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Men's Hoops Underway Tonight!

The good news is the Bengals played about as well as you could ask in dispatching an outmanned Dickinson State team 97-54. The bad news is Ajak Magot may have reinjured a stress fracture in his foot, which would leave the Bengals with only 8 scholarship players. Jeff Solarin and Justin Smith were very impressive newcomers and ISU ran with the ball like the Showtime Lakers. I've never seen such a dramatic change in coaching philosophy. It will be fun to see how it works against better competition But we have got to hope for good health -- and better luck!
 
Has anybody heard exactly WHY Ezenwa is being redshirted?

Lots of guys showed promise tonight, and offensively, things look a little brighter.

We still were out-rebounded, 30 to 29 by a bad NAIA team. Losing Magot could be bad............ Montana State out-rebounded these guys 33 to 16 over the weekend.
 
In the pregame interview, coach Evans said he had promised Ezenwa he would redshirt this year and he planned on keeping the promise. I don't know if he'll be able to do that if Ajak has a broken foot, but we'll see.
 
sasquatch said:
Has anybody heard exactly WHY Ezenwa is being redshirted?

Lots of guys showed promise tonight, and offensively, things look a little brighter.

We still were out-rebounded, 30 to 29 by a bad NAIA team. Losing Magot could be bad............ Montana State out-rebounded these guys 33 to 16 over the weekend.

It would have been nice to out rebound this team but when you force 24 turnovers and shoot 63% for the game, (16 and 69% first half), it seems like the rebound stat is a little less important. I don't know what the shooting percentages were at Montana State but they beat this team by 25 and the Bengals cruised to an easy 43 point win - it's really hard to compare. I'd like to see more size too, but it sure was fun watching a smaller quicker team run up and down the court. I think they have very good potential - but we do need to find some size.

How about the true freshman Justin Smith? He was very poised and confident on the court, reminded me of Matt Stucki. I think he's a keeper.

I know it was just an exhibition but it was sure fun to watch - Go Bengals!
 
Is Sage Burmeister still set to join the team when football season is over? I don't see him listed on the basketball roster...
 
votb, I KNOW that Evans said he made a promise to Ezenwa to redshirt him, but WHY? Is it to give him a year of development? To work on grades? WHY?

bengalguy, I agree it's hard to measure apples to oranges. After the O'Brien debacle, the offense from Monday's exhibition game was a much needed breath of fresh air. Evans has made a point of emphasizing rebounding, and they didn't deliver. A bad NAIA team out rebounded us. Now we may even be smaller if Magot is out. If Burmeister is still playing (anyone?), that helps a little with depth, but still doesn't help with size.
 
I think rebounding will continue to be an isssue for a couple of reasons: 1) Evans plays almost nothing but match-up zone defense. It's very difficult to be a good rebounding team if you're always in a zone. 2) The Bengals don't have a lot of great rebounders. I think Solarin and Smith will become very good rebounders with time (Smith is probably already the Bengals' best weak-side rebounder), but they are 6-4 and 6-6, respectively, and some nights they are just going to get beat by taller players. Preh is really going to have to step up his game. He was really taken advantage of by Dickinson's post player, who is a pretty good athlete and could probably play in the Big Sky, but Abba has got to bring more to the table than he did Monday night.

If Magot is indeed done, that means Scotty Tyler will probably see some time at the PF, and he's definitely not built to the definition of "power." He's a good athlete and I think he'll be a good player, but I know Evans would much rather take advantage of his length on the wing.

One other thought -- knowing he's going to play mostly zone, Bill intentionally went out and recruited some taller wing players and moved Andre Hatchett to the wing. If you're going to play zone, your wings have to hit the boards. Of course, he was also counting on Slavic, Magot and Bradley to be good rebounders in the post and, unfortunately, Slavic and Bradley aren't available, and Magot may not be.
 
PS--If it makes Bengal fans feel any better, Montana gave up 15 offensive rebounds and got outboarded by 6 by Lewis-Clark earlier this week.
 

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