Lewis recap.. BU 68 Lewis 63

[houstontxbrave]

Les said before the game he was going to look at a lot of different combinations. He also said that both WE and AW were more ahead of where he had thought they both would be but that AW was further behind.

It seems to me JL did what he said he was going to do and played various combinations. This exhibition was not designed to play your top 8 guys and play guys 30+ minutes.

I believe he got much more point production from AW, but likely played him about the number of minutes that was intented going into the game.

I am not overly excited about the flow of the game, ie offensive fouls, 2nd chances and tournovers. But this team worked on a lot. I dont know if there are to many teams in D1 that would come into a Nov 7th exhibition and not have some rust and also would know exactly what to expect from each player.

This team is very deep and will have many options.

BYU is going to be a very big challenge. Also, our passing into the post does not sound like it is a strength. Then again we have not had to really pass into the post for what 4 years.

It will all eventually come together.

[bu fan 9]

EM did not look very good at all. He looked like he did last year.

[BU_EMT128]

...he was hampered by 2 really early, ridiculous foul calls by some overzealous ref just trying to exercise his prowess in his first game of the season.
!

No kidding. Many of those calls were questionable, at best. Lots of incidental contact that normally flies in the conference season was called a foul tonight.

[Da Coach]

I just listened to part of the 1st half and it seemed to me like JL was using this game to see what type of lineups he could use for certain match ups. As I said in an earlier post there was no way that JL was going to show his hands before the BYU game . I expect us to probably go 8-9 deep because and only because we'll see 3 guys play the 5. Also did we press any tonight?

There was no press. But when BU went to a match-up zone in the 2nd half, the perimeter players did frequently double-team the ball. It lead the the shot-clock violation, and a couple turnovers. It also happened to coincide with Bradley's run when they pulled out to an 11 point lead.
I hope we see more of that.

[dogsrus]

I was bored so I was just counting "bad calls"...as I saw them of course. Correct..I had BU for 6 but I was trying to be unbiased and kept track of Lewis bad calls and I counted 5.

So, in the end, it was basically a wash. To many times we only see the bad calls against us but, in all fairness, the opposition usually gets a few also.

[BradleyBrave]

Read everything on here...I think some people are overreacting a little bit. Yes, we had a 'scrimmage' with DePaul, but this was our first real game under the lights with a crowd. What was everyone expecting? We toyed with rotations and played nearly everyone on the roster in the 1st half. In the 2nd half, we shortened up and played to win until about the 3-4 minute mark when we were up 11. Had we done that for the full 40 minutes (like Notre Dame had to against Lewis), we would have won by 20 or more. I look at the box score and see that we played 9 guys at least 10 minutes, and no one more than 24 (compared to Lewis playing 5 guys 30+). We won't be during that during the season. The point of today was to get everyone used to playing in front of a crowd, experiment with rotations, and get through HEALTHY. All 3 were accomplished today. Sure, we have things to work on. But would you really want the team peaking on November 8? I feel no differently than I did before the scrimmage - If we're healthy and can avoid off-the-court problems, we'll have a great season.

[BU Firsty]

From my perspective, it appeared that Milos must have earned the right to be the first of the freshmen off the bench and into the game. He appears to be a little ahead of JP so far. All the freshmen looked a little nervous at first, and I am sure they'll get over that quickly.

I don't think there is any question about Milos being the most prepared freshman. I would not be surprised to see any - or even all - of the other freshman redshirt. Wouldn't it be great to let these guys all have a year to adjust? Right now we have:

EM
TB
SM
WE
AT
AW
CR
DD
SS

Without injury, I am not sure we need to go more than 9 deep. I say redshirt them all :-)

[Bradleyguy10]

Well we'll see about the health and C. Roberts.


P.S. was anyone else surprised as to how big JP is already??? Shocking really.

[bigjimmy]

A few thoughts:

I think it was pretty obvious that Coach wanted to give everybody a chance to play. That's what a pre-season game is supposed to be about. I liked the way we ran after a tournover or a missed shot, which led to some easy
hoops. I though AW looked really good on the offensive end and he'll eventually catch up with his defense. The more Will played the better he looked. He just needs to stay away from picking up those ticky tack fouls and if he does the sky's the limit. SM will be fine on offense. I'll take a 2 to 1 assist to tournover ratio and 4 steals any day. TB will be the most improved player in the MVC this year. The 4 freshmen all had their moments with Milos and DSE loooking the most ready to play. My starting lineup would be EM, DD, AW, TB and WE. I'll be curious what the finishing lineup will be. All in all a good point to start from but it would have been nice to have had a regular season game under our belt before taking on BYU. Since we don't let's go out to Provo and kick some butt!

[BradleyBrave]

A few other observations -

1. Would like to tweak the starters a bit - Inserting AW instead of DD or CR. The starting lineup today seemed to be more of a defensive lineup than probably our best 5. If Sam was inserted as well that would be fine too.

2. Would like to see more of a commitment to get the ball inside to WE, and dare I say AT. WE is long and athletic and has a great shot. AT is real long and has a nice baby hook. Everything will open up on the perimeter if we can finally establish a guy in the post. TB helps in that regard, but he's more inside-outside than WE and AT.

3. EM seemed less reluctant to shoot. I liked that. I figured he would more this year.

4. I can see Milos being a zone-breaker. Still seemed pretty green to me though. Did get a couple of real cheap foul calls. I liked the fact that he, DSE, and JE didn't hesitate to shoot when in the game.

5. Didn't get to see a whole lot of him, but JP is a work-in-progress, and that's fine. I think he'll be leaps-and-bounds better by the end of this season, and will be a shoe-in to contribute inside next year. Add him to point #2, as his offensive fundamentals inside might be the best on the roster.

[BuAlum03]

You're dead-on Bradley Brave. Bradley wasn't playing to win, we were playing to learn. And isn't that what's important in the preseason? If we had won by 20 or 30 with that many minutes going to freshmen, i would have been shocked (and ecstatic). As it was, I was very pleased with what I saw from most all of our players. The only one I'd say had a bad game was EM, but everybody is entitled to those once in a while.

SM had a great TO / Asst ratio and 4 steals... he doesn't need to be a scoring threat when he does that. His defense also seemed improved to me. I have to say that I am kind of hard on SM, but today he made me look pretty dumb. I hope he continues that all season. He get his points when he needs to.

AW... wow. I don't think you can see him play like he is and deny that his loss last year hurt us badly.

Egolf was shaking the rust off. Remember he didn't get to play in Brazil. He seemed to gain confidence as the game went on. And he got hit with a couple petty fouls early.

I think AT was a pleasant surprise. He got burned defensively a couple times, but he seems to have improved his footwork. He may not be much bigger, but he plays bigger. I hope he continues his improvement.

But TB is the man. He has a motor that doesn't stop. He knows how to rebound. Other than an ill-advised 3, i thought he played within himself and will create some matchup nightmares. Id love to see him at the 4 and CR at the 3. Not many valley teams can match up with that athletically.

[jasonpeoria911]

Warren = Our missing link from last season. Please oh please let Warren and Brown stay healthy.

Rest of the team needs to work on the jump shots this week, that was pathetic outside of Warren and Brown.

I'm predicting DSE or Eastman to be that impact youngster off the bench like Brown was last season.

4 more practice days to prepare for BYU. BYU plays another exhibition Tuesday night which can be seen at http://www.byutv.org/getbyutv/

BYU has only lost 3 games at home in the last 4 seasons, 2 of them were last season by 7 points both times. I'm hoping for at least a decent showing by BU. I'll accept a loss but we'll have to win 1 or 2 games in Vegas in order to salvage the non-conference season.

Jason

[BradleyBrave]

I didn't think the officiating was that great. But, we had one Summit League guy, one guy who only did one game last year (the SIU-E/BU game), and another guy who predominantly does Southland/OVC games, so I guess I shouldn't expect much.

[mrcoachdude]

Had the grandaughter there for her 1st BU game....she was impressed with....

Two Sam's on the court...
Taylor has the same name as her sister...
Adrew Warren shooting so many free throws....
The annoucer guy mumbling all the time....
she loved the nachos!

Ok now my take....in order of wow factor...:

AW..its great to have you back young man.....
TB... he is all that I have been saying since he got here..
WE... shook off some rust and tested out the knee....he looked fine..
SM...steady influence...we played well with him on the court
CR... this guy is an athlete..kept the ball alive along with WE...played nice defense...better games ahead...
DD... solid solid defense....you never notice that at 1st
EM.. tough start..but he will be fine...
SS...you old man...haha..kidding...behind the scenes leader...his experience will help on and off the court for all
AT... did some nice things
MK... got some important minutes...looks solid...
JP...holds a special place in coachdude's heart...he will be a solid solid player
DSE... looked fine...was he nervous? I did not see it...
JE...wow do we have some depth....

Best 5 I think I saw together on the flor: SM, AW, TB, CR, WE

[it's boogie time]

Nice to see that Andrew Warren and Taylor Brown came to play.

Giving up the 6 offensive rebounds to one Lewis player is alarming. The 16 turnovers to 11 assists isn't very good either.

It's tough to take too much away from this, but the next game is real. I'm hoping this team isn't primarily a jumpshooting team, but I'm starting to think it will be.