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Post by 00hmh on Nov 5, 2024 8:33:21 GMT -6
More thoughts now that I’m back home. Sparks had no explosiveness at all. He can get boards because he’s tall and wide, but couldn’t get a shot up against their interior defense. Wasn’t impressive at all, and I still think he plays like he looks - soft. Hill was impressive once he stopped shooting beyond 4 feet. That will be his game, slashing to the rim. Pearson….i sat by his family. Nice people. But he isn’t a three point shooter. His misses down the stretch killed us. Point guard play was decent from both Watts and Juanse. Hernandez had moments. Mason gave solid minutes but I’m not sure he took more than 1 shot. Hart I don’t think shot at all, and was stripped once or twice. He just looks like he needs playing time to get in the flow. I’m worried about him. Thought we might see the Croatian down the stretch, Lewis told him to get ready but never put him in. Hendricks was more of an offensive threat than sparks. Wild to be saying that. I think it’s gonna be another mediocre year, and mediocre for us is BAD for most teams. Good point about guard play. Too bad we didn't see the outside shooting we want from Hart. We should reserve judgment until we see whether Spark is functional and see if the new guys can play D. Hill was the big plus along with Ben. |
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Post by bsutrack on Nov 5, 2024 9:37:29 GMT -6
Earlier in the year, someone made a comment on how much better Sparks would be after playing against Kel'el Ware and the rest of the IU frontcourt every day in practice last season. Well, unless there was some sort of mystery illness for him last night against Georgia State, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Sparks' free throw shooting seemed as broken as ever. He'll be too much of a liability in any close game for the last 5 minutes of play. Last night the 40 minutes of center playing time as an even split between Hendriks and Sparks, 20 minutes each. That may be the norm for the season.
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Post by 00hmh on Nov 5, 2024 9:45:52 GMT -6
He can do a lot more in his 20 minutes, or I'm not playing him that much...
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Post by zonebuster on Nov 5, 2024 9:50:21 GMT -6
Watched the entire game last night. Some of my takes are likely duplicates of previous posts. Below is my summary of the good and bad:
Positives
- We will have the best point guard play we've had in years. Both Gorosito & Brittain-Watts played well last night and should see situations going forward with them on the floor together;
- Hill's 2nd half play showed he is a freak athlete who can get his shot off any time;
- Hendricks picked up where he left off last year with solid minutes off the bench;
- Sparks was a decent passer in the 1st half & showed he can be facilitator on offense;
- Our ball movement in the 2nd half was much better. It led to so many wide open 3's that just didn't fall;
- Hernandez showed glimpses of what he is capable of on offense;
Negatives
- First half was nothing more than street ball on offense. Outside of Sparks, very little passing and way too much 1-on-1 play;
- Along those lines, I don't think Hill passed the ball more than a couple of times in the 1st half. Played very selfishly;
- Sparks looked so sluggish and out of shape. Was really hoping he would've lost 20-25 lbs. in the off-season. No agility/coordination around the basket with the ball. Sure hope he was just under the weather;
- Way too many missed block-outs on defense;
- Players turned their heads and watched passes on defense & got beat on cuts;
- Hart looked flustered and out of sync last night. I'm sure he'll settle down;
- Shooting from 3's, FG's & FT's couldn't have been much worse. But, I have to believe we have been shooting the ball better in practice which must be why we kept bombing bricks. Otherwise, we would've seen Lewis calling some timeouts in that 1st half.
We won't learn much from upcoming Franklin College game, but the Dayton game next week will be interesting to watch.
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Post by bsucardinalfan on Nov 5, 2024 10:48:56 GMT -6
One thing to note about Hill - he had a big family presence at the game. Maybe half of our crowd had his name and number on a BSU shirt - so it’s possible he was forcing things a bit last night.
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Post by thebsukid on Nov 5, 2024 10:49:53 GMT -6
Zonebuster; good post; I think you captured it well.
We can be good; the biggest factor will be Spark’s play!
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Post by sdacardinal on Nov 5, 2024 11:05:23 GMT -6
Sparks sat on the bench for a year losing playing time and also I think he was an afterthought in practice. He did ge 4 assists and 7 rebounds but 18 3 pointers meant that he was not seeing the ball inside. Pearson is a good 3pt shooter at least he was last year but that first half was playground ball not team ball mahybe one pass before it was jacked up.
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Post by 00hmh on Nov 5, 2024 11:18:26 GMT -6
Sparks' free throw shooting seemed as broken as ever. He'll be too much of a liability in any close game for the last 5 minutes of play. You may be right about the last 5 minutes. But, if he can draw fouls earlier and put the opposing big men in foul trouble, then Ben can take advantage of that in those possessions he plays. Getting us in the bonus will help everybody.
And even in the last 5 minutes we can use Sparks as a rebounder, if he has his head in the game, and on offense, it's fine if he is more a screener to get people open, and on P&R our guys driving to the basket are in the bonus.
I hate to be so negative about Sparks, there was probably a reason, but he just wasn't the guy we saw two years ago, he played better as a freshman. My concern was not just offense, but how slow he was reacting on defense, failing to block out and get the boards in the second half play especially. No surprise he can't defend outside, but he played the P&R very poorly, and overall he was sleep walking, in the way of our defenders more than he was a deterrent to the inside play of the opponent...
Ben was no defensive stopper, but better, got pushed around a bit as the GSt players went after the ball, but he was active and could help and recover on screens, and get back to the boards and put up a fight for the ball. It is good we can have a chance to get back in the game with him.
I was impressed by the physical play of the GSt big guys. They had 3 guys pounding the boards and although none could shoot outside they had their way inside, going to the basket, shooting over us and getting offensive rebounds when it counted.
Pearson and our guys fought pretty hard, got some rebounds but had trouble scoring in the close quarters inside. Maybe if we had a lead and/or were shooting better they could reset and run the offense?
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Post by cardfan on Nov 5, 2024 11:33:27 GMT -6
Lewis mentioned Sparks was battling cramps. He said Sparks is the least of his concerns and noted his 7 boards in 20 mins. Have to hope Decemember-March Sparks will be much better than we saw last night.
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Post by 00hmh on Nov 5, 2024 11:40:50 GMT -6
Sparks sat on the bench for a year losing playing time and also I think he was an afterthought in practice. He did ge 4 assists and 7 rebounds but 18 3 pointers meant that he was not seeing the ball inside. Pearson is a good 3pt shooter at least he was last year but that first half was playground ball not team ball mahybe one pass before it was jacked up. Both good points. I suspect the fast play was part of the plan, recognizing their size inside and trying to take advantage of Hill and Hernandez and good guard play. But, when that did not work, and if the open shot isn't there or you can''t get to the basket, you have to have a better half court game than we showed.
bsukid has pointed out how a little more effective shooting and we would have been fine. Those fast shots did not fall... OTOH, if that means playing inside out, Sparks has to be a threat to score and draw a double team.
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Post by sdacardinal on Nov 5, 2024 11:45:27 GMT -6
Agree if we would have shot 40% instead of 32% we might not be agonizing so much.
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Post by universityjim on Nov 5, 2024 11:47:59 GMT -6
I’m assuming Lewis did not reference a Sparks illness/injury in the post game interview? No mention of Sparks. Not in the radio post game interview. I have not seen the post game press conference. |
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Post by 00hmh on Nov 5, 2024 11:52:26 GMT -6
Lewis mentioned Sparks was battling cramps. He said Sparks is the least of his concerns and noted his 7 boards in 20 mins. Have to hope Decemember-March Sparks will be much better than we saw last night.
He sees Sparks in practice and if he's not that worried, it's good news. His rebounding first half was a plus, and he got assists. Second half...
Pearson and Hernandez were 1 for 14 on 3's, that is surely not what we expected, and Lewis said he wasn't really worried about that shooting.
The bench shot 50%, got 18 pts and 9 reb in 60 minutes. Compared to last year, that's a plus.
Getting Hart into the action, and finding more ways to get Hernandez to score also give us upside. That he thinks Hill might have learned a lesson about playing under control is another plus.
He obviously wasn't going to beat up on Pearson who he has called an improved player this year. We'll see more there. I was surprised he didn't give Ben a mention...
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Post by DaRegion on Nov 5, 2024 15:29:25 GMT -6
I could accept losing to Georgia. I could also accept losing to Georgia Tech. But Georgia State? It's a sad state of affairs as to how far we've fallen off of the map. If sleepy Joe can say it, so can I.....C'mon man!
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Post by CallingBS on Nov 5, 2024 16:14:36 GMT -6
Watched the entire game last night. Some of my takes are likely duplicates of previous posts. Below is my summary of the good and bad: Positives- We will have the best point guard we've had in years. Both Gorosito & Brittain-Watts played well last night and should see situations going forward with them on the floor together; - Hill's 2nd half play showed he is a freak athlete who can get his shot off any time; - Hendricks picked up where he left off last year with solid minutes off the bench; - Sparks was a decent passer in the 1st half & showed he can be facilitator on offense; - Our ball movement in the 2nd half was much better. It led to so many wide open 3's that just didn't fall; - Hernandez showed glimpses of what is capable of on offense; Negatives- First half was nothing more than street ball on offense. Outside of Sparks, very little passing and way too much 1-on-1 play; - Along those lines, I don't think Hill passed the ball more than a couple of times in the 1st half. Played very selfishly; - Sparks looked so sluggish and out of shape. Was really hoping he would've lost 20-25 lbs. in the off-season. No agility/coordination around the basket with the ball. Sure hope he was just under the weather; - Way too many missed block-outs on defense; - Players turned their heads and watched passes on defense & got beat on cuts; - Hart looked flustered and out of sync last night. I'm sure he'll settle down; - Shooting from 3's, FG's & FT's couldn't have been much worse. But, I have to believe we have been shooting the ball better in practice which must be why we kept bombing bricks. Otherwise, we would've seen Lewis calling some timeouts in that 1st half. We won't learn much from upcoming Franklin College game, but the Dayton game next week will be interesting to watch. Good analysis. The rebounding was nothing short of atrocious, and I'd go as far as to say that was the controllable difference in the game. |
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