A couple things I noticed at the Winona State game:
- The crowd was better than I expected, thanks in no small part to the sizable and vocal Winona State contingent. People were getting into it, which was good.
- I wish we could make some sort of hybrid of Rodney and Trevor. One thing I've noticed about Trevor is that he's extremely athletic, in terms of explosiveness and power, and he's very aggressive. He's going to draw a lot of fouls. However, he's lacking a bit in balance and coordination, in my opinion. He doesn't take shots above the rim. He's always fading one way or the other, and he had some balls bounce off his hands last night. I'm not saying he's not going to be very valuable, just something he can work on. I like his attitude, from what I've seen. I just wish occasionally he'd get both feet under him and go up strong when he's in the lane. Rodney has amazing coordination and athleticism. I'm always impressed with his body control. I wish he had Trevor's aggressive attitude. He had a couple strong moves to the hoop last night I really liked. I hope we'll see more of that.
- Another thing with Rodney, he really, really needs to learn to dunk or lay the ball up one handed. He goes up two-handed all the time, and it makes it much easier to hack him and prevent the three point play or the highlight dunk. If he's more comfortable two-handed, that's fine. But he needs to add the one-hander to his arsenal, in my opinion.
- Blake did the little things, and although his shot was off, I still liked the way he hustled, and made nice cuts. However, he can't be our point guard. We need Devoe back, and we need Al to play well. When Blake was in there, the other point guard was able to get up on him and hassle him, forcing him to turn away from the basket, and cutting off his vision for about half of the floor. This bogged down the offense. Same thing happened to Maverick. He's no threat to blow by anybody, and his ballhandling is shaky, so the offense bogs down.
- Can somebody teach Al to make a layup? Please? His lack of outside shooting is not nearly as big a problem as his inability to convert an uncontested layup.
- Mo looked great at times, bad at others. Everybody was driving right around him. He really needs to work on D, as well as his hands. Balls were clanking off his hands in the low post with alarming regularity. However, he's obviously got a very good feel for low post moves. I think he could be a good scorer in the low post in the future.
- Ralph had a sweet sky hook.
- I could go player by player, but I don't really have time right now. I wasn't worried by last night's performance. The frosh got a lot of time. We were a bit sloppy, and our half court offense was still not great, but our D will be formidable this year, and I think we've got enough low post scorers to do well. I wish some of our freshmen would step up and show the ability to make either a midrange or long-range jumper. We especially need a midrange scorer right now. Devoe's the only guy on the entire team with the ability to knock down a fifteen footer with regularity. The rest of our guys are either three point or low post scorers.
- The crowd was better than I expected, thanks in no small part to the sizable and vocal Winona State contingent. People were getting into it, which was good.
- I wish we could make some sort of hybrid of Rodney and Trevor. One thing I've noticed about Trevor is that he's extremely athletic, in terms of explosiveness and power, and he's very aggressive. He's going to draw a lot of fouls. However, he's lacking a bit in balance and coordination, in my opinion. He doesn't take shots above the rim. He's always fading one way or the other, and he had some balls bounce off his hands last night. I'm not saying he's not going to be very valuable, just something he can work on. I like his attitude, from what I've seen. I just wish occasionally he'd get both feet under him and go up strong when he's in the lane. Rodney has amazing coordination and athleticism. I'm always impressed with his body control. I wish he had Trevor's aggressive attitude. He had a couple strong moves to the hoop last night I really liked. I hope we'll see more of that.
- Another thing with Rodney, he really, really needs to learn to dunk or lay the ball up one handed. He goes up two-handed all the time, and it makes it much easier to hack him and prevent the three point play or the highlight dunk. If he's more comfortable two-handed, that's fine. But he needs to add the one-hander to his arsenal, in my opinion.
- Blake did the little things, and although his shot was off, I still liked the way he hustled, and made nice cuts. However, he can't be our point guard. We need Devoe back, and we need Al to play well. When Blake was in there, the other point guard was able to get up on him and hassle him, forcing him to turn away from the basket, and cutting off his vision for about half of the floor. This bogged down the offense. Same thing happened to Maverick. He's no threat to blow by anybody, and his ballhandling is shaky, so the offense bogs down.
- Can somebody teach Al to make a layup? Please? His lack of outside shooting is not nearly as big a problem as his inability to convert an uncontested layup.
- Mo looked great at times, bad at others. Everybody was driving right around him. He really needs to work on D, as well as his hands. Balls were clanking off his hands in the low post with alarming regularity. However, he's obviously got a very good feel for low post moves. I think he could be a good scorer in the low post in the future.
- Ralph had a sweet sky hook.
- I could go player by player, but I don't really have time right now. I wasn't worried by last night's performance. The frosh got a lot of time. We were a bit sloppy, and our half court offense was still not great, but our D will be formidable this year, and I think we've got enough low post scorers to do well. I wish some of our freshmen would step up and show the ability to make either a midrange or long-range jumper. We especially need a midrange scorer right now. Devoe's the only guy on the entire team with the ability to knock down a fifteen footer with regularity. The rest of our guys are either three point or low post scorers.
