotation at the 4/5 with Lee, Amir and Trey (with Trey and Lee both capable of subbing in at the 4 & 5 at times depending on matchups). I still wouldn't be surprised to see them go with Loving at the 4 at times, though, and KBD might be there in a small lineup as well. But if they are indeed switching to being a primarily zone team, length and size will be a priority and so I can see them going big at the 3-5 spots for the most part if that will be the case.
