With the game back on a normal channel last night, I got a chance to see our Cats and now offer these thoughts
1. Nick Martinelli has become a complete basketball player. Another big scoring night from Nick, except now he's doing it from all three levels. Yes, he still has the goofy flip shot near the rim working, but now he can hit the three and even now has the pull up mid-range shot. On top of that, he still rebounds, but he's added passing and ballhandling. That cross court pass from under the hoop out to Berry for the open 3 was probably his prettiest play of the night. He is also bringing the ball up the court to help break the press (though he makes me a little nervous when he is forced to dribble up with his right hand... fortunately no future opponents will realize he's left handed).
2. There was discussion by the broadcast team last night whether Nick will be able to keep this up when Brooks returns or will there be confusion about roles on this team. I believe they will become a two-headed monster. I compare it to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for my Boston Celtics. They will just take turns being great. It sounds like we may begin to find out Friday night as the broadcast kept speculating Brooks will be back for the next game.
3. I have it on good authority (ok... out of my butt) that Jaylen Leach's girlfriend texted him at half time that if he didn't pull himself together and start playing better, she was leaving him. Boy, did that work. He was a different player in the second half. He played with more confidence that also translated into hitting his shots. The pull up mid range shots were particularly exciting as that shot should always be there for him. Teams will respect his ability to hit the three pointer, which means they will close out on him hard, giving him the opening to drive to the basket. If help defenders stay back to protect against the lob to Big Matt, then that elbow jumper will be open.
4. Speaking of Big Matt, I don't know how many times now he's opened up the game with a lob dunk and I say to myself... that will be there all night. Maybe this is the game where Matt has a big scoring night. And then it doesn't happen. I don't know if teams adjust and he has no second act, or what. That said, he does what he does, which is to be a big body in the middle that clogs the lane on defense and makes the opposing defenders have to respect the lob threat, which circles you back to point #3 above.
5. Justin Mullins showed some sparks last night. He took it to the basket aggressively a couple times leading to 5 points. But it was the other areas where he stuffed the stat sheet. 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Not bad for coming off the bench. As he gains confidence, his ability to contribute should grow.
6. Tough night for the frosh. This was a bit of step back for them. KJ missed all of his shots and just looked like he was rushing things. He did finish with 5 assists and 2 steals, so it wasn't all bad, but he just didn't look as comfortable last night. Poor Jello had an even rougher night. He just couldn't seem to stay on the floor as he kept making mistakes, mostly on defense. There was one sequence where he checked in at a time out, promptly grabbed the UIC player on the inbounds play to draw the foul, and promptly got yanked back out for a Chris Collins' tongue lashing. Those are the growing pains of being a freshman. He'll keep improving.
7. The defense continues to impress. They held a UIC team who had scored 91 in each of their first two games to 74 points and forced 20 turnovers. Again, I am so impressed with the way our guys move and communicate on defense. The hedging, the switching, the recovering... all signs of a very well coached team who believes in spending the effort to defend well. That will continue to keep us in games all year as we figure out who is going to score that night besides Nick.
8. I don't know whether to dwell more on the fact that we took 33 free throws last night or the fact that we missed 11. Equally, one could be upset that Nick missed 5 free throws... but I'm more impressed that he got to the line 10 times. That is star quality stuff (the 10 attempts.... not the 5 misses). Something tells me Nick stayed late last night shooting 500 extra free throws after the game.
Still too early to really know what this all means. How we will compete when BIG play rolls around is still a little unclear to me. Will our guys continue to lean into the moment as the lights get brighter? I sure hope so. I think the signs are there of a good team, but they have to keep improving.
1. Nick Martinelli has become a complete basketball player. Another big scoring night from Nick, except now he's doing it from all three levels. Yes, he still has the goofy flip shot near the rim working, but now he can hit the three and even now has the pull up mid-range shot. On top of that, he still rebounds, but he's added passing and ballhandling. That cross court pass from under the hoop out to Berry for the open 3 was probably his prettiest play of the night. He is also bringing the ball up the court to help break the press (though he makes me a little nervous when he is forced to dribble up with his right hand... fortunately no future opponents will realize he's left handed).
2. There was discussion by the broadcast team last night whether Nick will be able to keep this up when Brooks returns or will there be confusion about roles on this team. I believe they will become a two-headed monster. I compare it to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for my Boston Celtics. They will just take turns being great. It sounds like we may begin to find out Friday night as the broadcast kept speculating Brooks will be back for the next game.
3. I have it on good authority (ok... out of my butt) that Jaylen Leach's girlfriend texted him at half time that if he didn't pull himself together and start playing better, she was leaving him. Boy, did that work. He was a different player in the second half. He played with more confidence that also translated into hitting his shots. The pull up mid range shots were particularly exciting as that shot should always be there for him. Teams will respect his ability to hit the three pointer, which means they will close out on him hard, giving him the opening to drive to the basket. If help defenders stay back to protect against the lob to Big Matt, then that elbow jumper will be open.
4. Speaking of Big Matt, I don't know how many times now he's opened up the game with a lob dunk and I say to myself... that will be there all night. Maybe this is the game where Matt has a big scoring night. And then it doesn't happen. I don't know if teams adjust and he has no second act, or what. That said, he does what he does, which is to be a big body in the middle that clogs the lane on defense and makes the opposing defenders have to respect the lob threat, which circles you back to point #3 above.
5. Justin Mullins showed some sparks last night. He took it to the basket aggressively a couple times leading to 5 points. But it was the other areas where he stuffed the stat sheet. 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Not bad for coming off the bench. As he gains confidence, his ability to contribute should grow.
6. Tough night for the frosh. This was a bit of step back for them. KJ missed all of his shots and just looked like he was rushing things. He did finish with 5 assists and 2 steals, so it wasn't all bad, but he just didn't look as comfortable last night. Poor Jello had an even rougher night. He just couldn't seem to stay on the floor as he kept making mistakes, mostly on defense. There was one sequence where he checked in at a time out, promptly grabbed the UIC player on the inbounds play to draw the foul, and promptly got yanked back out for a Chris Collins' tongue lashing. Those are the growing pains of being a freshman. He'll keep improving.
7. The defense continues to impress. They held a UIC team who had scored 91 in each of their first two games to 74 points and forced 20 turnovers. Again, I am so impressed with the way our guys move and communicate on defense. The hedging, the switching, the recovering... all signs of a very well coached team who believes in spending the effort to defend well. That will continue to keep us in games all year as we figure out who is going to score that night besides Nick.
8. I don't know whether to dwell more on the fact that we took 33 free throws last night or the fact that we missed 11. Equally, one could be upset that Nick missed 5 free throws... but I'm more impressed that he got to the line 10 times. That is star quality stuff (the 10 attempts.... not the 5 misses). Something tells me Nick stayed late last night shooting 500 extra free throws after the game.
Still too early to really know what this all means. How we will compete when BIG play rolls around is still a little unclear to me. Will our guys continue to lean into the moment as the lights get brighter? I sure hope so. I think the signs are there of a good team, but they have to keep improving.
