Nice solid and comfortable win over and undermanned yet well coached UNI team, whom I suspect will be a force to reckon with when they get their best player back.
A couple things I saw that stood out.
Burton: Good god. What a monster of a game. His level of intensity and activity on the glass, I'm not sure I've ever seen that from a Mooney player. It seemed like every rebound out there, you had Burton flying in above everyone else snagging it. And if he is now able to hit 3's like he did last night, good lord.
Jacob: Bob said in postgame that Gilly is playing at an All American level, he is. Just a masterful control of the game on both ends of the court. The synergy that him and Grant have out there is really something to behold.
Grant: Really solid game from him as well. I loved his decision making on offense with this 3 point shot. A couple years ago he was firing away out there, which is hardly ever a good shot for your center to be taking for a number of reasons. Now, he is strategically taking three's in big situations and obviously making them. He needs to stop flopping on offense though, he fell over several times, which left us shorthanded on defense. Once Gilly had to intentionally foul someone to prevent a 5 on 4 situation.
Blake: Shaky first half again, but as I've said, just let Blake be Blake and he knocked down a bunch of big shots in the second half. He is playing with great defensive intensity as well.
Sal: Great minutes from him. I'll be interested to see if he gets a little bit of confidence going, what he might do.
Grace: His play last night is a summation of why I don't like his game. Launches a couple of 3's early in the shot clock and then has a wide open bunny from like 2 feet and he panics and passes out of it. That is some weak sauce. Credit to Mooney though for benching him the rest of the game after he did that. Hopefully, he has Grace taking a million contested bunnies today at practice.
Moondog: Really nice half time adjustments to tweak our defense to deny dribble penetration and increase intensity. Team was playing really flat on defense much of the first half, so whatever he said or did during half time worked. I have to say it was infuriating to see UNI go on an 18-3 run in the first half, get multiple easy buckets, and we went like 8 plus minutes without a bucket of our own and Mooney does not call a time out. Yeah, it ended up not hurting us tonight but this whole I have confidence in our upper classman to manage the game mantra he has had for years now, bites us when he doesn't step up in game and use his timeouts to blunt other teams runs. A run like that against a really good team, you don't recover from.
All in all, this team plays with a ton of confidence. Sometimes that confidence gets in the way with playing with purpose and an edge. Haven't put a full 40 minutes game together yet and are still 4-0 and looking good.
A couple things I saw that stood out.
Burton: Good god. What a monster of a game. His level of intensity and activity on the glass, I'm not sure I've ever seen that from a Mooney player. It seemed like every rebound out there, you had Burton flying in above everyone else snagging it. And if he is now able to hit 3's like he did last night, good lord.
Jacob: Bob said in postgame that Gilly is playing at an All American level, he is. Just a masterful control of the game on both ends of the court. The synergy that him and Grant have out there is really something to behold.
Grant: Really solid game from him as well. I loved his decision making on offense with this 3 point shot. A couple years ago he was firing away out there, which is hardly ever a good shot for your center to be taking for a number of reasons. Now, he is strategically taking three's in big situations and obviously making them. He needs to stop flopping on offense though, he fell over several times, which left us shorthanded on defense. Once Gilly had to intentionally foul someone to prevent a 5 on 4 situation.
Blake: Shaky first half again, but as I've said, just let Blake be Blake and he knocked down a bunch of big shots in the second half. He is playing with great defensive intensity as well.
Sal: Great minutes from him. I'll be interested to see if he gets a little bit of confidence going, what he might do.
Grace: His play last night is a summation of why I don't like his game. Launches a couple of 3's early in the shot clock and then has a wide open bunny from like 2 feet and he panics and passes out of it. That is some weak sauce. Credit to Mooney though for benching him the rest of the game after he did that. Hopefully, he has Grace taking a million contested bunnies today at practice.
Moondog: Really nice half time adjustments to tweak our defense to deny dribble penetration and increase intensity. Team was playing really flat on defense much of the first half, so whatever he said or did during half time worked. I have to say it was infuriating to see UNI go on an 18-3 run in the first half, get multiple easy buckets, and we went like 8 plus minutes without a bucket of our own and Mooney does not call a time out. Yeah, it ended up not hurting us tonight but this whole I have confidence in our upper classman to manage the game mantra he has had for years now, bites us when he doesn't step up in game and use his timeouts to blunt other teams runs. A run like that against a really good team, you don't recover from.
All in all, this team plays with a ton of confidence. Sometimes that confidence gets in the way with playing with purpose and an edge. Haven't put a full 40 minutes game together yet and are still 4-0 and looking good.
