*Don't want to put too much stock in this. It was an exhibition against a D3 team and Missouri did mostly what it should. Worth noting Dennis Gates said he lost his first game at Cleveland State to a D2 team so winning is important though.
*Kobe Brown is still going to be the go to guy. 25 and 11 on 11/15 shooting. The big takeaway with Kobe is that he's so much leaner. He said he can tell a difference in the way he moves on the floor and he's added muscle so he feels like he can actually move guys out of the way.
*Gates said he thought the team was nervous tonight. Kobe said Aidan Shaw had his jersey on before the clock even started counting down to tipoff and Kobe had to tell him to relax a little.
*I said during the game Isiaih Mosley was a better passer than I expected. Gates said he thinks he is a better passer than scorer. He said Mosley will lead the team in assists quite a bit. If the minutes allow it, he may lead them for the seaosn.
*Missouri has A LOT of willing drivers. Nick Honor, Sean East and Dre Gholston will go at the bucket. It won't always be as easy to get there as it was tonight, but they'll attack.
*Found it interesting that Gates said he just randomly picked five starters shortly before the game and those five guys had never actually practiced together. He also said he intentionally pulled guys out before they could get into a rhythm to see how they would react. He definitely used tonight as a coaching experiment.
*If I had to guess Monday's starters I'd go: Nick Honor, Kobe Brown, Dre Gholston, Isaiah Mosley and Noah Carter. Total guess though.
*Size will be an issue for this team. Aidan Shaw is the only guy over 6-8 who saw more than two minutes and he'll get pushed around by high major forwards right now. Mabor Majak is a project and it doesn't really look like Mo Diarra is ready yet.
*This team will shoot better than it did tonight. Everything I've heard is that they think they have multiple guys who shoot it pretty well. D'Moi Hodge heated up in the second half, but they'll be better than 5/18 on most nights.
*Two surprises: I was surprised to see Kaleb Brown get 16 minutes. Gates was very complimentary of how far he's come. He may play more than I thought. Gates also corrected a reporter who asked Kobe a question about his brother. He said they don't use that word, his name is Kaleb Brown and he has his own identity. I've heard that's something Kaleb had a little bit of a tough time with last year, just found it interesting. The negative surprise is Ronnie DeGray. I'm not shocked he didn't play a lot, but I'm surprised he didn't play at all. I asked Gates if he was healthy and he said he was. I said this summer I thought he might be the guy that lost some minutes on this team. I just didn't expect him to lose them all.
*We'll find out a little more about this team on Monday night. Maybe not a ton more, but a little more. Should be an interesting month or two as we find out what this team is. Below are a few pictures from tonight so you guys can start to put some faces to names.
Dre Gholston
Noah Carter
Sean East
Aidan Shaw
Isiaih Mosley
Nick Honor
Kobe Brown
Dennis Gates
C.Y. Young
*Kobe Brown is still going to be the go to guy. 25 and 11 on 11/15 shooting. The big takeaway with Kobe is that he's so much leaner. He said he can tell a difference in the way he moves on the floor and he's added muscle so he feels like he can actually move guys out of the way.
*Gates said he thought the team was nervous tonight. Kobe said Aidan Shaw had his jersey on before the clock even started counting down to tipoff and Kobe had to tell him to relax a little.
*I said during the game Isiaih Mosley was a better passer than I expected. Gates said he thinks he is a better passer than scorer. He said Mosley will lead the team in assists quite a bit. If the minutes allow it, he may lead them for the seaosn.
*Missouri has A LOT of willing drivers. Nick Honor, Sean East and Dre Gholston will go at the bucket. It won't always be as easy to get there as it was tonight, but they'll attack.
*Found it interesting that Gates said he just randomly picked five starters shortly before the game and those five guys had never actually practiced together. He also said he intentionally pulled guys out before they could get into a rhythm to see how they would react. He definitely used tonight as a coaching experiment.
*If I had to guess Monday's starters I'd go: Nick Honor, Kobe Brown, Dre Gholston, Isaiah Mosley and Noah Carter. Total guess though.
*Size will be an issue for this team. Aidan Shaw is the only guy over 6-8 who saw more than two minutes and he'll get pushed around by high major forwards right now. Mabor Majak is a project and it doesn't really look like Mo Diarra is ready yet.
*This team will shoot better than it did tonight. Everything I've heard is that they think they have multiple guys who shoot it pretty well. D'Moi Hodge heated up in the second half, but they'll be better than 5/18 on most nights.
*Two surprises: I was surprised to see Kaleb Brown get 16 minutes. Gates was very complimentary of how far he's come. He may play more than I thought. Gates also corrected a reporter who asked Kobe a question about his brother. He said they don't use that word, his name is Kaleb Brown and he has his own identity. I've heard that's something Kaleb had a little bit of a tough time with last year, just found it interesting. The negative surprise is Ronnie DeGray. I'm not shocked he didn't play a lot, but I'm surprised he didn't play at all. I asked Gates if he was healthy and he said he was. I said this summer I thought he might be the guy that lost some minutes on this team. I just didn't expect him to lose them all.
*We'll find out a little more about this team on Monday night. Maybe not a ton more, but a little more. Should be an interesting month or two as we find out what this team is. Below are a few pictures from tonight so you guys can start to put some faces to names.
Dre Gholston
Noah Carter
Sean East
Aidan Shaw
Isiaih Mosley
Nick Honor
Kobe Brown
Dennis Gates
C.Y. Young
