Definitely agree there. I really like where we are at guard and wing. If Miller can defend the block I think this team has a chance to be pretty good.

bobinator said:

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Definitely agree there. I really like where we are at guard and wing. If Miller can defend the block I think this team has a chance to be pretty good.

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Based on one game overreaction I think Aku and Marfo should get about 18 minutes (combined) on nights where we play teams with a ton of size.

Hefner adding some shooting to the perimeter just makes the other perimeter guys better.

Diarra showed nice versatility. Nice to have a legit lead guard to the mix.

Jackson was just awesome. Definitely need to see a few more games and better comp before getting too excited, but what a great start.

I think letting Gordon play less of his minutes at the PG will make him a much better player.

Definitely going to need more out of Marfo/Aku. Not unusual for bigs to struggle in these early season games against smaller/quicker competition.

Liked the small ball line up.

Shooting! Making some 3's makes the game so much easier.

We look thin. Missing weight room time showed. Have multiple guys that need some weight.

Fun first game.

It's against the intent of this thread, but I wonder if Marfo is the kind of guy that will actually rebound better against bigger players than he does against smaller ones.

bg92 said:

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We look thin. Missing weight room time showed. Have multiple guys that need some weight.

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I was wondering if this is actually intentional for some guys. Flagg especially looks a lot different. Maybe carrying less weight will help him later in games? He's listed at the same weight he was last year but he looks thinner.

If we overreact then Flagg is our "2015 Draymond Green from Golden State"...our best rebounder and assist leader...cherry on the cake is that he knocks down about 2 or 3 three point shots per game at about ~40% rate.

I'm not really sure that's overreacting. I kind of expect him to lead us in assists, or at least be very close, and I think he'll only trail Miller in rebounding.

Diarra reminds me of Caruso. Also, we really need a post man we can play through like Nebo.

Hefner and Diarra were definitely ahead of where most of our freshmen usually are to begin the season.

Diarra showed us what we hoped we would be getting. So happy that he played with that much confidence in his first game.

Hoping that Hefner can be a smaller, better shooting version of Nathan Walkup. He was very active in blocking out and way more aggressive than I anticipated. If he can get stronger without affecting his shot, he could prove to be an under rated prospect.

Bradford was active on the court but looked unsure of himself to me.

Other threads talked about how thin Robinson was since he still should be in HS, but he also looked soooooo young out there. Was not intimidated and not afraid to take his shot. Hopefully his few minutes will give him more confidence on Wednesday.

The returning players need to continue to lead by playing smart for 40 minutes and not have those 5-10 minute no-scoring droughts. Hopefully we can keep shooting like we did Sunday so those occur less often.

Getting Miller back (hopefully Wednesday) will be a big plus.

bobinator said:

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If Miller can defend the block I think this team has a chance to be pretty good.

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Fun fact: last year Wendell Mitchell had twice as many blocks (4) as Emmanuel Miller did (2) in roughly the same number of minutes.

I know blocks aren't the end all of defending the post, but we will have basically zero rim protection in our primary defense if that is our lineup.

Finally got a chance to watch the game today on replay.

- Jackson was a beast.

- Flagg had a solid all-around veteran game. Nothing 'flashed' about what he did on offense, with the exception of him keeping several offensive possessions alive. I looked at the box score and 6 assists, 11 boards, 9 points. Defensively, he took multiple charges. Really solid performance that you'd want from a senior leader.

- Gordon looked great.

- Aku, looks the part physically, nothing special jumped out but the guy actually scored his Aggie game high in this one (6 points).

- Chandler, hustled and played hard, but did seem to overdribble into traffic a bit too much (or jump into the air first and then try to figure out what he was going to do with the ball). Which kind of is what he is. I'm a Jay Jay fan though, and do believe he'll play a major role in us winning a big game or two.

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Diarra - Wow. Legit. I know just one game against a poor opponent but the on-ball defense (and the desire to play defense) looks elite. Showed some explosiveness with the dribble. Needs a lot of work it seems still on his shot, particularly if trying to shoot off the dribble, but a lot to like.

Hefner - Well...I guess we already have to drop any Alex Caruso comparisons, cause oh look a ''6'5" white guy'. Hefner doesn't look like the athlete or natural creator that Alex was, but this Hefner kid does seem to have better outside shot than Caruso entered the program with, and he played under control and within the flow of the game, no glaring mistakes.

Marfo - Did he play? Okay, I kid. But that does kind of sum up his first Aggie game, IMO.

Robinson/Bradford - Looked more like your typical fish in their first college D1 game, unlike Diarra and Hefner.

I'm not really all that worried about rim protection. What we need from him is to rebound the hell out of the ball. Last year his defensive rebounding was really good by the end of the year. In conference play he ended up being our best rebounder by almost a whole rebound per game over Nebo.

He needs to be able to keep guys away from the paint and force them into mid-range jumpers and then rebound the ball. It's probably going to be up to our charge-taking to stop the slashers and drivers.

We'll see what Marfo can give us, but based on the one game I think Miller is going to take most of those minutes.

The athlete thing on Hefner I'm not sure about. There was one play where the ball was coming off the back iron and it looked like he was trying to jump up there to punch it but there ended up being a foul. And he showed some athleticism keeping plays alive on loose balls.

Plus Alex was strange in that he's seemed to keep getting more athletic during his time here and into the NBA.

I think Hefner is going to need to add some weight so he can stand his ground on rebounds, but as he does I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be able to attack the rim a bit like a Nathan Walkup or a Josh Carter type.

Diarra and Hefner definitely were surprises. They played much better than what we normally have come to expect out of true fish. Hefner seemed to get lost a few times but overall did really well.

Throughout the game, I was wondering if the reason Cash is sitting out is because he saw the writing on the wall and we won't miss him at all.

This is the year!

I guess one negative overreaction is that Chandler is going to need to be a lot better than that if he wants to play significant minutes. He's always been kind of volatile and I have no doubt we'll win a game or two because he goes off but he played 20 minutes a game last year, he's not going to get those kind of minutes turning the ball over like that. He had 4 of our 19 turnovers in just 15 minutes.

bobinator said:

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I'm not really all that worried about rim protection.

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I don't think it has to be a major part of our defense, but has a team ever just punted on contesting shots at the rim and gone with a pure "try to draw a charge" interior defense?

If we can shoot close to 50% from the floor and 40% from the 3 point line as an average over the season, we'll make the tournament.

Well I don't think you're just punting, but the reality is that our primary post defenders aren't very good shot blockers and our secondary defenders are good charge takers.

Our main way to protect the rim is going to be trying not to let anyone get close to it. Miller, Marfo and Aku are going to need to try and push guys out of the paint so they can't receive passes on the block and we're going to have to rotate well into the lane to prevent guys from crashing toward the basket.

But on the occasions someone gets a head of steam and a clear lane with the ball and goes up for the rim we aren't going to be able to do much about it. Just make sure we don't foul and be glad dunks are only worth two points I guess.

Glad we got that game in. I think it's fair to claim it's a brand new day for men's basketball. I felt like we saw a lot to sort through. My overreaction is that we are in a much better place compared to year one. I saw a lot more discipline and a little too much of players in uncertain situations reverting to instinct. More work on getting the scheme and individual behaviors aligned. I'm glad we played an opponent that stayed on the floor the whole game. I think we will have less overreactions once we get to conference. At least in this direction!!!

So how good of a shooter is Hefner? I thought I remember Logan saying that he was a capable shooter but to think of him more as a tough tough, scrappy, athletic wing than a pure shooter.

But then I've seen other things to indicate he is actually a top notch shooter and shot something like 48 pct from three in summer ball.


I know he looked great but small sample size and visually you can't really tell the difference between a 35 pct shooter and a 45 pct shooter until you've seen at least 50 shots or so.

(Yes I recognize the irony of my post on a self styled overreaction thread).

I'm overreacting about McNeilly not playing. Geez, we'd be pretty salty.

I have no idea, but I liked that he didn't have any hesitation last night. Just fired away every chance he got.

bobinator said:

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We have a whole 40 minutes of evidence so let's hear some takes. Literally everything on this thread will have the caveat 'it's only one game, but...' so let's not worry about that.

Shoot from the hip.

For me:

- Hefner is WAY better than I expected him to be early. He was aggressive towards the ball, seemed to have a good grasp of his role on offense, and knocked down open shots. If he can keep doing that he's going to play a lot more than probably any of us expected.

- Really liked how we looked on offense when Diarra and Gordon were on the floor together.

- Jackson was obviously really good, but I was just as impressed with how good Gordon looked. He seemed to really level off last season, he only scored in double digits once in our last like 14 games, so it was good to see him have a really good game again. I really like his skill set.

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Despite the very limited data, I do think Diarra is the de facto starting PG, whether the starting lineup looks that way immediately or not. He showed signs of being a plus on-ball defender, and played under control and generally made smart plays offensively for his first college game. Really like what I saw from him, and I think most of that translates regardless of competition. I saw a sign or two that he may have to tighten his handles up a bit against more athletic defenders.

Hafner's stroke looked very smooth, and I liked his grit on the defensive end, and similar to Diarra he made heady plays and stayed under control for a true fish. Seemed to put himself in the right spots offensively. On defense his rotations were generally correct even if a bit slow. Overall, he showed some positive signs of being able to contribute enough in other areas that we should be able to keep his shooting on the floor for significant minutes.

Q looked great and has come a long way since he first got in the program. I'm not buying the 3 point shooting, but I do think he's taken his game to another level.

Those were by far my biggest takeaways.

Gordon looked good. I think getting to play off the ball is going to allow him to play more loose and confident. He also was a little gimpy the latter part of the season and looks better moving around.

I was a little disappointed that Aku didn't look more engaged and fluid, although he seemed to play a little looser later in the game.

Marfo looked the part and had one grown man rebound. Mostly an "incomplete" for him though.

Robinson looks like a guy who is playing a year earlier than planned, but gotta love that length.

Where do I find the replay?

Jackson and Diarra will be the best backcourt in the SEC .... of course it is my overreaction but I really loved Jackson, Diarra, Gordon and Hefner!

BusterAg said:

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Where do I find the replay?

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Watch ESPN site, go to Replay and then Sunday and then NCAA basketball and you'll find a link to the game.

Q has the skills and game to be first team all SEC and borderline 2nd or 3rd team all-American.

Did I do it right?

As raw as Robinson looked, he has a nose for the block on defense. His timing and reaction to shots going up shows he is a level of recruit above what we are used to. When he starts to fill out his body and get comfortable with college tempo and playing against much bigger players, I can see him being a heck of player.