So I finally made my first game last night and I have a few take away's I thought I'd share.
- This team is incredibly athletic from top to bottom. I hadn't really been able to see that on TV, but in person it is crazy. I'd swear I saw a couple of blocked shots where our players hand was near the top of the backboard. Big guys can handle the ball fairly well. Quickness everywhere.
- The defense is stifling. The effort was across the board with every player and intensity was high all the way to the buzzer.
- Beard was subbing constantly the entire game letting everyone get into the game with meaningful playing time. I hadn't noticed this in other games, but I love that he is mixing it up with all types of different combinations on the court the entire game. I think every player played in the first half. Beard is trying to figure it out before conference which is here soon.
- The offense....In the first half I couldn't figure out why we were having such a hard time scoring then it continued in the second half. It dawned on me that on practically every single possession we were running the clock down to under 5 seconds. While doing that the ball was constantly moving and players were rotating and moving around non stop. I've heard in Beard interviews say he is just trying to get them comfortable and used to the new motion offense working together. I'm convinced Beard had them purposefully maximizing every single possession just working on movement and ball control. In my opinion we had the superior athletes and could have blown the doors off but Beard used this as a learning experience.
- Ray Benson had end court line seats and was the celebrity of the night.
