For most of these scrimmages the squads are well balanced with talent and experience, but this year I feel it’s a perfect opportunity to play the expected Starters vs the Reserves which are mostly the newcomers. This will start to build chemistry early with starters, and allow to see if any of the freshman are ready to provide immediate impact. I am hoping that 1-2 of the frosh really standout, especially at Center. I would like to see the following teams:
Wade Needham Nickerson Barrow Matthews Van Nes
Jenkins Grennan Gilbert Johnson Sidibe Mikulic
The best test to see if a frosh is ready to get significant PT, is to play against experienced Division I competition.
Post by nashvillestag on Oct 17, 2012 10:47:38 GMT -5
As well as one of the centers among the frosh standing out, I also think it is very important that Jenkins is the real deal and is ready to step up and play important minutes right away. Otherwise the team will be dangerously thin in the backcourt, particularly regarding ballhandling, passing, and generally contolling the action. For this reason (assuming the squads are put together as above), I hope to see a lot of pressure applied by Derek, Des, and Colin against the new guys in the backcourt including Grennan (never too early to get a preview of next year) and see how they respond. Indeed the season will be too long to not have to rely on some help for the seniors. So I will be watching closely for how this part of the action plays out on Saturday.
I have no expectations for the red & white scrimmage. I think it tells very little about the players or the team Why? The team has only been practicing for just a few days, so you cannot draw any real conclusions on how the team will perform during the year or how the individual players will perform..
I have no expectations for the red & white scrimmage. I think it tells very little about the players or the team Why? The team has only been practicing for just a few days, so you cannot draw any real conclusions on how the team will perform during the year or how the individual players will perform..
While I agree that its difficult to draw any conclusions about the team because it takes time for them establish Chemistry and Consistency. Plus, we are playing against ourselves.
However, we can certainly indentify individual talent level with regards to Quickeness, Ballhandling, Strength, Rebounding, Passing and general Basketball instincts. I think we knew right away about players like Sanders, Needham, Nero, Han, Todd, Maxwell, Gai and Bowman. We also knew about the limitations of Buchbinder, Turner, Devin Johnson, and Galvanoni.
Could there be false positives or false negatives...... sure. Jeremy Reedall was one that comes to mind...... But mis- evaluations like that happen about 10% of the time. The biggest thing is that does the player have "deer in the headlights" or "the eye of the Tiger".
My prediction "for eye of the tiger" is Sean Grennan...... I expect him to go for 30points
BTW, the team has been practicing under coaches supervision since Mid Summer. New NCAA rules that started this year allow for 2 hours a week of either Individual or Team practice. Plus, experienced players should be ready now. And of course the health of Van Nes and Needham is important, just like it was for Nero a few years ago.
Last Edit: Oct 17, 2012 14:07:19 GMT -5 by JoeStag
[]....Last weekend, our students gave our men's and women's basketball teams a terrific start to the 2012-13 season with Red Sea Madness. And for the community, the men's and women's basketball teams will host their annual Red-White Scrimmages on October 20 as part of Homecoming Weekend. I am sure that the enthusiasm shown at these events will carry through to the regular season.
I cannot begin to tell the importance of a hometown crowd to our athletic programs. There is nothing that gives our student-athletes and coaches a larger lift than the roar of a packed house, cheering them on when the teams need it most. We have received tremendous support in the past and hope that the trend will continue through the rest of the fall and into the winter and spring seasons.
I invite you to come out to as many games as you can over the next few months. I promise you and your family will enjoy the atmosphere and action that comes with each Fairfield University athletic contest. I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming game.
Every year we have players sitting out due to injuries at the Red-White. Van Nes's foot injury is still lingering, means that we have to look at Mikulic or Sidibe to be a consistent starter at Center. I hope they go head to head on saturday.
I'm more worried about Johnson, as I expect him to get minutes at PF. Something tells me that Van Nes' foot injury is a lot more than "lingering". So I am not really counting on him as a major part of the rotation.
Post by gofairfield on Oct 18, 2012 10:36:23 GMT -5
What a bummer to start out with two injured players. I agree with JS that we can certainly get a very good idea about the ability level of the various freshmen during this scrimmage. I like the idea of the first string against the second string.
I als0 belive there is more to the Van Ness story then we are told. His injury seems to be recurring over several years now. I believe he is damaged goods and i bet he is never going to play a significant role for the stags. Unfortunate because he seems to be a good kid. I hope the best for him!
Post by stagthomas on Oct 20, 2012 13:20:29 GMT -5
Get that team manager a scholarship asap. Drained four threes in a row. Nickerson showed aggressiveness and a lot of energy, plus great movement to the basket. Appears to be a few injuries on the team so couldn't preview the rest of team. I think it's safe to say though that expectations should be kept in check for the season.
Justin jenkins has a pretty good handle and is always looking to score. M Gilbert looked ok, he can really sky for the ball. I thought our backcourt looked great wade, needham, and colin all looked ready to go. Mo Barrow is such a smooth player, i really think he could be All Maac this year. Amadou didnt play as well as I thought he would, needs to work on his back to the basket offense.
Overall I think we still may be better than last year due to the expanded depth and upgraded guard play. We really need all of our frontcourt players to be healthy, thats where our glaring weakness was today.
Last Edit: Oct 20, 2012 14:08:21 GMT -5 by stags10
I thought the team looked decent today. Gosh, one GLARING weakness is the lack of a go-to outside shooter. Hope I'm proven wrong, but I think defenses are going to collapse on Needham and we will have an awful hard time finding ways to score. Hopefully Sydney gets creative...
Disappointing that Josip Mikulic did not play, but it was just a slight tweak, they kept him out for precautionary measures. Coleman Johnson and Van Nes also sat out. Met Coleman, his mother and God mother…. Great people, and they said he won’t be out long.
Agree that the outside shooting was poor today except for walk-on Steven Johnson who hit 4 three’s. BTW, I heard an unsubstantiated rumor that Steven Johnson scored 70 points in one game in HS…. So he has some ability. The Grey team crushed the Red team 42-22 in 24 minutes of scrimmaging. Here is a recap and an estimate on how many points each player had:
Grey Team --------------- Steven Johnson – 12 pts, all threes. Was setup nicely by drives and dishes by Grennan and Needham Barrow and Matthews – each with 10pts, all workmanlike pts. Mostly inside. Both played tough and experienced. Needham and Grennan – each with 5pts, 1 three-pointer, Both missed a lot of shots. Needham mostly at PG but Grennan looks like a future PG. Really like Grennan’s game…. Tough and smart. Drive and Dish to Johnson was best plays by both
Red Team -------------- Nickerson – 6 pts all on layups. Took a lot of 3-pointers (about 8) and missed them all. But has to continue to shoot, but maybe from 12-15 feet would be better. Jenkins – 6pts all on layups. Missed his only outside shot. Deferred too much. Has to do more, has to work to get himself open. More experience ==> confidence will grow Gilbert – 4 pts. 2 on an impressive Ally-Oop from Wade, and the other 2 on an O-board putback. Disappeared after that. Missed all outside shots Wade – One 3-pointer. Missed a couple short shots that he needs to make. Created some open shots for Nickerson, should have done that for Jenkins Sidibe – 3pts an Anthony Johnson clone, as AJ was a frosh. In tremendous shape and runs fast with power. Good Defender and Rebounder, but offense is raw. He did not block a shot nor dunk. Handled the ball a lot on offense and he should be restricted to be a finisher.
Bottom line is that Frosh played like Frosh….. some flashes of greatness, but not ready for prime time. Hope that Mikulic is ready to be a part-time starter. In practice, he moves well, has good hands, can shoot …… a prototypical European Center who plays facing the basket. We currently do not have the depth we think we do. Frosh have to grow-up fast. They will all play and have their unique talents, but right now I do not see extended minutes form anybody….. however I did not see Mikulic, Coleman or Van Nes. The 5 returnees look ready to go, and will to get the majority of the minutes. We really need either Mikulic or Van Nes to win the Center job as both can provide perimeter shooting in addition to a Presence on defense. Sidibe will play when we need defense and rebounding, but Matthews is looking pretty good.
I thought we played very good defense.
Last Edit: Oct 20, 2012 22:26:59 GMT -5 by JoeStag