Thoughts on first game of the Mark Pope era

[jwildcattrester]

Positives
+ The team played very unselfish, very unselfish
+ We played organized TEAM basketball, very little iso, if any, very little one on one, 30 assists, 5 turnovers
+ Deep in terms of guys that can actually play basketball, love that we have DEPTH, love it
+ Robinson, it's just so effortless
+ I know we want to get up a lot of threes, but I never felt like we were just jacking them up, I felt like most of them came in the flow of the offense
+ Otega has a little "get by" his guy in him, and he's a bit of a dog, will be fun to watch

"Negatives"
- KW was very small, we'll see how we do against better competition with length soon
- Surprised at the lack of fans there for Pope's first game
- Butler doesn't have a good shot, he reminds me of an old school PG, I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing, I just don't know how that plays out in today's basketball, but maybe it's fine since you have 10 other guys that can shoot
- Team defense wasn't great, but it's game one

Other observations
• We definitely have some length with Brea and Robinson at the 2/3
• Really liked the substitution patterns, felt like there was a purpose watching different guys play with each other
• The offensive rebound tip out vs "2 hands" is definitely a change in philosophy from our previous coaching staff
• This team should look better early in the year then we have in recent years given the amount of experience they have
• You can't teach athleticism, you know what else you can't teach at this level, shooting, I did not see a single Hamadu Diallo on this team

Overall grade for game 1 regardless of competition, A+, I was at an A, and then Trent Noah took it to an A+ with his late game shooting

 

[Phil_The_Music]

Positives
+ The team played very unselfish, very unselfish
+ We played organized TEAM basketball, very little iso, if any, very little one on one, 30 assists, 5 turnovers
+ Deep in terms of guys that can actually play basketball, love that we have DEPTH, love it
+ Robinson, it's just so effortless
+ I know we want to get up a lot of threes, but I never felt like we were just jacking them up, I felt like most of them came in the flow of the offense
+ Otega has a little "get by" his guy in him, and he's a bit of a dog, will be fun to watch

"Negatives"
- KW was very small, we'll see how we do against better competition with length soon
- Surprised at the lack of fans there for Pope's first game
- Butler doesn't have a good shot, he reminds me of an old school PG, I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing, I just don't know how that plays out in today's basketball, but maybe it's fine since you have 10 other guys that can shoot
- Team defense wasn't great, but it's game one

Other observations
• We definitely have some length with Brea and Robinson at the 2/3
• Really liked the substitution patterns, felt like there was a purpose watching different guys play with each other
• The offensive rebound tip out vs "2 hands" is definitely a change in philosophy from our previous coaching staff
• This team should look better early in the year then we have in recent years given the amount of experience they have
• You can't teach athleticism, you know what else you can't teach at this level, shooting, I did not see a single Hamadu Diallo on this team

Overall grade for game 1 regardless of competition, A+, I was at an A, and then Trent Noah took it to an A+ with his late game shooting

Nice write up. Agree, Butler isn't an all world shooter but I think he's good to enough to do what we need him to do.

 

[JPFisher]

Nice write up. Agree, Butler isn't an all world shooter but I think he's good to enough to do what we need him to do.

Teague didn't have to be lights out from three – he just needed to be good enough to keep defenses honest. Butler staying in the 30-35% range and hitting the open shots will do that just fine.

 

[Wildcat-in-STL]

Butler reminded me of Wayne Turner last night or even Cliff Hawkins . not a great shooter but got to the rim when he needed to, passed great and defended like a monster.

 

[ukfan1622]

Positives
+ The team played very unselfish, very unselfish
+ We played organized TEAM basketball, very little iso, if any, very little one on one, 30 assists, 5 turnovers
+ Deep in terms of guys that can actually play basketball, love that we have DEPTH, love it
+ Robinson, it's just so effortless
+ I know we want to get up a lot of threes, but I never felt like we were just jacking them up, I felt like most of them came in the flow of the offense
+ Otega has a little "get by" his guy in him, and he's a bit of a dog, will be fun to watch

"Negatives"
- KW was very small, we'll see how we do against better competition with length soon
- Surprised at the lack of fans there for Pope's first game
- Butler doesn't have a good shot, he reminds me of an old school PG, I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing, I just don't know how that plays out in today's basketball, but maybe it's fine since you have 10 other guys that can shoot
- Team defense wasn't great, but it's game one

Other observations
• We definitely have some length with Brea and Robinson at the 2/3
• Really liked the substitution patterns, felt like there was a purpose watching different guys play with each other
• The offensive rebound tip out vs "2 hands" is definitely a change in philosophy from our previous coaching staff
• This team should look better early in the year then we have in recent years given the amount of experience they have
• You can't teach athleticism, you know what else you can't teach at this level, shooting, I did not see a single Hamadu Diallo on this team

Overall grade for game 1 regardless of competition, A+, I was at an A, and then Trent Noah took it to an A+ with his late game shooting

That's a Larry Bird tactic. If you can get both hands on the ball, then fine, do that but if you can only get one hand on it you might as well try to tip it to a teammate. It's just smart basketball.