Memphis Postgame Thoughts

[Jason94]

Newcomers looked pretty good overall - some looked like freshmen but there is a good amount of talent, Dort looked very physical and Dia and Smith had some moments. I did not see Shelby at all, and Lewis didn't really play - we actually used Thomas as the backup PG.

Of the transfers, they were about as expected - Manjon did a decent job at point - nothing fantastic, but very servicable as long as we aren't asking him to carry a heavy scoring load. Ansong is very athletic and would have been an impact college player could he either shoot the ball from outside or add 3-4 inches of height. Good energy and I hope he is not too badly injured.

The returners were pretty bad overall until the final 4 minutes when the game was essentially over. Lawrence looked the best of them outside of the fact that he was a little out of control and turned the ball over 4 time, and Stute kind of picked up from last season but hasn't looked to have taken a major step forward. Wright was a complete non-factor until the end and his final line is very misleading, even as mediocre as it was. Both of our centers were not great and rebounded the ball horribly (though this is true for nearly everybody). Very disappointing to get beaten on the boards so badly.

With Pippen gone we lost a large number of our shot attempts from the FT line, and it is disappointing to see us shoot poorly from there to boot. Overall a bad game and only some garbage buckets by the starters kept the game inside of 10 points, though the majority of the 2nd half we were down by 12-15 points. At least CJS has the depth to use the bench as a motivator for poor play, but we need the starters to play better.

[commadore]

I was watching Wright in the 2nd half. looked like he was moving in slow motion. He should be the MAN for us, but If he keeps playing like this he may not start long.

[OldDude]

Jason, I agree with pretty much all of your post except one point. Based solely on what I saw tonight, I think we are in trouble with Manjon at the point. I show him with 6 points, 3 assists and 1 rebound. I didn't feel he distributes well and chews up a lot of time dribbling pointlessly with feints of penetration into the paint which, given his size, aren't likely to yield much.

[Laker42]

I think Manjon will end up scoring a ton in the paint. They were just not falling for him. He was slashing and gettig good looks and putting the ball on the rim. Just didnt drop. But our bigmen couldn't score down there either

I hope 20 isnt hurt bad. Hes a dog with uber athleticism. He should have gotten more min before the injury

[Laker42]

I think Manjon will end up scoring a ton in the paint. They were just not falling for him. He was slashing and gettig good looks and putting the ball on the rim. Just didnt drop. But our bigmen couldn't score down there either

I hope 20 isnt hurt bad. Hes a dog with uber athleticism. He should have gotten more min before the injury

[Lynchsr]

Agree with your thoughts.

From the general eye test, Memphis appeared quicker and seemed to win the hustle plays. They out jumped VU in the rebound scrums.

Saying all of that IF Vandy had made ~90% (Memphis’s actual free throw percentage for the game) of their free throws (13 of 15) and Memphis shot ~60% (Vandy’s actual free throw percentage from the game) 11 of 19. Vandy would have won. This team CANNOT leave points on the floor by missing free throws.

[VUaskew]

I got the impression that missing a lot of shots inside early in the game got to the guys a little. Most of it was their length and athleticism, and others were just easy missed opportunities.

I feel like that the game will seem much slower to the guys next time around as a virtue of having played such a tough opening opponent. this game will help us evaluate where we much more than crushing Harrisburg Bible College or some of the other cupcakes being played tonight.

It was good to see:

a) Tyrin knocking down three-pointers
b) Ansong's activity on the boards. Not a wasted one-year scholarship just yet
c) Ezra's quickness. Most teams won't be as long and rangy. He will start making some of those shots in the paint.
d) Dort's volleyball spike of a block
e) the freshmen get their feet wet


It wasn't good to see:

a) Trey coming out and missing his first 4-5 shots.
b) our big men contributing so little
c) Noah Shelby not getting any PT. He was going to come in with 1:30 left in the game, but there were not any dead balls to get him in. I have to think he could eventually beat out Trey for PT, especially if he isn't hitting
d) Jordan's disappearing act early on, for which he tends to overcompensate later in the game by tryin gto do too much.

all in all, I really wasn't expecting to win the game, nor was I expecting a near-blowout. The guys did play hard, and that usually tends to get rewarded over time.

[Jason94]

I got the impression that missing a lot of shots inside early in the game got to the guys a little. Most of it was their length and athleticism, and others were just easy missed opportunities.

I feel like that the game will seem much slower to the guys next time around as a virtue of having played such a tough opening opponent. this game will help us evaluate where we much more than crushing Harrisburg Bible College or some of the other cupcakes being played tonight.

It was good to see:

a) Tyrin knocking down three-pointers
b) Ansong's activity on the boards. Not a wasted one-year scholarship just yet
c) Ezra's quickness. Most teams won't be as long and rangy. He will start making some of those shots in the paint.
d) Dort's volleyball spike of a block
e) the freshmen get their feet wet


It wasn't good to see:

a) Trey coming out and missing his first 4-5 shots.
b) our big men contributing so little
c) Noah Shelby not getting any PT. He was going to come in with 1:30 left in the game, but there were not any dead balls to get him in. I have to think he could eventually beat out Trey for PT, especially if he isn't hitting
d) Jordan's disappearing act early on, for which he tends to overcompensate later in the game by tryin gto do too much.

all in all, I really wasn't expecting to win the game, nor was I expecting a near-blowout. The guys did play hard, and that usually tends to get rewarded over time.

The good news is that it isn't difficult to see a scenario where we do play toe to toe with a Memphis - more aggressiveness and urgency from our starters would have been tremendously beneficial, including better effort on the boards from both our entire front court (primarily Stute, Wright, QMB and Robbins) on the glass. Lawrence had a lot of turnovers, but he was the one starter who played like the game meant something - he put up shots and they went down, and got to the line. He even grabbed a number of rebounds.

It took a while for Derrick Byars to take over the team as a senior. CJS has to have discussions with Wright, QMB, Robbins and Stute and make sure they understand that they have to lead for us to win. We weren't outmatched last night because Memphis beat us against our best effort. We played quite poorly IMO, which was most of the reason for the loss.

[Jason94]

Jason, I agree with pretty much all of your post except one point. Based solely on what I saw tonight, I think we are in trouble with Manjon at the point. I show him with 6 points, 3 assists and 1 rebound. I didn't feel he distributes well and chews up a lot of time dribbling pointlessly with feints of penetration into the paint which, given his size, aren't likely to yield much.

I think Memphis is a difficult matchup for Manjon, because Davis is a great player. He will have difficulty finishing in the same way he did at UC Davis, but he did what I expected him to do - as a 4th option, it really was not too bad, and he didn't turn the ball over. He isn't Pippen, but nobody was expecting him to be. We needed a gap to be filled at PG and he is what we reasonably can expect as an immediate fix for our current situation. We would have loved to have a player like Davis, but it is what it is. If we expect him to be a 13-15 ppg scorer like he was at UC Davis, then we are likely to be disappointed, but he is a definite improvement over what having Thomas or Lawrence at point would have looked like.

[Nashmann]

Disappointed in QMB & Robbins.....why do we always bring our bigs out guarding at the 3 pt line? No wonder they don't rebound well!!

[Vandamnit]

I thought Manjon had a great zip to his game. Kind of reminded me of Saben Lee's motor, and if 3-4 more of his layouts had fallen... I think we are going to see some good things down the road for this team. The young players have talent as do the transfers. And we've seen QMB and Wright play waaay better than this, so I think it was just an off night for them. Pippen is missed, but I think this will become a better team.

[geeznotagain]

Disappointed in QMB & Robbins.....why do we always bring our bigs out guarding at the 3 pt line? No wonder they don't rebound well!!

QMB played just 14 minutes, Robbins 15. Total = 29 minutes. Between the 2 of them they scored 11 points. For 29 minutes that's not half bad. Between the 2 of them they got 6 rebounds. That's sub-par, but not pewky bad. The big thing missing in my mind was their physicality and their ability to block or at least alter a few shots. On defense, it was almost like they were invisible.

[Nashmann]

Disappointed in QMB & Robbins.....why do we always bring our bigs out guarding at the 3 pt line? No wonder they don't rebound well!!

QMB played just 14 minutes, Robbins 15. Total = 29 minutes. Between the 2 of them they scored 11 points. For 29 minutes that's not half bad. Between the 2 of them they got 6 rebounds. That's sub-par, but not pewky bad. The big thing missing in my mind was their physicality and their ability to block or at least alter a few shots. On defense, it was almost like they were invisible.

Well, that was my point.... they kept coming out and guarding out near 3 pt line and left inside wide open for layups and putbacks!!

[Jason94]

Disappointed in QMB & Robbins.....why do we always bring our bigs out guarding at the 3 pt line? No wonder they don't rebound well!!

QMB played just 14 minutes, Robbins 15. Total = 29 minutes. Between the 2 of them they scored 11 points. For 29 minutes that's not half bad. Between the 2 of them they got 6 rebounds. That's sub-par, but not pewky bad. The big thing missing in my mind was their physicality and their ability to block or at least alter a few shots. On defense, it was almost like they were invisible.

It is more like 8 points in the first 28 minutes with 5 boards. Which is pretty bad considering they were a net minus on defense and the tallest players on the court. It is more noticeable with Wright, who had 4 points and 3 assists in the final 3 minutes of the game after it had been decided. Even with that padding his 7 point, 5 assist and 1 rebound night was definitely an issue. Wright averaged 12 points last year and needs to be around 15 this year for us to be considered a NCAA bubble team. The only player who seemed to understand and play with the urgency required was Ansong, and he got injured. He played 17 minutes and grabbed 5 rebounds by himself along with scoring 5 points despite being a 6'-4" player. So he almost out produced our two centers by himself.

It is reasonable to be disappointed with the performance and still think we can have a good team. I certainly saw enough talent and depth for us to get there. But some players have to realize that the team does rely upon them to perform every night and that there is no Pippen to defer to when the going gets tough. That is the main issue - we lost because the players we were counting on to come through for us largely did not. I would assume that CJS is able to get that message across and we'll see a much better performance against Temple (we should beat USM easily regardless), which is a game where it is about 50/50 since it is on the road.

[Foreverhopeful]

I heard that some of the freshman are still struggling with learning Stack's scheme/plays and that might be why Shelby didn't get to play.

I think we will improve a lot. It was fun to be back in Memorial.

[Laker42]

I think Manjon will end up scoring a ton in the paint. They were just not falling for him. He was slashing and gettig good looks and putting the ball on the rim. Just didnt drop. But our bigmen couldn't score down there either

I hope 20 isnt hurt bad. Hes a dog with uber athleticism. He should have gotten more min before the injury

Yep.