GT vs Clayton State game notes

lv20gt

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Overall, it was a game against a D2 team that had something for everyone. For the doom and gloomers we had a tied game at the half against a D2 team. For the optimists, we dropped nearly 60 in the second half and had outscored them by about 2 points per minute for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Overall, it's a meaningless outcome that doesn't really signify a whole lot due to the talent differential. Even when we were struggling in the first half it didn't feel that they were as good as us but rather we were just not finishing.

I liked Smith's aggressiveness on the boards (7 of them( and obviously Terry's outburst in the second half is nice to see. Starting line up was very interesting to me with going small with both Smith and Sturdivant in and having Kelly off the bench. Roddy looks to be in better shape than last year. Moore looks like he has such high potential but needs to mature some. Overall, I'll be interested to see if we stay small. Hard to judge from tonight alone, but I could see us going with Franklin+Roddy with Moore helping at the 4 as well. Both Franklin and Moore look like they can give us some help side blocking potential.

Also, was there any news about Meka? I wonder if not having him influenced us going smaller more.
 

Ramblingon

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Second half more of what we hoped for. Terry may be the go to guy. Howard played well without PF problems. Coleman still not taking control. Kelly starting to shake off the cobwebs.
 

AUFC

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Second half more of what we hoped for. Terry may be the go to guy. Howard played well without PF problems. Coleman still not taking control. Kelly starting to shake off the cobwebs.
Open guy is the go-to guy - go-to guy is the open guy ;)

I agree about Deivon on the boards. I love that tenacity when we have a small guard who pulls down close to double digit boards. I thought he looked really good on the offensive end too - he’s going to put up some numbers with his athleticism when he’s on.
 

dtm1997

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Overall, it was a game against a D2 team that had something for everyone. For the doom and gloomers we had a tied game at the half against a D2 team. For the optimists, we dropped nearly 60 in the second half and had outscored them by about 2 points per minute for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Overall, it's a meaningless outcome that doesn't really signify a whole lot due to the talent differential. Even when we were struggling in the first half it didn't feel that they were as good as us but rather we were just not finishing.

I liked Smith's aggressiveness on the boards (7 of them( and obviously Terry's outburst in the second half is nice to see. Starting line up was very interesting to me with going small with both Smith and Sturdivant in and having Kelly off the bench. Roddy looks to be in better shape than last year. Moore looks like he has such high potential but needs to mature some. Overall, I'll be interested to see if we stay small. Hard to judge from tonight alone, but I could see us going with Franklin+Roddy with Moore helping at the 4 as well. Both Franklin and Moore look like they can give us some help side blocking potential.

Also, was there any news about Meka? I wonder if not having him influenced us going smaller more.
 

GTrob21

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2nd half was great in my opinion. Play with that intensity and precision and we will win some games. We are going to be vulnerable to bigs, and we are going to need to shoot it lights out from the 3.
 

slugboy

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That tweet vanished ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I saw bits and pieces.
Pro: we won our season opener when we have lost way too many season openers
Pro: we scored over 90
Pro: we were more disruptive around the basket in the second half—I think Clayton State went about 6 minutes without scoring at one point
Pro: I think everyone got in the game (they should have, with the spread as big as it was towards the last two minutes)

Con: our offense looked disjointed to me. It just feels like we have to work harder to get a basket than other teams do, and we have to work harder on defense, too.
 

glandon1960

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Thoughts from being there and talking with couple other folks at the game

Starters - Howard, Deebo, Terry, Smith, Sturdivant
First of the bench - Kelly and Franklin (playing the 'center spot')
Also played significant minutes - Maxwell and Moore
Meka was dressed, and out there in warm ups - but did not play (even when up 30 - don't know why - assume injury of some sort)
Fredds and Martynov played @2 minutes at the end

Offense - 60-70 percent of the time in half court - we were running the same 'go through the center at the high post' set with cuts/etc. Franklin is more a threat to do something (drive) than Howard from there - I thought we were going away from that ... but ran it a lot. Rest of the time the center played along the baseline and left high post open for dribble penetration. Did not run any pick/rolls.
Go to man is the open man is what it looks like it will be. Not a lot of turnovers, but too many unforced ones.

Defense - kept subbing to keep legs fresh. Some 2-2-1 full court (usually back to the 1-3-1 zone). More zone than I expected - we're awful small on the wings for this - and ACC teams may exploit it. Corner three was open all night. Man was very aggressive - still struggled to stop dribble penetration. Everyone crashed the boards - Smith getting several on the defensive end. Moore a couple blocks. Expect to see 9 man rotation - TBD how many minutes the 8/9 man get some nights - but expect Maxwell/Moore to get on court each game and if playing well get more minutes.

Individual
Deebo - lost all the baby fat - let the game come to him, couple drives to score he could not have done last year. Definitely quicker (still can't guard elite quick guard). Stroke looked great.
Terry - Broke it open with threes in second half. Solid and steady - not a playmaker but moved well without ball to get open and played hard on defense
Kyle - played like he did latter half of last season - protected the ball, used his strength/size on drives
Smith - more under control - but when he gets a rebound it is on the other end really quick -
Howard - solid, not great last night - a lot of offensive rebounds and garbage points - still limited threat catching the ball at the elbow (couple good passes, couple turnovers
Kelly - ran point 5-8 minutes, so the third option there. Most aggressive offensive player on team - couple nice long jumpers
Franklin - expected to see him on floor with Howard - they never played together (he did play with Moore). Shorter than Howard, but strong, bangs, rebounds. Limited on offense but not likley to shoot much outside 3-5 feet - couple nice drives from high post to score.
Maxwell - flashes of good. not sure how quick he is defensively (not much quicker than Deebo) - but good instincts and made couple nice drives
Moore - up and down - couple dumb fouls, couple great blocks/rebounds, couple dumb turnovers/bad shots (got yanked after bad three), several great drives/finishes .... some nights may get 2-3 minutes, some nights might get 15-20 depending if he limits the bad plays - improved, high ceiling - not there yet.

Meka - dressed, did not play (injury?)
Martynov - still growing into body - got pushed around and needs more upper body strength - won't play this year - but big and can shoot it
Freds- great shot - taller than I thought, got beat once on defense - looked fluid and can shoot it offensively, will he be able to play defense at this level - in a way reminded me of Kristen Sjouland in terms of what he does good (and not so good) at this stage - won't play this year but has a lot of potential.

Saturday will be much tougher test - This game came out playing too fast amd not making shots they should've made in first half - played more under control (but fast) and shot it well second half. This team could go off from three and beat couple teams they have no business beating, and then not his side of gym a couple games on open shots and lose to someone they should beat. Saw enough that they could finish at best middle of ACC, at worst - won't be as bad as predicited.
 

RamblinCharger

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Tough to take anything from a team that we beat by about 50 last year, as did most every other P5 program. That first half was not good at all... We'll know more Saturday.
 

slugboy

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Moore seems athletic and gets up really high on jumps. I enjoyed seeing him going up around the basket
 

ramblinjacket

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Let's not forget the early slam by Terry. As he came up court I figured he was going to initiate some contact for a layup. Instead he took off early, I thought too early, and hammered it home.
 

Connell62

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Thoughts from being there and talking with couple other folks at the game

Starters - Howard, Deebo, Terry, Smith, Sturdivant
First of the bench - Kelly and Franklin (playing the 'center spot')
Also played significant minutes - Maxwell and Moore
Meka was dressed, and out there in warm ups - but did not play (even when up 30 - don't know why - assume injury of some sort)
Fredds and Martynov played @2 minutes at the end

Offense - 60-70 percent of the time in half court - we were running the same 'go through the center at the high post' set with cuts/etc. Franklin is more a threat to do something (drive) than Howard from there - I thought we were going away from that ... but ran it a lot. Rest of the time the center played along the baseline and left high post open for dribble penetration. Did not run any pick/rolls.
Go to man is the open man is what it looks like it will be. Not a lot of turnovers, but too many unforced ones.

Defense - kept subbing to keep legs fresh. Some 2-2-1 full court (usually back to the 1-3-1 zone). More zone than I expected - we're awful small on the wings for this - and ACC teams may exploit it. Corner three was open all night. Man was very aggressive - still struggled to stop dribble penetration. Everyone crashed the boards - Smith getting several on the defensive end. Moore a couple blocks. Expect to see 9 man rotation - TBD how many minutes the 8/9 man get some nights - but expect Maxwell/Moore to get on court each game and if playing well get more minutes.

Individual
Deebo - lost all the baby fat - let the game come to him, couple drives to score he could not have done last year. Definitely quicker (still can't guard elite quick guard). Stroke looked great.
Terry - Broke it open with threes in second half. Solid and steady - not a playmaker but moved well without ball to get open and played hard on defense
Kyle - played like he did latter half of last season - protected the ball, used his strength/size on drives
Smith - more under control - but when he gets a rebound it is on the other end really quick -
Howard - solid, not great last night - a lot of offensive rebounds and garbage points - still limited threat catching the ball at the elbow (couple good passes, couple turnovers
Kelly - ran point 5-8 minutes, so the third option there. Most aggressive offensive player on team - couple nice long jumpers
Franklin - expected to see him on floor with Howard - they never played together (he did play with Moore). Shorter than Howard, but strong, bangs, rebounds. Limited on offense but not likley to shoot much outside 3-5 feet - couple nice drives from high post to score.
Maxwell - flashes of good. not sure how quick he is defensively (not much quicker than Deebo) - but good instincts and made couple nice drives
Moore - up and down - couple dumb fouls, couple great blocks/rebounds, couple dumb turnovers/bad shots (got yanked after bad three), several great drives/finishes .... some nights may get 2-3 minutes, some nights might get 15-20 depending if he limits the bad plays - improved, high ceiling - not there yet.

Meka - dressed, did not play (injury?)
Martynov - still growing into body - got pushed around and needs more upper body strength - won't play this year - but big and can shoot it
Freds- great shot - taller than I thought, got beat once on defense - looked fluid and can shoot it offensively, will he be able to play defense at this level - in a way reminded me of Kristen Sjouland in terms of what he does good (and not so good) at this stage - won't play this year but has a lot of potential.

Saturday will be much tougher test - This game came out playing too fast amd not making shots they should've made in first half - played more under control (but fast) and shot it well second half. This team could go off from three and beat couple teams they have no business beating, and then not his side of gym a couple games on open shots and lose to someone they should beat. Saw enough that they could finish at best middle of ACC, at worst - won't be as bad as predicited.
That's fair, but the one nit I will pick is your assessment of Jalon Moore. I thought he flashed a good bit last night, and I was really impressed with him.

I thought Jalon, Rodney, and Lance all played well.. He had 11 points, 9 boards, and 2 blocks in 17 minutes. They call him "Drip" and that's fitting because he is dripping with upside.

Guy is a monster athlete. While he can shoot the three, I would rather him live in the paint. I feel like he is a better rebounder than Franklin, especially on the offensive glass.

One thing I do agree with you on is his need for more consistency. During the game, Josh was on him a good bit, mostly on the defensive end.

Hopefully that comes with playing more minutes.
 

awbuzz

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I will admit to being worried at the end of the first half. Very happy with the results of the second half though.
 
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