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Photo: O2 Arena, UK Men's Basketball
General Impressions I expect quite a bit of disagreement which is fine so long as you support your side. My impression of the game overall was it was a quality win vs a quality opponent from a quality league which will help us come March seeding. It was not a well played game but that has no relevance come March. Nobody will remember. It is also hopefully the first step in an improvement of the team play. There were some bright spots but far more nonbright ones. Games like this expose your flaws, and shows where work needs to be done. Games vs N. FL and Bellermine don't. Lets hope we learn. My impression is UK plays much better when up tempo is used. Of course that sort of goes for any talented team. Its when underdogs slow the pace to keep the game close. We also need massive work on end of games/holding leads.
Jacob Toppin B- Grade really benefited from his second half. Played 25 minutes, 10 in the first half due to fouls. Managed 14 points with 10 coming after the break. Shot 50% on 6-12 and 2-3 from the line, to go with 5 rebounds. However he needs to become much more aggressive. He also needs to look to set screens and set up others. His missing Oscar wide open under the basket where he opted to shoot a 16 footers was about as bad as it comes. 1 assist in 25 minutes, to go with 2 turnovers. Also had the worse +/- score of -10. His defense wasn't bad, it just wasn't good.
Cason Wallace A- A bad turnover late along with some suspect FT shooting dropped him from a solid A, maybe A+ grade. Shot 5-8 including hitting all 4 of his treys to get 14 pts which tied with Toppin for team high scoring. However the 0-2 from the line isn't good. Was second to Oscar with 8 rebounds and led the team in assists with 5, on 2 turnovers. His block was sweet as well. Without his 36 minutes we lose. Got called for 2 really bad fouls, well actually not fouls. Was easily the best we had to offer.
Chris Livingston C Tough grade here. Only played 7 minutes, which is one less than Onyenso! I thought he played hard and tough. This was an ideal game for him yet his opportunity was limited which is even more discouraging considering Cal comments following last game. He had a better +/- than any starter (+6) which is a take if for what its worth thing. Only 1 rebound and 2 points.
CJ Fredrick C Manage to sink a trey with some kind help from a friendly rim. All three of his shots were treys. Played 15 minutes and got an assist to go with the 3 points.
Lance Ware I/C I would have loved to see him sub in for Oscar rather than Onyenso. Let Lance beat on the BUMF (big ugly ....... ......) for a good 5-10 minutes. He wouldn't have needed to score, just physically work over Dickenson. Instead he played 2 minutes and provided zero stats.
Antonio Reeves B- As a team we need to get him, CJ and Wallace open looks. We don't. That does not just fall on the player. In 26 minutes he hit 3 of his 4 treys and 2 pointer for 11 points. His assist to turnovers was "upside down" with more TO (3) than assists (2) but he did grab 4 rebounds.
Adou Thiero DNP
Ugonna Onyenso C+ Physically over matched in this one. A boy vs a man. Had to be 50#wt difference there, and 3 years of experience. To his credit he held his own. In 8 minutes he grabbed 2 rebounds and 4 pts on a basket and 2 FT, and his FT% led the team. Of course his bread and butter is the blocks. He provided 2.
Daimion Collins C The good? 5 rebounds in 13 minutes. The bad? Everything else. 0-2 shooting from the field. 1-2 from the line. Still looks uncomfortable out there.
Oscar Tshiebwe C+ Tough grade for a player with a double double. His 13 pts and 14 rebounds are typical Oscar numbers. However weaknesses exposed were defense where he has zero idea how to deal with a pick and roll, as well as being the ultimate black hole center. Too often the perimeter shooters like CJ, Antonio and Cason were open with the ball in the lane in Oscars hands. There was never a consideration for it coming back out for open shot.
Sahvir Wheeler C- A pg has to make free throws, he doesn't. He was 2-6 with 2 of those being front ends. He also needs to set the tempo, which one would expect with his speed and quickness you would expect a fast pace. Instead we repeatedly see shots going up with 3-7 seconds on the shot clock. Props for the 7 assists but I can't get over the late game breakdowns. Led the team in minutes with 37.
Coaching C For all the times Cal talks about tempo, maybe he should stop with putting on the breaks. Didn't really have a game plan for when Oscar was out and what to do with a mediocre big man. We had zero idea on how to attack a zone defense....other than have Savhir dribble for 10 seconds, pass, get it back then dribble 10 seconds, then force up a shot while driving the lane. That isn't an game plan or an effective offense.
Officials D Hope these are the worse of the year, but I doubt it. They were DJ Carstensen, Joe Lindsey and Courtney Green. Of course we are familiar with Joe Lindsey who usually does a credible job. Today there were some bad calls. 2 fouls on Wallace were jokes. The first on the trey where the shooter stuck out his leg, and then the noncontact injury before the noncontact foul. Oscar got called for 2 bad one including the BUMF flop. However we also benefited from some real cheapies, and I'm not including the Toppin out of bounds as he was pushed.
Commentators B Guess they don't have good soft serve in England. IMO it was better than most Bilas game as he didn't go on some rant about officials.
Other Disappointed in the attendance of 8242 but it was late Sunday night in England, and going up against the home country's World Cup game. Stat wise, we shot 46.6 overall but a staggering 60% from long range. Our 3 pt shooting surpassed out free throw shooting where we only hit 50%. Contrasted to MI who we held to 39% overall and 40% from long range. We won the glass battle by 1 (34-33), assist by 5 (17 to 12) and points (all that matters). They beat us with steals (4-3) and blocks (5-3). Our bench did not come thru as they only provided 10 points overall. MI took 6 more shots than us but our better percentage game us 2 more baskets than them.
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