Griz 83, UGF 68

[TrueGriz]

Watched the Griz play the Argonauts today. Came away with some hope for the future and some question marks.

2 glaring problems in this game:

1. Free Throws. 14 for 32. quite obismal performance at the line.

2. Turnovers. 26 of them. Way to many. I do believe that most were in the first half and some were possibly due to first game jitters.

Some positives:

1. Criswell. Started out poor, as just about every body but Davis did in the first half. But, second half shot the lights out and finished with 17 points to lead the game. I figure this guy will be hot and cold this year, just like he has been in the past.

2. Kamaar Davis. This guy kept Montana in the game when everybody else struggled. Scored 12 points in the first half.

3. Andrew Strait. This guy is going to be one heck of a player for the Griz. I think the Griz are very fortunate to get him. Scored 9 points in his first game.

4. Virgil Matthews. This guy is athletic. Seems to anticipate the passes quite well and I think he will be able to get a lot of steals this year.

5. As a team: Shot quite well from the field hitting 59.2%. Do that all season, Griz will be tough to beat if they can reduce the turnovers and make some free throws. Three point percentage was 59.2%. Criswell made 4 three pointers and Lynch hit three 3-pointers.
Virgil Matthews lead the team in rebounds with 7, Easley got 6 rebounds, Davis and Dlouhy had 5 rebounds.

In this game, Criswell lead the game in scoring as mentioned above with 17 points. Davis was the only other player in double figures with 14 points. Lynch and Strait had 9 points, Easley and Martin had 8 points, Matthews had 6 points, Dlouhy 5 points, Seyfert 4 points, Mckay 2 points, and Thierry had 1 point.

 

[Grizbeer]

Thank God this was a NAIA team and not a challenge to start the season.

True I think most of the turnovers were due to problems with the press in the first 1/2, and some of the newer/younger players at the end of the 2nd 1/2. The good news is in the 2nd 1/2 the Griz figured out how to break the press, then pulled away easily.

FT shooting is horrid, just like at the scrimmage. On the post game show Krysco addressed this, and took responsibility, said they hadn't worked on it much this year, and will spend more time in practice with it.

Lynch looks a little ahead of Martin at PG, I think Martin is just learning to play at the higher level, and by BSC conference time will be ready to shine.

I didn't see much from Farr, at least on offense. Again Krysco mentioned he is a hustler and athletic, but has had trouble picking up the offensive schemes (not that they ran it much tonight, according to Krysco).

A lot of offensive fouls away from the ball tonight. Thought that was a little strange, hopefully all games won't be called this way.

Davis again showed he can take over the game if you get him the ball down low - I'm not sure why they didn't just keep pounding the ball in to him, but I hope they were trying different looks.

I think most of tonights problems (turnovers, breaking the press, FT shooting) will be addressed and the Griz will be fine. The one thing that really concerned me was the rebounding, with UGF out-rebounding the Griz most of the night, despite the height difference. This might be a big problem if it doesn't run around.

The thing that I was most encouraged about was the Griz made adjustments at 1/2 time, and played much better. The coaches were able to get through to the kids, and it made all the difference. BTW Krysco said on the post-game that the thing they talked to the kids about at 1/2 time was being team players and not trying to do too much by themselves. Krysco also said he was disappointed with the defense, so we should see some improvement there as well.