Already a 45-min commute each way…losing steam on my momentum for going. I look forward to the reports from those making the effort.
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Hope somebody sends a good review. Had knee replacement last Tuesday so I will not be able to attend this time. Go Coogs!
Any chance this streams anywhere?
I’m almost there. Brought the whole family. If it’s free I’ll take 3!
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How is attendance?
I would guess between 750-1000. I was pleased. Judging from my count there are only about 40 season tickets remaining to sell to be sold out for the year. We are a real program again. No doubt.
Initial thoughts: so many good guards. Not sure how they play them all. Sasser has an NBA body. Was not expecting that. Gorham is going to start imo. Ced Alley looked better. Nate didn’t play due to illness, though he was on sideline.
They can play lineups where all 5 guys can switch on defense, but how many minutes can they get away with no rim protection or possible rebounding deficiency if they play with a center. I guess I’m thinking Ced, Grimes, or Nate defends 4’s and Gorham/Fabian defends 5’s. No one shot particularly well from outside other than Alley, but it’s an exhibition.
Again first time seeing most of these guys play, I would just say Sasser was the most pleasant surprise for me. I can tell he’s going to be a good one.
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Sasser is good 
. It’s in his bloodlines. Thanks for the write up (info), Matt.
I saw some of it via Facebook Live. It seem like the players weren’t going all out. But the size on the team is very noticeable.
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NICE.
I counted 48 on the opposite side and then there were some left on the club and in the corners.
Guessing I say < 70
How did Mills look?
I can tell you for a fact they were playing rough and not “taking it easy” those fouls were legit fouls
Mills and Grimes were really connecting. Grimes started slow but finished strong. Mills is going to be good. Gorham impressed me and deeky was legit with the passing
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Sasser definitely looked good, but it was Mills who impressed me. Harris scored 7 or 8 and hit 50% of his FT. Grimes was leading scorer and looks as advertised. I thought that Alley looked much improved and was the second leading scorer. He lead off popping 3 3s. Gorham was very impressive to me. I don’t think players have understood their roles yet (maybe?). Teams were turned over to assistants while CKS played on the side line a lot with his granddaughter. My overall impression is that come 2020 we’re going to be nasty. If Grimes becomes eligible we’ll exceptionally nasty. Depth and more depth. I mentioned to a friend that though we had some depth on PSJ, this team has more quality depth. Let me lead off with caveat that I’ve never played basketball but watched a lot and I was very surprised with the intensity of our D this early on, lots of steals out there. Now for someone else’s impressions.
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Decent crowd. ~750. Shots clanging, not much defense, and chemistry must be a work in progress. That said, our Coogs have some kids with muscles. I agree with Matt Jackson. Sasser is a physical dude. Thick body and quickness to go with his strength. He reminded me of Corey Davis, Jr. He will get after it and he has some swagger. If he plays defense when the real lights come on, CKS will have a hard time keeping him out of the lineup. CKS has a lot of interchangeable parts up and down the line-up. The 4s and 5s have some options and they have decent size. Very impressed with the size of Fabian White. His shoulders are bigger and so are his arms. The baby fat is gone. Going overseas should give the kids an opportunity to work on chemistry and defense. The Coogs may have some turbulence in November and December, but I can envision a salty group of kids come March. There are 10 kids that should seriously contend for minutes when it comes time to close out the end of games. You can see the talent is there…and so are the muscles.
Go Coogs. Peace.
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On the Red bench, there was a 6-5 physical player sitting by Corey Davis.
He was wearing a black shirt
He seemed involved with the team.
Anyone know who he is ?
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Here are my notes from tonight for those who couldn’t make it.
The teams played 4 6-minute quarters. There was virtually no substitutions made (apart from Broodo coming in for Harris for a total of a minute).
Pregame
I got there before tipoff and watched the players warmup and get taken through drills by the coaches. Marcus Sasser has a great jumpshot, and is likely the best shooter on the team. J’Wan Roberts is noticeably shorter than Gresham and Gorham. Probably 6’6". Kellen Sampson spent a lot of time taking the bigs through a drill enforcing defense rotations in the low post as the ball swings around the perimeter. Would frequently stop the drill to give Roberts more instruction.
Gresham and Harris’ bad free throw shooting carries over into practice. I watched Gresham miss 5 consecutive free throws. Harris’s free throw has almost no arc. Maybe is one foot above the rim at its apex (ideally, you want 3-4 feet above rim). J’Wan looked to be a solid free throw shooter.
Corey Davis, Rob Gray, and Galen Robinson were in attendance.
Red Team was Grimes, Sasser, Mills, White, Harris, Broodo. As I mentioned above, Broodo only played for a total of a minute, so the first five played together most of the scrimmage.
White Team was Jarreau, Tyson, Roberts, Gresham, Gorham, Alley, and Hinton. Hinton and Roberts did not see any game time. Not sure why Hinton didn’t play. (edit: I misremembered. Roberts did come into the game for a short stretch)
First Quarter
Gorham opened the game with a made three pointer. It looks like Gorham has the green light to shoot threes and took a number during the scrimmage.
Sasser on-ball defense looks pretty good. Needs work on off-ball defense. Gets lost after a shot attempt and doesn’t box out Jarreau, allowing Jarreau to run to the rim and get fouled on a putback attempt.
Sasser playing the main point guard for red team.
Tyson and Mills were matched up for most of the game. Mills had a nice block this quarter on a Tyson three point attempt coming off a screen. Mills did a good job fighting through the screen and getting to the shot attempt.
During the timeout, Quannas White was getting on the red team players and telling them that everyone needed to crash the boards (I was sitting behind red team bench, so I don’t know what was happening with the white team).
Second Quarter
Grimes displaying good vision while driving, finding cutters and rolling bigs. Grimes’ jumpshot looks shaky. Displays crazy athleticism. He has a chasedown block on a Gorham breakaway (but ends up fouling). If he plays, we’ll have crazy athleticism between him and Jarreau.
Cameron Tyson is getting lost on offense frequently. I saw at least three instances where he messed up spacing by moving into a corner where a teammate already was, and needed to be directed by Gorham and Alley on where he should be. He will benefit from the year of sitting.
Gorham has a pretty good perimeter game. Had a nice drive off the shot-fake from the perimeter.
Third Quarter
Red team starts the game by posting up Fabian on Gorham. Fabian gets fouled on the shot attempt. There weren’t many post-ups during the scrimmage. Part of this may be because we don’t have the personnel anymore for this, but also both teams were doubling the post whenever it was thrown down there (as our scheme dictates) so that forced the ball out of the post quickly.
Mills has a drive where he looks silky smooth going to the basket. Displays a few different moves that allow him to create space. Tries to finish with a finger roll on his left hand, but misses.
Grimes gets a cherrypick dunk. His head was level at the rim. His leaping ability is elite.
Mills is still outplaying Tyson. Gets a steal on Tyson and Tyson is forced to foul to prevent the fast break.
Sasser was defending Jarreau pretty much the entire scrimmage. Has a great defensive play this quarter where he picks Jarreau’s pocket in the backcourt, leading to fast break where Grimes gets fouled on the shot. I think Sasser is going to end up getting a lot of playing time. Reminds me of Corey Davis’s game from the 17-18 season where he focused a lot on 3+D. At one point, Davis and Sasser were standing next to each other and were roughly the same size.
The players are playing very physically. Bodies hitting the floor frequently. Jarreau gets shaken up on one drive.
Jarreau has gotten called for his third traveling violation this quarter. Needs to clean that up.
Fourth Quarter
Gresham (edit: I meant Gorham) hits another three this quarter.
Tyson makes a nice And-1 putback.
Grimes drives and finds Fabian in the corner for a three pointer. Looks like the coaches may have Fabian shoot threes this season?
Grimes is super shifty on the perimeter. Nobody is going to be able to stay in front of him, and he is the type of player that takes a full team to guard.
End
Overall, not a ton of conclusions we can draw from this scrimmage. Was fun to see the some of the players we hadn’t seen before, and I was very impressed with Sasser. There’s a lot to look forward to, and the team will look much better in a few months when we open the season.
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Did you mean Gorham?
PS Thanks for the report!
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This is an excellent write-up.
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ill give a little write up
bold statement- this team has a chance to be far batter than last year (*if grimes is eligible) …i remember watching the scrimmage last year in November vs a d2 school…this team in early august is far better than last years team in November
Nate didn’t play (still recovering)
teams:
White- Dejon, Tyson, Alley, Gorham, and Gresham (team was big heavy)…also Roberts but he barely played
Red- Mills, Grimes Sasser, White, and Harris…
the game came down to wire so it was a fun watch
ill do mine players based-
white team
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Gorham- the game started with him hitting a contested step-back 3…(i was like what!)… he has full guard abilities…flashy handles and made a few contested shoots (he is the real deal) …needs to improve at finishing at the rim…
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dejon is prime-time tv…his stats weren’t the best in the game but left with the biggest impression…it was show time…quite a few highlight plays, also made the half time buzzer beater…but needs to be a bit more selfish, was looking to pass way too much…passed up 2 or 3 easy layups …note: he sprained his ankle mid game (in my head; “GET HIM OUT OF THERE!!!”, but they had him play through it)
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Alley went 3-5 from 3…way more confident and improved as a shooter…handles vastly improved, and still hustles (Tied for most points on his team)…but note most of the 3s were lightly contested…he faded a little when the defense clamped down and the game started going to the wire
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Gresham- still great at defense…beat Harris in the jump ball…he made a contest jump hook shot in the game (great sign if he added that to his game)…had a highlight alley oop from dejon
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Tyson- comfortably the best shooter on the team, almost automatic when open…but im not sure he can transition to this level… he is small and not very agile…he was kept in check most of the game by mills who isn’t even a top defender for us…i looked at everyone as a unfinished product, but he isnt getting taller or more agile, i don’t see how he will be creating his shot vs good defenders… i had a deep fear he would look like the best player in the scrimmage and i would feel bad cuz he was sitting out. it was the opposite…i think he would be deeper on the bench even if eligible…he did have an nice “and one” in the game, on a put back layup at a crucial part of the game
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Roberts- looked very deer in headlights…i wouldn’t bank on heavy minutes for him
Red Team:
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Grimes- him and dejon likely best 2 players on the court…grimes started slow but dominated the 2nd half…he has a captain like presence about him…you wouldn’t realize he just joined 3 weeks ago…the other new players often looked confused and needed assistance from older players on where to be…grimes was telling returning players where to be…he is physically imposing on offense and defense (he is huge for a guard)…BUT him and everyone needs to accept that he isnt a shooter…he needs to drive more…he has a Jarron Cumberland like ability to draw fouls like crazy…he had 17 points and might have had only 3 FGs … he took over in the second when he started driving (also a great passer)
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Sasser- he looked so confident, and the coaches seemed to have full confidence in him. he didn’t look like a fresh that joined 2 months ago…good on D (kept dejon from going off)…does not hesitate to shoot…if he came in when Galen came in 5 years ago he would have been a 4yr starter …the depth of our current team might limit his minutes
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Mills- agile isn’t the word id use, but he has the ball on a yo-yo. he is very hard to stay with but not in a shifty way …he had his ways to get to the rim and then has amazing touch around the rim when he is there. He is also a good shooter…if he was more aggressive he could have put up a lot of points…a couple good defensive plays as well
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Fabian- he wasn’t very aggressive but played a great game in the background. shot it when he was supposed to, defense when supposed to, rebounding when he was supposed to…he also hit the likely game winning 3…yes i said 3
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Harris- still not great at free throws. but still amazing on defense. anyone who tried to take a shot on him was blocked
overall: great team defense, it was super intense for a scrimmage in august… i honestly feel this team as is today could potentially make the tournament, not even talking about what they would look like in December/January
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Yes, I meant Gorham. I’ll edit in the post above.
Great write-up Pesik I think you meant Gresham for this one. I think we’ll all be doing this a lot this season.
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