Post-game thread- BU 74 SIUE 58

[tornado]

Not much more to say about JJ, he had a great game (minus those two airballs).
I think those harsh critics of JJ Tauai that were so prevalent on the other message board have gone the way of some of the other critics.
They like to talk the trash, but they won't ever admit how terribly wrong they were.


I also saw Jordan Prosser from Eureka there. I found out he was there on an unofficial visit (which means he doesn't have to notify the NCAA and file paperwork, nor does he get expenses reimbursd, nor can the school spend any money on him while he's there.)
Prosser appeared to be almost 6'8", maybe 2" taller than Ray Brown, and was in the BU locker room before the game.

One other person I saw was Dennis Kalina, who was there visiting with the BU people.
Dennis as you know just recently (2 months ago) left the Athletics Dept. at BU and accepted a new position at Gonzaga as Associate AD For Development.

http://gozags.cstv.com/genrel/091506aab.html

Lastly, my only other take on the ball game was that the Braves seemed disinterested over the last 10 minutes.
I hope they retain the intensity for the full 40 minutes.

[it's boogie time]

The most encouraging things to me was JJ getting 8 rebounds and the low amount of turnovers (most of the 13 came in the last 7 minutes).

This team needs two of its three point guards in the game. The offense became stagnant when Will Franklin or JJ came out of the game.

[braves12]

JJ just continues to get more solid all of the time. Reading the article in the paper this morning and listening to him on the post game last night, he really takes it in stride. I think he has played solid basketball last year thru now. He just happened to score more points last night. His defense is very good and he makes everybody else better.

I will disagree with Da Coach in that I was not impressed with Salleys performance last night, and from what I saw watching the bench, neither were the coaches. He seemed somewhat lazy from the get go. He was late on defense and soft on rebounds. During the 1st half when coming off of the floor for a timeout he was being talked to by 1 of the coaches and he just put his hands up in the air as to say "what". We will see if this changes Sunday.

BU is fun to watch!!!!!!!!!!!

[tornado]

The most encouraging things to me was JJ getting 8 rebounds and the low amount of turnovers (most of the 13 came in the last 7 minutes).....

I got a copy of the first half stats, and the Braves had only ONE turnover in the first 19:59 of the first half.
The second TO came right at the very end of the 1st half as Will drove the lane for a final second shot and the big guy grabbed the ball away from Will.

But you are right, the first 20 minutes of ball had a few missed shots but extremely few turnovers.

[Dallas Brave]

Zach and Matt had better improve their free throw shooting pretty fast. It is bound to cost us a couple of close games this year. I would think that a 60% FT shooting percentage is the mimimum acceptable level for those two.

Also, to me, Zach still seems a bit undisciplined in his play. I thought he got a bit careless in the 2nd half of the DePaul game and there were certainly some out-of-control moments last night. But ... I love his energy and exuberance and realize it comes with a price.

[BradleyBrave]

Zach and Matt had better improve their free throw shooting pretty fast. It is bound to cost us a couple of close games this year. I would think that a 60% FT shooting percentage is the mimimum acceptable level for those two.

Also, to me, Zach still seems a bit undisciplined in his play. I thought he got a bit careless in the 2nd half of the DePaul game and there were certainly some out-of-control moments last night. But ... I love his energy and exuberance and realize it comes with a price.

Personally, I thought ZA did a good job of remaining under control in the DePaul game, but thought he got VERY lazy and careless last night in the 2nd half. I think seeing how small and unathletic SIU-E was caused him to think he could block every shot and not have to abide by his defensive fundamentals. I think JL noted that much more emphatically in a few timeouts last night.

Salley needs to stop playing like one on offense. He seems like he's starting to 'get it' defensively, and does rebound well. However, he's very weak with the ball on offense, and doesn't make strong, decisive moves to the basket. He misses more short shots than anyone I can remember, and that includes Michael Stewart. Dave and Coach noted several times last night that Salley just threw the ball at the basket, and I agree. He needs to stop being so passive and get an aggressive mean-streak in him. I think he has more offensive skill than ZA, but is certainly missing that 'take no prisoners' attitude.