Experienced team coached by Bobby Hurley.... This will probably be a big test for our young team and an important one if we have any post-season aspirations. Gotta show we can win on the road against a Power 5 opponent. We let last year's game slip through our fingers. Time to return the favor. We may be a bit rusty after our lay-off for finals, but we will have had time to work on some things, particularly defensively, now that Ngumezi is gone. Hope we mix in some zone and some traps and some presses.

Monkdawg said:

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Experienced team coached by Bobby Hurley.... This will probably be a big test for our young team and an important one if we have any post-season aspirations. Gotta show we can win on the road against a Power 5 opponent. We let last year's game slip through our fingers. Time to return the favor. We may be a bit rusty after our lay-off for finals, but we will have had time to work on some things, particularly defensively, now that Ngumezi is gone. Hope we mix in some zone and some traps and some presses.

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White is a really good player down low. I could see them trying to feed him the ball early and often to try and get Hammonds into early foul trouble

I have thought all along that teams good in the post would give us problems, and I still think that to some degree. However, I think we actually got better in our post defense when Ngumezi got suspended. Howard, Peake & Camara are better post defenders. Yes, Hammonds needs to not pick up dumb fouls, but Howard might be able to erase some defensive mistakes.

Monkdawg said:

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I have thought all along that teams good in the post would give us problems, and I still think that to some degree. However, I think we actually got better in our post defense when Ngumezi got suspended. Howard, Peake & Camara are better post defenders. Yes, Hammonds needs to not pick up dumb fouls, but Howard might be able to erase some defensive mistakes.

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Howard cannot do anything on offense though. Peake and Camara can do stuff. They look like they'll be good players. Howard is just not a capable offensive player right now. Hammonds needs to play in these games. Till Harris gets back at least, he is the only player currently other than Ant capable of creating scoring for himslef. I agree with playing zone just to protect him and keep him on the floor

Howard posts up better and presents a target better in the post than anyone else we have. True, he doesn't finish great yet, and he really has to work on his FT shooting, but all that will improve with practice. His footwork is probably his biggest issue. I hope he's doing a lot of extra work after practice like Edwards does. At 6'11", he could be really imposing.

We got worked.

Looked immature for sure. Several ticky tack charge calls and our perimeter shots and FT's weren't falling so our offense got disjointed and turned into Edwards iso pretty quickly.

I actually thought the defensive intensity was good for the first 15 minutes, but we lost interest when ASU made a run and the crowd got into it

Hammonds acted like a freshman all game, anyone know what was up with him?

My take is we are not going to be a good road team until this team has matured if at all. I still like the direction Crean has us moving, turnovers and defense are improved from last year, we just still have a ways to go.

Got to get get Fagan on the floor more, and Gresham and Crump, less. Really need Harris's return.

blackmountaindawg said:

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Got to get get Fagan on the floor more, and Gresham and Crump, less. Really need Harris's return.

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Yes. I think Greshams been extremely disappointing. He hasn't been able to hit a shot from deep and his D has been very poor. I know Fagan is not a great outside shooter, but Gresham hasn't made anything this year either. Fagan plays D. He rebounds extremely well for a 6'3 guard (so does Gresham). He's a solid decision maker. He finishes very strong at the basket

Crump is what he is. He should be getting his 15 or so min/game but as a spark off the bench.

Hammonds makes his money against weaker opponents and disappears against stronger competition. His non-conference vs. conference stats last year bear that out. I have no idea if it's mental, physical, or both, but he seems to wilt easily. The same would seem to apply to the team as a whole.

Last year we went 2-15 against teams that finished top 75 in RPI (an imperfect measure, I know) with wins against 69 Texas and @ 59 Florida. This year we're 0-3 against similar teams, and only 1 of those games was even remotely competitive.

To Crean's credit, the team is taking care of business against teams they should beat (even sneaky-good teams like WCU). But until we're competitive against actual good teams, I'll struggle to maintain any optimism. It's entirely possible Anthony Edwards is the best basketball player I'll be privileged to watch in a Georgia uniform...maybe ever. So I'm going to try to enjoy that. The season as a whole, though, is looking like it may be forgettable...

Fagan has played really well so far this season. Love his improvement.

I think we can see the reason Gresham was playing at Northeastern. He's limited physically and doesn't move that well, particularly laterally. I think Harris' return will cut into Gresham and Crump's minutes.

You are correct that Hammonds does not seem very mentally or physically tough. But I encourage patience with this overall very, very young team. Freshmen are having to play lots of minutes for us. Young teams take time to gel. We will be better for this experience in the long run. I don't think we have enough consistent shooting on this team for Crean's offense to really blossom. And defensively we can be a real mess. Edwards needs to be more selfish for us to score effectively.