Dane Pound

Probably a moot point since we didn't have a scholarship open. How much has the world of college basketball changed? Burns was his named his team captain in October and by December he's might be playing on another team. Crazy.

4 fouls in 11 minutes. I can totally respect that because that's how I play defense. I just want to see him on the court more. Some of it is just being bigger and stronger than the other guy and he takes the worse of any contact. Tim Ambrose was pretty foul prone early in his career for that reason.

I see what you did there there Yank. That's some high level message board posting there. So, you have Great Expectations for this group, then?

Can't really complain about the defense. Can complain about the rebounding. The young guys are going to be inconsistent and they were - Lulka, Rizzuto and Healy combined 6 for 28. A good night by just one guy in that group and we're in the game or winning it at the end. The play I liked last night was when Lauderdale caught the ball in the post, backed Knight down and scored. Then, he didn't get the ball again. Granted, he fouled at an elite level and couldn't stay in the game. I'd like to see him stay on the court and get the ball a little more. If nothing else, I'm enjoying watching Ahmad Clark. He's pretty much doing everything he can this year.

In today's TU, CB said Rizzuto would enter the starting lineup when his conditioning was for it. Kinda curious how that's going to look. Maybe move Campbell to the 4 and Lulka to the 5? And Eli advocating Campbell going to the bench in 3...2...1...

I like a lot of our pieces, we're just not always playing together that well. That will come. The last few games we've been shooting between 25-30 threes a game. That's usually not Will Brown basketball. It'll be interesting to see if that continues. Pretty happy with the way Lulka has played except for a lot of moving screen fouls. I'd really like to see him get more touches instead of so much hoisting it up from outside.

Over the weekend, Mitch Doherty's team beat a team from Vermont and Trey Hutcheson beat a team called the Saints. Hutcheson had 31 points in a 5 overtime game. (Yes, five.) Doherty was the Blackburn Tournament MVP with a win over Vermont Academy.

They are pretty big and athletic but their shooting is bad. They didn't really seem to capitalize on those great years they had with recruiting. At least not yet. Thought we might see Melik Martin last night. We had offered him at one point before he committed to Monmouth. Not sure if he's injured or not.

Lauderdale and Brooks seemed to lose out in the numbers game in the Rizzuto debut. Devonte got more time at PF when we played Clark, Healy and Rizzuto. Devonte getting PF minutes doesn't help Lauderdale's cause at all. We'll see if he gets more time or if they stay with French at the big guy off the bench. Either way, I like our bigs this year. I'm still not sure who are backup PG is going to be. Kind of looks like Ray Miller is going to hold down that spot?

So Rizzuto just strolls into the 9th game of the season and, after not playing a minute of D1 basketball drops 13 pts, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. If there are any other Rizzuot/Iatis out there we should totally offer them a scholarship. Also, nice find of Fruscio to set up his score. Best game of the year for Hank. I'm not sure what the MAAC did to Ahmad Clark but had 30 against Canisius and 29 against Monmouth. There were stretches of Ahmad and four frosh out there. That's a good sign. The zone in the first half was interesting. Made rebounding tough though. Monmouth is good for what ails you but a solid step in the right direction.

Future opponent Niagara is up 4 on Pitt with a few seconds left. Crazy final 10 seconds. Pitt missed a shot at the buzzer to win but Niagara holds on.

Was noticing today that Hank has started but really isn't playing starters minutes. He's only play over 20 minutes a game once this year against BU. I'm hoping he develops into a better free throw shooting Metcalf as time goes on. I understand the frustration with Campbell. I think the problem with playing Campbell at the 4 is that Lulka, French and Lauderdale are actually playing OK (off and on.) The other problem with playing Campbell at the 4 is that none of the other candidates for more minutes (Miller, Brooks, De Sousa) have been playing well enough to warrant more minutes. There's still a lot of auditioning going on and it will probably last when Rizzuo and Flory come back. If there was a bright spot from this weekend, it was Lulka. He's strung 3 double digit scoring games in a row together.

We had a putrid home loss against Harvard to go 2-6 in the first 8 games of the 2005-06 season. I don't remember how the rest of that year went.

Hopefully I wasn't complaining about him. He's been really solid. I have noticed what you're seen on the drives to the hoop as well. In his defense, our veteran big guys in past years have been really good at recognizing when guards drive and sealing their man to create a lane to the hoop. It's one of the things our young bigs have to recognize and improve as the season goes on.

Hoping this trip was like the Legends Tournament in Michigan was a few years ago when Mike Black was here. The team seemed to gel winning a couple of games in that tourney. I don't have many complaints with the way Ahmad Clark has handled the point but I'd like him to be a little more choosy with his shots. Also, since I'm asking for stuff. I'd like to see Lauderdale and Lulka playing together and the ball going into the post more. I 'd like Lulka to get more shot attempts.

Milwaukee is kind of like the Horizon League version of Albany. They had a couple player poached via grad transfer to bigger programs last season.

I liked Lauderdale demanding the ball in the post last night. Good stuff. Having a game the night before hurt us. Not necessarily for fatigue but for preparation against a team like HC that defends so differently. We kind of learned on the fly.

Holy Cross message board - http://crossports.freeforums.net/board/4/mens-basketball

Not super surprised with the way we played tonight. Veteran teams come into this game and take care of business, young teams...not so much. Miller and French gave us some nice energy and effort off the bench. Our young guys can learn from Miller who plays with a purpose every time he puts the uniform on. He is an easy guy to root for. I watched tonight and saw: A) Some guys who get it. B)Some guys who are starting to get it C) Some guys who don't quite get it yet. It's still November and there's plenty of time for guys at "C" to go to "B." In fact, it's one of the fun things to watch in college basketball.

Mitch Doherty kicked off his season at the National Prep Showcase yesterday with a win over Link Year which has a couple D1 prospects.

I pictured him as a John Carroll (of Hartford) type player and I don't think it's that far off. Skilled big man who can shoot that we can run our offense through. We just have to get to the "run our offense" part of that equation.

College basketball games are 40 minutes and with 5 players on the floor that means there are 200 minutes to go around. Last night we played freshman for 101 of those 200 minutes. As good as our freshman our, unless they're named Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett, we're going to struggle early in the season. I'm surprised at the reactions to Lulka. Maybe we all expected him to come with a cape, a big "S" on his shirt and fly around Sefcu Arena. I thought he's been pretty solid for his first two games - Avg 9PPG, 6 RPG while shooting over 58% from the floor. He showed a couple of nice post moves. Right now, our offense is no where near organized enough to get him consistent touches in the post.

Just a reminder that reading this thread isn't mandatory for anyone.

For the most part that's what he does. I actually liked him playing the PF spot tonight when it happen. The guy just battles every game. There's a lot of sorting out for the rest of the spots - Miller, De Sousa, Brooks, French.

For as much as Devonte gets slammed here. He had a double-double and was the only starter without a turnover. Everyone is giving Reece Brooks a pass. 0-6 and 0-4 from three. Tough debut. He has a nice drive and pass on the Lulka layup though. For the most part, if we can keep outrebounding people and turn the ball over less than 50 times a game, we'll be alright.