Scrimmage

[Bearcat_NTS]

Seems like some very mixed reviews. Not sure what to take away from the scrimmage.

I still have a hard time believing Jenifer will play any kind of significant minutes. Cronin spent the whole year last year talking about getting him more minutes...never happened. I'm going to go with the "believe when I see it" approach with this team I guess.

We only have three guards on the team and two wings. That's a major concern. If Jenifer isn't going to play, we are in big trouble.

 

[[email protected]]

Seems like some very mixed reviews. Not sure what to take away from the scrimmage.

I still have a hard time believing Jenifer will play any kind of significant minutes. Cronin spent the whole year last year talking about getting him more minutes...never happened. I'm going to go with the "believe when I see it" approach with this team I guess.

He has to. There are only essentially 5 guards for 3 spots.

 

[L-T]

We only have three guards on the team and two wings. That's a major concern. If Jenifer isn't going to play, we are in big trouble.

Exactly! The Caupain/Johnson combo worries me with how it will impact our offensive flow. I don't think Troy is a good enough point guard and I don't think KJ is a good enough 2-guard. Too much of that combo will cause our offense to look more like the anemic offenses of the past. I don't think either guard is creative enough or effective enough passing the ball to give us a significantly better offensive presence and flow than we've seen in the past. Hope I'm wrong. And, I realize that Troy is a 1st team all-league player, so that makes my statement about him sound crazy. He just doesn't pass my point guard eye test. Cane Broome does pass my eye test, but that is irrelevant this year.

 

[Bcatfollower]

He has to. There are only essentially 5 guards for 3 spots.

We don't have to play three guards though. You could have clark, scott, Washington in the game at the same time, or insert moore in there. Plenty of combinations.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

We don't have to play three guards though. You could have clark, scott, Washington in the game at the same time, or insert moore in there. Plenty of combinations.

No chance in hell.

 

[Bcatfollower]

No chance in hell.

Go on record saying that? I don't think you'll ever see caupain and jenifer in the game at the same time.

 

[[email protected]]

Exactly! The Caupain/Johnson combo worries me with how it will impact our offensive flow. I don't think Troy is a good enough point guard and I don't think KJ is a good enough 2-guard. Too much of that combo will cause our offense to look more like the anemic offenses of the past. I don't think either guard is creative enough or effective enough passing the ball to give us a significantly better offensive presence and flow than we've seen in the past. Hope I'm wrong. And, I realize that Troy is a 1st team all-league player, so that makes my statement about him sound crazy. He just doesn't pass my point guard eye test. Cane Broome does pass my eye test, but that is irrelevant this year.

Stinks that, arguably our best player didn't play and our best freshman in recent years. What's was your thoughts on KW?

 

[[email protected]]

We don't have to play three guards though. You could have clark, scott, Washington in the game at the same time, or insert moore in there. Plenty of combinations.

True, but none of those guys can handle the ball

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Go on record saying that? I don't think you'll ever see caupain and jenifer in the game at the same time.

My no chance in hell was to Clark, Scott and Washington playing at the same time.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

No chance in hell.

I just feel like Caupain will be the PG anytime he is in...which will obviously be a lot.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

My point on Broome isn't that he isn't good, it's that he looked selfish. This is college ball and we play half court basketball. Lance Stephenson struggled here because he didn't work within the confines of team ball all the time. If cane Broome plays one on five out there, we won't win a lot of games. He can score 30 a game and we still won't win a lot of games. There were a few times he put his head down and forgot his teammates and just took it upon himself to score. That was my critique of him. He was selfish. I want my pg to make his team better. It's great he has good ball skills and can beat a man off the dribble. That's easy to defend in college. My point is when we gets in trouble on offense, will he dish the ball or throw up a bad shot just to get his shot off? Based on very limited looks from him in one scrimmage, I saw a guy that would rather put up a bad shot to get his than feed an open teammate. Could be wrong, but that was my observation.

 

[UCBearcats]

Seems like some very mixed reviews. Not sure what to take away from the scrimmage.

I still have a hard time believing Jenifer will play any kind of significant minutes. Cronin spent the whole year last year talking about getting him more minutes...never happened. I'm going to go with the "believe when I see it" approach with this team I guess.

Don't take anything away from it. It's a scrimmage, anyone taking anything away from it is lying to themselves.

 

[2bearcatdad]

Exactly! The Caupain/Johnson combo worries me with how it will impact our offensive flow. I don't think Troy is a good enough point guard and I don't think KJ is a good enough 2-guard. Too much of that combo will cause our offense to look more like the anemic offenses of the past. I don't think either guard is creative enough or effective enough passing the ball to give us a significantly better offensive presence and flow than we've seen in the past. Hope I'm wrong. And, I realize that Troy is a 1st team all-league player, so that makes my statement about him sound crazy. He just doesn't pass my point guard eye test. Cane Broome does pass my eye test, but that is irrelevant this year.

You are obviously impressed with the sizzle factor. You downplay Troy's effectiveness and contributions even though his line in the game was quite good; 19 points on 5-11 & 3-4, NINE rebounds, 6-6 from the line, 3 assists. Broome had 16 points on 6-15 & 2-5, don't know how many rebounds (but I'd bet it wasn't close to 9), 2-2 from the line, don't know about assists.

So, on paper, Troy clearly outplayed Cane. But your take is that Cane is a superstar and Troy may hold back this team.

So the difference must be the sizzle. You fell in love with JJ last year for the same reason. Lots of quickness, moves, shake and bake, etc.

Don't get me wrong - I think JJ will be much better this year and will be a significant contributor to this team for the next 3 years. I'm sure I'll love Canes's game too. I would love to have a point guard out of the mold of Kemba Walker. However, I think your continued criticism of Troy because his game lends itself to a different style is unfair in my opinion.

I'll take a team with Troy at the point and you can have either Cane or JJ running yours. I'd like my chances in that matchup. One of your guys may do something that ends up on Sportscenter, but my guess is I'll win the game.

Here's hoping they're all studs.

Go Cats!

 

[david aka the TYZ]

Don't take anything away from it. It's a scrimmage, anyone taking anything away from it is lying to themselves.

Exactly it's one scrimmage. The young guys were trying to showcase themselves while the veteran starters were kind of going through the motions. I will say JJ did look a little more comfortable in the half court offense than last year. When he shot it was from off a pass, not just throwing up a shot. Also made some nice passes in the half court, not the open court which is what we saw last year from him.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

You are obviously impressed with the sizzle factor. You downplay Troy's effectiveness and contributions even though his line in the game was quite good; 19 points on 5-11 & 3-4, NINE rebounds, 6-6 from the line, 3 assists. Broome had 16 points on 6-15 & 2-5, don't know how many rebounds (but I'd bet it wasn't close to 9), 2-2 from the line, don't know about assists.

So, on paper, Troy clearly outplayed Cane. But your take is that Cane is a superstar and Troy may hold back this team.

So the difference must be the sizzle. You fell in love with JJ last year for the same reason. Lots of quickness, moves, shake and bake, etc.

Don't get me wrong - I think JJ will be much better this year and will be a significant contributor to this team for the next 3 years. I'm sure I'll love Canes's game too. I would love to have a point guard out of the mold of Kemba Walker. However, I think your continued criticism of Troy because his game lends itself to a different style is unfair in my opinion.

I'll take a team with Troy at the point and you can have either Cane or JJ running yours. I'd like my chances in that matchup. One of your guys may do something that ends up on Sportscenter, but my guess is I'll win the game.

Here's hoping they're all studs.

Go Cats!

I agree with your point. I think some people get too wrapped up in someone's ball skills or their ability to beat a man off the dribble or how often they dunk on somebody in their highlight reels. At the end of the day it's college ball and mick plays to the half court. Regardless of how fast you play, what style you play, you still get the ball the same number of times as your opponent. So play efficiently to your talent. Basketball is as much a chess match as it is ball skills. With that said, our staff definitely could be better at the chess side on offense. I think we have a good enough mix of talent this year and will play good selfless team ball and I think our offense will be much more effective this year. Defense, we'll be fine. Last year was one of the uglier years on defense in my eyes and based on stats we were one of the better defenses in the country still.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Tobler is going to be a huge weapon off the bench hitting corner 3's this season

 

[L-T]

You are obviously impressed with the sizzle factor. You downplay Troy's effectiveness and contributions even though his line in the game was quite good; 19 points on 5-11 & 3-4, NINE rebounds, 6-6 from the line, 3 assists. Broome had 16 points on 6-15 & 2-5, don't know how many rebounds (but I'd bet it wasn't close to 9), 2-2 from the line, don't know about assists.

So, on paper, Troy clearly outplayed Cane. But your take is that Cane is a superstar and Troy may hold back this team.

So the difference must be the sizzle. You fell in love with JJ last year for the same reason. Lots of quickness, moves, shake and bake, etc.

Don't get me wrong - I think JJ will be much better this year and will be a significant contributor to this team for the next 3 years. I'm sure I'll love Canes's game too. I would love to have a point guard out of the mold of Kemba Walker. However, I think your continued criticism of Troy because his game lends itself to a different style is unfair in my opinion.

I'll take a team with Troy at the point and you can have either Cane or JJ running yours. I'd like my chances in that matchup. One of your guys may do something that ends up on Sportscenter, but my guess is I'll win the game.

Here's hoping they're all studs.

Go Cats!

Troy has been the floor general for this dynamic offense for the last three years. Not only has our offenses been atrocious, the teams that he has led have been largely disappointing. To contrast, Xavier brings in a point guard with sizzle, and he is all the national media wants to talk about. They're calling him a sure NBA 1ST ROUND draft pick. They were a top 5 team last year and are ranked there again in the preseason. You can have Troy. I'll take the true point guards any day. Of course, the coach has to coach-up whoever the point guard is......not make him look over to the bench for a play call every trip down the floor.

 

[L-T]

Stinks that, arguably our best player didn't play and our best freshman in recent years. What's was your thoughts on KW?

I like him a lot. He is a little too much in love with shooting outside, but we'll see if that continues once the season starts. He seems to have a great attitude and that should have a better impact during games than what we got out of Ellis and his unpredictable personality.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

Tobler is going to be a huge weapon off the bench hitting corner 3's this season

Well it was against our own D and that was our Achilles heel last year....

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Tobler is going to be a huge weapon off the bench hitting corner 3's this season

Haha that'd be awesome.