Chemistry the Key!!

[professor]

Don't forget it could take the Danes a while to get use to playing with each other. Guy's will have to accept new roles! Some will like it and some won't! Oh well! It's all about winning!

[Patch]

professor

 

Chemistry is my main concern especially early like the $iena game but then again $iena may have some chemistry concerns also. We have to be concerned with Jamar and Lucious being a good tandem. I have concerns with Levi, if he's not starting or if he doesn't get his minutes and points. I am very interested to see if Dyson will help us, significantly.

 

I think or should I say I imagine the highly regarded guards $iena recruited all expect to start and play important minutes.

 

The game is much easier when you start and know the coach is willing to live with your mistakes from time to time.

 

It's a whole different mind set when you go in and out. The $iena recruits are not going to appreciate it too much if they rotate and keep going in and out and I'm sure the guards on the bench during crunch time are not going to like it. Remember they are all freshman which means they face the same situation for 4 years.

 

The Dane freshman know that there are people ahead of them and that in most cases they will have to earn minutes where ever they can.

[GreatDanes06]

well let me tel lyou guys...ive seen these guys hanging around on campus and at the RACC while up there for 5 weeks...and everytime i saw them, they were all together...Mostly Zoellner, Iati, Lucious, Levi, and Wyatt. To me, it shows good chemistry. They always seemed to be j/k aroundw it heach other or having fun.

[professor]

On the court chemistry and off the court chemistry are two different things. These guy's need good on the court chemistry. They need to accept roles and buy in to the team concept of winning first and worry about individual stuff later. They should get along off the court, they are all good kid's!

[Dane Pound]

I have to say I enjoy reading about chemistry being the major concern. Not injuries, or our leading scorer leaving like in the last few years. It's refreshing to see people concerned that we have "too" many good players and how will they play together-I can learn to live with problems like this.

Going back to his Sullivan County days this seems to be what Brown does best, getting 8 or 9 or 10 guys playing well together and buying into a system. He did a good job of it his first year here when he had a little bit of depth. When he coached at SCCC he had 6 players averaging in double figures and as a team they were scoring about 150 points a game. He hasn't had the players to do that at UA so far but this year it looks a lot more likely.

[Patch]

Dane Pound

 

Great Post!!!

 

But.........

 

Brown's Sullivan squads put up very big numbers in wins and points but I don't think 150ppg is quite accurate.

 

It's Brown and his staff's job to get these guys on the same page.

 

We should definately be more uptempo (the 38 point games should be history) than the last few years and you won't see too many guys "sucking wind".

 

Everybody will play hard or sit down and if we catch some "GOOD" breaks we should have a much more enjoyable season than in the past DI era.

 

We may also have 4 guys avg double figures.

[McFan]

It's great to hear that Brown's Sullivan teams could score. It was difficult to watch the team struggle to even shoot the ball at times last year. Towards the end of the year I would have loved to watch them get blown out 120-90 rather than some of the 52-46 close loses.

 

With all the bodies coming in maybe they can really pick up the pace on offense. There should be plenty of ball handlers to run and rebounders to start some breaks. This team could have the mass substitution pattern that also allows a pressing defense. Haven't seen that lately.

 

This should also help put a few people in the seats. People want offense. Defense too, but to win you have to score more points than your opponent.

[professor]

The Danes will put up pts. But remember, they have a 7 ft. 290 center that is going to be tough to stop in the AE! He must get the ball! Danes will average between 75-85 pts.

[Dane96]

well...if they are putting up those kinds of numbers, I truly believe that my prediction for 18 games will come true. This is going to be a very, very strong defensive team.

 

Wilson showed flashes of brilliance on the defensive end as a fresh...i remember him pinning (I think it was Bell) a BU player to the backboard, releasing up court and throwing down that dunk on the TV commercial. Jordan is so phyiscally imposing. The middle will be clogged between Dyson and Zoellner. Levine may not be quick enough to guard SF's, but I think he will pull threw. Wyatt is the enforcer. Hillaire is just a jack rabbit out there. Of course whenever Courtney gets on the court, the lead guard for the opponent might as well check out of the game.

 

Iati is a liability and the rooks are unknown. Who knows what we will get w/ Knotts.

 

Point is, this team lost because they lacked depth, couldn't press (lack of depth), got outrebounded on the offensive end(though the margins were much better) and couldnt score. What they did do well is defend. We were in a majority of those games because of D.

 

If we can continue that D (which will probably not be as good just because we will be playing uptempo) at a level that is at least 3/4 of what it was....we will be in very good shape if we score 75-80 pts. Remember...this team only gave up 65 pts last year per game (only 64 in conference). Tops offense in the league was 75 or so...I believe NU.

[Dane Pound]

I agree about the defense.

Sometimes teams hold opponents scoring down by their own style of play-i.e. slow-down deleberate style offers less shots for your opponents. Field goal percentage defense is a pretty acurate measure of what kind of D you play. Last year the Danes were 95th in the nation in field goal defense and 94th in scoring defense. That's with a team that was usually dog-tired at the end of games.

Good defense and our very good free throwing should help win some tight games at the end. If we can just put the ball in the basket regularly (318th out of 326 teams in scoring offense last year).

[Patch]

I think we will see solid defense - it seems the Danes have always played hard under Brown.

 

We should definately see improved offense Jamar and Lucious are the real deal. Levi has been very solid for 2 seasons and Iati seemingly can really stroke it.

 

Add to that "Der Big Man" and things should improve - all he has to do is limit the amount of second cahnce buckets our opponents get and every once in awhile get us a cheap hoop.

 

You could be looking at about a 12 point turn around (which should lead to more Ws) - 6 easy points they don't get and 6 easy points we will get.

 

There is definately reason for some optimism!!!!!

Edited June 29, 2004 by Patch

[alum73]

I'm hoping we play a pressing defense and up tempo offense, so that if we have the able bodies, they'll all get minutes and finally all get some rest. If we're deep enough, and the talent is good enough, we can play several combinations of players. As we sat through the last two years, I can't imagine anything but good for the coming year.

[coachplayznoD]

FYI-

One of the guards that Siena recruited: Bilal Benn (Philly kid) is going to prep school this year and will reopen his recruiting the following year. His hope is to go to a higher D-1 level. He would have started for Siena. It is my understanding that they have signed someone else but I don't recall his name. I know that he said on TV that he was attending Siena, but that is not the case anymore.

[Dane96]

They signed probably the best player to come to the Capital District this year: Fisher...and outstanding guard!