MD - PSU Comments

I am not sure if:

a. PSU is the worst team in major division college basketball.
b. MD just played its best defensive game in the GW era.

I think both could be right.

- PSU was 14 for 68 from the floor (21%)
- PSU was 3 for 27 from distance (11%)
- PSU had six assists and 12 turnovers
- MD had 17 turn-overs and was only 12 for 21 at the line and still won 62 - 39.
- MD's second-best player (Tucker) had zero points.

Someone named Taran Buie was 0 for 9 in thirteen minutes; at some point, you need to dial it down Taran.

Taking away Battle's 7 for 21 masterpiece, the rest of the team was 7 for 47 (15%).

Fifteen percent. I didn't think that was possible for a group of eight D1 players.

What else did we learn tonight?

- Stoglin has a very nice handle on the ball. He is money at the line. He will be playing at the ends of games. Bowie still struggles to bring the ball up court against pressure.

- MD is a significantly better defensive team than last year. Hayes and Vasquez didn't scare many teams on defense. I don't think this year's team has a defensive weak spot; although, they can improve on the defensive glass.

- Padgett played his best game of the year. Very active.

- Williams is still a circus at the FT line. 3 for 9 tonight. Other than that, he was awesome tonight. He is starting to use the rim inside to avoid getting his shot blocked; very Baxter-like in that regard.

- The announcer informed us that Williams was the first all Freshman ACC player since "Jeff" Blake. I thought he was a QB for East Carolina. Steve Blake would disagree with her.

- Gregory is solid. He is showing better range this year on his line-drive jumper that seems to hit the bottom of the net more often than not. He also has surprising throw-down in traffic ability.

- MD is essentially eight deep. Weijs will play some; not much. What happened to Parker? This guy was #42 overall out of HS last year.

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NIT Comments

NCAA Tournament Probability: 62%
Predicted number of future NBA players on roster: Zero

Good start to the season. Very competitive losses to #4 Pitt (because of missed FTs) and #16 ILL (because of poor perimeter defense). #37 overall ranking seems right.

It is not "if" but "when" Stoglin moves into the starting PG position and Bowie becomes the sixth man. I think it will happen in mid December.

This team will struggle with turn-overs and three-point shooting all year. Add rebounding when (not if) Williams gets into foul trouble. The team will excel with open-court, fast-paced tempo that is triggered by the full-court press. In other words, a typical GW team. I think the FT shooting issue will get fixed.

Two games with Bobby Knight's commentary was very solid overall. He had a few moments when you had to question his thinking; most notably, he went into a long explanation as to why it is a good idea to make the first and miss the second FT intentionally when you are up by 2 with five seconds left on the clock. Stupid. Last time I checked, it is tough to hit a four-pointer.

He also went a bit overboard on "counting" dribbles. He said Stoglin bounced it 19 times "because I counted" on one possession. I used the DVR to check and it was 13.

Here are a few comments:

- Williams: Best player and clearly the most important player on the team. . . averaging 19 and 12 through five games. . . loss of 20 lbs allows for throwdowns at the rack instead of lay-ins. . . polished inside game. . . still gets a lot of shots blocked. . . could use a lesson from Baxter on using the rim to prevent that from happening. . . only two blocked shots in five games. . . still commits bad fouls. . . has tendency to use left arm to hook opponent on baseline moves. . . will be on the bench with foul trouble quite a bit this season. . . FT shooting will be a problem.

- Tucker: Bobby Knight's favorite player. . . great in the open floor. . . showed a nice mid-range game from the FT area. . . averaging 15, 4 boards, and 3 assists thus far. . . can disappear for long stretches when games slow down.

- Mosley: Averaging 9, 4 boards, and 3 assists. . . seems to get shorter each year. . . 1 for 9 from distance. . . mid-range game seems off compared to last year. . . did I mention that he is under-sized? . . . great overall knowledge of the game. . . I am confident that this is just an early season funk. . . if not, MD is in serious trouble.

- Bowie: 18 assists and 17 turn-overs thus far. . . he is a two that is being disguised as a one. . . not a creator in the half-court set. . . great in the open court. . . defense goes with his offense. . . not able to get open looks for three when he is playing the point. . . shot 41% from distance last year. . . with the lack of other options, MD will need him to get 3 or 4 looks from distance per game.

- Gregory: Great shot blocker. . . plays bigger than his height. . . good catch and shoot mid-range game thus far. . . not a great rebounder. . . good FT shooter who should find a way to play with his back to the basket on offense so that he can get to the line more often.

- Stoglin: Pure scorer. . . best shooter on the team. . . averaging 0.3 assists per game over the last three. . . will not get into the starting line-up until that stat gets fixed. . . easy to understand how he was the second all-time leading scorer in AZ.

Howard: Very impressive against Charleston. . . not so much in the last three games. . . I can't see him playing the point for long stretches.

Weijs: I like what I see so far in limited minutes. . . goes after blocked shots. . . active. . . can finish on the offensive end. . . still far too weak to justify double-digit minutes per game.

Padgett: 4 for 14 at the FT line so far. . . 28.6%. . . has no offensive game beyond dunks off of feeds. . . decent on the defensive end. . . will commit a lot of fouls.

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