We were playing a very inferior team athletically so everything has to be considered in that light.
Our defense was very active and aggressive. I would use the word frenetic and I loved it. Generated 26 turnovers
Offense needs work, but appears to have more direction.
Players that surprised me:
Maring, Giffa, and Emmanuel White all played with a poise and presence that I didn't expect. Maring has good court vision and passing.
Other new players:
Hollings, Sibley, and Satterfield mostly quiet, althoughtlooking at the stat lines they contributed more than I realized, just quietly. Satterfield got hot from 3 in the tail end of the game. Has the potential to do that in any game.
Kalu had some nice minutes. He will contribute inside.
Boum still injured, didn't play. With him out, Bienemy was our best shooting guard. At times he literally played that role while Giffa played point. Looked much more like a PG in charge of a team. Coaching makes a big difference.
Kennedy and Agnew pretty much same as last year. Both contribute with their aggressiveness and don't make too many mistakes. Kennedy jacks up a lot of shots to score his points.
Verhoeven about the same.
Rest of the guys got some trash time. Hard to tell much.
Coaching: Completely different than CRT. In order to keep his guys fresh, Golding subs a LOT. It really didn't look like he was looking for lineups that worked well together. It looked like he expects every lineup to work well. He would ride a lineup or a player that was hot however. So it looks like if Cam Clardy came in and stole the ball 3 times and hit a couple 3s he'd stay in the game as long as it was working.
General outlook: Again, based on 1st game against weak opponent. Our D is aggressive and fun. But because of the aggression, a team that can move the ball well will probably eventually find a guy open for 3 or a backdoor cut. In this defense, it's OK if that happens every once in a while. You're generating havoc to cause the other team to get flustered and try to force things. Offensively, clearly working on things to create open 3 point opportunities, but they didn't look real comfortable. A lot of the offense will be generated by turnovers.
I'm concerned about the interior however. No one showed a will to dominate in the paint offensively. We can't rely on 3s and jump shots against a quality opponent. I don't expect us to beat NMSU this weekend unless our D is able to completely disrupt them.
