Good minutes for the freshmen as Luke Harangody carried the offense throughout an offensive shootout that raised a few more questions about our defensive ability.
Tory Jackson had a pretty solid night. He was the only guy who played over 30 minutes tonight, a nice change of pace for an easy nonconference game. 9 points, 4 assists. He struggled a bit from the field and the line (3-6 on free throws) but only turned the ball over twice.
Ben Hansbrough left the game early with a tight back and more issues with that ankle. Doesn't sound too serious and this is the time to take care of a few nicks before the Thanksgiving tourney in Chicago. He only scored 6 points before exiting midway through the second half.
Ho-hum Jonathan Peoples once again looked like the weakest starter. He was outscored again by Tim Abromaitis and finished with a pedestrian 8 and 3.
Ty Nash took advantage of his 17 minutes on the floor. A career-high scoring output with 12, but he could have added to that total with an improved shot from the charity stripe. He picked up 3 fouls while in the game, which is not necessarily a negative. I like that we have one guy who is willing to throw his body around inside. After the game, he mentioned that the team needed to loosen up on defense. A pretty good judgment.
Harangody also made sure to get to foul line as much as possible. Coach Brey wanted to slow down the game and focus on getting easy points while racking up fouls for the other side. For the most part, it really worked. Gody was perfect on his ten attempts. Chipped in a pair of three pointers and 9 rebounds for a great statistical night in just 28 minutes.
Off the bench, Notre Dame went ten deep for the most part. Abro scored 12 and went 2-3 from beyond the arc. Another very nice output. 4 points and 6 rebounds for Scott in 17 minutes. Nice job for him, as well. Carleton bounced back well from struggling against Long Beach. I was also happy to see Joey Brooks get serious minutes. 4 and 4 in the 12 minutes. He can also be a defensive stopper on a team that really needs a couple of guys who can focus on the other end of the floor. Mike Broghammer and Jack Cooley struggled to put the ball in the basket, but both put in a good day's work. Ten minutes in a game like today is much more helpful in the development of a young player than what we have seen recently. Let's keep it up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
It may have taken him a few years, but I think Brey finally started reading your blog. The cries for bench minutes have been heard!
It's nice to see more than 7 players being used in scenarios in which the game isn't completely locked up.
On a side note, I'm starting to get worried about our non-conference SOS. Apart from the usual scheduling of opponents in the RPI 300'S (when we should be scheduling just as winnable games in the mid 100's), our 2 biggest games against Northwestern and UCLA are starting to lose clout.
UCLA dropped that Cal State game and Northwestern wasn't even really competitive against Butler and was trailing inside 3 minutes against Tenn State.
Oh well at least the Cuse and Nova are putting on a good showing for the Big East.
If I'm a non-starter I have hope today. Internal competition for minutes is very important and something that has been missing over the past several years. I would expect practices tio be more intense - playing time should be on the line. You play like you practice. It doesn't take John Wooden to see that Brooks is a much, much better player than Peoples. Will he make freshman mistakes? Sure he will.......Let him make them against Liberty and Kennesaw State.
Notre Dame needs to come clean on their "announced" attendance. Fact of the matter is that the women are outdrwawing the men by a wide margin. There were about 5,500 people (maybe) there last night.
I can't bellieve that a Dayton and maybe Butler sprinkled in the pre-season schedule wouldn't be a huge help in preparing for the Big East? We may not know our true weakness until crunch time.
As for who starts Peoples or Abro I don't think that matters. You can already tell Mike has lots of confidence in Abro and he will be seeing major minutes. I like the looks of Joey Brooks but to say he is a much much better player than Pepes at this stage of his career is a real stretch. We just need to keep playing eight nine guys each game and not end up with six players that have dead legs by the end of the year. GO IRISH
Once we get to the meat of the Big East schedule, the men will pass the women in terms of attendance.
It also helps that the women are in the top 10 and actually have top 25 opponents scheduled for non conference.
I'd bet a nice juicy steak that the women outdraw the men this year.
Brooks has the athleticism to contend in the BE, Peoples has the athleticism to contend in the Horizon League. Again, does Peoples start for any other team in the Big East?
I've talked to Martin about the team and he says Pepes is very athletic. He does have a laid back persona. I'm sure not saying he's more than a role player.
Brooks does not even come close to Peoples, YET, but may with a few years experience surpass him. Cooley cannot even handle the ball or get it in the basket. He looks scared and confused. Actually, Kopko looked the most confident on the floor, not a suprise since he has both the talent and maturity. Carleton looked great, and we need his minutes.
Brooks is not close to Peoples? How do we know?
As a basketball lifer - and I mean literally from the cradle - I see the effortless "glide" to Brooks' game that is not there with Peoples. I can't explain it - I just recognize it.
I can definitely see both sides of the Peoples/Brooks argument. Joey will have the better career, but he is very inexperienced right now. As long as he finds a reliable role within the rotation, I'll be happy. Just make sure Peeps isn't playing more than 20-25 minutes a game...
Post a Comment