My thoughts on the game against the University of Tennessee-Martin:
Overall I thought the effort at least in the first half was disjointed at best. I thought the offense struggled quite a bit, there were some wild shots and lot's of hesitation. I think the team will struggle with not having a go to guy--at least for a while. That go-to guy cannot be Redick (in my opinion) it has to come from someone who can get to the basket as well as hit the outside shot, I am not sure with Daniel Ewing playing the point that there is such a player on the squad. Dock is going to have to seriously step up his game. If he can't run this squad effectively then this season will quickly turn sour, especially come acc time.
The effort on defense was actually very good, people seemed to be where they were supposed to, they switched well, and when it came time to turn it up, they turned it up. They recorded 10 blocks and 17 steals which is a pretty dominany performance. The only odd thing about the block numbers is that Shelden only recorded 1. I think tonights game against Davidson will be more telling, they are a pretty good team.
Some notes....
Dave McClures first basket as a Devil was pretty spectactular. Very Jordanesque. The kid works very hard on both ends, will definitely provide a defensive lift. Offensively he may be a bit tentative, but I would look for that to cease pretty quickly as his confidence grows.
DeMarcus took some bad shots and didn't look that great shooting at all, this could be due to the injury or nerves, he still, like McClure, works very hard and the kid is flat out fast. If he can provide a little bit of offense, then the team will be that much better.
Posted at 01:36 pm by dukeblog
