Cleveland State

[Queens_NYC]

Thursday, November 10th, 2022
8:00 PM
Fifth Third Arena
ESPN+

The Bearcats' first D1 opponent of the regular season will make the 3.5 hour trip down I-71 to Clifton today and participate in the second part of a basketball double header which will feature the women's team taking on Tennessee Tech at 5 pm.

The Vikings are coming off a 20-11 21/22 season and are led by first-year head coach Daniyal Robinson who was previously an assistant coach at Iowa State.

Cleveland State also opened their season against a D2 opponent earlier this week but did not fare nearly as well as UC. They blew a double-digit lead with 6 minutes to go in the game and lost 72-68 to Notre Dame College (also located in Cleveland).

6'8 junior wing and Iowa State transfer Tristan Enaruna contributed 20 points and 11 rebounds. The team shot 4/17 from 3 and an abysmal 8/18 from the FT line.

The Bearcats are 20-point favorites.

 

[sirthought]

Thanks for framing these up, Queens.

 

[skyblade]

Early game makes it look like there's reason to be concerned about our defense and rebounding.

 

[sedziobs]

Davenport getting some run at the 3 here.

 

[sirthought]

pretty bad, honestly

 

[Queens_NYC]

Davenport had a nightmare of a half on defense.

We look really disjointed on offense.

 

[skyblade]

What we learned (in a one game sample size):

DDJ is our best player. Though you could make an argument for Lakhin. Nolley is a distant third.

Lakhin is our most important player. There is no room for debate with this statement. Lakhin's backups (Ody and Kalu) were both disasters on the floor. Late in the game Wes went with Ody over Kalu and Ody proceeded to stink it up, but it's a sign he sees the problem. Lakhin better work on his endurance as I foresee him getting far closer to 30 minutes than I would have thought before the season. It might be worth giving Hensley minutes at the 5, but Hensley could also perhaps use more minutes at the 4 if Davenport continues to play like he did tonight.

 

[Queens_NYC]

Very shaky opening 30 minutes. Much better final 10.

I guess what was most concerning was seeing a number of returning players revert back to their worst selves from last season.

Davenport - poor shot selection and horrible defense

MAW - passenger on offense for most of the game

Ody - completely out of sync for the second game in a row

On the bright side, Lakhin and DDJ both played phenomenally.

Nolley can score double figures in his sleep but we'll need him to be more efficient against better teams.

Hensley provided a nice energy boost off the bench.

 

[sirthought]

I wish that when they are struggling against a pushed defense like this that the coach would make them run more set plays. At least then there are plans for where people are supposed to be instead of guys guessing their spots for the system.

 

[TheLongHaul]

I wish that when they are struggling against a pushed defense like this that the coach would make them run more set plays. At least then there are plans for where people are supposed to be instead of guys guessing their spots for the system.

I hope Miller's recruiting continues to get better and better because his coaching leaves a ton to be desired. The number of terrible long two-pointers his teams continue to take is terrible and defense they have no clue what they are doing.

There was zero reason for Davenport to be out there in the 2nd half. Especially when they had a decent lead and really needed defense. I love the kid, but he is pretty bad at everything besides being a streaky shooter.

Landers is fun to watch.

 

[TheLivingLegend]

Pretty tough game to watch.

We have issues stopping the dribble drive, zero rim protection when it's broke down and rebounding.

Vik played well.

DD is still the guy.

If davenport is going to continue to take horrible shots he needs to sit.

Hensley showed a spark. If he wants minutes he needs to become a rebounding machine. That's how he finds minutes.

 

[waterhead]

It's way too early yet for too many hot takes. I remember last year Vik looked like an all star early on. He still looks a little lost on the double. But he does a lot of good things right and I hope he keeps it going this year. When he hits the meat of the schedule he has to figure out how to play that double.

In terms of plus minus so far Kalu is the only player well behind the rest in terms of positive points and minutes played. Two games yes...but he's only +2 in games we won by 43 and 11 points. Everyone else (non walk ons) are at +13 (Newman one game) or above. I don't know what's going on when he's on the court but so far it hasn't been good. I hope that changes very soon.

 

[waterhead]

I wish that when they are struggling against a pushed defense like this that the coach would make them run more set plays. At least then there are plans for where people are supposed to be instead of guys guessing their spots for the system.

I think Wes was quoted at half time as saying "they aren't letting us get into our plays". And I think that was obvious. They had ball pressure out to half court and it was very good ball pressure (and traps). What I think we needed were guards or anyone who could break through that front line of D. DDJ was one of the only one's who could do that consistently. I think Nolley will be okay at it but the PG's are a concern right now.

 

[skyblade]

It's way too early yet for too many hot takes. I remember last year Vik looked like an all star early on. He still looks a little lost on the double. But he does a lot of good things right and I hope he keeps it going this year. When he hits the meat of the schedule he has to figure out how to play that double.

In terms of plus minus so far Kalu is the only player well behind the rest in terms of positive points and minutes played. Two games yes...but he's only +2 in games we won by 43 and 11 points. Everyone else (non walk ons) are at +13 (Newman one game) or above. I don't know what's going on when he's on the court but so far it hasn't been good. I hope that changes very soon.

I'd argue that Chaminade should not count stats wise. Only games vs D1 teams should count. EvanMiya only counts the Cleveland State game.

It's too early to read much into +/- or other numbers. +/- is not very accurate over a small sample size because it is heavily influenced by luck.

EvanMiya has Kalu as worst on the team in offensive efficiency, at 72.6, below Phinisee who is at 79.5 (Hensley is third worst at 91.0). This hints he has had bad luck. They are both probably at least 15-20 points lower right now than they end up at the end of the season.

How much is bad luck and how much is bad play we'll find out as the sample size gets larger. Both Kalu and Phinisee were among the worst of their team in offensive efficiency last year (and defensive as well in Kalu's case).

 

[skyblade]

The PG's and backup centers are the biggest concerns. Vik still needs to improve in some aspects, but with his potential I'd say let him play through it even if we had someone close to his level on the team. With this team it seems like there's no choice but to let him learn on the go, Ody/Kalu have been bad.

I still think DDJ at PG is the way to go. MAW has improved, but probably not enough to justify playing him over Newman/Hensley. Phinisee just doesn't really offer anything on offense.

 

[waterhead]

I'd argue that Chaminade should not count stats wise. Only games vs D1 teams should count. EvanMiya only counts the Cleveland State game.

It's too early to read much into +/- or other numbers. +/- is not very accurate over a small sample size because it is heavily influenced by luck.

EvanMiya has Kalu as worst on the team in offensive efficiency, at 72.6, below Phinisee who is at 79.5 (Hensley is third worst at 91.0). This hints he has had bad luck. They are both probably at least 15-20 points lower right now than they end up at the end of the season.

How much is bad luck and how much is bad play we'll find out as the sample size gets larger. Both Kalu and Phinisee were among the worst of their team in offensive efficiency last year (and defensive as well in Kalu's case).

Well this is the 4th and 5th year for a lot of these guys. We can look at all the metrics we want on Rob and Kalu etc. I am familiar with the problems of small sample sizes it's just some preliminary info that seems to agree with a much longer trend that covers years. Kalu has not been good on D overall but I thought maybe Wes could get something extra out of him. Rob has never been very good on offense and I was not expecting that to change.

 

[waterhead]

The PG's and backup centers are the biggest concerns. Vik still needs to improve in some aspects, but with his potential I'd say let him play through it even if we had someone close to his level on the team. With this team it seems like there's no choice but to let him learn on the go, Ody/Kalu have been bad.

I still think DDJ at PG is the way to go. MAW has improved, but probably not enough to justify playing him over Newman/Hensley. Phinisee just doesn't really offer anything on offense.

Vik has the advantage in a lot of areas. Probably the best rebounder, might be the best scorer, Likely best shot blocker, he's the tallest, Has the best instincts etc. Wes says he's been the best on both sides of the ball (but he may have been last year too). He fell off pace last year and I hope like hell the real version is more like what we are seeing now and early last year. But the real test for Vik will be in Maui. He can pass the ball too (behind the back) but he just has to figure out how to Gary Clark that double down and battle inside with bigger dudes. I like what I have seen so far.

 

[skyblade]

Well this is the 4th and 5th year for a lot of these guys. We can look at all the metrics we want on Rob and Kalu etc. I am familiar with the problems of small sample sizes it's just some preliminary info that seems to agree with a much longer trend that covers years. Kalu has not been good on D overall but I thought maybe Wes could get something extra out of him. Rob has never been very good on offense and I was not expecting that to change.

Yeah I agree, the trend does not look good. It's actually surprising how much one games worth of data follows last years trends for quite a few guys.

Some other trends from last year that continued into game one:

Davenport was our top player in +/- and on-off margin, despite most thinking he played poorly.

MAW was also one of our top players.

DDJ was negative in on-off margin and barely positive in efficiency.

Ody was very positive on offense and very negative on defense.

 

[TheLongHaul]

In terms of plus minus so far Kalu is the only player well behind the rest in terms of positive points and minutes played. Two games yes...but he's only +2 in games we won by 43 and 11 points. Everyone else (non walk ons) are at +13 (Newman one game) or above. I don't know what's going on when he's on the court but so far it hasn't been good. I hope that changes very soon.

I thought Kalu played well the first game and obviously not so much against CSU. If the stats show JD having a net positive game then I think it's time to start questioning the stats. That may have been one of his worst games as a Bearcat. He was absolutely abused on defense. His one good play (block) came after a dumb play (saving the ball under your own basket)

I think Wes was quoted at half time as saying "they aren't letting us get into our plays". And I think that was obvious. They had ball pressure out to half court and it was very good ball pressure (and traps). What I think we needed were guards or anyone who could break through that front line of D. DDJ was one of the only one's who could do that consistently. I think Nolley will be okay at it but the PG's are a concern right now.

One of our PG's isn't quick and can't dribble to his right. Every team should be pressuring us. Wes needs to figure that out, it wasn't any different last year.

 

[skyblade]

I thought Kalu played well the first game and obviously not so much against CSU. If the stats show JD having a net positive game then I think it's time to start questioning the stats. That may have been one of his worst games as a Bearcat. He was absolutely abused on defense. His one good play (block) came after a dumb play (saving the ball under your own basket)

Wes gave Davenport the game ball post game, apparently he doesn't give out game balls every game. Said something like Davenport continued to play hard and do the right things despite missing shots.

If Wes says that, perhaps the fans are missing something. One is that the matchup was simply a bad one for him. The other is likely that the rest of the defense wasn't rotating or helping properly.

It's interesting that the +/- reflects Wes's view. I think I'll believe him, even if I saw Davenport get beat with my own eyes. I said last year and continue to think this year that Davenport stands out because when he gets beat, it's very obvious (straight up man-to-man). But I suspect that he doesn't get enough credit for when he does get stops (his man finished 7-19 shooting) or for his help defense.