Missouri State Basketball Season Preview 2009-1010 - Part 2 - Meet The Players

Alright, on to part two of my season preview. This time, I'm focusing on the individual players. Some of these guys I've watched for a year plus, but most of em I've just watched for the three games I've attended so far, so these are purely initial impressions. But first impressions are often accurate, as they were last year, in my brief analysis of Hobbs, Weems, Rhine, Mayhew and Brumfeld after a few games. Which of this year's batch will go the way of Weems and McFarland and thrive and improve throughout the season? Which players will go the way of Hobbs, Brumfeld and Mayhew and play very little, show no improvement and fade and not even be on the team next year?

Onto the players...

#34 Kyle Weems (sophmore)

This guy is our star, plain and simple. And we've got three full more years of watching him get better. Sweet. He basically became our star player during the second half of last year, his freshman year. Weems can score from all over the floor, though he seems to fall in love with the three point shot a bit too much sometimes (most 3's attempted on the team last year, only 28% made). He's made some big shots from outside though. He seems like he's money from inside the three point line - I wish he'd take more mid-range jumpers (47 % from inside three point range last year). He's athletic, can get past guys on the outside, can finish at the basket or can pull up for the 10-15 footer off the dribble. Also is money at the line (82% FT shooter). He can, and hopefully will, take over games when we're struggling on offense and need him to score. Well on his way to being a MSU stud.

#44 Will Creekmore (junior)

He changed his number this year, but unfortunately, despite his off season work and weight gain, he seems to be the same player he was last year. And that player wasn't that good. He was a starter a lot of last year, he started the first game vs. Auburn, and appears to be our starter at the 5 spot this year. Last year, I remember him missing a lot of shots inside, and us forcing a lot of plays into Creekmore. Hopefully, with our increased offensive options this year, there will be less need for that. He just doesn't seem to have an inside game, and when he does get good position in the post, he can't finish with any consistency. That's what I saw from him last year, and that's what I've seen from him so far this year. He really didn't have the opportunity to show his game vs. Auburn, as we ran very few plays for him (or anyone) in the post, but I really hope he can get better, as that will help the team in the long run, and help free up some outside shooters if we can establish something inside. I just don't have high hopes.

#23 Cardell McFarland (sophmore)

Another holdover from last year, and a big part of our future. He was slowed a bit at the start of this season with a hand injury, but played a lot of minutes versus Auburn. He didn't start the first game, but I imagine that as he gets healthy, he'll be in the starting lineup soon enough. He's got a nice outside shot and can take people off the dribble, if need be. Handled the ball a lot last year, but seems more like a 2 guard. Luckily, we have more true point guards this year, so maybe he'll be able to play off the ball a bit more.

#00 Justin Fuehrmeyer (senior)

Our only senior. I had high hopes for Fury after his first two years, but he never seemed to get his groove and improve last year under Cuonzo. He's currently out with a hand injury, and I don't know what to expect from him this year. Even if he comes back, he's probably just a role player and a backup point guard. Maybe he can regain his outside touch and defensive tenacity when he comes back, but we'll see.

#10 Adam Leonard (junior)

One of our 3 juco transfers (from Eastern Kentucky). Good outside shooter, and our starting point guard. Based on what I've seen so far, he's already better than the Lauries ever were. Was 4-7 from three point range in the first game vs. Auburn, and he had a nice outside touch in the Exhibition games too. Can shoot the outside shot off the dribble and on the move with good accuracy. A good ball handler and made some nice passes in his first few games. I'm excited about this guy.

#15 Jermaine Mallett (junior)

Another juco transfer, and a starter this season. He's listed at 6'3", but seems to play bigger than that. He did everything in the first game vs. Auburn. Played the most minutes, had 12 points (on only 6 shots), 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Very athletic. Plays the 2/3 spot on the floor, and has a good inside/outside game. Like many of our newcomers, has good ball handling skills and can get by his guy on the perimeter. Cuonzo has talked him up, and he could become a star by the end of this year.

#2 Nafis Ricks (junior)

Our last juco transfer. I had high expectations. He was the national juco player of the year last year. I figured he'd be the starting point guard this year. Unfortunately, he's struggled, at least from what I've seen so far. Had several had turnovers handling the ball in the exhibition games and the game vs. Auburn. Ricks just hasn't ever seemed in tune with the team this year. With his credentials, I hoped he would provide a nice athletic spark, but I just haven't seen it so far. Doesn't have an outside shot from what I've seen, and when he does get past guys, I don't remember him finishing. Didn't play many minutes in the first game (partly due to fouls), and needs to pick it up quickly to become an integral part of the team.

#1 Keith Pickens (freshman)

One of our 3 freshman this year. A starting guard in the first game, but could lose his spot once McFarland gets healthy or Ricks turns up his game. Has played an unspectacular (but not bad) guard so far this year. He's only a frosh, but he doesn't look bad. One of our athletic newcomers, but probably just a role player this year.

#20 Michael Porter (freshman)

Another freshman. A 6'6" big man (at least for the Valley). Kinda reminds me of Randal Falker from SIU with the size and inside presence, but it might just be the dreads. He played the first Exhibition games, but had an appendicitis shortly before the Auburn game, and will be out til early December. In the exhibition games, he showed good tenacity on the inside, fighting for loose balls and rebounds, and bodying up other teams' post players. Haven't seen much offensive game out of him, mostly garbage points cleaning up on the inside, but I like the athleticism and tenacity I've seen on both ends so far. When he comes back, he may not be a starter, but I see him being one of the first bigs off the bench.

#33 Jerome Jones (freshman)

Our last freshman, a 6'5" forward. Good size, but doesn't seem to play inside very much. Had a nice driving the lane thunder dunk in the first exhibition game, but not much play vs. Auburn. Kind of a chucker. Has got a funny looking outside shot that doesn't inspire much confidence, but he made a few of them in the exhibitions. Could be a bit too raw to really contribute this year, but we'll see as the year progresses.

#21 Caleb Patterson (sophomore)

A 7-foot big man now eligible to play after sitting out from last year following his transfer from Colorado. My impressions so far of Patterson are - eh. He's tall. He seems athletic enough, but I haven't seen any impressive play in the post from him, and he doesn't exactly seem to dominate on the boards inside. Weird for a 7 footer. When he does get the ball inside, all I've seen him do is take fade away jumpers, and miss them most of the time. Fade away jumpers from a 7 footer in the Valley? Really? Unless you've got the touch of Hakeem (or Danny Moore, for that matter), I don't want to see you shooting fadeaways. We've got plenty of other (and better) offensive options I'd rather see shoot jumpers - I don't want to see our 7 footer do it. It would be huge if he can become an inside presence in the Valley, but I don't see it happening. There was probably a reason he played very little as a 7 footer on a last place Big XII team.

#30 Ryan Jehle (junior)

He's a solid player. Got decent size, can play inside or outside. Always seems to play hard and get after it on every play. Classic scrappy player and garbage cleanup man, that gets the most out of his athletic ability, that can provide solid minutes and occasionally hit the open outside jumper if needed. What can I say? I like seeing Jehle out there, even though he doesn't play much. Had decent minutes vs. Auburn, but unsure if the minutes will keep up when Porter gets back. We'll see. Also, still looks like Clint Baer.

#50 Isaiah Rhine (sophmore)

Lastly, our 6'10" big man off the bench. Still looks very raw and somewhat nonathletic. But hey, he's big, so he'll get minutes. Plays hard, but is not fast nor quick. Gets rebounds, I guess. Cleans up some messes inside, but has no real post game to speak of. Still, right now, I have more faith in him than I do Patterson. Still has 3 years to complete his development, so hopefully we see some signs of his improvement this year, and have something to look forward to as he heads into his junior and senior seasons.


So there you have it - initial impressions of all the 2009-2010 Bears. Lots of newcomers, lots of room for development. Get used to these names. We've only got one senior, so we're gonna have a few years to see these guys develop and hopefully thrive under Coach Cuonzo.

Alright, Ima post this again, because I love it more each time I see it. Mallett is just nasty.

Missouri State Basketball - 2009-2010 Season Preview - Part 1

It's a new season of Bears basketball, and it's really a fresh start. Tons of new players, and from what I've seen so far, a lot more athleticism. Last year was a fresh start too, and we struggled, to no one's surprise, after Barry left the cupboard almost bare.

Now that Barry's had a year to get back on his feet, serving as "administrative assistant" to Bill Self at KU (if that's what you call a person who solicits donations from alumni over the phone and is not officially listed on the coaching staff), surely he's found a coaching job, right? We were such fools to let Barry go (according to Sporting News, and many others), and surely another quality program has snatched him up by this point. No? Not even a D-II or D-III school? NIAA? High School? YMCA? Nothing? Wow, that's weird. Maybe he wasn't such a great coach after all...

Anyway, now that the Barry-taint is mostly off the program (good riddance, Knapp and Lauries), Cuonzo is starting his 2nd season in charge with a team that is starting to resemble something that maybe can win in the coming years (how's that for extremely tempered optimism?). I still think that we can't evaluate his job performance until the end of his 3rd year (time to get his recruits there, coach them up and assimilate them into his system), but I like what I've seen so far from some of these new players.

There are 7 new players this year - 3 freshman (Jones, Porter and Pickens), 3 juco juniors (Leonard, Mallett and Ricks), and 1 sophmore transfer who is now eligible (Patterson). For the returning players, we've basically got 1 great player (Weems - sophomore), 1 pretty good player (McFarland - sophomore), and a bunch of average to below-average players (Fury, Creekmore, Jehle and Rhine). Even though Creekmore is a starter and Fury is our only Senior, I'd put them both in the below-average category, but more on that later.

The Bears won both exhibition games by 20-30 points, as expected. There was a lot of rotation of players in and out, so it was tough to gauge our lineup or the flow of our offense, since players wouldn't stay in for more than 3-4 minutes at a time. Nothing too memorable overall from the Exhibition games - the teams we played chucked a lot of threes, made a lot of turnovers, and didn't have much size, so you can't really evaluate the Bears play vs. those teams. Henderson State did play zone for about 75% of the game, so that was some nice practice for what we may see going forward. Any Bears fan knows that the Bears do NOT handle the zone very well, and I'm shocked more teams don't play that exclusively against us. The first half of the Henderson St. game was a bit of a struggle, with us settling for outside shots and threes against the zone (sound familiar?), and we had a small halftime lead. In the 2nd half though, the Bears seemed to penetrate the zone a lot better (McFarland did a good job of this) and get more mid range jumpers or drives/passes to the basket, so we ended up pulling away. I'm still worried about going up against the zone defense, but at least this year, it seems that we at least have guys on the team that can (and hopefully WILL) try to dribble to the middle of the zone to create something besides outside jump shots. With Fury and the Lauries as our primary ball handlers the last few years, this was often not possible.

The game vs. Auburn was a nice start to the season. Auburn was the exact opposite of a zone team - they were a man to man team that constantly pressured the ball handlers, often before they even crossed half court. For the most part, the Bears handled the pressure well, but there was a spurt of a few minutes in the second half when the Bears were up double digits that Auburn was especially aggressive with the ball pressure (i.e. reaching and slapping for the ball) where we had several turnovers in a row from our primary ball handlers (namely, Leonard, Ricks and McFarland). But that eventually got straightened out through some foul calls and better and safer ball handling and passing, and we somewhat cruised in the 2nd half to a double-digit win.

The first half started sloppy, and brought back memories of last year's team, which had a lot of trouble scoring points most nights. I can't recall exactly, but I think we probably had 9 points through the first 10 minutes or so. Aside from this too-sick-for-words dunk from Jermaine Mallett, there was little going good early on. Luckily Auburn was struggling as well, with plenty of turnovers and missed threes (they were chuckers), so it was still a close game. Eventually, we broke out of the funk with some nice fastbreaks off of turnovers, some Adam Leonard threes and a few drives to the basket, and ended up scoring 36 first half points for a halftime lead.

In the second half the offense got going a bit better, with Adam Leonard sinking some big threes (4-7 for the night, including a 25 footer as the shot clock expired) and Weems and Mallett providing a decent midrange-to-inside driving game. Rhine and Jehle actually had some nice inside play, cleaning up after some nice passes or missed shots, and aside from that turnover spell described above, we pretty much cruised in the 2nd half, holding a 10-15 point lead most of the way.

Overall, the performance vs. Auburn was encouraging, but far from great. We ended up scoring 73 points, which is a huge step from the 60 or so we averaged last year, so that was nice. On the other hand, Auburn really did play pretty sloppy overall (partially due to our defense, but mostly due to their carelessness), and their turnovers really helped us build our lead. Auburn also relied a bit too much on their outside shooting (24 attempts, only 20% from 3-point range), and their misses really helped us. I say "their" misses, because most of Auburn's three point shots were pretty open, with very little pressure from the Bears. Lots of drives and kick-outs by Auburn, or poor- or over-rotation on defense by the Bears, leading to wide open three pointers. On Monday night, Auburn missed a lot. If they made a just a few more of their open threes, it could have been a different story. But hey, we could have made more too, and that's just the way it goes.

As for the Bears offense, it was scattered. Leonard made several threes while he was covered, which is encouraging. At the same time Weems missed a lot of threes (1 for 6), and I'd like to see him take less 3's and drive a bit for more mid-range shots. Those are his bread and butter.

There was very little inside game to speak of, and frankly, there seemed to be very few plays run for the post players. Very little "set up on the block with your back to the basket and try to score" like we've seen in previous years from Richards and Knapp (unsuccessfully). But that's probably a good thing, since our post players suck, and Creekmore could do very little from the block last year. But I was pretty shocked at how little we even attempted to go inside to the post. Creekmore only took 3 shots, and very few plays were run for him. I'm down on Creekmore, but I'd still like to see if he can develop as a post presence. Luckily, we didn't force it down in the post to Creekmore (as we so often did last year, with poor results), and instead relied on our athletic perimeter players (Mallet, Pickens, Weems, McFarland) to handle the ball and make something happen. That seems to be the Bears M.O. this year, at least through one game. Hopefully we can gradually mix in a better balance of inside play and start shooting better from the outside, but that's entirely up to the development and improvement of Creekmore and Patterson. If they don't get better as the year goes on, we can't force it, and will just have to find other ways to win, like we did vs. Auburn.


So there's a brief overview and my take on the Bears through the two exhibition games and the first regular season game of the season. I will follow up in Part 2 of my Season Preview with my observations and my impressions of each individual player on the Bears from what I've seen so far. Til next time....

Martin's Takes: A Season Preview

It's blog-posting season. For me anyway. After my spring-summer hiatus, I'm ready to start posting again. The weather has cooled from the hot summer days of 80-90 degrees, to a nice brisk fall November 75 degrees. Um, what?

Seriously, what is up with this damn weather? It's fall, dammit!! Lawn mowing/allergy season was supposed to end in early October!! Enough warm weather!!! I love the nice, cool 50 degree November days. But I'm afraid with this weather, we're gonna go straight from 75 degree days to 30 degree winter days, and completely skip the nice fall days that are supposed to happen in between. Damn global warming....

Anyway, I've got some ideas in the hopper for blog season. Next up, a post about my favorite food in the world: sandwiches!!!

And still to come, after the Exhibition games are over on Tuesday, the always popular Annual (I did it last year, at least) Missouri State Basketball Season preview!!!

Also, some possible future topics include:

"Where am I on your God-damn Ladder: The Snubbing of Martin and Max"

"My Book Reading list, or Why I suddenly feel stupid and worthless after reading Matt's Reading List"

"Married Life: Pretty Much the Same as Living-Together Life, Except with Less Sin"

"Locker Room Towel Fights: The Blinding of Larry Driscoll"