Plus

Fagan -were he only 6'7, 6'8
Garcia - couldn't watch second half - my he went off.
Wheeler - gets out of control at times but picked up where he left off
McMillan - work in progress but keeping fingers crossed
Brown - needs to quit jacking 3's but I like him around the basket

Verdict still out

Kier was awful shooting as was the whole team really
Horne - disappeared
Coumari - looking for more here but looked smooth in first half

I liked the hustle, and the defensive effort, the effort on the boards. We let some guys cut free to the basket for easy put-ins.

The best shooters were D. Jones and Randolph, both of whom played for the Snakes. Fagan was good, mostly cutting to the basket, though he was one for one from three. Wheeler had great assists and drives to the hoop, but stunk from outside. Walton missed his 2 shots from three but got 3 rebounds in 7 minutes. Camara shot poorly - missed 4 threes. Kier shot pretty well, hit 2 of 4 from three. Brown was 1 of 3 from three but only 1 of 5 from two point range. Garcia was a beast - shot well, hustled, looked good.

Fifteen TO's an improvement over last year. Overall, considering it's game 1 I can live with everything but the poor outside shooting. That needs work. Some of these guys might need to shoot from closer range.

Garcia played well and showed promise. Fagan's game yesterday is fool's gold against a weak opponent. Doubtful that he'll score 20+ or get 10 rebounds in another game this season. Very glad for him personally but...

The other four starters were a combined 10 of 28 from the field. Camara, Wheeler (6 TO's), Kier and Horne were all below average on both ends. Allowing a SWAC Team to shoot 53% is not promising. We shot 48% as a whole, while Fagan and Garcia were 15-18, the rest of the team was 15-44.

To not establish any kind of inside dominance against The Rattlers is troubling. My number is 5 (again) for conference wins this year and if pressed to bet, I'd take the under. We'll get hot and surprise a team or two along the way but I don't see any way this squad is .500 in league play.

OK, let's be honest. FAMU is a team we should beat by 30 most of the time. I do think they were well-coached. They switched defenses constantly and played to their strengths. So, while we should beat the tar out of the Rattlers most of the time, this was the first game of the year with a bunch of guys who have never played together before. Cohesion will take time.

I did like the effort on defense, though we let them take too many open shots. We should have been able to hold them under 60, if not 50. That said, I noticed more effort on the court than at times last season. Not having a couple of bigs who shall remain nameless can only help defensively.

Wheeler went 12 and 12, but those 6 TOs were a downside. He drove into traffic some and tried to make a few too many spectacular plays when sometimes he just needs to settle down and be steady. His outside shot still needs work. Kier didn't show much, but Crean expects him to be a shooter for us. Remains to be seen. I was probably most disappointed in Camara, who didn't do much at all. He kept trying 3s, even though he wasn't making anything. He did much of his damage last year on the baseline, and Fagan kinda took that roll in this game. I would love to see that kind of production from Tye, at least semi-regularly.

Garcia was tremendous. He has great form on his shot and is a fantastic garbage player. If anyone remembers Bruce Dalrymple for Tech in the mid-80s, Garcia is kind of a big version of Dalrymple but with probably a better shot. I want to see more from Horne; we need him to rebound and play tough defense. None of our 3 JUCO guys made much of an impression, though McMillan got some good minutes. We need to see what KD brings to the table when he gets eligible. We need shooting.

I don't have much to add, but I'll say a few things:

• I'll take the turnovers from Wheeler, at least in the short term, in exchange for the excitement he brings to the offense. It was a completely different team with him on the bench...and the kid is straight lightning.
• I know Walton didn't score, and he didn't play a ton of minutes, but I liked the minutes he did play. He seemed active on defense, and I think (hope?) he can turn into a spot 3-point shooter.
• Are we sure FAMU is terrible? I'm not expecting them to be world-beaters, but they are a veteran team that went 10-6 in the MEAC last year. Given how much trouble some of the "big boys" have had early on, I'm not ready to draw any conclusions. If FAMU loses their next 10, well...

If I'm honest, I don't have high expectations for this team. I want continued growth out of the four sophomores, and I want Crean to add a big piece or two in 2021. Then it's do or die time.