Wayne St

[Kemo]

Re: Wayne St

Jackrabbits win 80-72. Let's just leave it at that.

[bigticket1]

Re: Wayne St

Daum seemed to be more effective when playing with Theisen and he could get the ball further out on the floor. When he plays the 5 , he is too easy to collapse on when he gets the ball down low. The only problem with Theisen and Daum playing together is we then don't have a post player to come off the bench. We could really use Connor Devine back on the roster.

[gojacksgo]

Re: Wayne St

It's a win at this point. That's a positive. We were also able to overcome a 12 point deficit for the win. Hopefully it will give us more confidence going into the next game at Wyoming.

[YanktonJack7]

Re: Wayne St

Tevin is looking pretty decent at the point to start the half. We need someone to step up there, because our guard play has been atrocious so far in the first 3 games.

I agree with this. It's too bad that Moffitt couldn't get that extra year from the NCAA. They could've really used him this season.

I'm happy to get a win, but still skeptical about this team. It will take time and hopefully we can see better execution on Saturday at WYO

[OldHare]

Re: Wayne St

Gentry has looked down right awful so far. Don't mean to rag on the kid, but he either needs to play better or spend more time on the bench.

Gentry had 2 turnovers in 24 minutes. Not terrible in my estimation. ALL the players were making lazy predictable passes beyond the 3 pt line. Wallace was the starting point and he was not driving the offense at all and he was 1-8 from the field in 17 minutes. King may have been at point 1 or 2 possessions. He played a solid game with a good line of rebounds and assists and steals and 9 points. Wayne State only shot 3 free throws. Much of that reason is that the Jackrabbits did not pick up on defense unless they came inside of the line. There was plenty of poor defense to go around for the players outside of King who was solid in the man to man. Early the zone defense was horrible. Flatten still looks to be the other go to guy. Howell looked solid in his minutes. Wayne State is improved from last year. They had a bunch of open lightly contested shots.

[jacks1]

Re: Wayne St

Guard play is going to absolutely kill us this year. There is no high level point guard on this roster. That has to be priority number one moving forward. We couldn't guard a DII team tonight that had all of 5 wins last year. Slightly concerned about that also...

[Kemo]

Re: Wayne St

Gentry had 2 turnovers in 24 minutes. Not terrible in my estimation. ALL the players were making lazy predictable passes beyond the 3 pt line. Wallace was the starting point and he was not driving the offense at all and he was 1-8 from the field in 17 minutes. King may have been at point 1 or 2 possessions. He played a solid game with a good line of rebounds and assists and steals and 9 points. Wayne State only shot 3 free throws. Much of that reason is that the Jackrabbits did not pick up on defense unless they came inside of the line. There was plenty of poor defense to go around for the players outside of King who was solid in the man to man. Early the zone defense was horrible. Flatten still looks to be the other go to guy. Howell looked solid in his minutes. Wayne State is improved from last year. They had a bunch of open lightly contested shots.

Cole did play a little better after my post (I was hoping the reverse jinx would come out), but I'm a little surprised he only was recorded with 2 turnovers. Maybe it was just that the 2 turnovers were so bad that they seemed like more.

Hopefully Cole or someone else can become at least serviceable at the PG spot, but right no one on this team is close to even that level. I expect a fair amount of growing pains coming into the season, but the Jacks as a team have looked really bad. It's frustrating, but I probably need to so more patience. These first 3 games have sucker punched my optimism a bit.

[Nidaros]

Re: Wayne St

Here is TJ Press conference: He knows he has things to work on. We need another Marshall Plan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUZ9zT0QkN8

[67jack]

Re: Wayne St

Severyn did not play against a supposedly poor DII team. Is he out of the loop? He seems to bring a lot of energy to the game for the Jacks when he does get in. Doesn't seem to look to shoot though. Has he lost his confidence offensively?

[Nidaros]

Re: Wayne St

Also the link to Wayne State Coach's remarks. He played at Frost in 1985.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvVUMDbwuxs

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Wayne St

Severyn did not play against a supposedly poor DII team. Is he out of the loop? He seems to bring a lot of energy to the game for the Jacks when he does get in. Doesn't seem to look to shoot though. Has he lost his confidence offensively?

We are moving from a program culture that valued grit over talent. I suspect (but obviously don't know) that a big part of why TJ took the job was because Daum is a phenomenal talent for our level. Not because he wanted tough kids who would run through walls.

At our level, we cannot rely on recruiting/talent to hold a competitive edge.

IMO, most major programs (like Iowa State), value talent over grit. They rely on recruiting the best players possible to be competitive. The consistently good programs get talent and grit, others get lucky with grit from time to time and make a run.

All speculation, and it is early, but geez we do not look good right now.

Edit: Not saying the kids aren't tough or aren't working hard. We have the talent, but I hope TJ kicks their butts in practice for a bit. Coach Nagy's practices were notoriously rough. It was not uncommon for players to get contact injuries in practice. Maybe practices are just as tough now.

[OldHare]

Re: Wayne St

Severyn did not play against a supposedly poor DII team. Is he out of the loop? He seems to bring a lot of energy to the game for the Jacks when he does get in. Doesn't seem to look to shoot though. Has he lost his confidence offensively?

He played less in the UCI game as well. He normally does a good job on the defense, rebounding, and getting to the loose balls. I think that there is more than one player who might have lost offensive confidence.

[SteelSD]

Re: Wayne St

After watching two home games here are my general observations:

Mike Daum: is the focus of every defensive game plan. He is immediately being double and triple teamed. In the home games he was better enough than the players defending him that he still put up numbers. In the road games, he struggled. As a result, he appears to be rushing and forcing shots. I anticipate him getting used to this and making adjustments, but he is certainly going to find the road going forward more difficult than last year.

Reed: Our second and only other consistent scoring option. Hopefully the streakiness of his game is less this year because we are going to need him to be a significant contributor on the offensive end. Defensively he gets beat back door a lot, so needs to temper his aggressiveness with that in mind. Had a sweet block in transition against WSU.

Flatten: The only other guy last night who looked like he had confidence in his offensive ability. Hopefully he continues to build on that and makes stride forwards as he is athletic enough to be a force for us. Also, needs to stay healthy.

King/Howell/Wallace/Orris/Hess: Basically the grade for these guys is the same. None of these guys really is a threat to hit a three and so teams feel comfortable taking Daum away at the expense of giving up an open three. It appears even Daum has lost confidence in these guys as he is hesitant to kick it out to them when he is being triple teamed. King doesn't even look to shoot a three and had multiple attempts at trying to drive past a guy who was laying 5 feet off him. Howell wants to get to the rim or pass. Wallace wants to get to the rim or pass. Orris wants to dribble or pass. Hess is supposed to be a great shooter, but hasn't had any luck in that area yet. Really need him to be a significant threat so his guy can't drop down on Daum. I hold out hope he will get hot and get his confidence back. Currently this group is shooting 16% from 3 point land.

Gentry: This guy is lightning in a bottle, but doesn't seem to have control of that. Had some success getting towards the rim and hit a three. His passes are often off the mark and don't seem to get his guys open looks at shots yet. I at least see some flashes here, so hopefully with experience he can be a contributor.

Theisen: This is a player I am not a fan of. Frankly, I would expect a big guy to dominate an undersized D2 team, and he didn't. In fact, any offense he gave up was offset by rebounds / fouls he gave up due to holding guys rather than actually jumping for a rebound. Also, he was beaten back on defense twice by his guy. On one of those Reed bailed him out with a sweet block, but the other was a layup with Thiesen not yet to the free throw line. I would rather see a lot more of Dykman or Severyn and less of Ian, but that is me.

[Southeast]

Re: Wayne St

It's so very early to judge a team with so much turnover, but I have to admit that last night I came away thinking that this is going to be way more of a "rebuilding" year than a "reloading" year. The top half of the Summit is going to be out over the horizon if our guard play does not get much better by February.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: Wayne St

TJ mentioned defense in his post game comments on WNAX. The first time I've heard him specifically refer to working on defense. IMO, it's gotta start there. Offense in much easier off a miss and playing up-tempo basically requires a miss to be effective.

I also think Gentry will be fine. It's his third college game ever. He's lightning quick.