mtgrizrule
Well-known member
I am so pissed at the gogriz.com feed. Barely working on my computer. All my other online video is working great. :thumb:
Nice summary! Nwosu is a sophomore, by the way. He also has been battling some injuries. He did have a nice assist on one of Breunig's slams....the one that resulted in a T from Curry (of course) for hanging on the rim.grizzlyjournal said:A few observations about Travis DeCuire's first game as a Division 1 head coach.
1. The Coach: Composed, in control the entire game. Called two perfect timeouts that righted his players. Did not complain to the refs; in fact, did a good job of ignoring them. I think Curry was ticked. Otherwise, he spent the game shouting verbal plays or instructions to his players. He had to: they ran a huge number of offensive looks and are still learning. They needed his guidance. DeCuire did not back down from his game plan to run a variety of offensive (mostly) looks. SIGNIFICANT: Very well-defined assistant roles: By my observation: Ken Bone works one-on-one with all players on the bench; Jono Metzger-Jones gives active defensive instruction, personally and to the on-floor team. Cobb seems to consult with refs and bench officials... carries a clip board. I admit I wasn't observing closely, but that's how it looked.
2. All but two players saw a minimum of 11 minutes on the floor. Jr. off guard Daniel Nwosu played 3 mins. Frosh Gavin DeJong was suited up but did not play. Frosh Bryden Boehning was on the bench in street clothes.
•I'm a bit concerned about Michael Weisner, who seemed to have a target on his back by refs. Three ticky tack fouls over the first 8 minutes and one immediately at the start of the second half. Sat on the bench a lot. As many are aware, MW has a few (three, I think) flagrant fouls over the past few years and seemed to be tracked by refs a lot last season. His production? 0 pts on 0 shots, 1 rebound, 1 steal and 4 pers. fouls in 15 minutes.
3. About the refs again. Total fouls called: 29-Griz, 22-Whitworth. Worse yet: Pirate point guard Kenny Love (15 pts) cored 4 pts. on 2-6 shooting from the field... and 11-14 from the ft line. Most of his points came from blocking fouls on the Griz.
4. The Griz are already playing the Griz Hi-Lo (Monty-DeCuire version) as well as they did all year last year. Proof? Total in-paint scoring from their front court big three: 30 pts -- Breunig-16, Kemp-4, and young horse Krslovic-10. They missed about 6 point-blank layups as well. Krslovic is a bona fide, authentic, certified center/post/five. He's very young and will make mistakes on D, but he will keep on improving. Sky's the limit for him. The Montana Hi-lo is in good hands... although still short-handed.
5. Rebounding. Ouch.
6. Man-on Defense. Needs a ton of work. Zone defense: a sieve. Lot of work to do.
7. Point guard: In good hands. Mario Dunn had more assists (10) than points (9), had two turnovers, a block & a steal and 6 rebounds. Backup Riley Bradshaw: 8 points (3-4 from the field) 0 assists, 2 turnovers. We saw a hint tonight that Bradshaw is capable of inside-outside scoring punch.
8. Jordan Gregory: Golden. Monana employed a variety of spread offense over the second half and Gregory took over, scoring most of his game-high 22 pts. on a variety of twisting, pivoting & hang-balance fadeways. If anyone sagged, he'd hit a trey (3-6). If anyone double-teamed him, a nifty bounce pass to Breunig for a dunk or a banker.
9. It's significant to note that soph Jermaine Edmonds backed-up Gregory quite a bit, but also played wing (where he scored the bulk of his points). Edmonds doesn't drive as competently, but has a deadly quick-release jumper. 19 points on... get this -- 7-for-10 shooting from the field *(5-7 on treys). But: needs work on defense and rebound. Needs work on d and rebounding. I repeat: needs work on....
10. Brandon Gfeller. Another horse. He's improved his upper body strength significantly, battles, dives, plays active D. 3 boards, 1 assist, 2 steals. He got into two scraps with other players who hit the floor hard. My interp was that Gfeller was playing clean but physical. I was very close to his offensive foul on a pivot. I thought it was a defensive flop from a player not giving Gfeller turning space. The other scrap was all Gfeller's strength in going up hard for a rebound. He needs to play more under control, but has incredible potential.
11. Jack Lopez. Probably 10th man, but has the frame to improve rapidly under DeCuire. Needs vision work on defense. Needs to relax on his shot. Just needs more time on the floor.
12. Lastly, Montana's offensive potential. Sky's the limit. DeCuire already has the Griz playing so many offensive looks it's a bit bewildering to me. In a game the refs tried to slow down, Montana scores 94 legit points. Get this: 34-for-57 from the field = 59.6%. Or this: 11-22 from 3-point range... Need I give that % to you? Compare that to Whitworth's 24-52 (46%). The Pirates kept it close on free throws.
Game was ragged. Lot of errors. Montana's defense was vexing at times. And the teams finished tied at 32 boards for the game. That does not bode well for the Griz.
Otherwise, this was a young team trying to play a totally new game plan under the direction of a totally new coach. It'll take some time. I left the game most frustrated at the Big Sky refs, though. For the Griz, it was a good first outing.