This will serve as a supplement/expansion to
Matt's excellent introductory round-up of the opening impressions of the team.
Fun fact: Did you know Coach Cuonzo was 0 for 7 from three-point range in his first 2 years at Purdue? After that, did you know in his next two years he was among the NCAA leaders from three, going 179-390 (45.9%) in his junior and senior seasons? Man, you think he might have run some more plays for Ahearn (i.e. any...) if he was the coach here back a few years back?
Anyway, I went to the 1st half of the first Exhibition game, then most of tonight's 2nd Exhibition game. Overall impression of the team is...sloppy. Especially the first game. They were a tad sharper tonight, but still pretty sloppy overall. But I guess that should be expected from a team that has so many newcomers and inexperienced guys playing big minutes. The outside game looked alright - several guys on this team can knock it down from 3. Though I did notice several shots over the 2 games with guys who were right on the line, for essentially a 20 foot 2-pointer. This will probably happen early on in the season for all teams as the players adjust to the
new 3 point line, which is now at 20'9" (one foot farther back). Overall, I was pretty impressed w/ Spence, Cooks, Weems and McFarland from the outside. Fury has yet to find his stroke through these first 2 games though.
As far as the inside game, I'm not sure it's fair to judge vs. the competition that was in our first 2 games. The first team had like a few guys who were around 6'7", and that was the extent of their "big men." Knapp looked pretty good against them. Tonight, the East Central team from Oklahoma did have a 6'10" guy that presented a more stout challenge to our big men, and they looked worse than in the first game. Knapp had a Drew Richards-esque first half tonight, with like 4 points, 2 quick fouls, and maybe 6 total minutes played due to the foul trouble. He stepped it up a bit in the 2nd half and started to look better. Looks like he had a good stroke at the line though, and it should be a nice change to have our big guy be able to hit more than 40% of his FT's.
Continuing on the inside game, I didn't get to see Creekmore play due to eligibility (as Matt said, he'll be available 2nd semester), but I did get to see Isaiah Rhine give it a shot in the post. He looks really raw. Kinda slow too. Maybe like a shorter, smaller, rawer version of JP Nelson. But he's a freshman, and I wouldn't expect much from him this year, aside from hopefully some signs of development. Overall, it's tough to give an accurate gauge of our inside prowess, b/c of the lack of size we were going against. Although the MVC is hardly a big guy-centric league, we will be facing a lot taller and bigger guys as the conference season wears on. We're probably gonna have to outsmart, outquick and outhustle the opposition on the inside this year, b/c we probably don't have the size to body up with most teams.
I've heard a lot of Cuonzo wanting to instill a new and ferocious defense-centric philosophy first, which is probably needed because we may have trouble scoring points this year. I did like some of the ball pressure I saw, and we seemed to get in a lot of passing lanes for tons of steals in the Exhibition games. I did see a lot of our guards get blown by far too easily on the perimeter, but it seems like we have a lot of potential quickness on the defensive perimeter - maybe the guys just need some more practice and conditioning with Cuonzo's intense defensive plan.
As far as the individual players go, I'll give brief summaries of what I've seen so far:
Chris Cooks #3He's our best player this year, probably by a long ways. He will likely lead the team in points, shots, minutes, steals, hustle plays, and maybe even rebounds. The guy just goes, all the time. That results in a lot of hustle steals, fastbreak finishes, and plenty of inside rebounds/put backs. Also plenty of turnovers and out of control plays, though he seems to have had fewer TO's in the first 2 games. I can't really say he's great at any single thing, but he's above-average-to-good at just about everything. Even though he's only 6'4", he can play the 1, 2, and 3 spots, and even occasionally play the 4 spot, just because he's such a bulldog in there. A definite starter.
Wade Knapp #15I'd agree w/ Matt and say he looks a LOT better this year. More aggressive, better inside moves, decent touch inside, and just overall looks more comfortable. He's 6'8", and will probably play the 5 spot in our lineup, which means he'll be going up against every team's biggest guy every night. I hope he can hold up on the defensive end. A definite starter.
Spencer Laurie #10As much as I like to give Splaurie crap (his new nickname, due to the "Sp. Laurie" name on the back of the jersey this year), I'd have to say he's looked pretty good so far in the 2 games. He was definitely more aggressive w/ the outside shot tonight, and knocked down several 3's. No doubt when he gets hot, he's pretty darn good, I fear that he's too passive most of the time, and will tend to drift out of games if he doesn't get his shots early. He also doesn't take enough shots from inside the 3 point line - he needs to get by his guy(which he can) and look for his shot from 15 feet and in more often. He's a senior, and needs to be a leader this year - no time for passiveness. Likely a starter, and will get big minutes.
Shane Laurie #12I guess he'll be Shlaurie this year. He's concussed, so I haven't seen him play this year. You know what you get from him though - good defensive tenacity, some breakaway layups, and the occasional 3-pointer. Not sure his status now, but will probably get good minutes as a senior.
Justin Fuehrmeyer #00I love the Fury, but what's the deal with the double zeros? I mean, who picks 00 as their jersey number of choice, outside of 7-footers? He has yet to find his shot this year, but I love the Fury. He's more aggressive than the Lauries on offense, but not as good as an on-the-ball perimeter defender. Off and on starter, and should log big minutes.
Deron Hobbs #1He didn't play tonight, but I saw him in the first game. He's rail-thin, and looks like he should be really quick. However, I was not that impressed with his ability to get by defenders with the ball, and he was often blown by on the dribble by the inferior competition of our first Exhibition opponent. I didn't see him hit any outside shots, or inside shots that I can recall, for that matter. Seemed to turn the ball over a lot too. Overall, a rough first performance. I did hear afterward that he was just coming back from a knee injury during the first game, so that perhaps contributed to his lack of quickness and overall ineffectiveness. The knee could've been the injury that kept him out tonight. Not sure what to expect from Hobbs this year. A wild-card.
Cardell McFarland #23Along w/ Hobbs, another small guard newcomer this year. Didn't play first game, but did play decent minutes tonight. I was much more impressed with him than I was Hobbs. Seems to have good range and quicks on the outside. Although he's a freshman, he is 21 years old, and unsurprisingly, seems more developed, comfortable and mature out there on the floor than our other freshmen. I was encouraged by how he looked tonight, and am hopeful he can be a contributer this year, likely off the bench behind the the more senior Lauries and Fury, but hopefully can log some quality minutes.
Kyle Weems #34A 6'6" redshirt freshman this year. Again, I agree w/ Matt - he's looked pretty good so far though the first two games. Like McFarland, looks less raw and more comfortable out there on the floor than our other new guys likely to log big minutes this year. He seems to have a good outside game, but I haven't really see him do anything on the inside. Seems to play bigger than 6'6" frame, seems to be pretty strong. Kinda reminds me of a smaller
Blake Griffin from Oklahoma (though obviously not quite as good :) Should be able to log decent minutes off the bench, and could even start early on due to the lack of other guys w/ any sort of size on our team who have looked good. Word on the street (i.e. Art's show) is that Coach thinks Weems is our best offensive threat, but a big defensive liability, and will need to improve on the defensive end in order to get good minutes this year. I'm optimistic about the ceiling of this guy.
John Hayward-Mayhew #316'8" freshman from Oregon. Not really anything memorable from him through the first two games. Nothing great, but nothing really bad I can recall either. Not sure what to expect from him.
Dominick Brumfield #326'7" freshman from prep school in California. Didn't play the first game. Played tonight, but again, like Hayward-Mayhew, nothing too memorable. Seemed to handle the rock decently off the dribble, but for some reason, he ended up on the ground 5-6 times tonight, both on offense and defense. Again, not sure what to expect from him this year.
Isaiah Rhine #506'10" freshman from Versailles, MO. Played both exhibition games. Right now, looks as raw as they come. Like Drew as a freshman - maybe more raw. Slow. Looks like he's wearing size 25 sneakers out there the way he's plodding around. I don't imagine he'll be playing too much this year, though he's one of our few guys with size, so maybe 5-10 mintues per game. I'm hoping to see some development as the season progresses.
Ryan Jehle #30Last but not least, a 6'6" sophomore from Overland Park. Didn't play much last year. Has looked OK, I guess, through the first two games. I'm not sure what his game is. He doesn't seem to have that great a touch from outside. Has some decent bulk, but didn't really see him body anyone up in the post on offense. Again, not sure what to expect from him this year. Probably the 2nd or 3rd guy off the bench, and maybe logs 20 minutes or so per game. Maybe more if he develops a definitive outside and/or inside game.
I sat in the front row tonight for the game, and got to see Jehle up close. I was struck by how much this guy looks like Clint Baer.
Seriously. Ryan Jehle - the lost Baer brother....
So that's it for my impressions after the first few games. I'm excited about the new season, the new Cuonzo regime, and seeing our new players develop. And oh yeah, the new arena, which will probably be the main attraction for people at the first several games (i.e. bandwagon arena fans). Unfortunately, judging by the rawness of the squad that I saw, and the schedule the first few games (Auburn, Cent. Michigan, Arkansas, Utah), I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a very slow start. But I'm willing to be patient this year and watch Cuonzo mold this squad into something we can hopefully be proud of at the end of the year, and for the years to come.
Go Bears!!!
I rule at cheesy fake newspaper headlines...
