Time to see if my fingers still work. The answer 700 words later is yes, read on at your own peril.
Crowd: Would have been nice to have a sell out and max capacity but still awesome to back in person. Part of me forgot how different watching a game in person is to the TV experience. Will be interesting to see how the mask policy effects our home court advantage when the students arent there. It was the first game back for everyone including the student section and there were some more than pregnant silences at different points but given the learning curve of two incoming classes it was a good start.
Arena upgrades: As a basketball junkie I couldnt care less about the improvements to the lighting and sound system in the RC. I'm going to sound like an old man but they might need to do a volume check not at court level but in the mid to upper reds. It was Friday night in the OP hard to carry a conversation pregame.
Team thoughts: With all the pregame stuff you had to anticipate a slow start, and they responded well. We rebound really well as a team and it was nice to see that not drop off without Adaway and Osun. Something I think I will harp on all season, we don't take enough 3s. Our shooting droughts from outside are made worse by not taking many 3s. When you shoot 57% from inside the arc you can get away with not taking 3s and being stone cold for most the game but I think we need to be taking closer to 20 threes per game than 14.
Player Thoughts:
Osun had a nice game before getting hurt. He should always dominate matchups against guys like Stormo who are big but slow. Hopefully the back/hip injury isnt serious and that they limit his minutes until he is back at full strength
Lofton - dude is a killer what else to say. I thought he had a sequence where he blocked a 3, brought the ball up, drove and finished with a foul. When I checked the box score they didnt give him a block so maybe i made that part up. On the downside he was arguing with a ref about a call bringing the ball up the court at a point when we were in control of the game. At some point that is going to cost us a game, it easily could have vs Duq last year.
Holmes - struggled finishing in traffic, (old man again) didnt go up with his left a couple of times and settled for a much tougher attempt with his right. Like many of the guys had a stronger second half.
Welch - he is an easy punching bag when his shot isnt falling. BUT he does so many little things well that contribute to winning basketball. He rebounds, cuts off passing lanes and is rarely late on a rotation. (I wish we could have seen him healthy for the full LSU game)
Adaway - wish the team would be more open about suspensions to start the year ahead of time. Its not like the NCAA called yesterday and said Adaway cant play tonight but that is just the fan perspective, from a coach's point of view it probably makes sense to news dump it before the first game.
Bench:
Coulibaly is the best Osun back we have had but I dont know that Siena was a good test.
Adams got the praise from Schmidt after the game and I think it was well earned. I didnt realize he played 25 minutes and I hardly noticed him on the floor (thats a good thing when you are out there with 4 of our starters).
Brown - need to watch him more, I wasnt impressed but it is hard to step into Adaway's shoes. It is also November and it takes guys time to get up to speed in Schmidt's system.
JNT - was surprised he got minutes in the first half but I guess with Adaway out and Welch in foul trouble Schmidt had to go deeper into the bench than normal.