What kind of name is Drexel? It sounds like one of those made up words you use in Scrabble that you hope no one calls you out on. I am sure everyone left the
Verizon Center exclaiming "I'm the King of the World," like Jack from Titanic but let me remind everyone, Jack died at the end of that movie. That being said, lets discuss the game.
I have been getting comments about my lack of enthusiasm regarding Greg Monroe. Let me very clear where I stand. Monroe is not, and will never be Roy Hibbert. He is the next Jeff Green. And he is much better at this point in his college career than Jeff was. It's not the 20 point, 8 rebound, 4 assist, 3 steal and 3 block effort he put up against Drexel (It took Jeff till game 5 of his freshman season to break the 20 point barrier and lead his team in points). It's what he does when he does not have the ball. I'm pretty sure everyone knows the deal: moves without the ball, high basketball IQ, blah blah blah, yada yada yada. He is good, and will get better, and is probably not going to leave after one year, which is why DaShonte Riley dropped his commitment for '09. DaShonte saw the writing on the wall, knew he would be playing behind Monroe for at least one year and decided to venture for greener pastures. Michigan is going to make a hard push for DaShonte, especially after Beilein got his marquee victory against UCLA this week. I will laugh very hard if he commits to a Big Ten school. That conference will be irrelevant in college basketball for awhile.
Other than Monroe, here are my thoughts on the game:
- Good free throw shooting continued, especially from starting five
- Took care of ball, assist to turnover ratio over 1.5 for first time since semi-final of BET
- Double digits in steals for first time since last February
- Sharing the ball very well, four out of five starting players ended with double digit points for first time since last February
- Leading scores were Monroe, Wright and Freeman – all underclassman, bodes well for future
- Three point percentage was still not very impressive, although starting lineup fared much better than Game 1
- We have no one coming off of the bench. Going to be particularly important come Big East time and when Monroe starts getting in foul trouble
- Piss-poor rebounding, will be Achilles’ heel of this team
- Vaughn – injured? We desperately need him coming off the bench
- The only explicable reason for Wattad getting in the game again is that JTIII is writing his playing time off as a charitable donation for tax purposes
The Summers – Bowman comparison grows stronger. This is Summers’ junior year, supposed to be team leader and impress NBA scouts. New freshman comes in and steals the show. To compensate, Summer shoots the ball every time he get its and commits stupid, head scratching fouls. Remind anyone of ’04-’05?
Still feel the same about this season’s prospects as I did after Jacksonville. We just looked better against a team we were supposed to look good against. The only thing I have to add is that while Monroe looks spectacular, it was what most opposing coaches expected. I made the Jeff Green comparison earlier but the major difference between Monroe and Green is that Green came out of no where and took opposing coaches by surprise. That will not be the case for Monroe.
Side Note: Good job recruiting Boehiem, grade-A program you are running over there. Stay classy Syracuse.
Special shout out to the Hutchinsons of Annapolis, MD. Way to host your wedding reception at the Green Turtle, the dive bar on the corner of F and 6th. Where was the wedding, Chuck E Cheese?
Big test this weekend, lets see how the team does against its first real competition.
Have a good Thanksgiving.
Good talk.
