My Fiver on WVU's victory over UAB on Saturday at the Coliseum...
1. Emmitt Matthews Jr. 5.0, with "bugs" removed (thanks @17-14 for the reference). Matthews was incredibly good Saturday, outshining Jordan Walker of UAB, with 16 points & 9 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal on 5/9 form the floor, and 4/5 from "3" in 34 minutes. 0 turnovers. Two things I noticed Saturday about Emmitt -- he is keeping his head on a swivel on "D"....whereas the original version of Matthews would often wander lost, and miss help side "D" when a guard was running at the rim. Secondly, he's mixing it up in there, man. He's using that wingspan to snag rebounds in traffic, and timing his jumps well when it comes to balls caroming off the rim. My only wish is that we get him out more on the break, where he is at his best.
2. Mo Wague is still going to be a factor. Jimmy Bell, right now, is clearly our best option at "5" with another tidy 8 point, 8 rebound game in 21 minutes while going 4-4 from the floor. Wague seemingly is thinking way too much out there right now, and not playing off of instinct. It's going to click for him and he'll get it. He's too damn good. And, we're going to need him. I'm not as down on Okonkwo as some on here. Yes, he was bullied by Javian Davis of UAB Saturday. But, he didn't do anything stupid, like reach or give up multiple "And-1" opportunities. He'll learn from this and get better.
3. This is a really good offensive ballclub. On a night where we shoot 26% from "3", our best shooter goes 0-3 from beyond the arc, we still manage to shoot 50% overall from the field and put up 81. Can you imagine what our score would've looked like last year if we went 5/19 from "3" and Taz went 0-3 from "3" and played only 16 minutes due to foul trouble? Who would've picked up the slack? Jalen Bridges? (That was rhetorical). Kedrian Johnson stepped into the void, as did Joe Toussaint, combining for 31 points between them and doing a bang-up defensive job on Jordan Walker.
4. Rotations are tightening up a bit. So long as we have Matthews-Mitchell-Stevenson on the floor, I'm feeling good about our chances vs. January. And, January's going to be a bitch. I feel good about Kedrian and Joe at point, and I like the fact that Joe T. is going to be a serious pain in the ass for opponents. We lacked that last year. We'll have a three-headed "5" position, and we're going to need Mo Wague to grow up fast. But, in reality, right now, we're logging serious minutes for just six guys - Bell-Matthews-Mitchell-Stevenson-Keddy-Joe T. So, we'll be able to slide Perez into the rota and give either Stevenson or Emmitt a breather at times. It's a luxury to have guys like Seth Wilson, Kobe Johnson, and Josiah Harris ready at any time to provide depth. We're going to be ready for this season to downshift after the next two layup games.
5. Foul trouble. Our worst metric right now is free throw rate - the mean is 31.1% and we are at 41.4, which is #324 in the nation. It seems that each game we have seemingly two or three key guys battling foul trouble from the first media TO onward. From my eyes, it's just as simple as reaching. In particular, Erik Stevenson, Keddy Johnson and Tre Mitchell need to keep their feet in front of their defenders and stop reaching. There's been questionable Charge/Block calls this year, and if anyone can let me know what the difference may be, then I'd appreciate it. But, Keddy and Erik in particular need to stay in games, and as a team, we need to avoid games like at Xavier where we have a -15 FT disparity or Purdue where we were -11 in FTs.
1. Emmitt Matthews Jr. 5.0, with "bugs" removed (thanks @17-14 for the reference). Matthews was incredibly good Saturday, outshining Jordan Walker of UAB, with 16 points & 9 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal on 5/9 form the floor, and 4/5 from "3" in 34 minutes. 0 turnovers. Two things I noticed Saturday about Emmitt -- he is keeping his head on a swivel on "D"....whereas the original version of Matthews would often wander lost, and miss help side "D" when a guard was running at the rim. Secondly, he's mixing it up in there, man. He's using that wingspan to snag rebounds in traffic, and timing his jumps well when it comes to balls caroming off the rim. My only wish is that we get him out more on the break, where he is at his best.
2. Mo Wague is still going to be a factor. Jimmy Bell, right now, is clearly our best option at "5" with another tidy 8 point, 8 rebound game in 21 minutes while going 4-4 from the floor. Wague seemingly is thinking way too much out there right now, and not playing off of instinct. It's going to click for him and he'll get it. He's too damn good. And, we're going to need him. I'm not as down on Okonkwo as some on here. Yes, he was bullied by Javian Davis of UAB Saturday. But, he didn't do anything stupid, like reach or give up multiple "And-1" opportunities. He'll learn from this and get better.
3. This is a really good offensive ballclub. On a night where we shoot 26% from "3", our best shooter goes 0-3 from beyond the arc, we still manage to shoot 50% overall from the field and put up 81. Can you imagine what our score would've looked like last year if we went 5/19 from "3" and Taz went 0-3 from "3" and played only 16 minutes due to foul trouble? Who would've picked up the slack? Jalen Bridges? (That was rhetorical). Kedrian Johnson stepped into the void, as did Joe Toussaint, combining for 31 points between them and doing a bang-up defensive job on Jordan Walker.
4. Rotations are tightening up a bit. So long as we have Matthews-Mitchell-Stevenson on the floor, I'm feeling good about our chances vs. January. And, January's going to be a bitch. I feel good about Kedrian and Joe at point, and I like the fact that Joe T. is going to be a serious pain in the ass for opponents. We lacked that last year. We'll have a three-headed "5" position, and we're going to need Mo Wague to grow up fast. But, in reality, right now, we're logging serious minutes for just six guys - Bell-Matthews-Mitchell-Stevenson-Keddy-Joe T. So, we'll be able to slide Perez into the rota and give either Stevenson or Emmitt a breather at times. It's a luxury to have guys like Seth Wilson, Kobe Johnson, and Josiah Harris ready at any time to provide depth. We're going to be ready for this season to downshift after the next two layup games.
5. Foul trouble. Our worst metric right now is free throw rate - the mean is 31.1% and we are at 41.4, which is #324 in the nation. It seems that each game we have seemingly two or three key guys battling foul trouble from the first media TO onward. From my eyes, it's just as simple as reaching. In particular, Erik Stevenson, Keddy Johnson and Tre Mitchell need to keep their feet in front of their defenders and stop reaching. There's been questionable Charge/Block calls this year, and if anyone can let me know what the difference may be, then I'd appreciate it. But, Keddy and Erik in particular need to stay in games, and as a team, we need to avoid games like at Xavier where we have a -15 FT disparity or Purdue where we were -11 in FTs.
