Exhibition 1st half

Kyle Collinsworth should not be allowed to shoot the ball outside of the lane, he also needs to be a lot more conservative with his passing. You can't be started at the 4 for your defense and rebounding and then have more turnovers than rebounds. I like the kid and I think he's going to be great by the end of the season, but right now he's very limited.



Skyler Halford is very very efficient. If you're going to start KC at the 4 for defensive purposes, then Halford needs to start at the 2. He doesn't get out of position and makes smart decisions. I'm happy with him. He is a good fit.



Winder can give us good minutes, particularly on defense but there are better options than him taking 3s; though he can make them.



Carlino is much improved. Still not sure he can defend elite guards, but he's going to win games for us this year. Most improved by far. Enjoying watching him play this year.



Haws is Haws, except I had hoped he would improve his ball handling... still non existant. He has to learn to break down someone off the dribble from the perimeter.



Mika and Austin got schooled by smarter and much smaller bigs... unacceptable and they know it



Mika is going to foul out a lot; he's raw and mistake prone.



Worthington is limited, but very smart and strong, we'll need him. Looking at his high school tape it was clear that he was scrappy and efficient, but not a high riser. He makes up for it in effort and has very soft hands and a nice touch around the hoops. He won't win any games for us, but he'll be good enough to keep us in them.



Bartley; if he were 6'6", he would have been offered by everyone... EVERYONE. He doesn't really have a position at his height, but in an up tempo fast break offense, he can do things. Another guy that can't shoot.



Sharp came off the bench after Bartley, KC, Worthington and Austin... something tells me that Sharp did not work very hard on his game or strength over the offseason.



Our bigs need to improve defensively and Kyle needs to stop turning over the ball and shooting outside shots and we'll win this game by 40 in the 2nd half.



I love KC and I have been yelling at the TV because of some of the things he's done. I hope this doesn't evolve into a love-hate relationship, kind of like JT. His game needs to evolve where I believe it can be, but it's not there right now.



Overall this team needs help with post scoring and overall defense or we're headed back to the NIT. It's early, so we'll see.

I've been most impressed with Halford, Worthington (mostly because I knew nothing about him), and the intensity of the team overall so far.



Halford, as mentioned is very smart. He's the type of guy who keeps your intermural team undefeated simply because he's on the floor. He's good about being in position and knows where others need to be. Already he's pushed someone to get them into position.



Worthington is a big body who seems to know his limits and where his strengths are.



Mika is going to be a beast, but as mentioned is raw and it will take a while to learn the ropes.



Overall... very pleased.

I'm watching 4 things at once so I've only intensely watched a few moments of the game, but here's my brief thoughts.



Winder & Austin are both stepping up and playing nice and aggressively.

And I love what I see from this Worthington kid. He is fearless out there and is determined to score. Awesome!



Also, are we going to get burned by 3's again all season like last year or is this an abberation?

Well they picked up the defense and we darn near won by 40 til Rose put in the walkons.



Halford looked just as good



Mika looked better (had a nice put back dunk)



Worthington can score a little around the rim



Austin looks much better defensively



Carlino and Haws didn't play much 2nd half.. came out fairly early. Carlino will be our 2nd best player this year and it won't be close.



Collinsworth had a better 2nd half, still scares me. He's a turnover and rebounding machine... pick your poison



Sharp is not going to start... he hasn't improved one bit from last year



Winder had a nice 2nd half shooting



Bartley is a solid perimeter defender but is limited offensively

mizzoucoug wrote:
I'm watching 4 things at once so I've only intensely watched a few moments of the game, but here's my brief thoughts.



Winder & Austin are both stepping up and playing nice and aggressively.

And I love what I see from this Worthington kid. He is fearless out there and is determined to score. Awesome!



Also, are we going to get burned by 3's again all season like last year or is this an abberation?

KC and Bartley got out of position a lot on help defense and it left guys open for 3s. No reason to help double team division III bigs... Our defense was ugly for half the game.

Man Craig you nailed almost everything I had to say.



First of all I was getting to ready to yell everytime KC tried to do anything with the ball. Especially every time he shot.He reminds me of Carlino's first year. He has some physical talent and sometimes he can do things. But his game isn't mature and he doesn't know what he can and cannot do. So he tries and mostly fails.



If Carlino can finish around the hoop like this against better competition, we are going to be able to put up some points.



Austin and Winder looked healthy to me. Basically what I thought they would be last year. They'll help us but they are who they are.



Team wide I was impressed with our improved athletic ability and one on one perimeter defense.



Carlino, Winder, Bartley and KC are all good defenders. Halford isn't a bad defender and neither is Haws. Now if we can just figure out post defense we'll have a good defense.



It appears we have enough depth to expend a lot of energy pressuring the ball.



The trouble is our centers are true freshmen. We have a number of guards who can't shot the 3 effectively.



In the end I expect our starting 5 will be



Carlino

Haws

KC

Austin

Mika



With Halford, Worthington and Winder being our main bench guys.

Didn't see the game. But from the sound of it, seems like KC should stick to grabbing boards for now. I really, really hope he doesn't get anywhere near the guard position - can't defend it and can't score from it.



Excited to see Mika play. Worried about foul trouble. Austin tends to foul too. Between a raw Mika and Austin, looks like we may be going small from time to time.



If Halford is as solid as claimed, why not start him? I'm worried about points. Haws is good for 20 a night, Carlino will 15, Austin 10ish (hopefully) and where do the rest come. KC? Doubtful. Winder? Inconsistent. Mika? Possibly if he stays out of foul trouble.



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Gunk wrote:
Didn't see the game. But from the sound of it, seems like KC should stick to grabbing boards for now. I really, really hope he doesn't get anywhere near the guard position - can't defend it and can't score from it.



Excited to see Mika play. Worried about foul trouble. Austin tends to foul too. Between a raw Mika and Austin, looks like we may be going small from time to time.



If Halford is as solid as claimed, why not start him? I'm worried about points. Haws is good for 20 a night, Carlino will 15, Austin 10ish (hopefully) and where do the rest come. KC? Doubtful. Winder? Inconsistent. Mika? Possibly if he stays out of foul trouble.



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If you are going to start 3 guards (Winder tonight), then Halford would be an option to get your 3 best scoring guards out there. But I would be worried about rebounding. Also to a certain extent we hide Haws on D. Halford is okay on D but you don't want him on the opponents star guards. If we want Carlino to score and create shots for others, then it is a good idea to let someone else do the heavy lifting defensively. Thus Winder has a role.



Also bringing Halford off the bench can provide us with a scoring spark.



Personally, I would rather KC be slotted to take the toughest perimeter defensive assignment and start Austin. But if Austin can't make his jumper then we would have spacing problems and problems with Zones.

KC had a better 2nd half. Some of you are a bit hard on him. Although, he should never shoot a three unless absolutely open and unguarded. He put up one of the ugliest jumpers from 3 I have seen. I can see why Qman called his game immature. I don't agree completely, its just that his outside shot is almost as ugly as his pre-mission form. Inside the key jumpers and at the rim are just fine. But #1, he has to take care of the ball. Bt at 6'6" he can drive the lane and draw the D or finish better than anyone except Carlino who finished at the rim quite strongly. I like him going to the rim. He will be a tough guard for most 4's and can post up 3's. And with rebounding and D he is too strong to not start. I may have been wrong about him failing on D at the 4. Bt this was a skinny Colorado College team.

Worthington was my biggest surprise. I think he is stronger at post D than Mika. Stronger legs and base. He even ran into Mka at one point and almost knocked him over. He reminds me of a slighter more adroit, athletic Chris Collinsworth. He will play critical minutes this year, especially with Mikas foul trouble and Austin's durability (which I think will be an issue.) but I love how he and Mika run the floor. No laziness. Oh, and, Worthington is already a better defender off high ball screens at the 3 point line than Davies ever was. :-)

Halford was my second surprise. He's more capable at D than I thought. I actually thought he was one of the better defenders. He knows where he's supposed to be and his fundamentals are stronger than Carlinos. Smart player. I like him off bench and possibly as a starter if Anson gets inconsistent.

Haws I really thought struggled last night. Not sure why. Looked like mid season, mid conference where he didnt surprise anyone and got knocked around. I hope his 3-ball gets more consistent. But maybe coach told him to hang back and let others have looks to see what they can bring.

Austin looked stronger than Mika in some ways. We'll see how that pans out. But he didnt start and I wonder if that showed on his face during Boom shakalaka. He looked despondent. But last night he was on his game and working hard. And he certainly doesn't look as lost as Mika on the floor.

Not bagging Mika, just wondering if his expectations and others (including mine) are putting pressure on him to do better than he looked. We'll see. I have to believe he does feel ALOT of pressure and will need to settle down. Also, a better off ball, help side defender with his ups than defender Of posts. Too early to tell.

Anson, pleasantly surprised. Looks much better. Not sure if its a result of being injury free or what.

Bartley will be a solid defender on 2-guards and on fast breaks. Not a good looking shot, but off the bench against another teams two's and on fast breaks, he could be very good.

Carlino was deserving of his game MVP. He finally looked like he has wanted to look and play but seemed too inpatient or unpoised in the last two seasons. May outshine Haws this year. Or draw more attention to free up Haws a little more.

Overall, this team has real potential. ALOT of athleticism as has been widely reported. If they can find a way to defend the post consistently, they could have a shot at the Big Dance.