(11-13-2019 01:01 AM)holybovine Wrote: A few thoughts:
-There is significant talent on this team; particularly Morgan, Montero, James, and an improved Groce.
-This is an unselfish team with a high basketball IQ. Welcomed changes in the Murphy era.
-Chad is the man.
-JT4, Minnie, and Jackson are the perfect illustration of addition by subtraction.
Agreed with everything. I can’t remember ever seeing so many passes in the Murphy era. Every single player has showed the ability to make the extra pass so far, and to not “get his” all the time. Montero worried me in the first game, but he was fantastic yesterday. He’s going to be a good one, as you mentioned.
I’ll add that Toure has improved as well. He still shuffles his feet like a baby deer when he gets excited at the basket, and misses free throws, but his passing and defense have come a long way. He was always a very good one-on-one defender in the paint, but you could pick him apart with interior passes. Now he looks like a free safety, reading lanes and movement. I was surprised when Murphy named him captain, but he’s looked the part of a leader so far. Let’s see how he handles adversity when it inevitably comes.
Murphy had a good comment on Toure' in Blue Ribbon Yearbook.
As Toure' didn't play much (due to injury) before coming to EMU he was more like a frosh than an upperclassman last year.
Some players actually regress in their senior years. Toure' is the type of player who is still on his upward trajectory.
(This post was last modified: 11-13-2019 09:39 AM by emu steve.)
(11-13-2019 02:24 PM)FrankAnderson Wrote: Last night's press conference below. At about 1:50, Murphy talks about using man-defense and "wanting to give teams different looks this year."
I think 80% of this board has been waiting to hear that.
Murphy made a great point about attacking the zone like its man-to-man. Most teams that try zone either don’t have the athletes to properly run it, or they mix it in as a change-up from their base M2M. Simply collapsing it off the dribble will likely work, unless we are playing against better athletes. We started doing that last night, as he mentioned, and the flood gates opened.
We aren’t exactly running a complex offensive system, but when your players are unselfish, it masks those deficiencies.
