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Observations through 4 games

moranskins

Dream Team
Gold Member
Mar 11, 2011
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Obviously, my subjective opinion from being there for each game, including pregame.

Al Freeman, T. Dorn, and L. Freeman are the "leaders" of this team right now.
Markell Johnson basically has had 4 double doubles, counting the exhibition game.
Batts is a great energy guy, but is still learning.
Al Freeman sometimes forces shots, but in his defense, he isn't afraid to shoot and may turn into a go to guy. Watching his video from Baylor, he appeared to be more of a SG and spot up shooter... so far through 4 games he shoots from everywhere. He also is smart about driving to the basket and drawing fouls to get to the FT line.

Dorn has been good in every game. He does a lot of things. Imho, his style of play has already greatly prospered in Coach's system.
L. Freeman is a hustler and rebounder and "garbage" guy. He is a more mature player. I'm not sure what his FT percentage is, but he seems better so far.
Markell Johnson is still learning on the job, but he does a lot of things well. To me, he appears much more relaxed this year as the PG, without DS.
Y7 - imho, he is better than last year, but has a good ways to go. I am curious to see how Y7 will match up against ARIZONA next week. All the board prognosticators have basically mailed that game in -- but players are human and imo, they will be playing with much more intensity against Arizona next week than this week. I think next week's game vs Arizona will tell us a lot about Y7 and this year's team's chances in the ACC.
Batts and Braxton both bring different abilities to the table. Braxton was clearly not comfortable in real game action, but should be more comfortable by Arizona. Batts has great quickness, but is still learning what to do & when.

Abu is certainly missed. I hope that he can play vs Arizona.
Sam Hunt was 0-5 from three point land versus Bryant, but much better in the previous 3 games. I think Sam has a smooth and beautiful shot. Hopefully he will shoot 40% from three this season.
Hicks looked better this game vs. Bryant but hadn't showed all that much previous. He has talent.
Kirk hasn't really done a lot except for one nice jam.

I will be watching Bryant to see if they finish 8th in their conference, as predicted. I doubt it. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bryant and Charleston Southern finish in the top half of their respective divisions. Again, for me Arizona will be a "real" benchmark. I don't care how much they shoulda, woulda, coulda -- players are just not going to be "pumped" when they play CSO or VMI or Bryant.

FSU, in football, got beat much worse by BC @BC, than against Clemson @Clemson. Players know who they are playing & when to turn it up a notch.

I think that Coach KK has done a nice job with the ebb and flow. No panic and consistently "Coaching up" players as they come off the court. And that includes the "star" players, like Dorn, Al Freeman, L. Freeman. That's a sign of leadership and connecting. I'm not ready to mail this season in yet, just because 2019-2020 is when he will have all "his players" - I'm curious to see how we look against Zona, hopefully w/Abu.
 
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