Gonna be a long year
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There is a bit of pessimism here. We have many anxious/nervous players playing a D1/college game for the first time in their lives. As the season progresses, some of these players will settle, some wonāt be playing many minutes (or even any), and the best players (Hunter) will play longer. Also, Andy is going to join us soon. Letās trust the process.
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Sorry to say this, and maybe time and more games will prove me wrong, but Bultman looks unable to compete on the D1 level. He cannot get a shot off and he just looks bad - just awful tonight. No doubt he is a good kid and practices hard, but it seems the coaches go with him because heās a leader. But at some point, you need some D1 skills to compete.
Much the same could be said of Dean. It was very apparent that Dean was never going to be able to even get a shot off. He was blocked maybe 3 times. Both Dean and Bultman simply do not pass the eye test. I concur with Skins - would have liked to see much more of Kotecki and maybe a bit more of Elmer.
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Iāll give them two games, but thatās it!
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We lost a good point guard, our off guard, and a big that handled it a lot, so it wasnāt going to be pretty. That being said, the turnover situation was bad. Frequent. In big situations. Not overly forced.
We struggled with their length. That being said, we played a 6ā5ā guy at the 4. So yeah, weāre going to struggle with their length. Iām assuming Bultman had a bad game. They seem to like him a lot and a Iāve heard good things. So Iām hoping he just played poorly. But against a big team, put him at the 3 and get Kotecki (who looked smooth and skilled) some time at the 4. With a 6ā5 guy at the 4 and 2 short guards usually playing, length will kill you. But if weāre playing a long team, and Kotecki is getting buckets in the first half, I really donāt understand the rotation in the second half.
I think the biggest concern I have is I donāt know who is capable of getting the ball consistently to the hole to create offense. Thatās the gap Safford and Lairy leave behind. Maybe Elmer can become that guy?
Weāve got a lot of guys that can shoot, but itās real easy to guard shooters if no one is consistently penetrating and putting pressure in the D.
At the end of the day, if you turn it over that many times, and leave that many points at the free throw line, youāre going to lose.
All 5 of the freshman have skills. We played hard. But thereās plenty to work on.
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Lets fire steele
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But at least we looked good in Puerto Rico!
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Well there goes the perfect season.
Bultman and Dean were the two unknowns and maybe the biggest wild cards in whether we could still be decent this year without Safford. Hearing reports of slow, canāt create their own shot, donāt pass the eye test of D1 talentā¦is not good. Itās not like Bultman is a freshman, heās a 5th year senior.
What is thisā¦the 14th consecutive season of 14-18, 13-19, 12-20 caliber teams? Itās exhausting.
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I donāt share the innate Miami pessimism Iām seeing on here. Our young kids just played a competitive game against a much improved Evansville team on the road in their opener. We did it without what was supposed to be our two best returning players from last year - Mirambeaux and Safford, who unexpectedly left Miami. They turned the ball over twice as many times as they should and they had trouble at the free throw line. But they worked hard and nobody hung their head. They had it down to a two possession game in the last 40 seconds.
The MVC is a decent league, probably on par with the MAC. I didnāt expect to see Gonzaga, FAU, Creighton or St Maryās out there wearing Miami uniforms tonight. I saw a group of talented young players missing their experienced big man working hard to win a basketball game.
They will steadily improve.
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Playing Bultman 36 minutes and Dean 21 minutes was way too much today. Maybe Saturday will be different
Hopefully more minutes for Kotecki and Elmer (fouls) in the near future
If we play like this we wont even get shots off against the top mac teams
Really disappointing opener- but 30 more to go I guess
Hunter wonāt have 6 triples most nights butā¦
The free throw shooting wonāt be this bad
Bultman will be fine. His first D1 game, as a captain and starter
Kotecki was a revelation tonight but may not see as much time moving forward
Turnovers will go down
I think some of us are getting carried away. Itās one game. 1st games can be funky. Michigan St. is being pushed by James Madison at home? The majority of our team played their first Division 1 game, way different than a summer exhibition tour against Puerto Rican pros. And we played a team that played an exhibition game in front of people, different than any secret scrimmage and some of that showed.
Positives
We had more points in the paint, 28-26. We have multiple guys that can shoot from deep. Our freshmen have a lot of potential. Iām excited about their prospects. We have a lot of guys capable of contributing.
Negatives
The obvious ones are 20 turnovers and 4/11 shooting from the foul line. We were -17 from the foul line and that doesnāt count the front ends of 1and1s we missed in the 1st half. We didnāt finish strong enough around the basket. Iād like to see more leadership from our captains. It felt like the game was on the edge all night before we lost control of it in the last 10 minutes or so and we needed to settle the game down.
Iām reserving judgement on anyone. But we need more from our older guys. And we played too many guys, especially in the 2nd half. I understand wanting to play a lot of people early in the season. I think thatās ok in the 1st half of games. But in the 2nd half, itās time to get to a 7-8 man rotation and let players get into the flow of the game and play with the same people. I donāt think Evansville is very good. Theyāre picked to finish at the bottom of the Valley and I wasnāt overly impressed with them, except for Humrichous late. But they were the more cohesive team tonight and that played a big part in the result tonight.
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Not ready to condemn anyone after one game, but we definitely lost to a bad team. Not sure what that makes us.
Hard to assess the team or the staff as we are without our two best players who as recently as a couple months ago we were counting on. If weād had a whole offseason to prepare for not having Safford or Mirambeaux I might feel different, but losing both guys so close to the season is tough. That said I wouldāve liked to add another D1 transfer versus two guys from the D2 level.
What stood out to me beyond the obvious toās and ft shooting was how bad our point guard play was. Iām sure it will improve, but the trio of Ipsaro, Dean and Cooper didnāt do much from a playmaking or scoring standpoint. I realize two of these guys are true freshmen, but for this team to have any success at all one of those three is going to have to emerge.
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In the zoom call, Steele was most concerned about rebounding, especially defensive. Miami had one more total rebound and two more defensive boards.
Dean just looked uncomfortableā¦but looks quick, just a bit unsure of how to attack this lengthā¦I hope he can get betterā¦Bultman a bit confusing (maybe just needs to figure the D1 game out as well, but the kid on EUā¦#13 had bounce and looked the D1 part), and completely going away from Kotecki more confusing (only guy that did anything near basket).
Rebounding, not aggressive, not blocking out (waiting for ball to fall to them).
Oh wellā¦a lot will need to improve - hope it will, but we looked way less prepared and organized compared to Evansville.
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Very oddā¦that had a lot of impact on game.
Not utilizing Kotecki or integrating in role would be a huge mistakeā¦liked his signing from beginningā¦itās been an odd one based on his stats in HSā¦but he showed last night that heās physically ready, moves well without ball and made no deer in headlight playsā¦
I expect Dean to play a lot better, thought Ipsaro and Cooper looked "ready "ā¦and guess weāll see where rest end up.
Morris still a bit uncomfortable on O, but showed a couple aggressive or confident moves.
Seems Lewis is not in favor at momentā¦
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Iād prefer to see the offense run through Hunter (well, obviously Anderson if he ever gets his crap together) instead of Bultman.
A lot of older guys made horrible first impressions last night but that has been covered by just about everyone.
Elmer had 7 rebounds and 4 fouls in 6 minutes of play. Thatās fucking basketball right there. None of that pansy ass dick tugging smile for the camera bullshit. Men puke, men poop on the court, men deliver their new born baby on the sideline. Basketball is back baby.
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I wanted to wait until today to post my thoughts. First of all, contrary to many on here, I donāt think the season is lost, or we āsuckā or anything like that. It is game one with many new faces.
That being said there were a number of things I didnāt like: too many turnovers, no clear offensive game plan, failure to hit free throws, are the ones that really stood out. We also clearly have a problem playing against teams with length, largely because, we donāt have much of our own. I am also baffled why Kotecki only played 2 minutes in the second half. I thought his first half performance warranted more time in the second half. I am also somewhat baffled as to what Dean is supposed to bring to the this team. As I said, it is only his first game, but I didnāt see much out of him. Or Bultman for that matter. On the plus side, I thought our freshmen, all 5, showed much promise. Potter can pass. Had a couple of real beauties. I wouldnāt mind seeing all five on the floor together to see what they could do.
We need to regroup and get ready for the next game. We need to actually run an offense. I donāt know who that may be to trigger it. Perhaps Hunter. It clearly shouldnāt be Dean. Or Bultman. Carry on!