MikeR wrote:

Ellis "Loose" Cannon needs to be muzzled.
 

Did you watch the Dayton broadcast on the plus.. That women & guy were a joke. Whatever you think
of Ellis his presentation requires an IQ over 60 to understand his presentation as a broadcaster,

phil95 wrote:

Styles1229 wrote:

Im a glass half full guy.  We spotted them 10 points right off the bat and basically played them even for the the last 34 minutes despite terrible outside shooting on the road at the one of the toughest venues in the league.  I like the way our guys fought all night.  Going into the season you look at an A-10 opener on the road against Dayton and you consider that a loss.  It would have been nice to steal one but that didnt happen.  The results were not "encouraging" but they were not discouraging either.  I think we will know a lot more about this team at 3pm on Saturday.

Styles1229:
I assume birthday wishes are in order. Hope today is a good one!

Indeed.  50 years young.  thanks for the birthday wishes.  Let's hope the Dukes can grant one of those wishes with a win vs Rhody today.  I'll be in the UPMC box rooting them on.  looking forward to the club buffett and, for once, a different angle from which to watch the action.  Today is going to be a good day
 

Duques102 wrote:

I have been refraining from posting to this point as I wanted to see what this team really is. The OOC isn’t a great indication because for the most part (and like other years) it was basically a cake schedule and almost all home games. Our best win to me is UCSB who is 10-2 now. Colgate was supposed to be a big win, they are 6-7 now, and we beat DePaul without multiple of their regular contributors playing. We should have lost to ball state save for a miracle shot.

Dayton went into this game with two less wins than us, with preseason matchups against teams like SMU, UNLV, Wisconsin, NC State, BYU, and Virginia Tech, and a lot of those were road/neutral games. They compete with these level of schools for recruits, and win some of those recruiting battles. Their center is probably a jump shot away from being a contributing NBA power forward, and probably the other 2-7 guys would all start and be a top 3 guy on our roster.

This is and has been the reality for awhile. I was hoping Grant could lead this team and it could use its depth to backfill, but this looked like every other Dayton or previously City game over the past 14 years or so I have been a fan where we are going in optimistic. Say what you want about the start, it just underscored for me that the the team wasn’t ready for that environment because they have only played at home in front of 1,000 fans all season. The atmosphere and talent gap punched them in the mouth. Credit to them for fighting throughout, but this was never really a game save for the run the dukes had to cut it to 5 at the end of the half. You know your not as good as the other team where your down basically double digits the entire game and their color person (who was good) is crediting us on our “fight” and lack of “give up” down 10. Basically saying we were doing a great job of keeping it at 8-11 when it could have easily been 15-20…..yeah.

We were overwhelmed all over the court, and Dayton didn’t have their two best point guards. Players like Holmes and Amzil are super skilled big men that could be starting at a lot of Power 5 schools. One might be an NBA player and both will be long time pros. Their guys look like the guys you see on tournament teams. Big, long, athletic, composed, skilled.

I think in regards to our roster, we have mistaken depth in numbers for depth in talent. This is obviously heavily influenced by watching them smash cupcake after cupcake in the friendly confines. Hronsky and Dixon have looked really good at times this year, but give them limited minutes in what I would consider a “real” college basketball game, and they look like they are freshman who aren’t ready for this level. This is why I think Gunn played as much as he did. Needed to match up with Daytons length and the freshman weren’t ready.

Daytons players are extremely well rounded as I highlighted above where our guys seem to maybe possess one or some of the qualities held by the Dayton players. It is because of this we will beat most inferior teams, but will likely struggle against a lot of good to better teams. Some examples below:

Brewer and Rozier
Pros: Both seem like really good ball handlers and pretty good distributors. Both can make open shots.

Cons: One is prob 5’6” and the other probably 5’8”. Makes them a defensive liability, and extremely limited offensively from a scoring opportunity standpoint.

Gunn: jury out

McGriff
Pros: good ball handler and passer, can score in bunches at times.

Cons: not in division 1 basketball shape and average to below average perimeter defender as a result, inconsistent scorer, seems to make a lot of bad turnovers.

Jimmy Clark
Pros: excellent ball handler, can create offense and jump shots for him and others with his athleticism and dribbling skills (think NBA guard dribble set ups to create space for himself to take a jump shot). A good example of this would be looking at some of his buzzer beaters. Excellent finisher around the cup, top notch. Can generate a decent amount of steals and probably our best spot up perimeter defender in terms of manning a guy up due to his athleticism.

Cons: Can take to many risks defensively because he can steal, and this can lead to open looks, easy cutting and kicking baskets, and fouls for him (probably trying to overcompensate and make plays to make up for lackluster perimeter D from others). Not a consistent jump shooter.

Dae Dae
Pros: pure scorer, can shoot from anywhere and carry a team offensively most nights. Does not get too up or down if he’s making or missing early, level headed scorer. Also an underrated passer, some of the best passes I’ve seen from our offense in half court sets to set up someone else have actually been from him.

Cons: opportunistic but not a great or committed defender from start to finish. Would like to see him drive and try to finish at the rim more, he draws fouls when he does. Only other concern is now after the Dayton game, is he going to be as good as his non con and MAC numbers indicate against “real” college basketball competition??????

Joe Reece
haven’t seen what others have seen to this point in limited action for Reece. Not a top tier A10 starting center (think Holmes or Osunniyi or Toppin or French or Langevine even recently) offensively or defensively. Misses a ton of bunnies on O, gets called for a lot of fouls on D, and doesn’t do much production wise on either side of the ball. Not to mention he’s undersized. Would feel way better with him coming off the bench.

Tre Williams
Pros: high motor on both ends and pretty soft hands.

Cons: way undersized, I think he is 6’5” maybe 6’6”. Inconsistent in the post on O. No jump shot. Struggles to rebound on both ends of the floor due to size. Mike Hughes changed his body here, this kid has not and needs to, especially with his height disadvantage.

Rotroff
Pros: actual good size for the position and as a result our best rebounder. Has really improved scoring around the basket and going up strong this year. One of the last loyal guys in college b ball.

Cons: not athletic enough to compete offensively and defensively at a high level most nights as a starter. Slow to get up and down the court. No longer a threat from 3, would actually open up our game offensively if he still was. Gets blocked or fouls a player often on O and D because he is second to those plays in terms of speed. He’s a good depth big and has played that role well this year.

Barre
Pros: definitely the highest upside big on the roster, I would be starting this guy, or at least giving him sixth man minutes. Legit 6’9” with a 7’4” wingspan. He is athletic, rebounds well, and cuts to the rack extremely effectively. He is our only big who does this. Has pretty good hands, not scared to throw a hard pick or go up to the basket strong. Rebounds pretty well

Cons: definitely raw (but not to where he shouldn’t be getting more and more minutes). You see some missed layups or walks because of that rawness, or bad fouls defensively at times, but this kid is probably almost better than Reece right now. I want to see him starting by the end of the year.

Dixon
Lots of upside, looked like he was seeing ghosts last night, need more time in A10 play to see what he will be moving forward. Less worried now about him getting snapped up by a P5 next year.

Hronsky
Jury out, definitely still needs time to adjust and develop to D1 American hoops, but has an interesting size and skill set. Could honestly see this guy being awesome down the road, or the next Gavin Bizeau.

Point is a lot of these guys have strengths to their games, but most also have glaring weaknesses or holes that will in most cases prevent them from beating a team like Dayton, especially in a hostile road environment when they haven’t been in that situation all year.

Lastly, kudos to their young former womens player who did the color commentary, she was concise, informative, and her timing to add analysis was spot on.

Don’t know what the bigger talent mismatch was: Dayton vs the Dukes on the floor or Christine Szabo vs Ellis Cannon

Thoughtful and in depth! Great post!