TheFameProtector
- Champaign
Quick thoughts:
Tale of 2 halves for sure
Black-Jordan seem to have made great strides, lets hope it continues
Finke needs to become more aggressive for 6-10
Williams seems to flow with the game, he will get his minutes
Frazier and Lucas seem to be a very very good 2 PG team so far
Smith is way more talented and engaged than most any freshman we have had for some time.
Nichols is one of the most athletic, needs more minutes
Alstork, hasn't really shown me much as of yet to be honest...for a grad transfer, if this stays the norm, I can understand why BU is not fond of taking them.
overall good win for a young team...so far peaks and valleys for games, it will be the norm this year, but it will be fun to watch for a change.
Funny, I thought Finke was super aggressive - he laid out on the floor multiple times going for loose balls. Unfortunately, his lack of athleticism really hurts him on the boards. There were a couple boards he missed simply because he couldn't elevate much and UTM's forwards could, so his height advantage was moot. Can't teach athleticism, but seeing him going hard for loose balls was a really good sign that Underwood's post-EIU message came through loud and clear.
Speaking of which, there was one moment during a loose ball where I could hear Leron (I think) yelling "get on the ground!" to AJ and one other player. AJ just kinda fell on the floor to be apart of the scrum but it's pretty obvious that the players are motivated to make those hustle plays under this staff. Groce always seemed to talk about these plays yet couldn't find the means to motivate our players. Treadmill or something else, Underwood is making it work.