re: Recap: Old Spice Classic - 3rd Place

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12 day layoff sucks. like they're gonna study for finals anyway.

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NCAA mandates that from tomorrow teams can't play for 7 days. It's too bad we don't have a game right after though.

And you'd better believe they'll be studying. Coaches are on them hard. While they travel, all the classes they're missing are recorded and are available to them online, so no excuses for being late on assignments. They also all have iPads to work on other projects while they're away. Each player is also answerable to advisors.

Gone are the days when student athletes can screw off. At least for this basketball team.

do they still send tutors on the road with them? we used to have an OT 7.3 that was good at teh maths

I agree with you and others. Martin has to stop settling for so many jumpers and attack the basket. He looks to be one of our better free throw shooters. Therefore he needs to be fouled.

JOB and Mickey looked tired against Butler and I think that had something to do with our lack of rebounding and why the fairly fresh Morgan and Coleman did well. I would have liked Odo and Hammink to get some minutes so the others didn't wear down.

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do they still send tutors on the road with them? we used to have an OT 7.3 that was good at teh maths

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Not sure. Probably not for overnight trips, and not for this one - too many games, and some practices in a few days. Plus they had one day on Rn'R for a bit of fun.

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Andre Stringer (B-)
Anthony Hickey (C+)

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Not sure I agree with you on these grades South.
Andre deserves a B+. I know he didn't score at the level he usually has this season, but he was relentless when he was on Denham, especially in the 2nd half & OT.
I think I was in a better position to view this than most, since I was at the game, behind the bench and not watching on TV. I could see the physical effort and some of the slight nuances, up close and personal. Denham had about 6" on him, but Andre ran around with him most the time, keeping about a foot or less away from him. It did inhibit Denham's play, keeping him to 20 points. Denham is extremely fast and agile, he does this little stutter side to side head/body fake all the time which fooled WSU most of their game, when he scored 32 points. Andre didn't fall for it and worked very hard to move through and around the screens Butler set for Denham, even though everyone was taller. I liked his effort on a difficult job. Coach Jones knew what he was doing when deciding to put Stringer in for that (Malik was pretty good on him too).
Also, on the final regulation play from the timeout, where Hickey scored the 3, (which was as you say, drawn up for Dre). He knew he didn't have a great look and saw Anthony coming in and knowing time was running out was quick-thinking enough to pass it to him. He had confidence in Anthony. I think that was a great decision.

As to Hickey, he did a good job of running the half court offenses, patiently trying to find players open, not getting frustrated or speeding up. He also was right in there sneakily setting picks down low and trying to hold position amongst the big trees. I think it surprised Butler a few times.
Like Andre, he's not afraid of putting his body on the line, despite his size. Give him a B.
Once Jarell gets used to running off the ball more, these offenses will work much better, giving the guards/CJJ options.

I'm generally not a fan of running a half-court offense on a breakaway BTW. I'd like to see us run a fast break most of the time when Hickey & Stringer are out there, IMO. They're so fast and great ball-handlers, with a player like Mickey they can outgun many a team. I'm a bit surprised that CJJ doesn't go to this more since I was expecting more of a run & gun game style from him, with all the bench depth we have now?????

I hope you missed the last one. It was horrible. It is one thing to miss shots, it is one thing to have a poor night handling the ball, but the defense in the last game that we somehow won was just terrible.

No rebounding at all in a game we should have killed them in that department. And it was all on the tigers not the opponent in my opinion. Worst game of the year I would think.

But the GREAT news is they beat a decent team when playing what has to be their absolute worst. So I will take that silver lining and run with it.

The first game was their best of the year. Executed and hit shots the whole game. Was a thing of beauty.

It's incredible how our two little guards can defend their bigger/taller counterparts. I'm still a little surprised they left Andre out there on Dunham considering Dunham's success in the Classic.

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I still think they are two of our top weapons, but LSU won't win many games when our guards aren't scoring in the first 40 minutes of the game. Gotta take some pressure off the post players.

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Completely agree. I've said this in a few basketball threads, but I'm concerned about our guard play this season. We have two good guards, but we can't afford off-nights. Although Hickey can make shots (even tough/clutch shots), I don't think we can rely on his scoring ability. Stringer is a shooter first & foremost. All shooters have poor shooting games. We sure could use Malik to help in that area. I'm just concerned about reliable scoring from the guard spots. We are a 'Josh Gray' away from being a Sweet 16 or better team IMO.