Yep, I could get used to that. I loved seeing Jay Wright taking shots of Jose Cuervo and then closing his eyes and pointing at 5 guys on the bench and telling them to go play basketball. That was really enjoyable to watch. What? That didn’t happen? Well, it sure felt like it.
Reynolds was back to his usual form on Monday.
Anything lineup that Wright put on the floor last night was gold. Hell, even Maurice Sutton and Isaiah Armwood, 2 guys who didn’t get much burn in the opener, were in the game while it was still, well, a game. That’s how much confidence Jay Wright appears to have in his 10 man rotation. Only Armwood (who went scoreless) did not score in the 1st half. Even Russell Wooten notched his 1st career points in garbage time as his lay-up put the Cats over the century mark.
I watched last night’s game while I helped my girlfriend build a new desk from IKEA for her room (by the way, screw IKEA. You may be relatively cheap, but your furniture is a pain in the ass to build). As I struggled through the missing screws and bolts, all I kept hearing were cheers from the crowd and “you can’t leave him open like that” from the announcers in reference to Corey Stokes and Taylor King. Both of those are very good signs. Hell, I think at one point the play-by-play guy yelled that Stokes drained another 3 and the ball had barely left his hand. It was that kind of night. Everything was going in.
‘Nova shot 58.7% from the field and 52.4% from downtown. We aren’t going to be beat when we shoot like that, and we haven’t even gotten to the defensive end yet, where a team I lambasted for its poor play in the 1st half against Fairleigh Dickinson held up both middle fingers to me and put their foot on Penn’s throats from the opening whistle.
Star wing Tyler Bernardini was held scoreless thanks to mostly Corey Stokes, but a host of other characters as well. If anyone thinks Stokes isn’t up to the challenge of defensive stopper, it might be time to reconsider. That’s two great games for him in a row. More than that though, the Cats defense was just suffocating all over. 8 steals and they held Penn to 34% shooting. Coupled with the offensive outburst, that’s a good recipe for success.
By the way, remember how our “young team” was going to go through growing pains? One thing we did not consider was that when you have 10 guys (11 when Reggie Redding returns) who legitimately are hungry to get on the court, you are going to have a team that plays like it did last night. You either work your ass off and produce, or you don’t play. And with 6 newcomers who want to secure their spot, there is going to be a ton of competition that will translate into the production we saw last night. (We’re still going to have the growing pains, but mark my words, the previous paragraph will happen as well in the coming weeks).
Onto the player notes:
- Maalik Wayns led all Cats with 16 points off the bench. Great game for the youngster. But just 1 assist and 4 turnovers. He might be the best pure point guard on the roster, but we’re going to need a better assist-turnover ratio. Good run out there though.
- Corey Stokes, Taylor King, and Scottie Reynolds all had 14 points last night. King and Stokes both continue to shoot the crap out of the ball. Reynolds with a nice bounceback game. Stokes (5 boards) and King (7 boards) both look like they are going great this year on both ends. I may have underestimated Stokes’ chances at All-BIG EAST.
- Antonio Peña got that double-double I was looking for with 12 points and 10 boards (plus 2 blocks). He continues to disappear for stretches, but his overall game looks improved from a year ago. So far, he has proved to be the rebounder we all hoped.
- Corey Fisher with an even stronger game this time out (13 points, 8 assists, 3 steals). He’s very, very good. My UConn friend the other day: “I’d rather have him than Kemba Walker.” You don’t hear that much from the Husky fans.
- Dominic Cheek showed us that mid-range game we heard so much about. I like it. And that outside shot looks a lot better than I expected. He’s going to be a super-star in a year or two. Like All-American good. The good thing is that he doesn’t have to be that right now.
- Mo Sutton continues to look good on the boards and the defensive end. His enthusiasm from last year (towel guy) has certainly translated onto the court this year. Probably a little thin for the BIG EAST but he is active and loves playing. You can’t teach that.
- Mouphtaou Yarou was the only negative last night. 4 points, 5 rebounds, and he fouled out. He’s raw. Those who said he was one-and-done : you were wrong. He’s going to be very good, but it is going to take time. Thankfully we can lean on the backcourt for the time being.
- Congrats to Russell Wooten for his 1st career points!
The team leaves today for Puerto Rico and faces George Mason in the opening round on Thursday at 2 p.m.! The game will be on ESPNU, and since it is in the afternoon, there had better be a link I can watch at work!
