Report Card-UL

By: Ronald "Doc" Ball

General Impressions We played a bad team, albeit not as bad as I thought, but still looked much improved. Our offensive movement was better but still needs to improve. Defensively, we seemed to switch less with is also a good thing. Still a very poor distribution of minutes as we had 4 players play 35 minutes or more in a game we won by 23. I get the extended minutes for Jacob but not anybody else.

Jacob Toppin A In 35 minutes, Jacob managed 15 shots, most on the team, making 10 of them, to tie with Oscar on shots made, grabbed 7 rebounds and 24 points. He was looking for and making those mid range jumpers that are so often available. His energy was up and he had a few defensive stops, something we've not seen in some time. Kudos to the comeback.

Cason Wallace A- Was 6-8 in his 37 plus minutes of action, to tally 17 points. His 5 rebounds was a nice contribution as were the 2 assists to no turnovers. He led the team with a couple made treys on 4 attempts while hitting 3-4 from the line which is a nice improvement.

Oscar Tshiebwe B+ Matched Jacob in pts (24) and made baskets (10) while grabbing 14 rebounds. However the abysmal free throw shooting once again reared its ugly head as he only hit 4 of 9. His nearly 37 minutes also gave us a team high 5 turnovers. His 2 assists should not be overlooked. Not sure if that is a product of him looking to pass or UL's decision to not drop 5 guys on him when he touched the ball.

Sahvir Wheeler B A team leading 39 minutes, managed 9 assists and 4 turnovers, to go with 7 pts on 2-6 shooting (1-3 from long range). Shooting 33% isn't what you need from a starter. On the positive, he did hit both his FT, thus the only player to be perfect from the line. Going back to the playing time, this is moronic. Based on last season, he is a bit "frail" anyway so lets run him 39 minutes in a 23 pt win. Its D-U-M-B, dumb. I realize I am preaching mostly to the choir, but those who do advocate this much playing time, don't use any excuses come March when we look either tired or hurt.

Antonio Reeves C Managed 5 points in his 16 1/2 minutes on 1 of 4 shooting (0-3) and 3 of 4 from the line. Seems to be forcing it quite a bit.

Chris Livingston B- Fell victim to Jacobs outstanding game by limiting his playing time to 20 minutes. Still the effort was there and we had some positive results. He battled well on the glass, managed to shoot 2-6 including 1-3 from long ranges, identical to Wheelers. No FT attempts and did grab 3 rebounds. I would have liked to see him more a the 2/3 spot to rest Cason and Wheeler a bit (play Cason at the pt)

CJ Fredrick

Lance Ware C He has a role, he plays it. Had a basket in his only attempt. He gave 3 fouls.....that's his role.

Adou Thiero C 7 minutes, no stats. No shots, no rebounds, no assists, no fouls, etc.... I am still confused as to those who see him as 1) a major contributor or 2) a PF.

Ugonna Onyenso C Would have liked a few more minutes to see what he can do against a player he can compete against. His stat line was the same as Thiero's, only he did it in 2 minutes

Daimion Collins C+ He got the + because he managed a basket in his minutes. The idea to throw him a lob was ingenious. Is this the tweak we have been waiting for?????

Coaching B Mixed bag here. Just the turn around in Toppin garners a high grade. Adding the more sedate sideline approach that many reported, helps too. On the low grade side, PT distribution is horrible. Collins is going to get no confidence playing 2 minutes, nor is Onyenso or Thiero etc... and come March when Oscar and Sav are breaking down, we will know why. It happened last year with Washington (avg 29 mpg), Grady (avg 33 mpg) and Wheeler (31 mpg). No reason to believe it won't happen again.

Officials C Joe Lindsey, Pat Adams, Ron Groover didn't make fools of themselves, something that is the norm for Pat Adams. Apparently traveling is a non-point of interest. And I guess we got our yearly 3 second call in there.

Commentators B High grade despite my dislike for Bill "Tourettes syndrome" Raftery. Simply not talking about ICE CREAM helps. Jay Wright is a pleasure to listen to. Knowledgeable and not annoying, he does not need to be the focus....and yes, I am a Jay Wright homer!

Other Our FT shooting is horrible. 64% is going to cost you games, plain and simple. For the game, we shot an outstanding 60% from the field despite a disappointing 30% from long range. Looking at the shot chart, seems we shoot much better from the right side of the floor when shooting treys. We hit 4 of 5 from the right side (2-2 on the baseline corner, and 2-3 from the side). Contrasted to the left side and straight out where he hit 0-8. May just be an anomaly but will try to see if this is a trend. Our most efficient lineup was Oscar, Toppin, Livingston, Wallace and Wheeler which was on the floor as a group for just over 14 minutes and had a plus 17 scoring differential. The least effective was Oscar, Toppin, Thiero, Reeves, Wallace and Wheeler (-3 in 2:45) and Oscar, Ware, Livingston, Wallace and Wheeler (also -3 in 2:04). We dominated the glass 33-20, and assists by 18 to 5 (how does a team play 40 minutes and have 5 assists?). Turnovers was 12 for us and 15 for them. We only managed one block, that by Reeves.