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Friday, October 26, 2007

My impressions - MU men's hoops intra-squad scirmmage

If you also attended, post your remarks in comments....

When all was said in done it is my general impression that the lineups, exceptions of Jhamar and Coleman, rotations may vary from game-to-game (heck, minute to minute).

But I thought I saw some separation in the rotation today....

Guards. - Coleman and Jhamar, though Whitney did not shoot well and was not playing all that well - period - until making a flurry of 3s in like the fourth session. But if he's not going to have a good year, well....you don't even want to consider that .

For my money I like Alex Nunner at the point in at this stage over Hett. Hett and (forward) Nick DelTufo both looked very much like freshmen today.

I think Hett will develop into a good, maybe very good point guard eventually. But right now Nunner is older, stronger, knows the offense and plays very good defense. I'm not asking Nunner to score though he does have that 3-point potential- which so far has gone mostly unfulfilled.

Guards Yaniv Simspon and frosh Ron Rutlegde both had moments of hot streaks. Simpson of course is older (what is he -45? - kidding), but Rutldge is very athletic. A very fine prospect.

Centers/forwards -in my opinion - of the players who have returned- Shawn Barlow is the surprise of preseason. Dunks the ball, makes some nice passes, has a feathery baby hook. Frankly - I don't know how good (or bad) he is on defense. But on a team that may be offensively challanged - looks to score.


Rickie Crews - thrives in transition but struggles mightily in the half court. Is so long and athletic, can rebound and block shots.

Of the new faces - freshman George Barbour very physical and aggressively impressive. Most people who I have talked to say - and this is also my opinion - he is more advanced in his game - at this stage of his career- than Blake Hamilton. What this translates into remains to be seen.

So...if I had to start the season today..my lineup is Nunner, Whit, and Jhamar at guards, combination of Hett, Rutledge, Simpson off the bench.


Up front it's between Barlow, Rickie, and Barbour for two spots (in this alignment). I tend to bring Rickie off the bench right now as a spark plug...subject to change...

Dobriansky and Dutch - reserves, spot duty.


They had one lineup of Whit, Jhamar, Double R (Rutledge), Barbour, and Rickie which was very athletic and rockets up and down the court like a missle ..but who's the PG....? Maybe you use that group with Nunner instead of Rutledge for more expierence and steadieness?

As I said - much of this season may be one of lineup transition in many areas....

MU hosts William Paterson in its only preseason game 4 p.m. next Sunday....

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tony I didn't get to attend the scrimmage today.

How did they look and who are the starters?

ps How about that football game!!!

2:48 PM, October 27, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

tony,
what type of crowd do you expect on sunday? will you be there? tough going up against pats-colts game...

10:13 PM, October 29, 2007  
Blogger Tony Graham said...

These games don't usually draw a heck of a lot, even in anticipated good years.


I will be there and I'm very curious to see how they look.

They also have a closed scrimmage at Lafayette Thursday night.

I'll try to have Dave give us some info on that..

10:21 PM, October 29, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lafayette scrimmage NOT open to the public, correct?

10:10 PM, October 30, 2007  
Blogger Tony Graham said...

The scrimmage is at Lafayette and is not open to the public...

12:12 AM, October 31, 2007  

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