Painful to watch most of the game. But, a win is a win.
I’ve noticed that a lot of hyped mid-majors are struggling in their first two games.
St. Joe’s lost today. McNeese lost their opener. Samford lost today (to Cornell).
Proud of the team for pulling through in both games. I just wish they’d hit 70%+ of their FTs.
Davis is the reason I thought Peters would not be a starter. Davis has a better handle, taking pressure off of Lee to bring the ball up, and IMHO he is the best shooter on the team including the 3-ball.
Interesting that Hicke has been starting over Peters, presumably to get more height and rebounding into the lineup. Despite that, Peters so far has played big mins (33 and 31 compared to 19 and 8 for Hicke) off the bench.
Coaches still experimenting with the lineup to find the right combos. Maybe Byriel will get a shot at starting since he did some good things while Hubbard disappeared against Duquesne.
I guess technically you are correct, Hicke starting over Peters, but I was always thinking who would assume the ball handling role of Allocco, and that calculus favored Davis. Hicke has looked good at times, but didn’t do much against Duquesne.
Great to see you all on this new platform. I went down the election rabbit hole and didn’t know everyone had gone off to! Anyway, two very gritty wins have me optimistic about the season.
Defense has been up and down: strong for stretches and sieve like at other
s. FT shooting has been an issue. Last night, Lee and Pierce were 5/13 (38%) from the line, although the rest of the team was 13/16 (81%).
I’d love to see MH try a starting lineup of: Byriel / Pierce / Abdullahi / Lee / Davis.
Right now, Hicke is a total non-threat and it’s gumming up the entire offense. Byriel surprised me with 2 treys and 2 FTs. If he can simply hit wide-open 3s and make most of his FTs, that’s plenty.
Abdullahi is such an exciting player already. He’s capable of throwing down multiple alley-oops per game - his teammates just need to throw more/better lobs.
Abdullahi has been good, but I also like Huggins, who seemed to have figured out the Kellman role against Iona.
Offense is still a work in progress, which is what you would expect two games in with three new starters. More TOs, fewer assists, and less fluid ball movement than the past two years.
It is impressive that Lee and Davis, and to a lesser extent Pierce, can create their own shots. Princeton is much harder to defend when they have more motion and fewer isolations.