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Exhibition Game

S

sacstateman

Active member
We are only 9 days away from the Hornets exhibition game. We have 4 starters back so I think they will all start again this year but the question is, who will be the 5th starter and how does the bench line up?? I've been told that our 4 freshmen (Mauriohooho-Leafa, Jacobs, Patton and Battaglia) have been showing well in practice. According to Katz during the conference call, Jacobs is the best athlete on the team. With Wu, Dressler, Ubaja, Herrick and Jackson all vying for minutes it could become a log jam. Anyone else have any thoughts? I personally think the Hornets are much better than the media or BSC coaches are giving them credit for. Almost time to tip off the season and see what we have.....
 
I also believe that Sac has been rated too low by the talking heads. I think the Hornets are a dark horse to make the top 4, and are certainly in the top half of the BSC. You have veteran frontline and guards returning. You would have finished much higher last year if it wasn't for your stud guard going down with a serious injury. This year seems to be stacking up well for the BSC. Most of our teams have a good number of quality returning players. One through 8 are going to be quite competitive. The bottom, of course, still has a lot of work to do.

Let's get this thing going! :coffee:
 
oldwsuwildcat said:
I also believe that Sac has been rated too low by the talking heads. I think the Hornets are a dark horse to make the top 4, and are certainly in the top half of the BSC. You have veteran frontline and guards returning. You would have finished much higher last year if it wasn't for your stud guard going down with a serious injury. This year seems to be stacking up well for the BSC. Most of our teams have a good number of quality returning players. One through 8 are going to be quite competitive. The bottom, of course, still has a lot of work to do.

Let's get this thing going! :coffee:
Click to expand...

Thanks oldwsuwildcat, I think your team is the one everyone has to go through to become championship caliber. There are definitely some talented teams this year. UND, UI and Montana as well as MSU and ISU should all be in the mix (barring injury). Of course, I hope the Hornets can avoid injury and compete for the NCAA bid. This should be a very entertaining season of basketball. Let's get it started.......................
 
5th Starter: I assumed it was Wu, but I guess if you really wanted to keep him in the 6th man role you could plug someone else in.

Shooting really needs to improve this year if the Hornets want to get to the next level, Graves really struggled from deep last year if he can start hitting like I know he can that would be huge. Wu and Dressler are going to be secondary guys that I think will shoot the ball really well this year. Dressler looked like he really improved and had a great summer trip.

I'm really excited to see Strings this year, he looks to be in tremendous shape and is going to have a monster season. I feel like him playing at the four will probably be the best lineup for the Hornets because Hornsby kills the spacing and struggles with turnovers. Strings at the 5 in certain situations is not out of the question, he still can reach his defensive potential which is scary.

I'm interested to see how deep Katz goes in the bench this year because there is more depth than in past years and he always has always kept a short rotation. Is Jacobs going to play? I don't get Jackson getting any minutes, he just doesn't bring anything to the table that other guys don't do much better. He is a turnover machine and bad defender. Patton needs minutes this year to develop because he is the starter next year. Him developing PNR lob chemistry with Graves would add a huge dynamic to the offense.

I don't necessarily think that they are that much better than the coaches/media think, there is just not a ton of separation between most teams in the conference. There are a bunch of teams that look to be pretty similar so you could easily see a finish of 4-9 being only a game difference.

The biggest advantage the Hornets have is culture and continuity, the same group of quality guys have been in the program for multiple years while other Big Sky programs like Northern Colorado has NCAA issues and a coaching change, Southern Utah has a coaching change, and Portland State runs half their team in and out of the program every year.
 
Hornetsports write-up.

Got to the game a little late, wasn't sure who started. Good energy early on, good hustle but they mostly just over powered an undersized opponent in the paint. Mid range and perimeter shooting was very poor, and they struggled with the full court press. The Hornets largely slept walked through the 2nd half, with Katz playing the main guys a bit too long (weird play at the rim with Strings in late that could have (was?) an injury).

Patton's length and quickness will be a good asset coming off the bench. I hope he sees some minutes this season. Very unimpressive effort by the back court, including the returning guys. Battaglia made some open garbage time 3's which were the only one's not made by Strings. Need a perimeter shooter to step up otherwise hard to see this season being any better than last.
 
Well, Jackson started at point....don't see that lasting too long...I thought the Hornets played pretty average. They seemed to be bothered by the aggressive man to man defense when it shouldn't have bothered them much. In the second half they started passing over the press and scoring fairly easily. Next week they will have to play much better to even be in the games. I feel that beating Colorado may be a bit too much even though Colorado lost their best player from last years team (Josh Scott) they get almost everyone else back plus an injury red shirt who started many games before last year (Xavier Johnson). Nebraska may be a game where we could steal a win as they lost their top 2 scorers and rebounders from last year.
 
Shooting was what I thought would be a huge factor if the team wanted to finish in the upper part of the the conference coming into the season and it didn't look great, we will see how that develops. Strings was impressive as usual (lead team in points/rebounds/assists). He's really tough to stop when he attacks the basket after facing up from the mid post.

Hornsby had a particularly tough night. Dressler continues to impress off of his great overseas trip. 8 rebounds and 4 assists in 19 minutes is great. I think slotting him in at the three and Strings at the four is most likely going to be the best lineup combination this year.

I was really impressed with the play of Patton, felt like he was everywhere on the court (granted there wasn't much size from Pacific Union). I am already envisioning a front line next year of Strings/Patton that has serious potential. He is still raw but man can he run the floor for a big guy.
 
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