Ugly game all around, mainly on offense. The key is when you have those nites can you still win? Held GT to 28% from the field, and 16% from 3. 25% of their points come from the FT line. Win and next.
My simple observations of some players as compared to last year and after our first real game.... Alexander and Fulkerson have improved inside. Like Fulkerson's hustle for a big man. Bone seems to have gained some confidence. Pons seems to have told himself, damn I really can jump. Grant's gonna be Grant and Admiral is THE Admiral (my fav player) Bench appears deeper. We're gonna lose some along the way and moan and groan about it, but that's the way all basketball seasons go. This team's fun to watch for a change. If Rick finds a way to get them to peak at year end, we're gonna be special. Can't wait to go see them play Tiger High.
I really liked Fulkerson as a freshman (was in Chapel Hill live for his game against the Tar Heels, which was excellent), and then he got injured and it seemed like people were climbing all over each other to shit on him last year. Glad to see that he appears to have recovered some of his early form.
He was bashed. He was weak from 2 surgeries and had to play the 5, with zero weight training for 1+ year. He would get backed down and non basketball people all over him. His energy, blocks, tipped balls, hecticness, court awareness, effort and passing ability are assets. He doesnt even need to score, but finishes decently.
Yep, so far he has looked a little better. Be interested to see what he does against stiffer competition with more physical Bigs.
Hes definitely not gonna out muscle or move people around inside with his body size, but the one thing he can give you is hustle, come up with loose balls, get an occasional basket on putbacks around the rim, drive when it's there. Hes the type you like to see come in after Scofield and Williams have physically beaten up the opposing bigs inside, then you put a guy like him in that scraps and moves around a lot more. Everyone has a role. The quicker each individual figures that out and tries to play within themselves in that regard the better the team is. That's why you saw this team have so many assists per game last year because we moved the ball around so well. Can't get away from that this year either.
I saw that we signed 3 guys this week. A 5 star 6-7 pg, a Bearden big guy, and a tall guard out of VMI. Seems like a good group.
Probably a decent comparison. The biggest difference there is Fulk cant shoot from outside. Whatever you can get out of a guy like this a bonus.
I did not bash Fulkerson last year. I learned my lesson. Because I'm the dude that was bashing Lofton during his Senior season before we found out he had cancer.