Air Force

[Diemilkweed]

Anybody know where air force is ranked preseason?

[footballguy51]

Anybody know where air force is ranked preseason?

Somewhere between second lieutenant and first lieutenant, I believe.

[mbenecke]

Anybody know where air force is ranked preseason?

They’re ahead of us in the preseason Kenpom. I think they were listed at 235.

[Diemilkweed]

Anybody know where air force is ranked preseason?

Somewhere between second lieutenant and first lieutenant, I believe.

Heh.

Nice.

[hammb]

We competed on defense and our superior athleticism was enough to get us the win. Offense was dreadful, but actually could be far worse. Ayers and Curtis both just crashed to the basket throwing up shots off the glass and made more of them than I would expect them to make on a nightly basis, and Agee cleaned some of the misses up to at least get to the line. We can't shoot, but we don't pass for open shots consistently anyhow. Elsasser played about 10mins and wasn't the worst player on our team, so take that for what it's worth.

I'm skeptical we'll see similar intensity/effectiveness of our defense against more athletic teams, but it was a start. AF definitely likes to cut and pass and once we got O'Neal off the floor (never to be seen again) we were able to prevent them from turning all of those cuts into bunnies. We were fortunate that they were very cold shooting despite having a ton of open perimeter looks. I don't know the scouting report, maybe that was the plan to let them take those rather than give up much inside.

Either way it worked, and a win is a win.

[Falcon]

I left the game with about 6 minutes left when we were up double digits. Shocked to see the final score. If anyone heard a screaming/crying kid during BG free throws, that was us! LOL
In what I saw the defense looked pretty solid. Last year the Falcons looked like a JV high school team on defense. Tonight they looked like a D1 college team. I was actually excited for this game. Coming from a military family I thought it was cool bringing an Academy team to the Stroh. Would like to see more of that in the future. Hopefully we can keep this up in the future. Huger looked to chop down his rotation and Elsasser made it.... He looked OK though. Maybe they value his defense? Really like Agee's game. Metheny still can't make a shot. Decent crowd too but In my opinion it had more to do with Air Force being the opponent than excitement for this team.

[BPardonMyTake]

For a team that lacks distinct game changing talent, we did what I'd have to assume we'll have to do all season to compete. Play defense, box out, and don't give up offensive rebounds. We were miles ahead of Air Force athletically but that isn't saying much and we won't be able to out run/jump many teams this year. Perimeter shooting is going to be abysmal this year and I would think that's a big reason why they keep trotting Matheny out there. Like it or not, we just can't sit guys' who have performed at some level over the years with so many new faces. I agree he's undersized/maybe a little out of his league but Lightfoot is very very raw and it showed last night in the first half. Mills is a fine option off the bench but I don't see any reason to give him 20+ minutes over Matheny. Same with Chandler Turner. I think he's the same player we saw last year/not a ton of improvement, but you can't keep your 6' 7" wing senior on the bench given the roster we have.


Agee might be our best player, he's everything I wanted Joe Reece to be and is the exact type of player the Turner/Frye/Plowden teams needed during their run. Though, I will say, I actually don't mind Curtis being our best player. His shot was clearly rusty last night but he had a couple tough finishes around the rim (that lefty in particular was filthy) that was nice to see given that we are notoriously bad finishing layups. There are worst things than a 6' 4" point guard/former Big 10 recruit being your go to player.

Ayers---We don't win that game last night if he didn't catch that mini heater mid way through the first half. Of course, he immediately turned it over when he tried to heat check, but we couldn't hit anything before he started scoring early. Bonus is he's a lefty, I'm a sucker for a lefty.

Lightfoot is clearly the quickest player we have. He has all kinds of potential once he puts on some muscle. He was visibly nervous/trying to do too much early on but settled in and hit a big 3 in the second half. He is also lost on defending the pick and roll but that's been par for the course for a lot of players during Huger's tenure.

Pleasantly surprised by Sam Towns, I peg him as a more offensively competent Jefferey Uju from a few years back.

I can see O'Neal getting lost on the bench a lot this season pending on game flows but he deserves a massive shoutout for losing 40 (!!) pounds this off season. Regardless of what you think of him on the floor, that is a massive accomplishment for anyone.


Was disappointed we didn't see Diarra but we played a lot of smaller lineups last night to counter AF's shooters.


Any team that can play 10+ guys who all want to play defense can keep themselves in any game. Multiple shot clock violations as well as 5 seconds calls by AF. I think we're a very average basketball team and Akron/Toledo are just too good. But anything can happen and nice to start the season off with a solid W against a team from a solid conference

[BPardonMyTake]

**I edited the above because I had included a few things Fanatic said on his breakdown but didn't realize it was on the other thread/before the AF game last night**

[BillyLP]

Didn't get to watch the game but noticed that Lightfoot and Turner were the +/- leaders at +12 and +7, but neither played a ton of minutes. Do the people who were watching view that as more coincidence or did the team look their best with those two on the floor? I believe Turner was a +/- leader for both exhibition games as well, so he might just be one of those players who won't fill that stat sheet most nights but makes the team better by his length and aggressiveness.

[BPardonMyTake]

Didn't get to watch the game but noticed that Lightfoot and Turner were the +/- leaders at +12 and +7, but neither played a ton of minutes. Do the people who were watching view that as more coincidence or did the team look their best with those two on the floor? I believe Turner was a +/- leader for both exhibition games as well, so he might just be one of those players who won't fill that stat sheet most nights but makes the team better by his length and aggressiveness.

Can't speak for Lightfoot but you are spot on with Turner. You just have to give a guy like that minutes. Limited off the dribble but a decent spot up shooter offensively, can guard multiple positions, rebound, veteran presence etc. I have really high hopes for Lightfoot but definitely fit the bill of a true freshman playing in his first regular season game. Two really bad turnovers in the first half and Huger (rightfully so) sat him the rest of the half. Was definitely more comfortable in the second half and I just think overall he's going to be one of, if not our best playmaker by the time conference play starts.

[hammb]

Single game +/- is largely meaningless, IMO. I think it's a useful stat over the course of a larger sample size, but I wouldn't read too much into last night.

Lightfoot's rating was probably largely about coming into the game in the 1st half after we were getting shredded early. His entry coincided with O'Neal & Matheny leaving the game. We DEFINITELY defended better in the 1st half from that point forward, but I'm not sure how much of it I'd attribute to his presence. Maybe some, but realistically it was the interior on cuts that was getting killed early on.

Pardon's synopsis above is pretty spot on, IMO. The only thing I'd say, because I seem to be so pessimistic about this team anymore, is I'm very skeptical that Ayers & Curtis are actually talented enough around the rim to finish as effectively as they did last night. Most of their drives just looked like out of control prayers that got answered at a reasonably high clip last night (To me). Off balance bank shots, up & unders, etc...all against a far less athletic defense around the rim. If they prove capable of making circus shots at the rim all season against MAC competition I'll live with them just lowering their heads and attacking the rim, but I'd still much rather see actual ball movement.

I definitely agree though that buckling down on defense and turning the game into a slopfest is probably our best path to winning. I cringed a bit when Huger was talking postgame about us wanting to play more possession games. On the one hand I get it, our best bet to scoring is transition rather than grinding out possessions, but on the other hand I feel games with more possessions generally favor the better team in the end. I suspect we'll end up with a better record in slower games played in the 60s than we will in faster games in the 80s this year.

[BPardonMyTake]

Single game +/- is largely meaningless, IMO. I think it's a useful stat over the course of a larger sample size, but I wouldn't read too much into last night.

Lightfoot's rating was probably largely about coming into the game in the 1st half after we were getting shredded early. His entry coincided with O'Neal & Matheny leaving the game. We DEFINITELY defended better in the 1st half from that point forward, but I'm not sure how much of it I'd attribute to his presence. Maybe some, but realistically it was the interior on cuts that was getting killed early on.

Pardon's synopsis above is pretty spot on, IMO. The only thing I'd say, because I seem to be so pessimistic about this team anymore, is I'm very skeptical that Ayers & Curtis are actually talented enough around the rim to finish as effectively as they did last night. Most of their drives just looked like out of control prayers that got answered at a reasonably high clip last night (To me). Off balance bank shots, up & unders, etc...all against a far less athletic defense around the rim. If they prove capable of making circus shots at the rim all season against MAC competition I'll live with them just lowering their heads and attacking the rim, but I'd still much rather see actual ball movement.

I definitely agree though that buckling down on defense and turning the game into a slopfest is probably our best path to winning. I cringed a bit when Huger was talking postgame about us wanting to play more possession games. On the one hand I get it, our best bet to scoring is transition rather than grinding out possessions, but on the other hand I feel games with more possessions generally favor the better team in the end. I suspect we'll end up with a better record in slower games played in the 60s than we will in faster games in the 80s this year.

Hammb--from what you saw in one game. What would be your ideal starting 5/ general rotation? I'm honestly ok with what we rolled out there Monday. I would hope we get more from Gabe than what we got from swingle but I could see him being Swingle-esque in the sense of he starts most games but only ends up logging 10-14 minutes pending on game flow and turner ends up finishing most nights with 20+ minutes.

[hammb]

Single game +/- is largely meaningless, IMO. I think it's a useful stat over the course of a larger sample size, but I wouldn't read too much into last night.

Lightfoot's rating was probably largely about coming into the game in the 1st half after we were getting shredded early. His entry coincided with O'Neal & Matheny leaving the game. We DEFINITELY defended better in the 1st half from that point forward, but I'm not sure how much of it I'd attribute to his presence. Maybe some, but realistically it was the interior on cuts that was getting killed early on.

Pardon's synopsis above is pretty spot on, IMO. The only thing I'd say, because I seem to be so pessimistic about this team anymore, is I'm very skeptical that Ayers & Curtis are actually talented enough around the rim to finish as effectively as they did last night. Most of their drives just looked like out of control prayers that got answered at a reasonably high clip last night (To me). Off balance bank shots, up & unders, etc...all against a far less athletic defense around the rim. If they prove capable of making circus shots at the rim all season against MAC competition I'll live with them just lowering their heads and attacking the rim, but I'd still much rather see actual ball movement.

I definitely agree though that buckling down on defense and turning the game into a slopfest is probably our best path to winning. I cringed a bit when Huger was talking postgame about us wanting to play more possession games. On the one hand I get it, our best bet to scoring is transition rather than grinding out possessions, but on the other hand I feel games with more possessions generally favor the better team in the end. I suspect we'll end up with a better record in slower games played in the 60s than we will in faster games in the 80s this year.

Hammb--from what you saw in one game. What would be your ideal starting 5/ general rotation? I'm honestly ok with what we rolled out there Monday. I would hope we get more from Gabe than what we got from swingle but I could see him being Swingle-esque in the sense of he starts most games but only ends up logging 10-14 minutes pending on game flow and turner ends up finishing most nights with 20+ minutes.

I think you're about right. I'm not a fan of seeing Elsasser okay so much but he's also not the worst guy we play so whatever.

I'm not sure where O'Neal fits in D1. Slimming down is great but he's still very limited athletically. Couldn't move his feet enough for AF's cuts and they were not an athletic team. Gabe's touch around the rim is great but to me he looks like a D2 star, just too limited by athleticism to really play in D1. I'm sure he'll have some good nights but I think swingles role could be where he ends up.

I've kept waiting to see that shooting touch from Mathe y again but still waiting. If he's not a 40% guy from 3 then I hope like hell lightfoot earns his time. Kaden cannot finish at the rim in D1 and his defense is meh at best. Right now he's a shooter that can't shoot.

Agee and Curtis are the only 2 guys I'm comfortable penciling in for 25+ mpg this year. If Ayers keeps playing well then he'll get that many as well. The rest of this crew could come down to just trying to find and ride out a hot hand. Hopefully lightfoot can develop into 20+ mpg by the tournament time. Matheny would be much better as a bench piece. I can't believe I'm saying it, mostly a testament to this roster, but at this point playing Elsasser for 5-10mpg isn't the worst idea.

[HoopsFan]

I missed the opening minutes of the broadcast. At the start, they honored 3 people...guessing Kerm Stroh, Kirk Cowan, and Nate Miller. Was the first one Kerm?

HoopsFan

[hammb]

I missed the opening minutes of the broadcast. At the start, they honored 3 people...guessing Kerm Stroh, Kirk Cowan, and Nate Miller. Was the first one Kerm?

HoopsFan

Yes