Busy week, so here's an abridged version:
1. Awesome to have basketball back. Was a kick in the pants two weeks ago when Jontay went down, but nonetheless...the season marches on.
2. Not a lot of fluidity early on, especially offensively. As I mentioned in the game thread, Cuonzo has stated that there's not going to be an overhaul of the offense as there was a year ago when a key player went down. That doesn't mean there won't be growing pains in learning it. Even neglecting the amount of newcomers (below), losing a guy, your best player, who you've been running your offense through in the offseason is going to take time.
3. Newcomers. By my count, 6 of the 10 players that saw the floor tonight did not see time for Mizzou a year ago. The 4 that did, Puryear, Geist, Nikko and Tilmon will play an important role. I don't think we saw the former two players' best game tonight. Further, two of the players that hit the floor tonight hadn't seen competitive game action in two seasons, at any level. Again...it's going to take time to build confidence and find roles within the offensive framework.
4. Shooting was poor tonight. 19-38 from 2 is decent, 6-13 and 8-26 from 3 is not. Were flat out missing makeable shots. Whether that's a symptom of jitters, a bad night or that we're a poor shooting team? That will sort itself out over the season.
5. Hoping to see the defense improve as well. More than the offense, I think the results there should've been a higher level. UCA didn't shoot it well, but they too missed a lot of shots that were good looks.
Nothing in-depth there, but there's simply not a lot to take away from the first game against an over-matched opponent with a double digit win that was never in serious doubt.
1. Awesome to have basketball back. Was a kick in the pants two weeks ago when Jontay went down, but nonetheless...the season marches on.
2. Not a lot of fluidity early on, especially offensively. As I mentioned in the game thread, Cuonzo has stated that there's not going to be an overhaul of the offense as there was a year ago when a key player went down. That doesn't mean there won't be growing pains in learning it. Even neglecting the amount of newcomers (below), losing a guy, your best player, who you've been running your offense through in the offseason is going to take time.
3. Newcomers. By my count, 6 of the 10 players that saw the floor tonight did not see time for Mizzou a year ago. The 4 that did, Puryear, Geist, Nikko and Tilmon will play an important role. I don't think we saw the former two players' best game tonight. Further, two of the players that hit the floor tonight hadn't seen competitive game action in two seasons, at any level. Again...it's going to take time to build confidence and find roles within the offensive framework.
4. Shooting was poor tonight. 19-38 from 2 is decent, 6-13 and 8-26 from 3 is not. Were flat out missing makeable shots. Whether that's a symptom of jitters, a bad night or that we're a poor shooting team? That will sort itself out over the season.
5. Hoping to see the defense improve as well. More than the offense, I think the results there should've been a higher level. UCA didn't shoot it well, but they too missed a lot of shots that were good looks.
Nothing in-depth there, but there's simply not a lot to take away from the first game against an over-matched opponent with a double digit win that was never in serious doubt.
