The Disappointments; The Glimmers of Hope

Disappointments:

--Dorsey's injury.
--Slow starts (UCSB, Georgia State) and late collapses (Penn State, Stanford);
--Poor shooting: 26.5% from deep.
--Free throw problems: Akoh 54%; Nicholas 16.7%; Pridgett 61.7%. (But: Moorehead, Rorie and Krslovic all at 80% or better, excellent).
--Poor late-game strategy from the bench; we miss those veteran coaches.
--Falls and Nicholas overmatched early in their careers.
--Niko Bevens a non-factor, 11 minutes in nine games.

Glimmers of Hope:
--A winning record, despite six of nine games away from home against a strong schedule.
--We've been IN every game in the second half, with a chance to win.
--Except for Rorie's stinkaroo at Stanford, both he and Oguine have been as advertised: Terrific.
--Falls and Nicholas, while obviously overmatched, both show flashes of brilliance.
--You'd expect the three-point shooting only to get better; it can't get worse. (Can it?)

I am still looking for the up-tempo game we were promised.

citay said:

--Except for Rorie's stinkaroo at Stanford, both he and Oguine have been as advertised: Terrific.

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Disappointments: Coaching....great recruiter but team struggles, opposite of football though. Good on defense, horrid on offense. Actually I still think its not TD per se, but the loss of great assistant coaches that has hurt this team the most.

And we have a different definition of terrific. Oguine has been extremely inconsistent, look no further than the Northridge game where he stunk first half, and then looked impressive the 2nd. After seeing him play his freshman year, I expected him to be further along than he is. I actually assumed he would far exceed what Will Cherry did here, but I don't get that. Maybe playing with Rorie, is actually hurting his game, and his play style. His 3 point shooting has fallen from 37% last year to 26% this year. He shot 48% last year, but only 40% this year. Why are these numbers down? They should be up. And wasn't last year the year he missed some playing time because of a hand injury.

As for Rorie, he needs to quit shooting the 3 pointer. This theory that the 3 point is the greatest thing since peanut butter is absurd. He is 18-60 from the 3-point line, 38-80 inside it. For every 100 shots he would score 30 points from beyond the arc, and 47.5 inside it. His scoring average would be 3-4 points higher if he shot inside the arc, plus I would guess his free throws attempts would go up if he is attacking the basket. I will say he can at least hit his free throws.

I agree with most of your points, except I'd like to know where you have seen a flash of brilliance from Timmy Falls, only flashes I've seen are sparks flying out of a dumpster fire...in fact it is that complete lack of any flashes of brilliance that is disappointing, because all you can really hope for from a Frosh is to show they have high ceiling, but all the bench players this year besides Nicholas and Besovic just come in and turn the ball over and put up jittery airballs...like oh jesus bad. However, I think Nicholas is easily our most skilled post player, I swear Krislovic has sub normal mortor skills...if Nicholas got all of Krisz's minutes we would be scoring and extra 4-5pts per game.

It is still very very early! We are now only 1 month into a season that will last 4!
Frankly, given the schedule, I am amazed the team has a winning record. USC was ranked 25th in the country last week.

Let's give it another month before we start blasting this team for underperforming.

Gaeilge1 said:

It is still very very early! We are now only 1 month into a season that will last 4!
Frankly, given the schedule, I am amazed the team has a winning record. USC was ranked 25th in the country last week.

Let's give it another month before we start blasting this team for underperforming.

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Sorry not going to happen it is the e-griz way! Burn at the stake ask questions later.
I still think the griz finish 6th in conference have not seen anything to change my mind.
I tend to think many fans are impatient because we keep saying or hearing wait till next year.
So far the disappointments are shadowing the glimmers of hope. It can change though!

Shit, I thought you were talking about the Punk band from Missoula around the late 90's early 00's. Got me all excited.

There are a lot of teams in the Big Sky now, and I'm not gonna pretend I know exactly where the Griz will end up, and PSU,EWU,IU AND WSU are probably favored, but I don't think anyone has a better twosome than Oguine and Rorie. They may be inconsistant at times, but both are dynamic players that I am not worried about long-term. Also the Griz only play 6/8 games against that 4-some which helps. The regular season is practically meaningless as they will all end up in Reno anyways for a neutral-site winner-take-all tourney. Our impressive pre-season schedule should have us well-prepared for the Big Sky.

Falls reminds me of Sam Riddle so far. An awkward-looking, cocky, white guard that rarely lived up to his hype. I said "so far", but, yeah, I am not impressed yet.

No way does Kryslovic deserve the minutes he gets. He hustles and tries his best, but he's not good at anything really. He misses more lay-ups than the Lady Griz do.

Based on attending several games in person, and looking at some of the box scores, I see the team as having alot of talent and athleticism but not yet hitting on enough cylinders most of the time or consistently. As I have said before, it seems that the team should be better. After seeing the last home game, where the team played well the whole game, and seeing Rorie have a a great and consistent game, I am now back to thinking this team can get better and make some noise in the conference, even tho the conference seems to have a bunch of strong teams this year (based on the wins and near wins).

The good wins and the multiple comebacks resulting in close loses is a big positive, but the several collapses at the end, again this year, is still a concern. Akoh is a positive. Pridgett is better and more consistent this year, and is a force when playing well. Oguine is very talented, but not consistent enough. I wonder if the tape stuff on his right shoulder is bothering him. I still like Krslovich, and think he's an asset, but he may not deserve big minutes. The switch in position for Pridgett recently seemed to work, even tho I didn't even notice it in the game.

Bobby plays hard and is consistent, but needs to get his great stroke back. I think he will.

Don't know why 3-pt shooting isn't better. Of the returners, none shot over 30% from the 3 last year, is my recollection. Surprised me. Free throws need to get a bit better, altho the big 3 are very good.

Rebounding is good, or better. Steals are good. Blocks are good. Turnovers good or pretty good.

This team doesn't seem to be outmatched in athleticism or physically, like many Griz teams in the past.

I've seen some nice things from Falls, but not nearly enough.

With the tough schedule and talent, I am hopeful. Wish there were more home games, tho.

Still think this team, despite athleticism, needs more size. Rorie, Oguine and Pridgett all very skilled and athletic but all three could use another 2". This doesn't always show on a given play. All three rebound and defend well but often the slightly taller and more physical players get an edge on them eventually which I think creates inconsistency and fatigue. As we've seen, Travis not real excited to go to his bench. Last home game some of the new little used guys (Espe, Bevins, Besovic) got a little time in the first half...then 17 seconds (wtf!) with a 20+ point lead late in the game.

Last year the discussion was lack of inside presence and everyone was waiting for this year and our new "big" guys. Well, Akoh is here but Samuelson is gone. Samuelson wasn't "big" but played decent in the post all last year and had some good offensive skills. Besovic won't contribute this year. Kramer is redshirted. Nicholas makes All-Airport team but just a raw freshman. Krislovic will be his usual presence in the defensive and rebounding phases but not gonna jump up and score much. I was unimpressed by Akoh early this year but much more impressed the past several games.

Not that much different team than last year. Only newcomer making a difference so far is Akoh (maybe Nicholas).....and we lost a pretty good players in Wright, Gfeller, Lopez (all could shoot) and Samuelson. There was lots of excitement about our "new" guys and I know Dorsey is out......but I kind of miss the 4 mentioned just above and they've not been effectively "replaced" in my opinion.

The Griz haven't found the right team chemistry yet, but I haven't given up on them. Once the shooting confidence returns, good things can still happen this season. We miss Dorsey, that's for damn sure, but Nicholas can jump out of the gym. When he finds his college game, I think his minutes will increase, and so will the team's success.

Mousegriz said:

Still think this team, despite athleticism, needs more size. Rorie, Oguine and Pridgett all very skilled and athletic but all three could use another 2". This doesn't always show on a given play. All three rebound and defend well but often the slightly taller and more physical players get an edge on them eventually which I think creates inconsistency and fatigue. As we've seen, Travis not real excited to go to his bench. Last home game some of the new little used guys (Espe, Bevins, Besovic) got a little time in the first half...then 17 seconds (wtf!) with a 20+ point lead late in the game.

Last year the discussion was lack of inside presence and everyone was waiting for this year and our new "big" guys. Well, Akoh is here but Samuelson is gone. Samuelson wasn't "big" but played decent in the post all last year and had some good offensive skills. Besovic won't contribute this year. Kramer is redshirted. Nicholas makes All-Airport team but just a raw freshman. Krislovic will be his usual presence in the defensive and rebounding phases but not gonna jump up and score much. I was unimpressed by Akoh early this year but much more impressed the past several games.

Not that much different team than last year. Only newcomer making a difference so far is Akoh (maybe Nicholas).....and we lost a pretty good players in Wright, Gfeller, Lopez (all could shoot) and Samuelson. There was lots of excitement about our "new" guys and I know Dorsey is out......but I kind of miss the 4 mentioned just above and they've not been effectively "replaced" in my opinion.

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Not to forget Mario Dunn either.....Timmy Falls or Mario/Walter Wright? I take Mario and Walter!

Are we really writing off Timmy? FFS, we are barely into his freshman year. He's going to be great. Give it some time.

PeauxRouge said:

Are we really writing off Timmy? FFS, we are barely into his freshman year. He's going to be great. Give it some time.

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By no means.....but the off season comments of many kept talking about this team being one of the most talented Griz teams of all-time. And it's not....lost a couple key guards/shooters/decent inside RS freshman and no significant boost on the outside or inside making them that much better than last year's team.

I've never seen Dorsey play and his injury sounds to be a key issue this year.....maybe more so among some of the "talent experts". "If" he was playing (and as well the experts think he would) this team might be a little better than last year's team.