re: Tide Hoops | Recruiting

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Yall going 6 deep on the bench?

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No, I thought Mallette was the 11th player.

No. The coach will definitely not let only the young players play. Trelly will play as the sixth-man and will play with the young players.

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Philon won't start and honestly he doesn't need too.

Starters:

Sears
Wrightsell
Mallette
Nelson
Cliff

Next 5:

Philon
Holloway
Reid/Mo/Cunningham
Stevenson/Mo
Sherrell

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That's not the best balance of offense/defense. I'd bank on one of Philon/Reid starting over Mallette just for defensive purposes (weird to say considering they're freshmen). Could even see Wrightsell playing starter minutes off the bench potentially allowing both players to start. Holloway runs the offense for the staggered 2nd unit.

While last night’s game was brutal for the fans, it was great for the players. Missing three 5th year seniors and a regular rotation player and getting to go up against an athletic, physical team playing fast and getting relatively hot in the second half was valuable experience for the young guys that you just can’t simulate in practice.

Apparently he didn't develop much of an outside shot until his senior season and a guard who can't shoot just can't play effectively in this offense. But yeah, with an respectable 3 ball he's going to be a handful. He's just a dog.

I think the reason last night's game was beneficial was because of the style of play they faced and the way the refs were calling it. Memphis played kind of a similar style to the way Houston and Tennessee like to play. 80s Pistons maul ball. It's good to be able to see some of that - as horrible as it was for us to watch - before the regular season.

I was at the game last night and here are my thoughts as if you actually care:

-Refs killed all momentum in that game. 96 free throws is absurd and we were all pissed by the end. I mean we were shooting one and ones less than 4 minutes into the 2nd half. Haggerty for Memphis had 32 points and at least 20 of those came from free throws and after he had 5 fouls

- Memphis is a better team than I thought they would have. They played scrappy defense and gave us fits trying to run any type of offense. You could tell we were getting frustrated

-Cliff is the main difference maker in his ability to protect the rim and grab the rebounds

-at this point I don't know how we're going to play all these guys. Coming into the season I was expecting Philon to not play much but this dude can play. Evertime he was on the court something good happened

-Mallette didn't play as much as I thought but when he does get in he does well. I think Cunningham is going to redshirt or be the odd man out

-Mo has gotten better since last season from what I've seen. He has developed an outside shot. Not sure how he fits in the rotation

We have a great problem and I don't envy Nate in trying to come up with a rotation.

Joka what was up with Reid last night? So loose with the basketball and a turnover machine. He has a ways to go offensively

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Apparently he didn't develop much of an outside shot until his senior season and a guard who can't shoot just can't play effectively in this offense. But yeah, with a respectable 3 ball he's going to be a handful. He's just a dog

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It was the development of his outside shot but the other worry was his defense. We ended up having an open spot for him so he jumped over to the good guys. Right off the bat he showed a lot of effort and potential on defense when practice started, so happy we didn’t miss out on him.

Wasn’t able to make the game last night but I was able to catch the end of the 1H and the 2H. Glad I didn’t go. I didn’t like the idea of unlimited fouls but when you parlay that with playing a physical team like Memphis, it made the product in the floor almost unwatchable. Penny was acting like he was coaching for his job during an exhibition game as well crying for reviews and I would assume telling his players there is no limit, obviously the Bama players figured that out a bit later.

I don’t think you can take much from this game. Highly irregular circumstances and there was no flow whatsoever in the 2H. Saw some good and saw some bad but nothing that’s going to make us shift expectations.

If Youngblood was healthy this would be an easy lineup to figure out. I would say Philon may benefit starting alongside Sears and Wrightsell. Nelson and Cliff provide enough size in the frontcourt to play a 3 Guard lineup comfortably. Reid, from a size perspective, makes more sense starting at Wing but I don’t think his offensive skillset is ready for that starting position just yet. Maybe Oats thinks his defense more than makes up for it.

Going to be interesting how minutes shake out. Naas is definitely redshirting. There were rumors of Mallette doing the same but he came out and said that’s not the case. He’s a catch and shoot guy with probably below average defense, so minutes can be tough for him regardless. I think the rule is you can only play up to 25% of the regular season until your redshirt is burned, so garbage time in a couple of the early games won’t mean much.