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Post by nbdlion22 on Nov 7, 2022 22:45:34 GMT -5
thanks lions900045 just frustrating to see bad players come here and do bad things wihle the coaching staff seemingly doesnt "coach" much. same old story. this life pacific team could have been beat by my high school JV team.
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Post by thx4leavinjimlynam on Nov 7, 2022 22:47:43 GMT -5
Didn’t realize this game actually counts until Jesse mentioned it with about five minutes left in the half.
Graham and Stevens definitely made the best impressions of the new guys.
Shelton does look more confident, same with Anderson.
Is Marble still with the team?
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Post by thx4leavinjimlynam on Nov 7, 2022 22:49:25 GMT -5
And Taitz? I assume Taitz and Marble must be injured just like Douglas?
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Post by oneofthesedays on Nov 7, 2022 23:02:06 GMT -5
Well at least we got some shooters this year. Ahrens shot looks pure
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Post by oneofthesedays on Nov 7, 2022 23:03:26 GMT -5
Issanza on the other hand looks unplayable. Imagine him going against Drew Timme good god
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Post by thx4leavinjimlynam on Nov 7, 2022 23:09:10 GMT -5
I really hope CSJ plays all 12 guys that are in uniform.
Play the two walk ons…. And is the other guy who hasn’t played Nobles? Give them all a chance.
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Post by lmu2015 on Nov 7, 2022 23:32:12 GMT -5
Hard to judge Big Rick's defensive impact against this team - but given his struggles to finish against this team his interior defensive presence will be his contribution this year - and hopefully he can catch a few lobs and put back dunks.
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Post by thx4leavinjimlynam on Nov 7, 2022 23:32:27 GMT -5
Nice to see everyone getting a chance. Biggest victory in school history I can find is 59 points…might be one bigger but that’s the biggest victory margin I can find.
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Post by cs17 on Nov 8, 2022 1:43:47 GMT -5
Really liked what I saw from Graham, wasn’t afraid to go to the basket.
Stephens and Ahrens have some real solid strokes and I can’t wait for them to let it fly even more.
Alex Merkviladze looked like a whole new player tonight.
Yes, I know the competition was not great, but this team looked so much more unselfish tonight without Scott out there. Happy for his successes here but I’m excited for this next chapter.
Interested to see how we perform against actual D1 competition beginning Thursday night.
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Post by ALioninWinter on Nov 8, 2022 3:12:52 GMT -5
Frankly, I'm mostly disappointed with the negative, even snarky comments I'm seeing on the board tonight. While Life Pacific isn't a threat for any kind of national championship, they weren't as bad as some of you are making them out to be. NBD-I don't know who your high school JV team was, but there's no way they could've kept up with any college team.
Life Pacific is not D1 competition but the Lions did win by 59 points; and it would've been more like 70 or more if Coach Stan hadn't played his two walk-ons and two freshmen with Lamaj for the last 6+ minutes of the game.
First, the injury report: Douglas - He's okay. He's been practicing regularly with the team. The staff is being super cautious given his injury history. They'll bring him along slowly, letting him build his game strength. Assuming no set backs, you'll see him gradually work up his playing time. He's a big plus for the team and we want him for league play.
Marble - He was there, in civvies. He too is slowly nursing injury and will be brought along. Like Douglas, barring setbacks, you'll see him slowly build his playing time.
Taitz - Different story. He's been out and will stay out for a while.
My thoughts on the new guys:
Ahrens - His Big 10 experience really shows. He plays tough and hard. I particularly liked the way he directed the defense. His senior leadership should be a big help. It was also nice to see him hit his shots. He was 5/6. Given the way he lost his shooting confidence last year at Ohio State, seeing those shots go down tonight was a big plus. My big issue though was his 3 poor passes. One was a careless inbound and the other two here simply bad passes during set offensive drills. He can't let that happen.
"Sniper" - Love that name! He's certainly not afraid to shoot. After missing his first 3 shots, he went 5/9 over the rest of the game - all from beyond the arc. Shooting 3s is his game. That's what he does. He doesn't drive. You won't see him inside. He won't rebound. But if he develops into a confident D1 shooter, he'll be a big asset. He does need to improve his defense. He's small and still hasn't learned a lot about the game.
Graham and Issanza - They both pretty much provide the same game. They're both long with great arm length. They both move well enough. They both obviously love hitting the boards. They both need to work on protecting the ball. Too many times they lost the ball because they held it where the other team could knock it loose or take it away. Graham was 7/8. Issanza was 3/9. They had 23 boards between them. Life Pacific had no one near their size. It'll be interesting to see how they fare against bigger opponents.
Overall, the team isn't challenging for the national title but they're better than last year. Eli Scott was a boatload for most any college player to handle. Unfortunately, as a team the Lions basically waited around to see what Eli would do. This year, there's a ton more movement. I don't see any single player dominating. The challenge in preparing to play against them is that opposing coaches will have to consider basically the entire Lions' roster. Coach Stan rotated players a lot tonight and most players got pretty equal time, and I never felt the team effectiveness wavered. At least until the last 6 minutes when he let the walk-ons play and took out both his playmakers and his entire front line.
We have two more games this week. I'm anxious to see what happens. Give the guys a chance.
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Post by thx4leavinjimlynam on Nov 8, 2022 7:45:31 GMT -5
Thanks for the insights Winter. Yes, I really enjoyed having Eli, but this team was playing with a different energy. And it absolutely would have been a 70-point win, but nice to see the other guys get a chance (plus you didn’t need someone to roll an ankle near the end, like USF’s new point guard did last night up by 13 with under a minute to play).
We took care of business…imagine if we had struggled (I was at the loss to non-Division I Point Loma Nazarene 20 years ago…it can happen).
Looking forward to the next game.
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Post by LIONS90045 on Nov 8, 2022 20:28:33 GMT -5
Winter my comments were meant for the early part of the game but due to my glitch they didn't appear until later so were a bit out of context. Thanks for your analysis which I concur with.
First, we did not play "down" to the competition, which has happened all too often in the past. Credits to the team for their intensity throughout the game - a mark of winners.
When was the last time we brought in three players that could realistically contribute double digit scoring in a game: Graham, Ahrens and Stevens? When did we land a true Freshman than would contribute on the floor like Sniper Stevens? I expect all three to be regular significant contributors in every game. Sniper might even find a role as starter if his scoring holds true. I agree that Alex looks a lot better this season. I was surprised that our 7-footer started but that will give us our share of opening tips. He looked raw and using him as much as possible early on will contribute to his development. He needs to learn to finish strong on his inside attempts. Others took a while to learn this fact as well but did come around with experience. Cam handles the ball great but his scoring game isn't up to what I hoped for. A minor point but Nobles looks a lot stronger and shows potential as a Red Shirt Freshman. Lamaj looking for his role on the team. Still on the bright side, Douglas and Marble did not play and we still showed significant depth on the court. This team does have depth this season, which can help in fast paced games. All in all, a nice dominant win. Hopefully a start to a good season.
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