One in the books!

Alright guys, it may have only been LeMoyne, but at the present, we're 1-0 and looked pretty damn good out there. Flynn finished with 17pts, 6 assists (3:1 Assist To TO Ratio), 4 steals... big deal right, that's what we've come to expect from our resident Wooden Award Candidate. What surprised the hell out of me was the play of everyone's formerly skinny white kid.

Knee #1 - Rautins looked great out there last night. His court vision has definitively improved, his stroke still looks good and his man D didn't look too shabby. He finished with a line of 12pt, 3reb, 9 Assists (career high) and 4 steals. Numbers that I didn't think we'd see out of him. I'd say all questions regarding his knee are shored up, he was playing tight man, running well with the break and looked solid all around.

Knee #2 - Devo apparently missed the memo that he was supposed to be tenative coming off of a major knee surgery. He was back to slashing at will, and in general looked solid. His passing has improved as well. I distinctly remember him threading the needle to Paul on a break and he looked confident with the ball. That said he did have 5 TO in 22 minutes of work. Two of these from travels, 1 from a double dribble.

Harris - Back to form, Harris still flails wildly over stupid fouls, though its slightly more civil than in the past. He was running solid with the break, scrapping over boards and got his points as well. He's most likely starting another double-double streak, going for 12 and 10 last night. Definitely a different Paul than we saw in the preseason games.

Joseph looked good, and in all honestly could be a real solid contributor of minutes by years' end. Mookie still looks a little raw, but you can tell he's close.

More to come...

So here I sit...

So that (--->) is the view I had at 10am today... Normally promising, right? Well Here it is at 11:30 and I'm looking out the window of Baker Lab at the box office... Odds are I won't be able to make the game unless I can call a hiatus on a meeting I've got at 2. If I can push it back, I'll have live feedback of how we look. If not, I'll have to rely on boxscores and the great guys over at CuseOrange to let me piece it back together.

Also, separate rant, why did I pay $200 for a Standart parking pass I can only use when things AREN'T going on at the Dome?

Exhibition #2

Disclaimer: There will be plenty of acronyms today so watch out.


Well, we've officially seen the boys in action once this year. An exhibition against Stevie Thompson's CSLA (Cal State Los Angeles) proved that Johnny is still Johnny, Devo and Andy can use their respective ACL's and AO is a monster. Hell, AO went 6-6 on Monday. Granted his largest competition was a few inches under him, and a hell of a lot lighter.

Basically what you can take from the first scrimmage is that this year our offense will work inside out. We need to establish Arinze on the inside and feed him. Once that is established, any of our shooters looked good, Devo looked to be fearless after his injury and Andy's shot looks as smooth as ever. Paul even was converting from deep, going 2-4.

On Sunday comes the IUP Crimson Hawks (Indiana University of Pennsylania, not to be confused with IUPUI - Indiana University, Purdue University of Indianapolis or the real Indiana University in Indiana). Again, this will be more of a game to get the guys legs under them, rather than a "real" evaluation.

On the blocks, the tallest, IUP has to offer is 6'8" 220lb. Senior Chris Seaborn who didn't see much action last year. Odds are at down two inches and 55lb. from Arinze, this should not be much of a matchup issue.

What to look for on Sunday is Devo and Andy playing their game. What I mean by this is Devo fearlessly slashing the hole and making things drop, which was an issue on Monday. Andy needs to be moving well without the ball and playing solid D. AO will dominate, Flynn will be faster and pass better than their team and Harris and KO will play thier game. Those aren't issues. Its a matter of the two returnees staying healthy and looking to Rick, Mookie, Sean and Kris to see signs of improvement.

Hell hath frozen over...

Alright all, sorry for the mass 10 month hiatus. It was a blast in Alaska, a great spring with a Cuse Lax Championship, and so far a dismal fall football season...

But alas! Its hoops time again. I'll be back at it this year, as I have a little extra time on my hands. The last half of last year I couldn't spare the time to think about blogging at all. Anyway I'll be back at it, most likely in conjunction with CuseOrange.com (great set of forums if I do say so myself), and will keep updated with the usual pregame breakdowns and post game analysis. Might even fit some liveblogging in.

Anyway, I did blog a bit during my trip to the northern regions, and it can be found here: Preab San Ol! I'll be back later in the week with a full preseason breakdown and what not.

~Steve