I went to the Black and Gold scrimmage on Saturday and got to see the new guys play.
Rodney, Jairus, and Sam did not play. Rodney and Jairus seem to have minor dings. I didn't see anything about Sam to know why he's out.
The teams were set up like this:
Gold: Sherburne, Curran, Jabbie, Grace, Wincowski, Gerrity, Ervin
Black: Darley, Maura, Grant, Lamar, Park, Brent
They played 10 minute quarters and had three refs (all of whom I recognize from our regulation games).
The first half surprisingly was a blowout as Gold beat up Black 49-31. Hand checking is going to be a problem initially as the refs were clear to the players that the NCAA is requiring them to call a foul if a defender puts his hand on a ball-handler.
Gold won the third quarter 20-19. Black won the fourth 16-13 on a missed 3-pointer at the end.
Jourdan had 22 for Black and Max Curran had 19 for Gold. Wincowski had 15, Sherburne 13, Darley 11, Brent 14, Grace 10, and Gerrity had 12.
Take aways:
* Wincowski played as well as I have ever seen him play. He ran point and looked composed, took the ball to the hoop, and showed a lot of what Aki liked about him out of HS and what we saw against Wake as a freshman. I am looking forward to seeing how he plays as we go through his sophomore season as I think he looks to be a contributor this year.
* Sherburne and Darley looked solid and probably won't improve significantly from a statistical perspective. I could see them scoring about the same but being more efficient because of the increased depth.
* Max Curran looks like he is going to be very good. I wouldn't be surprised if he's an all-Rookie pick. 6'9" and athletic with a very good shot from mid-range and beyond. He's going to have trouble being a power forward against stronger guys but his length will give him an advantage on offense.
* Jourdan's shot looks better. I don't know what the coaching staff have done to improve it but he certainly looks like he's got a more consistent motion. His best asset is his attacking style to get to the basket and that's not going to change.
* Brent is still looking for confidence. He missed numerous wide open shots from behind the arc. He has the skill to be a very effective shooter off the bench but he just seems to need to get his groove back that he had as a freshman.
* Arkel Lamar is a pretty big guy for a freshman. He's not tall but he's strong and will probably be the center for rebounding when he's on the floor. He has a jumper so he's not totally limited to defensive contributions.
* KJ Maura is an enigma. I hear he's a great distributor and playmaker but he's also small and light. I would be shocked if he's really taller than 5'6". But, he's an excellent free throw shooter. My guess is he is the late game PG (moving Lyles and Rodney to a 3-guard lineup) so that if he gets fouled, he is an almost-certain 2 points at the line.
* Gerrity has improved and gotten stronger but he's still raw. I don't see him breaking out this year. As a big, he's probably behind Curran and Lamar right now based upon skill set offensively. Had some good rebounds and a couple of key blocks.
* Ervin is probably the odd man out in the back court at this point. His shot is a mess but he knows the offense so he has value if there are injuries or foul issues. Plus with the pace that Odom wants to play, depth is key.
* It will be interesting to see how much Grace and Jabbie play. Ben is probably one of the smartest guys on the floor from a hoops IQ perspective. He knows the offense and defense schemes. Jabbie probably had 10 points in the first half and to some degree was why the Gold team smoked the Black team. I don't know if he'll play that much. I think he's a good teammate and a great guy to have on the team but he could play more at lower levels.
* David Park had a pretty quiet day and I think is probably a work in progress. I think he's got potential but I wouldn't play him over Will, Joe, Max, and Arkel ... Not to mention Sam and Nolan.
There's no way to extrapolate what I saw on Saturday into anything meaningful for the season. Especially without Rodney and Jairus playing.
Hood College has 10 freshmen and three sophomores so that game is going to be impossible to draw any conclusions from either unless we win 120-30.
If Coach Odom is able to continue the offensive prowess we saw with Lyles in the lineup and instill some defensive discipline that's been missing since 2007-08, I think the team could be a .500 basketball team. I think to make any predictions beyond that goal is premature.