Griz vs Hawaii TV

[GrizWhiz]

Some of the other Big Sky teams do have some pretty nice wins, which isn't all that usual for the Big Sky. UND is going to be a tough one I'm sure even though they got blown out by Cal Poly today. Weber is 0-3 right now, but we know they'll be good. UNC could obviously be trouble, as they've looked very good and EWU is sporting a 3-2 record right now against D1 teams, so they look much improved.

I still think the Griz will be right up near or at the top though at the end of the year. Tinkle has done a good job in previous years of using these non-conference games to figure some things out and have the Griz playing well by conference. Last year we were 4-4 going into conference (2-4 in D1 games).

Lets look at last year.. Opened the season with a close loss to Colorado State where we had 17 rebounds (CSU had 40). Sound a bit like the Washington game there in terms of the rebounding? Had a win against San Diego and Idaho. Then a blowout loss @BYU (like Minn this year). Followed by a 10 point loss @San Francisco (like @Hawaii this year). Toss in a very close home loss to South Dakota State (like SF this year) and you basically have things going pretty similar to how they went last year to begin the season.

Last year:
@CSU - L 65-72 & outrebounded 40-17.
@Idaho - W 60-59 & outrebounded 30-29.
San Diego - W 67-66 & outrebounded 29-22.
@BYU - L 60-85 & outrebounded 35-25.
@SF - L 68-78 & outrebounded 40-32.
SDSU - L 67-68 & outrebounded 46-31.

I think we should beat Idaho both here and on the road to finish off this little stretch of non-conference against D1 teams & go into conference with a 5-4 (3-4 D1) record. If we drop both of those games then I'll be worried. Not saying I'm not a little worried right now, just not too worried yet as we've seen this before

an interesting comparison, except, we were missing Will Cherry for much of the pre-conference schedule last year.

 

[temp]

UW was picked 8th by the media and I can not find anything that had them higher than that. Three minutes into the season they lost their starting PF for the year and then just last week that Kemp Jr. kid that they expected to be good this year was diagnosed with a disease that will hold him back all year.
Picked 8th but with the injuries they will likely end up behind an Oregon St team that was picked behind them and maybe behind a currently undefeated Utah squad.

 

[Potomac Griz]

The 8th place team last year in the Pac 12 was 22-13 on the year (Arizona State). The #9 team was 18-14 (Stanford). The Pac 12 is light years ahead of the Big Sky and even the 8th or 9th place team would likely be one of the top teams in the Big Sky. Washington has a lot of talent out there even with their injury issues. The close loss to Washington is not a bad loss. It sucks that we should have won (Missed free throws killed us of course) but it's not a bad loss.

I think this team is going to be fine. Yes, the Conf will be a dog fight. Yes, our lack of an inside game will hurt. No. We probably don't win 17 Conf games. But I believe we will be right there at the end.

I agree we'll likely be right there in the fight at the end, hopefully coming out on top again like last year when we had the same rebounding and inside problems. Those problems are much more of a glaring issue when we are playing against teams like Washington, Hawaii and SF while tinkering with different lineups. They've been issues for us in the pre-conference season since Qvale graduated. Once we get into the conference season we'll see those rebounding margins get a little closer.

It's not time to panic yet. If we lose both to Idaho though then it may be time to panic.

 

[temp]

I agree with you Potomac. It's not time to panic. I still think we are a good team and your right, U-Dub would be at the top of the Big Sky.

I do think it is different from last year in that we the fans, the players and the coaches knew that Will would be back come conference time and he would be a game changer. We don't have that this year, aside from the 6'6" 210# kid with good springs that Tinks still refuses to even give a chance, (sorry for the quick rant, that still baffles me) there is nothing that we can look to and think that things will get better. We are who we are. That is not all that bad, with the way they can shoot the ball they can beat absolutely everybody left on the schedule. The downside is with the lack of rebounding we can lose to almost anybody too. Might be a bit of a roller coaster year. I still like this team and I too believe we will be at or near the top come March.

 

[Agent G]

For whatever reason it looks clear that Kemp is in the doghouse. Based on his athleticism & flashes of potential/production during his paltry minutes, that's the only reason I could guess he plays so little. That looks even more so the case considering the level of play from guys playing ahead of him.

 

[Potomac Griz]

For whatever reason it looks clear that Kemp is in the doghouse. Based on his athleticism & flashes of potential/production during his paltry minutes, that's the only reason I could guess he plays so little. That looks even more so the case considering the level of play from guys playing ahead of him.

I wonder about that too. It could be just a defense thing, like maybe Kemp isn't quite where he needs to be defensively yet. Offensively he seems to be our best at catching passes underneath and doing something with it. For rebounds, Kemp grabs the most per minute played of any Griz. Jamar is 2nd. In fact it's not even close when you compare him to the other post players who have played at least 10 minutes a game.

Per 40 minutes of played time:
Kemp: 11.4points, 8.6reb, 2.1blk, 5.7fouls
Hutchison: 8.2points, 4.7reb, 0.8blk, 7.1fouls
Weisner: 7.4points, 3.4reb, 0.6blk, 5.7fouls

I don't mean this to bash Weisner or Hutch btw, just pointing out that Kemp would likely be a huge help on the boards and offensively inside if he starts getting increased minutes & gaining more confidence.

 

[temp]

I would add Lopez to the Weisner and Hutch numbers. All of his 31 minutes have come at the 4 and he has 1 rebound in all of that time.

I was actually referring to Emerson with the -not given a chance- comment, but Kemp has not been given much love either. Just done the math, in the last two games Weisner and Lopez played 62 combined minutes at the 4 in the two games and accounted for exactly 1 rebound between them.