Marist game thread

[Anti-Homer]

What a relief! My heart rate is just starting to come down after that narrow, titanic win against a 300+/- “Netish” Marist team, who were also missing their top two centers. The atmosphere inside Cintas was only rivaled by me getting my license renewed at the BMV.

The game started great, with Anderson and Filip taking four of the first five shots but surprisingly hitting none. They were a collective 1-13 from the floor, including 0-6 from three. Absolutely shocking. Shocking I tells you.

Player Assessments:

• Roddie Anderson: I love his effort, but his offensive game urgently needs a drastic overhaul. Two years at Boise and these first games ( incl. 2 exhibitions) are pretty clear indicators of his skillset. He needs to channel his play to be more like Dwon Odom and less like Q Goodin. There’s a reason opposing defenses back away from him like he has leprosy on the perimeter. He is also an out-of-control downhill driver in the lane and got bailed out twice with fouls on Monday on 3 on 1 drives. He showed the same issue against Murray St. I was encouraged by him only having 4 assists and only 1 turnover. However, until further notice, he needs a lab-only shooting diet; hopefully, he works on his game, pockets that step-back three, and Poaman (sp?) provides an upgrade at PG when he returns.

• Filip: I like his intensity and effort, but I was glad to see Pitino bench him when he was clearly forcing shots and having a net-negative impact on the court.

• Moore & Carroll: Moore had a solid game, while Carroll struggled a bit. However, for X to have a successful year, those two will need to be high-volume, efficient scorers.

• All Wright: He appears to be a confident shooter, and shot statistically well from 3 last year, though his release is slow. He lacks athleticism, so he'll need to develop into a crafty, high-IQ scorer. He ain’t going to blow by a lot of people.

• Walker: Next.

• Robinson: He is incredibly athletic, but his offensive skillset in the post is severely limited. Simply put, X has very limited offensive firepower in the post. This is one reason why X forced up treys in crunch time, which is not a good sign for the season. It’s a worrying sign when I find myself pining for John Hugley.

• N'Diaye: He is very, very raw. Hopefully, he can develop his game this year to provide reliable depth in the post...by 2027.

• Milcevic: A talented stretch four, but he was an absolute traffic cone on defense. Given this team's struggles, however, his offensive talent is at a premium and may necessitate playing him despite that.

• Ball Security: X finished with only 11 total turnovers, which is good. However, they were careless with at least five cross-court passes, three of which resulted in turnovers. The passing IQ needs improvement when they start playing teams with a pulse, like Santa Clara.
• No Alpha: As I've said before the season started, this team lacks an alpha scorer. It also lacks a reliable beta scorer at this point as well. Scoring will be an issue all year.

• The team needs better point guard play and significantly better shot selection; too many threes were forced. Shooting is going to have to be the hallmark of this team because, right now, we have no one who can consistently beat their man off the dribble and score.

Here’s hoping for a much more efficient game against the Le Moyne’s mighty team.

Seacrest out.

[Anti-Homer]

The disgusting thing tonight was the empty seats in Cintas for our new coach. Too many fans were disguised as grey seats. Hey, Halloween was days ago. Will the corporate seats be filled with Bearcats this shootout?

In all fairness, X had the 2nd-highest paid attendance of any BE team on Monday. Also, it was a Monday night, against a lousy opponent, and a "low expectations for the year" mindset carefully crafted by Pitino and his daddy.