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Scrimmage thoughts

ShortCreek

ShortCreek

Three-Star Poster
Jul 17, 2008
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Attended the scrimmage. I was glad I went, I almost felt obligated to be there considering yesterday's events. Anyway, here are my thoughts. While I think we have a lot of guys that will contribute to this year I don't really know if this team will be a top 15-25 team or not. I like the way we space and pass but I still think our front line is suspect big-time. We have plenty of bodies but I just can't get excited about any of our bigs! Too many missed dunks, layups, etc. I think I like Spalding as much as any of them.

Snider frustrates me, he really struggled from the perimeter, as did Lewis. In the end I truly believe Rick needs to throw the freshman in there early, take some lumps and it will pay dividends at the end of the season. I don't think you can keep Deng Adel out if the starting lineup, ultimately by season's end he may be our best player.
 
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Thanks for the update on the scrimmage and sharing you thoughts on the players. Appreciate it.
 
Good share shortcreek, I've heard a lot of good things about Adel and Spalding.
 
It's going to be important to hit free throws and make close shots and layups. It's often the difference between greatness and mediocrity.
 
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We know that was a killer for us last year free throws. It frustrates the mess out of me, you can hit 4 of 6 threes but can't shoot at least 77% from the line.
 
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I thought Anas and Jaylen Johnson looked great. Anas didn't look lost and was more assertive and it seems like he knows he needs to be a rim protector. Johnson didn't do anything to wow you but he made some great passes, got a bunch of rebounds (thought the rebounding was kinda weak overall) and did a lot of different things.

All the bigs were more aggressive and looked to score. There was a bunch of blocks. Nanu was a fouling machine. Pitino even joked about it (but he also looked pissed).

Didn't see much out of the 5th year guys but Lee had a couple of "take the game over" plays late in the 2nd. Not impressed with Lee last night.

I love our freshmen. I don't recall the teams exactly because they changed it up in the 2nd half but I think Spaulding, Mitchell and Adel on the red team along with Anas, Stockman and Levitch and they were crushing the white team (which had Onuaku, Snider, Lewis, Lee and Johnson). The red team played like a team.. ball faked, shot faked, moved the ball where the red team played one on one. Snider tried to move and run things but after he made a pass it was stagnant. Things got better when the teams were switched up. Pitino is right... Lewis and Snider do not play well together. Snider played way better with Lewis on the other team.

Adel played great in the 1st half and disappeared in the 2nd. Pitino said in the presser that he had cramping.

Donavon Mitchell is a freaking stat stuffer. He was all over the place. And with Trez gone Mitchell will be our new highlight reel player (in different ways of course). He had the most "OHHHHHH!' crowd moments. He played like and upperclassmen. Best guard on the floor.

Spaulding is going to have a million deflections a game by himself. All the guys are looking for deflections. This might be a big strength for us.

McMahon didn't do much til the end of the game. He rolled his ankle early and Hina was looking at him but he hit two clutch 3 pointers in the last minutes of the game to keep the game close and they almost tied but they turned it over (they reset the score at halftime).

Mangok didn't play because he got poked in the eye during practice. He was rocking the skinny jeans tho :)
 
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I thought Onaku would be really good this year, I saw one post a while back where they said he was being projected as a 1st round pick in the draft this year. How can you be projected as a 1st round pick and not be a force underneath.
 
kozmas said:
I thought Onaku would be really good this year, I saw one post a while back where they said he was being projected as a 1st round pick in the draft this year. How can you be projected as a 1st round pick and not be a force underneath.
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I thought Nanu did some good things. He can't foul like he did but he was aggressive and went at the basket more and got some good blocks. He even took somebody off the dribble from one of the corners to the basket. We were cracking up at that.

That crowd laughed hard at Nanu's first underhanded FT. They didn't keep laughing though but he still seemed like he shot around 50 percent. I thought Anas, Spaulding and Johnson shot decently at the FT line.
 
ShortCreek said:
Attended the scrimmage. I was glad I went, I almost felt obligated to be there considering yesterday's events. Anyway, here are my thoughts. While I think we have a lot of guys that will contribute to this year I don't really know if this team will be a top 15-25 team or not. I like the way we space and pass but I still think our front line is suspect big-time. We have plenty of bodies but I just can't get excited about any of our bigs! Too many missed dunks, layups, etc. I think I like Spalding as much as any of them.

Snider frustrates me, he really struggled from the perimeter, as did Lewis. In the end I truly believe Rick needs to throw the freshman in there early, take some lumps and it will pay dividends at the end of the season. I don't think you can keep Deng Adel out if the starting lineup, ultimately by season's end he may be our best player.
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Thanks for the report Creek. I tuned into WDRB sports last night to see what they had to say about the NCSTATE game and the BB scrimmage. All Crawford and some cub reporter could talk about was the "book". There was no coverage of the scrimmage, and sadly only minimal coverage of extremely important football win.
 
shamcard said:
Thanks for the report Creek. I tuned into WDRB sports last night to see what they had to say about the NCSTATE game and the BB scrimmage. All Crawford and some cub reporter could talk about was the "book". There was no coverage of the scrimmage, and sadly only minimal coverage of extremely important football win.
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That's probably how it will be until this crap is resolved.
 
My thoughts on the scrimmage. The White team (first half) seemed to be what would be our starting lineup although Mango was hurt. But they played anything but. The Red team lead by Levitch clearly outplayed and out hustled the white team. The white team seemed disorganized. Was not overly impressed by either Lee or Lewis although they played a tad better when they were split up in the 2nd half.

Saw a lot of positive energy from Adel, Johnson and Mahmoud. Mitchell had some good athletic plays. White team fouled a lot. I think Red team shot 26 foul shots in the first half.

Little concerned about Snider. Reminds me of early Sosa, dribbles a lot, goes behind his back unnecessarily, penetrates but then doesn't know what he wants to do and ends up trying to make a layup against a 7 footer. Shot is still flat.

Defense was better during 2nd half when they switched up the teams.
 
nccardfan said:
My thoughts on the scrimmage. The White team (first half) seemed to be what would be our starting lineup although Mango was hurt. But they played anything but. The Red team lead by Levitch clearly outplayed and out hustled the white team. The white team seemed disorganized. Was not overly impressed by either Lee or Lewis although they played a tad better when they were split up in the 2nd half.

Saw a lot of positive energy from Adel, Johnson and Mahmoud. Mitchell had some good athletic plays. White team fouled a lot. I think Red team shot 26 foul shots in the first half.

Little concerned about Snider. Reminds me of early Sosa, dribbles a lot, goes behind his back unnecessarily, penetrates but then doesn't know what he wants to do and ends up trying to make a layup against a 7 footer. Shot is still flat.

Defense was better during 2nd half when they switched up the teams.
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I guess we'll see how much improvement this team has made during the next scrimmage .
 
Not sure it is settled at the 1 or 2 although Lee is a given. So far snider and Lewis have not meshed. Adel has shown a lot of upside as has Johnson. Questions are still there among Onuaku, Mathiang and Mahmoud. Spaulding and Mitchell will get a lot of PT but so far Levitch is also earning some consideration with his hustle and ability to hit the three.
 
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Not a personal attack but I'm not drinking the Levitch Kool-Aid. If he earns a spot in the rotation anymore than the minutes he got last year then we are in trouble. I saw this kid plenty in high school and I commend him for working hard and improving, but he is not a D-I level guard. He shoots it well but who is he going to guard, he couldn't guard my mother (and she can't go left)!
 
Keep in mind Anton Gill lit up these scrimmages last year. I wouldn't put too much weight on it. I expect Lee and Onuaku to be the 2 linchpins of the season. Both of them need to play at a high level for us to be a top 25 team. It's really tough to say who should start outside of those 2. I'm favoring Deng Adel in the starting lineup, which would push one of Snider or Lewis out as the backup PG. The offense doesn't flow with them at the 1/2 from what I've seen, and Adel may be too good to keep off the court. We have 3 solid options at the PF spot with Mathiang, Spalding, and Johnson. I'd love see one of them stand out as the clear favorite - it's probably Mathiang at this point.
 
As always, I think Pitino will start various lineups based on match-ups. We have depth, but not necessarily high-level depth. I lean toward a three guard lineup with Snider at the one spot with Lee and Lewis. Give me Onuaku at the five and Adel at the four. Ultimately Rick might settle on bringing Adel off the bench (as a 3 or 4) and starting Mango but one way or another Adel will eventually get big minutes. As I have previously stated, IMO he is already one of our better players. I think he is a future star.
 
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ShortCreek said:
As always, I think Pitino will start various lineups based on match-ups. We have depth, but not necessarily high-level depth. I lean toward a three guard lineup with Snider at the one spot with Lee and Lewis. Give me Onuaku at the five and Adel at the four. Ultimately Rick might settle on bringing Adel off the bench (as a 3 or 4) and starting Mango but one way or another Adel will eventually get big minutes. As I have previously stated, IMO he is already one of our better players. I think he is a future star.
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Thanks
 
I went Saturday as well and I think the versatility of this team will be it's bread and butter. With the transfers in, Pitino is really going to be able to exploit the other team's weaknesses and I think we'll be able to score anywhere on the floor. That should help with the shooting slumps we saw last year because if one guy is down, the others should be able to pick him. Really excited for the season. Think it's going to be a great one. Never know when it comes to March but I think we have an Elite 8 team again at least
 
I am probably not quite as optimistic. I did not see any consistency from the 3 pt other than Levitch and McMahon and several believe they shouldn't even play. Also I still feel it is a stretch to say that Onuaku is an offensive threat. Teams might take the hack a shack approach just to watch him shoot granny shots. Also if he fouls like he did he will be on the bench. Scoring will have to come from Johnson or Anas in my opinion. Also want to mention that sniders shot is still a work in progress. So our weaknesses last year are still lingering somewhat. However I feel once the season starts Lewis and Lee will prove why we went out and made them Cards!
 
nccardfan said:
I am probably not quite as optimistic. I did not see any consistency from the 3 pt other than Levitch and McMahon and several believe they shouldn't even play. Also I still feel it is a stretch to say that Onuaku is an offensive threat. Teams might take the hack a shack approach just to watch him shoot granny shots. Also if he fouls like he did he will be on the bench. Scoring will have to come from Johnson or Anas in my opinion. Also want to mention that sniders shot is still a work in progress. So our weaknesses last year are still lingering somewhat. However I feel once the season starts Lewis and Lee will prove why we went out and made them Cards!
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Hopefully over the next few weeks a lot of progress will be made.
 
J-Rye,

I watched but the topic was about the scrimmage game not PR. Calm down, I also said that I expect Lewis and Lee to play better once the season starts. But who can say that a 3-13, 1-3 from 3 pt, was a good performance? Maybe for a freshman but not a fifth year senior who supposed to make up for the loss of last years players. Also if you think the red team was potentially our starting lineup a 1-10 from 3 pt land from Snider, Lee and Lewis doesn't give me goosebumps...
 
nccardfan said:
J-Rye,

I watched but the topic was about the scrimmage game not PR. Calm down, I also said that I expect Lewis and Lee to play better once the season starts. But who can say that a 3-13, 1-3 from 3 pt, was a good performance? Maybe for a freshman but not a fifth year senior who supposed to make up for the loss of last years players. Also if you think the red team was potentially our starting lineup a 1-10 from 3 pt land from Snider, Lee and Lewis doesn't give me goosebumps...
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Calm down? You need to pump the brakes on the aggressiveness. I asked a pretty straightforward question. Yes or no would have been fine.

Lee absolutely lit it up from outside during the 5 game stretch in the bahamas. He did the same at Drexel last year too. That carries a lot more weight than a single intrasquad scrimmage with half a team.
 
nccardfan said:
Don't you have it backward? Shouldn't he be more impressive against our 2nd team backups, Levitch, McMahon and Henderson?
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You're 0 for 3 on which players were actually guarding him

- 26 games against D1 competition averaging an efficient 21 points is valuable information
- 5 games being guarded by Moe Harkless is valuable information

If you'd like to ignore the 31 games of information that suggest his first RED WHITE SCRIMMAGE was a bad game(s) for him, then that's on you
 
J Rye - must of struck a nerve. Where you at the scrimmage? Tell me who was guarding him the 1st half? Snider and Lee were on the same team as Lewis.
 
It would be much easier for you to just admit you were wrong instead of continuing down the rabbit hole you're in now. Normally I don't take the time to respond to disrespectful posters, but you got chippy for no reason and you just need to own it.

Lee hit 63-162 (39%) from outside last year
Lee hit 15-38 (39%) against the Puerto Rican national team
Lee plays 1 intrasquad scrimmage where he struggles from field and you're questioning his ability. The primary defender on Lee is the guy Rick Pitino has called the best defender on the team - Deng Adel.
 
J Rye

Go back and read everyone of my posts in this thread and you realize i was talking about Lewis, not Lee. In fact one of my post said that Lee was a given as a starter.
 
Yes, I read your post saying our 5th year seniors put up bad stats and looked weak against our walkons. It's just ignorant. If you wanted to exclude Lee from your criticism, then you should have excluded Lee from your criticism. No backpedaling now

J-Rye_UL said:
Did you have a chance to watch Damion Lee during the Puerto Rico trip?
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nccardfan said:
J-Rye,

I watched but the topic was about the scrimmage game not PR. Calm down ...
I also said that I expect Lewis and Lee to play better once the season starts. But who can say that a 3-13, 1-3 from 3 pt, was a good performance? Maybe for a freshman but not a fifth year senior who supposed to make up for the loss of last years players. Also if you think the red team was potentially our starting lineup a 1-10 from 3 pt land from Snider, Lee and Lewis doesn't give me goosebumps...
Click to expand...

J-Rye_UL said:
Lee absolutely lit it up from outside during the 5 game stretch in the bahamas. He did the same at Drexel last year too. That carries a lot more weight than a single intrasquad scrimmage with half a team.
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nccardfan said:
Don't you have it backward? Shouldn't he be more impressive against our 2nd team backups, Levitch, McMahon and Henderson?
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Louisville's scholarship players combined to hit 27 of 61 threes in the 2 scrimmages (44%)
 
I'm sorry you can't understand. My first post said I was disappointed in the play of Lewis and Lee in the first scrimmage. Why do you have to try and cover yourself for not understanding that? I was not the only one who made that comment. I also said that when the season starts they will probably tear it up. Man get a life please.
 
I understand they didn't look good in a single intrasquad scrimmage, but hopefully now you know not to rag on the team based off of one practice game
 
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