St. Peters Preview/Review

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

Ok so this won't be much of a St. Peters focused preview as they are a terrible team. Ok, maybe terrible is a bit harsh, but they are simply a tiny school without any players that should cause us problems. Turner is their leading scorer on a team that hasn't found its identity yet. A couple of things are clear. They have some size and they struggle to defend the perimeter. This game is more about us obviously. 

With that in mind, I have a few observations about our squad now that we are halfway through the non-conference. At this point, I would probably alter my preseason win total by a game or two. I thought we would have lost two games by this point and we obviously have only one loss. The chemistry has been good and CBP's use of Wiley, easing him back in has been done well also. Our guards have been great to this point, not perfect, but Harper and Brown are one of the best backcourts in the SEC and will take us a long way this season. Chuma has shown much development and needs the ball more. If I'm going to criticize Harper and Brown, it is that they don't get Chuma the ball enough. Dunbar has been very good in his role as well. I hope CBP keeps him as the 6th man and doesn't start him over Doughty, just to move him back to the 6th man when Purifoy returns. Wiley is coming along nicely and will likely take over the starting center spot soon, as his play is warranting it. Also warranting it is McLemore's play. Simply put, he is not playing well in the last several games. He's shooting 33% from the floor and 13% from three, averaging 6pts and 6rebs a game. I don't expect him to average double digits, but he has to improve his efficiency, fewer jump shots and more rim running. These stats kinda confirm my suspicion that he isn't 100% mentally back to his old self. We need the old Mac back! Doughty is about what I expected. A serviceable 3 that gives us about 10pts a game and a handful of rebounds shooting 47% from the floor and 40% from three. He has been too passive in games and hasn't done much recently to suggest he will hold off Purifoy, but I think he gives us enough for us to compete for the SEC title. McCormick has been an adequate backup, but nothing more. He is pretty efficient at 50% from the floor and from three but has too many turnovers and too few assists if he wants more than the 10 mins he is getting per game right now. All in all, we are a little ahead of where I thought we would be, with room to grow beyond just adding Purifory. 

 

War Eagle!

 

Some thoughts following the game: 

• Beating anyone by 50 points is a positive sign
• Bryce continues to look good. Better shot selection, better choices with the ball. 
• Okeke didn't miss a shot (that I saw). He's so dang smooth, we need to get him the ball more in the half court offense. 
• McLemore looked good. Much more efficient game from him 8-13 from the floor including 3-5 from three, to go with 5 boards and 2 blocks
• Harper had a quiet night. Hit a couple nice shots, but otherwise was not very aggressive. Dished out 8 assists but did have 3 TOs. Perhaps his passiveness was part of the gameplan to work on other things. 
• Wiley had another solid night. I still haven't seen some of the fire we saw in his freshman season. Still not posting up deep enough, seems a step slow at times, and is allowing smaller defenders to affect him. I was hoping to see him throw his size around a little more. 
• Dunbar had another great game off the bench. He seems to have settled into that 6th man spot. Brings instant energy off the bench, a huge help for us going forward if that continues. Very efficient night for him. 
• Spencer had a rough night. Couldn't get anything to drop, couldn't get to the rim, just wasn't his night. 
• McCormick was quiet, too quiet. In his 10 mins, he didn't attempt a shot and only picked up 1 assist. Disappointing to see him be so passive. 
• Doughty was the most interesting player of the night for me. He was passive as well, only attempting 2 shots, but had 6 points and 5 assists. The reason I say I was most interested with him was that we saw him play the point for the first time I recall this season. His first few trips were a bit bumpy with getting into the offense, but overall I was intrigued with this option. I'm not sure if CBP was just experimenting or if that was a signal of what was to come. Either due to Purifoy coming back or what. 
• It is always fun to see the walk-ons get some time and make some shots, would have liked to get to 100 though. 
• The players that led us in shot attempts were McLemore and Wiley with 13 a piece. Doubt we see that again this season. 
• 41 bench points will likely be a season-high
• 48% from 3 was good to see after not great shooting in Maui, home sweet home. 

Dominate win over an overmatched opponent doesn't tell us much. But I thought our intensity was high, especially on the defensive end for most of the night and that was good to see. 

War Eagle!

[aubiefifty 16,742]

is the game going to be televised? thanx

[Gene Loblaw 636]

32 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

is the game going to be televised? thanx

It’ll definitely be available to stream on SECN+. It might be on the sec network alternate channel 

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Purifoy back in a little under 3 weeks....

[Tiger 8,818]

Anyone have trouble with streaming the last SECN+ game? 

It wouldn't load on my ps4, but did on my phone. However on my roku I had to log out and log back in for it to work. SKETCHY 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

Works fine on my Roku. 

[Gene Loblaw 636]

Things we need. Wiley to keep regaining confidence and comfort within the team. Samir to get back on track. And for McCormick to just keep getting experience. Would also love to see Mac get his 3 shot going like he had last season too.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

OP updated with some post-game observations.

[mustache eagle 2,397]

we were a much better team ... and won by a margin that is representative of that.  put a walkon in with about 8 min to go (parker) and the rest of the walkons finished the game with nearly 4 min to go.  we could have hung 110 on them if we left the scholly guys in for 2 more minutes.  

[Gene Loblaw 636]

Samir looked really uncomfortable as the point guard. Maybe it was just jitters or something but he looked shaky and made some dumb high risk passes. In order for this team to really become elite, we gotta have a quality backup for Jared and right now we don’t. Hopefully Samir and McCormick keep improving there  during some of these easier games before conference play begins