Oh8ch;668218; said:
Just wondered what folks were thinking now that we have a few games under our belts.
I for one am blown away with the athleticism. I knew it would be there, but not to thiis extent.
After so many seasons with disappointing first year players I am impressed that ALL of the new guys are ready to go out of the box. Every time I am ready to criticize one of the newcomers I have to remind myself that this is their first month of CFB. I thought Lighty might take some time and never expected Conley to work the point from the git-go.
And some interesting stats:
PT ranges from 30.8 to 18.4.
At least five blocks in every game when last year our high was 6. (All 8 regulars have at least 2 blocks.)
Six players hitting 50% or better from the field.
Two players averaging more PPG than our high scorer last season.
Hunter averaging 7.6 rebounds. Dials averaged 8 last year.
Cook with an assist to turnover ratio of 6.6 to 2.4.
Granted, this is the easy part of the schedule. On the other hand, we still don't have Oden.
Well here was my thoughts after the last game :
cbf40 said:
Is it to early to call for NC in both Football and Bball or should I wait for Oden to make his return and find out who the football team is playing before doing that?
Some may call me crazy, but here is how I see it.
We have great perimeter defense. Lewis and Cook struggle will struggle at times, more so off the ball and some times on the ball. Cook will become much better once Matta continues to get on him. He has the length and athleticism to be a great defender. With Lewis it is more of what you have seen is what you are going to get. The thing is when we start playing Twig/Hunter at the 4 who the hell is going to want to go inside with them and Oden in there. We are going to force teams to become more perimeter oriented playing right into our stregths of perimeter defense.
Also we can score. I am not talking a good amount of points I am talking 80+. We run, we can shoot, and we have two pg's on the court to get the ball up the court and get the ball to the hot hand. We have 4 guys that can easily penetrate the lane. We have 8 guys that can shoot the 3. More than half of them will shoot in the 40 percent range and can all get hot and take a game over from out there extending their defense allowing for easy baskets inside.
As for some more of our weaknesses here is what JOtis had to say today:
this team still needs to work on the glass.
Well Cook is stating to assert himself on the glass, and Harris seems to be playing harder and battling more down low and working on the rebounds. Then when we get Oden and Hunter/Twig on the court at the same time we will have the size and be able to pull in more rebounds. I don't envision this being a problem or near as much as it now come big ten season.
twigs is a 4, ive said it all along. he can steal you minutes at the five but is out of pos there.
Couldnt agree more. Twig will be a great role player and get about 20 minutes a game when Oden is back and it will help him when he can extend his game to about 15-18 foot.
cooks defensive, if you can call it that for stretches...
lewis and his defense...
I hit on this above...
conley is really slinggin the ball around, will that work against bigger more atheletic teams?
Conley just seems to be such a smart player. Honestly I never envisioned him just straight up moving Butler to the two guard. He runs the offense well and I really like what I see from him. I think in a game against better teams he is going to be much smarter and if not, we always have the luxury of moving Butler back over. Nice luxury to have...
what will the transition with oden be, will it be seamless as some are predicting or will it be a rough chemistry issue...
Well I don't see a huge problem. I think there might be some early and I think if he does make it back for UNC with relatively no time with the team it might be tough, but you plug a 7' in the middle of the floor that can run the floor and I just don't see how it will affect how they play. Also keep in mind that Cook and Conley have been playing with Oden for a couple years now. I think the guys that will need to get acclamated are more Hunter/Twig/Butler/Lewis but they have been playing together with each other so once they get use to playing with a guy like that that makes the game that much easier for them they will have no problems.
Right now I see us losing to UNC, just b/c of the fact that we won't have Oden at full stregth/conditioning if we have him at all. But I think it is going to be a helluva game with us coming up short by about 5-10 pts. Also it is in the Dean Dome which is not an easy place to play and the hype will build for the game with the recruiting classes and they have the upper hand. If we meet them later it should be a much different story.
I think we are on the level with Florida, but they have the experience, but do they have the drive to do it again. That is the big question.
After watching some other teams I don't have a problem with us being ranked #3 after seeing our freshmen grow up as fast as they have.
