Maui Invitational Game #1: Arizona

[TheLivingLegend]

Team sucks. Time for bed.

[sedziobs]

I'm not going to read too much into that game. Arizona is better than us at every position. Both teams were crazy hot shooting. Arizona's big men are very mobile and have excellent touch for their size. Between that and the guards shooting, we had to hit a lot of jump shots just to keep up.

It's very clear by this point that Lakhin is our best big man. Hensley is not good on the perimeter, but he showed some fight on the interior. Davenport and Nolley are similar players, tall streaky shooters who don't do much else. Nolley was hot tonight.

Skillings and Reed both showed potential. Honestly I'd like to see a DDJ/Skillings/Reed/Hensley/Lakhin lineup just to see what we've got.

[brothers24]

I agree with this. Let our freshman get some more PT. We know what we have with JD, MAW, etc., Reed and Skillings definitely are showing some promise. Which gives me hope after I had to sit in Truist Arena and watch us get our butts handed to us.

Hope Vic is okay after that spill there at the end.

Overall though, I thought we battled hard, we just were clearly oversized and outmatched at every position. They weren't a 33 win team last year for no reason.

Hopefully we bring the same energy and grind tomorrow against OSU and come away with a win!

[Queens_NYC]

Arizona put on a clinic offensively - especially in the 2nd half.

We were a much more competitive team with Vik on the floor than without him.

We'll have to accept that the 4-position is going to be a lost cause against good teams as Davenport can't defend a statue and Hensley is a black hole on offense.

[skyblade]

Originally Posted by Queens_NYC

Arizona put on a clinic offensively - especially in the 2nd half.

We were a much more competitive team with Vik on the floor than without him.

We'll have to accept that the 4-position is going to be a lost cause against good teams as Davenport can't defend a statue and Hensley is a black hole on offense.

The lack of a backup for Vik is our biggest issue. It's a massive drop-off from him to Ody/Kalu. It seems like Wes sees that and it was reflected in him putting Vik back in with foul trouble with tons of time left in both the first and second half.

We can debate if Ody or Kalu is better (personally I prefer Ody), but in the end it doesn't matter as neither is good enough to deserve any minutes. I'm ready to burn Sage's redshirt and/or play Hensley at the 5, something has to change. If the backup center is going to suck regardless, they might as well suck while giving experience to a guy who will be back next year.

I had high hopes that Ody would improve during the off-season (my expectations for Kalu were quite low). Turns out neither Ody or Kalu panned out and that leaves us with a massive void.

If we had a real backup center we could also give Lakhin some minutes at the 4 when we need size and to show the other team a different look (like Arizona did with Tubelis).

[Queens_NYC]

Originally Posted by skyblade

The lack of a backup for Vik is our biggest issue. It's a massive drop-off from him to Ody/Kalu. It seems like Wes sees that and it was reflected in him putting Vik back in with foul trouble with tons of time left in both the first and second half.

We can debate if Ody or Kalu is better (personally I prefer Ody), but in the end it doesn't matter as neither is good enough to deserve any minutes. I'm ready to burn Sage's redshirt and/or play Hensley at the 5, something has to change. If the backup center is going to suck regardless, they might as well suck while giving experience to a guy who will be back next year.

I had high hopes that Ody would improve during the off-season (my expectations for Kalu were quite low). Turns out neither Ody or Kalu panned out and that leaves us with a massive void.

If we had a real backup center we could also give Lakhin some minutes at the 4 when we need size and to show the other team a different look (like Arizona did with Tubelis).

Kalu gets more disappointing with each game. I admittedly drank the kool-aid during the offseason in hopes that he could take on a sizable role this year, but I don't see it happening.

Credit to him, he tries to make plays, but he is definitively not a viable option at the 5 for a competitive high major team.

EKU game aside, Ody looks like a shell of the junkyard dog that brought great energy to both ends of the court last year.

I'd be on board with trying Hensley as the back-up 5.

[sedziobs]

Put me on the Hensley at the 5 train. Part of that is because Hensley has not developed a perimeter game either on offense or defense so his game is more suited to the 5.

I think Nolley and Reed can play some at the 4.

[sirthought]

This game was so discouraging. Didn't matter what kind of shot AofU took: 3 pt, dunk, falling away, turn around...they seemed to hit them with ease.

For being a coach known for defense, I don't see Miller's team being very effective. When they score north of 100, you have to ask if you are really disrupting anything.

And not that we were hitting FTs, but I'm surprised we didn't try to get to the line more. Chucking up long distance shots can happen from anyone.

[TheRealMick]

Wes can't coach at this level.

[TheRealMick]

Originally Posted by sedziobs

Put me on the Hensley at the 5 train. Part of that is because Hensley has not developed a perimeter game either on offense or defense so his game is more suited to the 5.

I think Nolley and Reed can play some at the 4.

You simply have too many guys that don't belong at this level. It takes real coaching to fit all these mis fits together. Still in disbelief we took the Indiana kid over my nephew Eric Gaines. He would've provided same D with more athleticism and ability drop 30s.