The Morehead St game was what we were all hoping this team could look like going into the season. I think all the what-ifs played out to their fullest potential. Some quick thoughts:
1. Let's not overreact, as this was a "cupcake" matchup. I still expect a big learning curve when it comes to playing against stronger competition and this team playing from behind. We could easily regress against St Mary's, who is a borderline top 25 team.
2. Robbins followed up his last performance with another strong showing. If this is who we get moving forward (still a big if), he's going to be one of the top-tier SEC Centers.
3. Tyrin Lawrence's first half was incredible. He looked like a different player, a bonafide SEC starter. It makes him all the more confounding of a player to root for, since history suggests he'll likely disappear for a bunch of games before doing something like this again.
4. We didn't need much out of Stute / Wright, but I thought both played with a good level of urgency and were active on the glass.
5. Small sample size, but QMB is 100% (5-5) on his FTA through 4 games. Not expecting this to continue, but his shot looks much improved and I think we can say he'll end up higher than his 48.9% from last year. His reverse finish was smooth.
6. Manjon continued to play well, and while he didn't have many assists (2), we didn't need him as much as the first half was largely Tyrin Lawrence creating his own shot. He also has proven over the first 4 games that he takes care of the ball well; hasn't had more than 1 TO per game. Will be interesting to see if he can break the press against SEC level competition, something we have long struggled with (although Chatman did well there).
7. The Freshmen - I'm really encouraged by what we saw out of the young guys. Dia in particular has looked really promising - very high ceiling for Smith and Dia. Had no problem with Colin Smith's minutes even though it didn't show up on the stat sheet - I'm sure he wishes he could have that botched alley oop back. It appears that one of these 2 will be good for ~8PPG, just unclear who it is on a nightly basis.
8. The Other Freshmen - Great to see Noah Shelby finally get some run - liked his minutes. He appears to be a bit trigger happy, but they all looked like good shots. He easily could have had double digits had an unlucky bounce gone his way. I see him being the guy who gets the last shot for us after this year. Sucks for Thomas, but his injury is a great opportunity for Shelby to get more PT. Dort looks like he's going to be a problem for teams, particularly undersized competition, for years to come. Loved his hustle getting back to block a gimme of a layup. He swats the ball like it's a tennis ball.
9. Southern Miss has now climbed to #256 in KP, which is a nice jump. They knocked off a top 100 KP team in Liberty last night, who was preseason pick to finish #1 in the A-Sun. Still going to be the worst loss of the season for us, but perhaps the KP pre-season rankings need work when looking at teams comprised largely of transfers.
That's more like it
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Re: That's more like it
Question: Is Morehead really that bad, or were we pretty darn good? I know MSU is team that Vandy would expect to beat most years, but I also know that more often than not they are a competitive team in their conference.
I would've been very disappointed in a Vandy L last night ... but I was not expecting to check the score and see a 33 point margin of victory either.
I would've been very disappointed in a Vandy L last night ... but I was not expecting to check the score and see a 33 point margin of victory either.
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Re: That's more like it
it's not like us in recent years, is it?mathguy wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 11:15 am Question: Is Morehead really that bad, or were we pretty darn good? I know MSU is team that Vandy would expect to beat most years, but I also know that more often than not they are a competitive team in their conference.
I would've been very disappointed in a Vandy L last night ... but I was not expecting to check the score and see a 33 point margin of victory either.
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Re: That's more like it
Without looking at the data, I think it was a combo of both. This was a bad team that was overmatched while we were playing up to our ability (especially in the first half). We'll have a better idea of how we're progressing in the next game.mathguy wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 11:15 am Question: Is Morehead really that bad, or were we pretty darn good? I know MSU is team that Vandy would expect to beat most years, but I also know that more often than not they are a competitive team in their conference.
I would've been very disappointed in a Vandy L last night ... but I was not expecting to check the score and see a 33 point margin of victory either.