[scorecard]

It's real late coming, but didn't have any time until now to give my thoughts on the loss to Belmont, so here goes:

- crowd was sparse again, energy level in the building was low, and that seemed to include the team; wonder if there was a hangover from the Ducks win, because they seemed to be just mildly perturbed for greatness than pissed off
- I think they had gotten away in the first few games with turning it on with effort in the 2nd half with superior size and depth, and it came back to bite them in this game; they were able to catch up from a double-digit deficit but didn't make plays down the stretch
- give credit to Belmont, they are a better team than people know, they have an experienced scoring backcourt duo with scrappy front-court players (a classic sleeper team come March)
- game was ragged, and the refereeing was rather ticky-tack
- while we ended up with the lion's share of free throws due to our size, we shot 24-35 from the stripe and left some points on the board (but nobody looked as bad as Mann at the line)
- Huestis is just a tremendous defender, had 8 blocks and probably kept us in the game with his defense; he is a quick leaper with long arms and great timing; he has easily been our most consistent player this year
- Powell picked up 3 fouls in something like 2 minutes of the 2nd half, most of his fouls the awkward wrong place-wrong time variety where he was too slow to a loose ball and crashed into a smaller player
- easy to point at Powell fouling out in 7 minutes, however, if Randle and Bright don't go a combined 2-21, we still probably win that game
- Bright's shot has been AWOL so far this year, in a bad slump, shooting 26% overall, 0-12 (!) on 3 pointers on the year; when his shot is so far off, he became somewhat of a liability and Belmont's guards seemed to attack him as a shorter player; I'm guessing that felt that too, because he tried to force the action at the offensive end and had a couple of bad turnovers in crucial moments
- Randle has been 2-16 on 3 pointers for the year too
- Gage hardly played for some reason (4 minutes), probably defensively a liability against smaller teams; perhaps he will be a bigger factor when we play teams with size
- the freshmen were a bright spot for the team and actually their energy led the run that helped us get back into the game
- Sanders is a brobdingnagian bonus in my opinion, I did not expect him to be this good based on his ratings and limited highlights; he hustles on defense and has some clever moves (e.g, stop on a dime fade-away leaner), will be a fan favorite
- Allen will be good once he gets comfortable
- Verhoeven played some (13 minutes) and will be a good addition, gets after it on the boards, but he will also need some time

It's still preseason play and while a disappointing loss at home, I still think this is a tourney team.  Yes, Dawkins could make some coaching adjustments, particularly in personnel groupings.  But I don't anticipate that Bright and Randle will play that badly for the whole season.  Powell will not foul out like that again.  We are still a deep team and the freshmen should start to contribute more. 

Belmont is not that bad of a loss really, they will make the tourney as well.  This Battle for Atlantis tournament is obviously big though, because we need to get a quality out-of-conference win and we don't play too many quality opponents out-of-conference other than NC State. 

I do wish that more people would show up for games, because I believe this is a team that has a lot of talent on the upswing, and I feel bad for these guys playing in front of less fans than some high schools do.  The program needs to build some momentum again and the fan support would help.

In any case, hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday!

[scorecard]

It's real late coming, but didn't have any time until now to give my thoughts on the loss to Belmont, so here goes:

- crowd was sparse again, energy level in the building was low, and that seemed to include the team; wonder if there was a hangover from the Ducks win, because they seemed to be just mildly perturbed for greatness than pissed off
- I think they had gotten away in the first few games with turning it on with effort in the 2nd half with superior size and depth, and it came back to bite them in this game; they were able to catch up from a double-digit deficit but didn't make plays down the stretch
- give credit to Belmont, they are a better team than people know, they have an experienced scoring backcourt duo with scrappy front-court players (a classic sleeper team come March)
- game was ragged, and the refereeing was rather ticky-tack
- while we ended up with the lion's share of free throws due to our size, we shot 24-35 from the stripe and left some points on the board (but nobody looked as bad as Mann at the line)
- Huestis is just a tremendous defender, had 8 blocks and probably kept us in the game with his defense; he is a quick leaper with long arms and great timing; he has easily been our most consistent player this year
- Powell picked up 3 fouls in something like 2 minutes of the 2nd half, most of his fouls the awkward wrong place-wrong time variety where he was too slow to a loose ball and crashed into a smaller player
- easy to point at Powell fouling out in 7 minutes, however, if Randle and Bright don't go a combined 2-21, we still probably win that game
- Bright's shot has been AWOL so far this year, in a bad slump, shooting 26% overall, 0-12 (!) on 3 pointers on the year; when his shot is so far off, he became somewhat of a liability and Belmont's guards seemed to attack him as a shorter player; I'm guessing that felt that too, because he tried to force the action at the offensive end and had a couple of bad turnovers in crucial moments
- Randle has been 2-16 on 3 pointers for the year too
- Gage hardly played for some reason (4 minutes), probably defensively a liability against smaller teams; perhaps he will be a bigger factor when we play teams with size
- the freshmen were a bright spot for the team and actually their energy led the run that helped us get back into the game
- Sanders is a brobdingnagian bonus in my opinion, I did not expect him to be this good based on his ratings and limited highlights; he hustles on defense and has some clever moves (e.g, stop on a dime fade-away leaner), will be a fan favorite
- Allen will be good once he gets comfortable
- Verhoeven played some (13 minutes) and will be a good addition, gets after it on the boards, but he will also need some time

It's still preseason play and while a disappointing loss at home, I still think this is a tourney team.  Yes, Dawkins could make some coaching adjustments, particularly in personnel groupings.  But I don't anticipate that Bright and Randle will play that badly for the whole season.  Powell will not foul out like that again.  We are still a deep team and the freshmen should start to contribute more. 

Belmont is not that bad of a loss really, they will make the tourney as well.  This Battle for Atlantis tournament is obviously big though, because we need to get a quality out-of-conference win and we don't play too many quality opponents out-of-conference other than NC State. 

I do wish that more people would show up for games, because I believe this is a team that has a lot of talent on the upswing, and I feel bad for these guys playing in front of less fans than some high schools do.  The program needs to build some momentum again and the fan support would help.

In any case, hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday!