Florida A&M Game Notes and Thread

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Re: Florida A&M Game Notes and Thread

Post by xtrawildcat » December 3rd, 2019, 12:31 am

Back from the game. I enjoyed it as I got to watch the new guys and Shaun Williams get a lot of playing time. Other team wasn't good but that gave Weber a chance to let Sloan, and Williams get more time.

1. Their big guy did some damage. Weber said in post game they would have doubled him but he hadn't been a scorer before this game.
2. They started jumping passing lanes in the second half and Weber blamed himself for not having us attack on offense every time they got out of position.
3. Sneed and McGuirl played very solid games tonight.
4. Diarra played pretty well also and he is by far the best point guard option. 7 assists but 3 turnovers in 30 minutes.
5. They had Mak back off trying to score in the post and had him passing back out. 8 points on five shots and 6 rebounds in 20 minutes. He still had 3 tovs and that is too many. Some on the kick outs.
6. Shaun Williams with 3 turnovers in 12 minutes, Levi with 3 turnovers in 14 minutes, Not good.

Weber said he is setting aside time for shooting every day. Hope that starts to pay dividends. Also said they will be good if they put the work in the gym that is required to improve. Pointed our McGuirl as a guy who is seeing the extra work on his game pay dividends.

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Post by gdgjr78 » December 3rd, 2019, 12:43 am

I honestly don't know what we can glean from that W against a terrible team 🤷‍♂️. I mean its more experience for the guys playing together, that's probably the biggest upside to this game.
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Post by pulitzerdave » December 3rd, 2019, 2:02 am

Well, here's my take on the game. The team we played was bad. They were offensively challenged. They had no players who were 3-point threats, in fact they are one of the worst 3-point shooter team in the nation. Their center had his way with us in the paint. He was a 350 pound tank who got deep into the lane and made a bunch of layups - we couldn't stop him.

We should have won by 40 points, but not surprisingly, after doubling the score on them early in the second half - 54-27 - we then let up and stopped playing hard. During one lazy stretch under their basket, we turned the ball over either 3 or 4 straight times, all for conversion baskets, while trying to inbound the basketball or move it past half court. It was embarrassing to see a Big 12 team collapse like that, even for a brief period of time. We had 20 turnovers for the night against an unworthy opponent. Maybe I shouldn't say unworthy, because they played harder than we did.

A few positives. We made most of our free throws, we shared the ball and had numerous assists.

Mike McGuirl played his best game of the year. He shot with confidence, played good defense, and made good decisions with the ball. Sneed played pretty well, and was efficient with shot selection. He also rebounded well, played good defense and didn't force the ball on the drive. But that's about it.

Diarra again showed the propensity to force the drive, then try to kick out to a player on the perimeter slinging passes from impossible angles. The announcers were all over him for doing this. He had 7 assists, but was also loose with the ball and threw too many of his patented one hand passes, a few picked off, and many more almost stolen. He can and must play better.

Shaun Williams took a step backwards tonight and was not very good. He had some head-scratching, unforced turnovers. Not what you want in your back-up point guard. Sloan was OK and plugged in for a few solid minutes.

I'll finish with the Gordon's. A Gordon's defense was atrocious, as he got pushed around in the post. I do think that he was the victim of some bad calls, which seems to happen often with freshmen. He plays hard, and it will take a season for him to be a factor for this team.

But the biggest mystery for me is D Gordon. Someone please sell me on this guy. I hear people on this forum talking about him being a "future star", and maybe that will happen someday, but right now he looks like a pretty ordinary 3-star player, not a 4-star guy, and Chicago's high school player of the year. He defers more than Dean Wade did his freshman year, and that's a lot. I was expecting a difference maker, and all I'm seeing so far is a guy who fills out the 5 on the court, gets an occasional steal, offensive rebound and maybe a dunk. He looks lost out there. And his defense? Maybe he has the quickness and athleticism to be a great defensive player, but right now he gets rubbed off of screens easier than any player we have.

Overall, I didn't see much tonight that got me excited. We tried to put it on cruise control with about 16 minutes to go and by doing so, made a very bad basketball team look better than they are.

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Post by IStillLikeHarv » December 3rd, 2019, 10:03 am

The big positive from the game was obviously the continued development of Mike McGuirl. Given that Mak is unlikely to develop into a consistent third scoring option at this point, the emergence of McGuirl as a solid scorer would be a big deal for this team. The let up after KSU put the game out of reach was not good, but in part we are seeing a group of new/inexperienced players working their way into the rotation. Some nice individual plays at times, but lots of headscratchers as well.

The biggest takeaway for me from the last few games is that Murphy was already the best big man KSU has, and they need him back. Fans will need to be patient with him as well, but he is just more talented than the other guys. Antonio looks like he will be a contributor, but his play is more inconsistent.

There is only so much a team can get from an opponent like FAMU, and I thought the overall game was clunky but useful at this point. The game against Marquette will be a challenge to put it mildly. Even if Murphy is back, he will not likely be where he was, so KSU needs some other guys to really step to be competitive in that game.

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Post by wild@nite » December 3rd, 2019, 10:32 am

pulitzerdave wrote:
December 2nd, 2019, 10:02 pm
I wish we had #34. He ate our lunch inside tonight. Looked like Tractor Traylor. Nineteen turnovers is not acceptable. We should have beaten this team by 40, but they out hustled us for much of the game. Did we make progress tonight? Made some free throws, had a number of assists and Mike played well. That's something.
I didn't see much progress. What I saw was a horrendous team on the opposing bench. They are not good. We are not very good right now either. Period.
Having said that, I'm forcing myself to remain patient with this group. It's hard, because they are really hard to watch right now. We don't do anything particularly well and the scariest thing is that on the surface, we don't appear as were really that interested in doing things well. This group looks flat, uninspired, inexperienced, and unconfident. That may sound harsh, but I hope the coaches are telling them the same. We are 1/4 way through the regular season. We should start seeing some continuity and subtle improvements very soon.

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Post by xtrawildcat » December 3rd, 2019, 10:53 am

We are up by 27 early in the second half and Weber subbed in mostly newcomers including Williams who had a bad game and Sloan. That andlet them go on a 11 to 2 run.

Diarra had 3 turnovers last night. Because a couple of them were so obvious on bad kickout passes, he is being called out more than he should for a guy who is making plays (7 assists) for others. He also had 5 steals.

McGuirl and Sneed extremely solid games.

A Gordons defense was OK but he wasn't able to guard the 300 pound guy. Did fine other than that.

Florida A and M was a bad team but contrary to comments, both teams played extremely hard.

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Post by donley » December 3rd, 2019, 11:08 am

xtrawildcat wrote:
December 3rd, 2019, 10:53 am
Diarra had 3 turnovers last night. Because a couple of them were so obvious on bad kickout passes, he is being called out more than he should for a guy who is making plays (7 assists) for others. He also had 5 steals.
I don't know if Diarra is truly going to be a good PG, but he has averaged the number of assists and turnovers he had last night 7 and 3 for the year. That puts him second in the league in assists per game and 11th in the league in assist to turnover ratio at 2.1.

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Post by wild@nite » December 3rd, 2019, 11:15 am

xtrawildcat wrote:
December 3rd, 2019, 10:53 am
We are up by 27 early in the second half and Weber subbed in mostly newcomers including Williams who had a bad game and Sloan. That andlet them go on a 11 to 2 run.

Diarra had 3 turnovers last night. Because a couple of them were so obvious on bad kickout passes, he is being called out more than he should for a guy who is making plays (7 assists) for others. He also had 5 steals.

McGuirl and Sneed extremely solid games.

A Gordons defense was OK but he wasn't able to guard the 300 pound guy. Did fine other than that.

Florida A and M was a bad team but contrary to comments, both teams played extremely hard.
Exactly. That team has no business going on an 11-2 run, I don't care who we had on the floor. "Williams who had a bad game and Sloan. So? What kind of excuse is that? They are P5 players, correct? Nobody on the other team is, correct? So my point is, inspiration, and confidence are missing. Those two should be itching to get on the floor and play with their hair on fire. I don't see it. Not with every single player, but overall, yes. 11-2 run from that team will be 25-2 run vs teams in our conference. Again, we are 1/4 way through the season. It's time to quit making excuses and get better. The score was better last night, the overall play was not. That effort isn't beating anybody in this conference, imo.

"Both teams played hard." I would hope so. They are Division 1 players. I still don't see much passion and leadership.

I get it that some people can't handle any type of criticism towards our teams. Again, I'm going to remain patient, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade a spade and start expecting a little more. We played a crappy team last night and I'm still not sure what we are going to be good at.

This isn't meant as a knock on our staff, but more so on our players needing to grow up a bit. At this level, "playing hard" isn't enough. I feel like nobody has any expectations for this team, including themselves. That is a recipe for disaster.

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Post by tmcats » December 3rd, 2019, 11:27 am

from my 5th-row seat last night, here are some observations which are for the most part the same as many above.

mike had a break-out shooting game and continues to defend well
mike also showed some leadership this team sorely needs
x was solid
carti's apathetic attitude bothers me even as his game improves
5-spot at times seems hopeless and that's being kind
murphy is really the missing link now
will the other two bigs ever play here again?
more students than i expected but an otherwise dismal crowd - reminded me of wooly days
with that few in the gym does the p.a. guy really need an amp maybe a megaphone would do?
marquette game will be interesting, won't it.

Why is there something rather than nothing?

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Post by xtrawildcat » December 3rd, 2019, 12:09 pm

tmcats wrote:
December 3rd, 2019, 11:27 am
from my 5th-row seat last night, here are some observations which are for the most part the same as many above.

mike had a break-out shooting game and continues to defend well
mike also showed some leadership this team sorely needs
x was solid
carti's apathetic attitude bothers me even as his game improves
5-spot at times seems hopeless and that's being kind
murphy is really the missing link now
will the other two bigs ever play here again?
more students than i expected but an otherwise dismal crowd - reminded me of wooly days
with that few in the gym does the p.a. guy really need an amp maybe a megaphone would do?
marquette game will be interesting, won't it.

We won the Big 12 with those same two guys playing the 5 last year.

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