My Fiver on WVU's victory over the Longhorns Saturday evening in Motown...
1. Pack Line? A noticeable difference defensively Saturday. You could see that we had made a decided effort to end the string of backdoor cut dunks and layups off of the PnR, and just basically in general. It wasn't a pure pack line principled "D", but we definitely decided to sag back off the line more and give up more looks from "3" in exchange for clogging the paint. The results were mixed in the sense that Texas ended up with 22 TO's (!) - many of which were just from simply trying to dribble into a crowd, but we also gave up 32 points on 7-13 shooting from "3" from Max Abmas, who essentially kept Texas around. Josh Eilert confirmed in the presser that they decided to go more "pack D" to change things up. Good idea - because what we were doing before was obviously not going to work.
2. Pat Suemnick. 16 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 assist, 0 turnovers in 27 minutes on 5-7 shooting from the field with a couple all timer dunks. Suemnick has quick twitch athleticism, which, aside from the Quitter34, is something we've seemingly lacked from our bigs since Jon Holton. He's fast, has quick "ups" and plays with max effort. Gotta work on those free throws, but he has a good shooting motion. His play was outstanding Saturday. He forced a ton of fouls on Texas bigs and he could become a problem for other teams getting to the line and getting WVU into the bonus early (WVU getting into the Bonus with 11:34 to go in the game was huge)
3. Quinn Slazinski. I'm still trying to figure this cat out. At times, he looks like a next level guy. At other times, you wonder how he even ever played at Iona. 13 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist, 3 TOs in 21 minutes Saturday on 2-4 shooting (2-3 from "3"), but 7-10 from the line. Bottom line is for WVU to have any chance at 1-1 or 2-0 this week, we need Quinn Slazinski to be a pain in the ass for the other team, not for us. He can be that guy - doesn't have to be THE Guy - but he can be a guy who can blow a game open if he gets going.
4. Raquan Battle. THE Guy is Battle, and it's going to be from here on out. He has to stop picking up stupid fouls before the first media TO. He has now sat the majority of three first halves after picking up his second foul. 14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists vs. 2 TO's in 27 minutes on 5-11 shooting (0-3 from "3"). Not great, not terrible. We saw less hero ball from Raquan Saturday. It does appear that this team is learning to play together better, and realizing that we don't need Raquan to go YOLO each time down the floor. Suemnick's emergence is big, Slazinski had a good game, and guys like Kobe Johnson, Akok Akok and Kerr Kriisa are able to score when necessary. There's a team building, and Saturday you got the sense Battle is feeling it.
5. What does it all mean, Basil? We're still 6-10, 1-2 in the Big 12 and we let too many games slip through our fingers thus far. So, it's time to steal a few. We have the talent to do so. I still have serious questions surrounding the coaching staff's ability to coalesce this talent into a winner, but shifting to pack line principles mid-season Saturday and allowing it to lead us to a win was a good sign. Teams are still going to expect a "W" when they see WVU on their schedule this season. But, we're not necessarily a pushover like the team we saw play at Houston. We have guys. One of the many great things about our win Saturday over Texas is that it makes Wednesday night's game in Norman very interesting. It's going to be interesting to see how we come out and compete. Renewed juice in the season? A win Wednesday night with Kansas at home on the horizon could do that.
1. Pack Line? A noticeable difference defensively Saturday. You could see that we had made a decided effort to end the string of backdoor cut dunks and layups off of the PnR, and just basically in general. It wasn't a pure pack line principled "D", but we definitely decided to sag back off the line more and give up more looks from "3" in exchange for clogging the paint. The results were mixed in the sense that Texas ended up with 22 TO's (!) - many of which were just from simply trying to dribble into a crowd, but we also gave up 32 points on 7-13 shooting from "3" from Max Abmas, who essentially kept Texas around. Josh Eilert confirmed in the presser that they decided to go more "pack D" to change things up. Good idea - because what we were doing before was obviously not going to work.
2. Pat Suemnick. 16 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 assist, 0 turnovers in 27 minutes on 5-7 shooting from the field with a couple all timer dunks. Suemnick has quick twitch athleticism, which, aside from the Quitter34, is something we've seemingly lacked from our bigs since Jon Holton. He's fast, has quick "ups" and plays with max effort. Gotta work on those free throws, but he has a good shooting motion. His play was outstanding Saturday. He forced a ton of fouls on Texas bigs and he could become a problem for other teams getting to the line and getting WVU into the bonus early (WVU getting into the Bonus with 11:34 to go in the game was huge)
3. Quinn Slazinski. I'm still trying to figure this cat out. At times, he looks like a next level guy. At other times, you wonder how he even ever played at Iona. 13 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist, 3 TOs in 21 minutes Saturday on 2-4 shooting (2-3 from "3"), but 7-10 from the line. Bottom line is for WVU to have any chance at 1-1 or 2-0 this week, we need Quinn Slazinski to be a pain in the ass for the other team, not for us. He can be that guy - doesn't have to be THE Guy - but he can be a guy who can blow a game open if he gets going.
4. Raquan Battle. THE Guy is Battle, and it's going to be from here on out. He has to stop picking up stupid fouls before the first media TO. He has now sat the majority of three first halves after picking up his second foul. 14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists vs. 2 TO's in 27 minutes on 5-11 shooting (0-3 from "3"). Not great, not terrible. We saw less hero ball from Raquan Saturday. It does appear that this team is learning to play together better, and realizing that we don't need Raquan to go YOLO each time down the floor. Suemnick's emergence is big, Slazinski had a good game, and guys like Kobe Johnson, Akok Akok and Kerr Kriisa are able to score when necessary. There's a team building, and Saturday you got the sense Battle is feeling it.
5. What does it all mean, Basil? We're still 6-10, 1-2 in the Big 12 and we let too many games slip through our fingers thus far. So, it's time to steal a few. We have the talent to do so. I still have serious questions surrounding the coaching staff's ability to coalesce this talent into a winner, but shifting to pack line principles mid-season Saturday and allowing it to lead us to a win was a good sign. Teams are still going to expect a "W" when they see WVU on their schedule this season. But, we're not necessarily a pushover like the team we saw play at Houston. We have guys. One of the many great things about our win Saturday over Texas is that it makes Wednesday night's game in Norman very interesting. It's going to be interesting to see how we come out and compete. Renewed juice in the season? A win Wednesday night with Kansas at home on the horizon could do that.
