Some of my observations from last night's game:
We haven't seen this level of talent since the Caracter led Barbee team. If this team can put it together the way that team did, watch out.
Terry handles first half fouls the same way Barbee did: he immediately sits a player who picks up two fouls in the first half, no exceptions. I remember Barbee doing this to DJ against the Aggies one season, and thought that Barbee was being way too rigid. We ended up with a huge first half deficit with Jackson on the bench, a deficit that was too big for a second half rally to overcome. I thought at the time that Barbee made a mistake, as I believed that DJ was smart enough to play with those two fouls. I support Terry in his decision to bench Williams after Bryson picked up his second foul, however. Bryson cannot keep himself out of foul trouble.
Bryson has to learn to play smarter. He scored 19 points and grabbed 8 boards in only 17 minutes of play. Amazing. But he can't help us during those times that he's sitting on the bench in foul trouble.
It's fortunate that our best bench player backs up Williams. Even though Efe only took three shots and only hit one, I was happy with his game last night. There were at least three times last night when Efe was double teamed and responded with a quick pass to a wide open player. Last year he couldn't handle double and triple teams. The kid is learning.
We talk about having depth, but if we do, someone forgot to inform the coaches. Boum played 38 minutes last night. Edward's 37. Vila was out there for 36. If he hadn't picked up his fourth foul, Lathon would have played more than his 34 minutes. I know that it's early on the season, these guys are young, and games have been a week or so apart so far. But that will change.
I thought that Hawkins gave us some good minutes in the first half. He had the steal and lay up, a blocked shot, and a nice cut to the basket for a lay up. But if Lathon hadn't picked up that fourth foul, would he have seen any time at all in the second half? Meanwhile Boum couldn't throw the ball in the ocean past night. Give Hawkins some more minutes. You can give Stroud or Tarke some minutes at the wing rather than playing three guards all of the time. With Williams and Efe in foul trouble, Tarke could have seen some time at the four spot, which might be a more natural position for him.
He didn't set the world on fire, but Verhoeven gave us some solid minutes with our bigs in foul trouble. Hopefully he gets some more chances to prove himself, but not because our bigs foul too much.
We took care of the ball much better last night. But then our defensive rebounding was horrible, giving up WAY too many offensive rebounds and second chance points. We've only seen the team three times (well, those of us that are out of town have only seen them twice, and heard them once) this season, and in those three games we have seen them rebound well, defend well, play within their offense, and do a decent job of taking care of the ball. But we haven't seen them do all of the above in a single game. When they finally do, it will be awesome to behold
