X has two fouls in the first 3 minutes. He’s staying in though
8 points in five minutes. 3-4 from the field with two treys
Lima up 15-6 after one quarter. X with 8 pts, 2 assists and a turnover.
The two fouls he picked up were cheapies. He ball watches a bit to much and stays too upright. Gets away with it because of his quickness. Won’t at the next level
3 left before half. 10 points now. Missed a couple nice looks he created for himself, but they looked good.
24-16 Lima at half. 10 points still. Never picked up a third foul so that was good. Last play of the first quarter, he beat his man but recognized the help and kicked it out for a three at the buzzer. End of half, he blew by his man off the dribble, right into the opposing big man but used his body to draw the foul. Missed both FT though. The guy he is guarding on defense isn’t more than a role player, so he hasn’t really shown much on d. Solid half. Much more engaged effort than the previous two games I saw
X with a FT, a long jumper and a three this half to give him 16. Also a steal. Lima up 32-19, 5 left in the third
I like the aggressiveness after the last 2 games.
Opponents starting to deny X off the ball. Lorain climbing back in it. 36-29.
Press has slowed Lima down.
X got called for an offensive foul for his fourth. 18 seconds left in the third. It wasn’t a foul based on replay but it sure looked like one live IMO
That’s where it stands going into the 4th. Lorain hasn’t made a jumper all night (not exaggerating). Lima needs to stay in front of their man and play actual help defense and not go for the steals.
X is doing fine. Needs to hit his shots though. A few have gone in and out.
X is good at using his body from what I’ve seen. Maybe it’s the four fouls, but he hasn’t been aggressive as much in the second half
38-35 with 4:20 to go. X needs to take charge, be aggressive but composed
X finally made an aggressive drive, drew the help, missed the layup high off the board but it created an opening for offensive rebound and outback. 42-38 Lima with 2:20 to go
Lopez did not say any one particular player is a prima donna. He said that the way most coaches recruit creates a bunch of prima donnas. It is true. Parents fall in love with the process and all the attention they receive and the control they have over “celebrity coaches”. The problem is most parents, regardless of whether or not their kid is a high recruit, have no idea what they are talking about in terms of the game and what would be good for their child. This complete cluelessness gives the coaches a huge advantage. It all works out well for certain coaches because the reason they are able to recruit well and retain their recruits is due to the fact that they have a specific personality trait: They are masters of emotional manipulation. JB does not have that personality trait.
X is only 1-6 from the line tonight. He’s a good shooter so I am assuming he’s just having a rough night. Missed two big ones. Still 42-38 with 1:14 to go
46-38 with 10 seconds left. Lima advances.
Wish X was more aggressive in the second half, but the press and his 4 fouls slowed the offense in the half court
Forgot about Davis, but, as you surely know, he committed to MSU long before he was close to being a 5 star. MSU didn’t offer Harris or Forbes out of high school, either. The truth is that Beilein recruits most of the same kids out of Michigan that Izzo does. And Izzo has recruited a lot of kids out of Ohio and Indiana and Illinois. Tum Tum and Clark are from Kansas, IIRC. McQuaid is from Texas.
With your small lineup, you only have Dawkins left to sub in and he can only play the 3 or 4. Also, you would have 7 guys sitting on the bench who are 6’8" or taller. That is misuse of the roster. We need to go bigger, not smaller.
Does anybody has any idea what JB’s plan is? Has he said anything regarding future positions? Does he want to play all the big guys at the 5 or is he planning to play two bigs at once? It seems like he does not want to play Wagner,DJ, or Donnal at the 4. Doyle, Teske, and Davis are obviously locked into the center position because they could not play 4 at all. Why so many big guys? Theories? It seems weird to me.
If you would have continued to read, you’d see that I said it’s probably not a lineup that you’d keep out there 20 minutes a night. We can go small. That doesn’t mean we go small all the time.
And we can only go bigger if those guys are capable of playing. No sense playing DJ Wilson or Wagner at the the 4 if they can’t do it. We need guys that are at the end of our bench right now to really improve over the offseason in order to be confident with a variety of lineups.