Diebler looked really good last night, shot 3-6 from three and the first one went in and out, good shooting night for him and after the first one dropped his confidence in his shot seemed to pick up. Also, he was the only player who seemed to be looking to feed Mullens down low, which blew me away that we weren't force feeding him every play, but Diebs tried. Every time I watch him I am amazed at how well he seems to understand the game. Don't know how the other players on the team view it but as I watch I can't help but think we have a coach on the floor, just the way he acts out there.
Buford can score, period. He may be the best shooter on the team, and the other players know it, they were looking to get him open threes all night. Didn't see much penetration from anyone last night, probably due mostly to the zone D, so didn't get to see much else of his game but he was a very impressive shooter. His defense wasn't bad but wasn't spectacular either.
Mullens isn't nearly as good defensively as DL, so I wouldn't be suprised to see Dallas steal some of the BJ's minutes, especially early in the season. Offensively, Mullens has a nice stroke and looked adept when he got the ball down low, which wasn't very often. Hopefully playing against man defenses we will give him the ball more often.
DL is a player, especially on defense. Those blocked shots were all things of beauty, not biting on pump fakes and as soon as the ball was released he would get up and swat it, those blocks weren't just tipped balls they were swatted out of bounds halfway down the court type blocks. His length and improved quickness on defense are going to cause problems for teams all year. On offense, didn't feed the post much this game like I said so can't comment on his post offense, but his free throw looks improved, if only slightly (whats up with the Shaq-esque one hand release??) and he was running the floor well.
Simmons has a beautiful stroke from three, if we shoot from three like we did last night, especially Diebler, Simmons, and Buford, then its going to be a very good year cause that will spread the D and allow Turner/Lighty/Buford to penetrate and not allow teams to double BJ/DL. Simmons also played well defensively. While Crater played a lot of minutes I can't tell you a single play he made, probably just a result of the zone D preventing him from his drive-and-dish game but I don't think he attempted a shot. I don't want to say he was underwhelming, because against the zone D he isn't going to thrive, but Simmons was MUCH more impressive tonight. Very suprised at the lack of time for PJ Hill, figured he would be in the rotation with his experience, quickness, and defensive intensity. Guess not.
Turner and Lighty were both as expected, good on defense and very solid on offense. Offut played but didn't really see anything out of him, Madsen was definitely solid out there tonight, he is a hustle player and maybe not as good as Twigs but he will provide minutes off the bench to spell BJ/DL, at least until we get Kecman back.
Feel like we may struggle again on offense some this year, we are going to have to shoot teams out of zones if we are going to exploit Crater's ability and BJ's ability, and after tonight I definitely think we can but on nights when the shots aren't falling I don't know how we are going to generate offense, thats what still worries me.
On defense we are going to be very good again this year, maybe I'm the only one but I really like the 3-2 zone we run, we forced 3 or 4 shot clock violations last night and a few of the 3's they did hit on us were either way behind the 3 point line or just bad shots that went up and in. Only thing that worries me, especially if we are playing 4 small 1 big, is we are going to struggle on the boards again this year probably, but I felt like the effort was there last night, which was something we lacked a lot last year.
Can't wait to see us go against a better team, hopefully we can get fine-tuned before we play 2 top-15 teams on the road.
Buford can score, period. He may be the best shooter on the team, and the other players know it, they were looking to get him open threes all night. Didn't see much penetration from anyone last night, probably due mostly to the zone D, so didn't get to see much else of his game but he was a very impressive shooter. His defense wasn't bad but wasn't spectacular either.
Mullens isn't nearly as good defensively as DL, so I wouldn't be suprised to see Dallas steal some of the BJ's minutes, especially early in the season. Offensively, Mullens has a nice stroke and looked adept when he got the ball down low, which wasn't very often. Hopefully playing against man defenses we will give him the ball more often.
DL is a player, especially on defense. Those blocked shots were all things of beauty, not biting on pump fakes and as soon as the ball was released he would get up and swat it, those blocks weren't just tipped balls they were swatted out of bounds halfway down the court type blocks. His length and improved quickness on defense are going to cause problems for teams all year. On offense, didn't feed the post much this game like I said so can't comment on his post offense, but his free throw looks improved, if only slightly (whats up with the Shaq-esque one hand release??) and he was running the floor well.
Simmons has a beautiful stroke from three, if we shoot from three like we did last night, especially Diebler, Simmons, and Buford, then its going to be a very good year cause that will spread the D and allow Turner/Lighty/Buford to penetrate and not allow teams to double BJ/DL. Simmons also played well defensively. While Crater played a lot of minutes I can't tell you a single play he made, probably just a result of the zone D preventing him from his drive-and-dish game but I don't think he attempted a shot. I don't want to say he was underwhelming, because against the zone D he isn't going to thrive, but Simmons was MUCH more impressive tonight. Very suprised at the lack of time for PJ Hill, figured he would be in the rotation with his experience, quickness, and defensive intensity. Guess not.
Turner and Lighty were both as expected, good on defense and very solid on offense. Offut played but didn't really see anything out of him, Madsen was definitely solid out there tonight, he is a hustle player and maybe not as good as Twigs but he will provide minutes off the bench to spell BJ/DL, at least until we get Kecman back.
Feel like we may struggle again on offense some this year, we are going to have to shoot teams out of zones if we are going to exploit Crater's ability and BJ's ability, and after tonight I definitely think we can but on nights when the shots aren't falling I don't know how we are going to generate offense, thats what still worries me.
On defense we are going to be very good again this year, maybe I'm the only one but I really like the 3-2 zone we run, we forced 3 or 4 shot clock violations last night and a few of the 3's they did hit on us were either way behind the 3 point line or just bad shots that went up and in. Only thing that worries me, especially if we are playing 4 small 1 big, is we are going to struggle on the boards again this year probably, but I felt like the effort was there last night, which was something we lacked a lot last year.
Can't wait to see us go against a better team, hopefully we can get fine-tuned before we play 2 top-15 teams on the road.
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