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Despite our loss, I liked much of what I saw. Our half-court defense looked very strong. We ran our offense very crisply and were able to generate good shots. It was nice to see DD use his entire roster in the first half. DePaul, in the first half, looked extremely unfocused, undisciplined, and poorly coached. However, DePaul showed a dramatic improvement in the second half. The basic difference in this game was athleticism - DePaul had several very athletic 6-5 to 6-7 guys that created match up problems for Perrick Robinson and John Reimold. Almanson looked strong early, but we failed to continue exploiting him in the second half. DePaul is an extremely athletic team that could find itself in the top 15 this year. They were more talented than I expected.

Robinson started, played 17 minutes, and had 4 assists, 3 boards, and 0 turnovers. He looked good and made few mistakes, but DePaul very quickly exploited the mismatch between him and 6-6 Mejia, so DD couldn't leave him in as much. Make no mistake, Robinson is our point guard this year. Robinson will be freshman 1st team all MAC and a 4 year starter at BG. I don't give a damn what time of year he signed.

During the first 10 minutes of the second half, DePaul made their run, and our offense froze up. During that time, Wright played the point, Reimold and Eyink were both on the floor, and DD stopped substituting. It reminded me much of last year's ineffective configuration. The fact is, we are a MUCH more effective team when Wright plays the wing and Robinson or Floyd plays the point. Wright is capable of being a first team All-MAC player, and he is at his best when allowed to roam. When Wright plays the point, our fastest and most athletic player is not exploiting what he does best. Furthermore, when Reimold and Eyink are on the floor simultaneously we have 2 good shooters who lack mobility, and the team as a whole cannot create good shots.

One rant: Eyink started at center, played 33 minutes, didn't go to the line, and had only a couple rebounds. DePaul out rebounded by 8.


It's clear to me that this is a VERY different team than last year. The Robinson and Floyd's guard play (i.e., ball control + the freeing-up of Wright), leadership, and quickness of Fitch and Soler will matter significantly in ways that won't appear in the box score. I only hope that we'll get more out of our 7 footers than what we saw Saturday.

Thanks for the insight. I'll have to wait for Wednesday night to see for myself what we have this year.

Thanks for the analysis. Sounds like the team played hard but too many mistakes doomed them in the 2nd half...that and DePaul shooting the lights out.

BEAT UIC!!

BleedOrange wrote:Despite our loss, I liked much of what I saw. Our half-court defense looked very strong. We ran our offense very crisply and were able to generate good shots.

I had a great time at the game and was very surprised and happy to take a lead into the half. It is good to see we are back to a huslting, energetic, do it for the team style of play.

I have to strongly disagree, however, about your anlaysis of our offense. As I said last year, I think that the govt. should use our half court offense down in Guantanemo to torcher the terrorist. HOly crap, maybe it was just we were playing a very athletic team, but I can remember playing lowly teams last year and being lulled to sleep by our half court offense. They weave and cut and pass around the perimeter but nobody gets an open look. Then, before you know it there are 6 seconds on the 35 second clock and we have to find Reimold fading away. If it wasn't for Steven Wright looking solid from the spot up area it could have been ugly.

All in all a fun trip to Chicago, another team and arean to add to The List and its the start of the hoops season!!

I agree with Dayon.. as well I should, I watched the game with him.
However, I did notice that Josh Almonson was having his way in the post offensively in the second half, yet we didn't get into him. He was pretty much all we had going as DePaul was making its run. He should of got a touch on the block every single time down the floor.
It might of made a difference - then again, maybe not.
I do know that DePaul wears really long shorts.. skorts if you will and they have annoying children for fans.

What the heck is DD doing putting Eynk at center. Oh my goodness! Just because Eynk is senior doesn't suddenly make him a center. Lefeld should been starting with Almonson at the 4. No wonder we lost the rebounding edge by 8. You can not tell me Eynk is a better center than Lefeld is with his size and decent post skills. Eynk has no post skills whatsoever. In fact he really can't play with his back to the basket , and hasn't been able to the whole time he's been here. How did Montgomery and Fitch look? I hope Fitch's bad times with injury are OVER! At least we made it fairly close. Depaul's got some serious athletes.

GO BG!!!!!!!!!!!!!BEAT UIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I felt bad for Fitch.. he looked o.k.. but definitely the Fitch of old.
You can really tell that the knee injuries have slowed him down.
Give the man credit for coming back twice though.. nice to see him out the floor any way.

falconboy wrote:What the heck is DD doing putting Eynk at center. Oh my goodness! Just because Eynk is senior doesn't suddenly make him a center. Lefeld should been starting with Almonson at the 4. No wonder we lost the rebounding edge by 8. You can not tell me Eynk is a better center than Lefeld is with his size and decent post skills. Eynk has no post skills whatsoever. In fact he really can't play with his back to the basket , and hasn't been able to the whole time he's been here. How did Montgomery and Fitch look? I hope Fitch's bad times with injury are OVER! At least we made it fairly close. Depaul's got some serious athletes.

GO BG!!!!!!!!!!!!!BEAT UIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt Lefeld was wearing a pretty big knee brace... I don't know if that contributed to his lack of minutes or not, but it's something to consider before second guessing.

I haven't chimed in on the game...and had planned to write a big opinion article about it, but I'm not going to have time until after the UIC game... bah... when can I retire???

You can retire whenver you want to as long as you don't mind living in a cardboard box...