Up Next: red black scrimmage

[DC69Wildcat]

Joses and Hurlburt were on the court for the pregame warmups, and Manie put on a dunk show! He has Barham hops. Obviously, any i----y is minor.

On the way home on Highway 3, guy in front of me centered a big deer, and I ran over the carcass at about 45 mph. Big jolt, and parts are hanging down under my car, but I was able to drive it home OK. I'll get my mechanic to put it on the lift in the morning and check everything out. The other guy lost his entire front end back to the radiator, which was leaning over backwards and leaking. The deer lost his life.

Guess I should have been more specific: Parts OF THE CAR are hanging down under my car. #*@#!*ing English majors!

[i77cat]

To be clear, I've seen 69's ride. That ain't it.

[DC69Wildcat]

To be clear, I've seen 69's ride. That ain't it.

I was driving the Avalon, not the 28 year old Explorer.

[i77cat]

In that case, I know 69 and he ain't driving the pictured vehicle. No way. My Avalon isn't quite as old as your Explorer. Only 25 years.

[Waitress]

Joses and Hurlburt were on the court for the pregame warmups, and Manie put on a dunk show! He has Barham hops. Obviously, any i----y is minor.

On the way home on Highway 3, guy in front of me centered a big deer, and I ran over the carcass at about 45 mph. Big jolt, and parts are hanging down under my car, but I was able to drive it home OK. I'll get my mechanic to put it on the lift in the morning and check everything out. The other guy lost his entire front end back to the radiator, which was leaning over backwards and leaking. The deer lost his life.

Good to see your sense of humor survived the flood.

[catnhat]

I hit a deer on my way to my first law school exam. It added a bit of stress to an already stressful morning. Then I realized, my day has to be better than the deer’s.

[ScootCat]

Very tough to take away too much from the Red and Black scrimmage. Bailey is improved, as is Logan. In addition, Loughnane played well at the point. Beyond that, it was really hard to tell.

[Sir Walter Cat]

Very tough to take away too much from the Red and Black scrimmage. Bailey is improved, as is Logan. In addition, Loughnane played well at the point. Beyond that, it was really hard to tell.

By my count, we had 8 conference games decided by 5 points or less. I'd have liked to hear about a player flashing some 'gimme the *&$#@% ball' energy that might put us over the hump this season (though our system doesn't encourage it).

[stevelee]

When you lose games by 2 or so points, it is easy to think about the free throws that didn’t go in. I don’t know our overall record in that regard, but my impression was it was lower than usual. I realize that my idea of “usual” harkens back to T$ and others who were high nationally.

When I was talking with Matt after the scrimmage, maybe I should have asked him about how much practice players are getting at the line.

[Acorn]

Red/Black Thoughts/Observations:

Laput: looks strong; smart player; might score relatively more on drives than threes than I thought
Kochera: very quiet in the scrimmage
Bailey: scored some tough shots on Logan and some easy ones when Logan was away helping out elsewhere; lost Logan a lot on defense on high screen and rolls
Ghedini: very similar to what we saw last season
Logan: scored a lot, mostly on rolls to the basket; did a nice job passing the ball; probably most improved (based on that one scrimmage)
Adam: very quiet
Durkin: also quiet
Loughnane: smart player; looked capable and competent in the scrimmage—had the best night as a PG; but how will he do against big, strong, quick defenders?
Blums: a little like Brizzi and Lee in his willingness to let it fly; didn’t have a great shooting night (probably 1–7 or 1–8 on threes); played tight, aggressive defense on Kochera, and also got called for a lot of fouls
Coval: quiet night; asked to play PG for his team and did that fine if not spectacularly

Hurlburt and Joses didn’t play. Joses is no shrinking violet—he was eager to take the mic and sing “Sweet Caroline.” Coach McKillop said to look for more action going through the bigs.

[JCDC]

For some reason I though Ghedini moved on to somewhere else.

[stevelee]

For some reason I thought Ghedini moved on to somewhere else.

That was Angelo Brizzi. Wrong Italian name. I can no longer yell “Jello” during games, at least without people thinking I’m even weirder than usual.

[Dr. Bliss]

Ghedini has some serious length and I am not sure what is preventing him from earning some minutes as a defender.

[stevelee]

I don’t think the scrimmage was representative of what I saw this summer from some players. Of course Joe didn’t play at all. I don’t think I ever saw him miss a shot this summer. Other than Bobby, he could be our best outside shooter. Meanwhile this summer Joses was doing well in England. He has the David Rorie locker, so that puts him in the tradition of Luka and Skog. Bobby reputedly has continued to develop. Depending upon how he wears it, I think Bailey’s hair style suits him better. (That was a topic of discussion on the podcast.) He and Sean obviously will be a big part of our offense; defense, too, I hope. Sean no longer looks like a skinny little kid. Maybe there will be fewer 25+ year old opponents now. Hunter will be a bigger factor than one might suspect from the scrimmage, I think, on and off the court.

I’m optimistic about the season, but not book-a-flight-to-Nassau optimistic.

[stevelee]

And speaking of tournaments, I notice that one can conveniently hop on a train here and attend the A10 women’s basketball tournament, and then hop on a train and go to DC for the men’s tournament.

That will be my default plan, allowing flexibility for seeding.

In that scenario, I’m not so likely to attend any other away games. I’ll be in Dallas for a short time in February, so that could further limit my basketball travels. I could go early and see SMU play Clemson, but I think I’ll pass. I see that my return from Dallas leaves just a few days before the train to Richmond. A double bye would help my schedule.