Louisiana vs Pepperdine

[CajunAlum10]

Anyone notice that Pepperdine beat Little Rock earlier this season 67-66?

[Just1More]

You are right, no reason to base too much on the season as a whole at this point. We shall see.

It's probably too early to make prognostications... but I like the team. And as for your question... I think Marlin has not really changed his recruiting style. I think he both refused to accept certain athletes that won't follow his system (not allowing head cases to pollute the team)... and it's been difficult to get that system fully stocked with team oriented players.

[zephyr]

I was impressed with Jay Wright. He's matured. At UNO, I could tell he was dying to fire 3s every time he handled the ball. And it made sense to pull UNO out to defend. But against Pepperdine, he was much more selective. And his hustle on defense is outstanding. Much appreciated Mr. Wright. I like this team. The new blood is making for really nice floor chemistry.

Don't forget about his leadership. He has a presence on the court that fires the other guys up and makes them accountable. He's definitely played with a different passion this year and its contagious.

[zephyr]

The FG percentage is misleading (which is why I gave an A+ in transition). In the half court set, we are still finding ourselves. We have a tendency to over pass at times, which makes for several clumsy possessions. We were sloppy at times. Careless turnovers.

By no means am I complaining. This is part of young team growing pains. I'm thrilled that we can play so/so and win games big (hit our average again last night of 90 ppg).

Definitely. UNO was successful because they limited our transition scoring opportunities. They got 3 guys back all game to stop it and we struggled in those sets. When we are getting turnovers and into quick offensive sets, we are deadly. Teams in conference are going to slow us down without a doubt so it will be interesting to see how our half court offense evolves.

[Just1More]

Definitely. UNO was successful because they limited our transition scoring opportunities. They got 3 guys back all game to stop it and we struggled in those sets. When we are getting turnovers and into quick offensive sets, we are deadly. Teams in conference are going to slow us down without a doubt so it will be interesting to see how our half court offense evolves.

I saw a stark contrast in our playing style against UNO versus Pepperdine. Marlin and staff do their homework. I'm sure you're right about our conference foes. They'll work hard to slow us down.

[zephyr]

I thought we would play Bartley at the 1 more and allow Jay to play the 2, which I think is his strength. The nice thing about Jay is that he can create his own shots.
I would like to see Jay and and PJ on the floor more, especially playing aggressive defense. It was nice to see Evans on the floor. All around a nice game.

I will disagree with you and MAT for a moment on Wright. I don't think he's a natural SG at all. His game is predicated on slashing and driving with the ball to create for others. When this team is playing its best, he has the ball in his hands doing that and finding open guys. The game last night and against Tech are tributes to this. He's not a great shooter although he is competent but his strength is his speed with the ball and the ability to get by his defender to create drive and dish opportunities. I do agree that Jay has had the tendency to keep the ball too long and not move it like is should but has been better about it this year. The UNO game was not his best in that regard.

I think this is why you are seeing Bartley play the SG and run off some screens this year to free him up.

[CajunAmos]

Anyone notice that Pepperdine beat Little Rock earlier this season 67-66?

Two items of note would be Pepperdine was the home team and they did have one additional guard that was injured and didn't play against us.

[zephyr]

I saw a stark contrast in our playing style against UNO versus Pepperdine. Marlin and staff do their homework. I'm sure you're right about our conference foes. They'll work hard to slow us down.

UNO likes to get in the open court but their plan was to limit us in doing that. That is why I was somewhat critical of the amount of offensive rebounds we gave up because they literally had 1-2 guys max hitting the boards and still getting that many while the rest were playing centerfield.

UALR already likes to play in a half court set and they will be one of the better teams for sure. I'm not sure on the style of most of the other teams but I don't think any are real running teams. We are going to have to improve in the half court sets for sure.

[CajunAmos]

I will disagree with you and MAT for a moment on Wright. I don't think he's a natural SG at all. His game is predicated on slashing and driving with the ball to create for others. When this team is playing its best, he has the ball in his hands doing that and finding open guys. The game last night and against Tech are tributes to this. He's not a great shooter although he is competent but his strength is his speed with the ball and the ability to get by his defender to create drive and dish opportunities. I do agree that Jay has had the tendency to keep the ball too long and not move it like is should but has been better about it this year. The UNO game was not his best in that regard.

I think this is why you are seeing Bartley play the SG and run off some screens this year to free him up.

I somewhat agree in that sometime he forgets the "dish" part and winds up taking bad shots against 2-3 big guys at the rim without success.

[zephyr]

So, what has changed in Marlin's recruiting technique? He seems to have found several good basketball players instead of trying to win with one great one and limited supporting cast. Can he give some pointers to Hud?

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