MVP: Brandon Triche
Triche had about the quietest 21 points I can ever remember. But sometimes quiet is good and with Fair and Carter-Williams both struggling a little bit on this day, it was enough to earn Triche MVP honors. Triche did typical Triche-type things, getting rebounds and drawing fouls down low among piles of much bigger defenders. He even actually finished tied for the lead in rebounds for Cuse this game with 7. More importantly, he continued to show some aggression, something that has been the main thing holding him back in the past. Hopefully he can keep it up.
LVP: DaJuan Coleman
I had The Hyphen squarely in my cross-hairs for this award, but he piled on some assists late. With a 6-6-11 stat sheet, he'll escape my wrath (for now...).
Instead, we'll give the honors to our portly freshman. Seemingly ever time Coleman tried to post up and make a move to the basket, he got his pockets picked by a smaller defender. Maybe Coleman just needs someone his own size to pick on. All I know is, watching Coleman try to post up much smaller defenders all afternoon, only to see a green uniform come away with the ball without a shot even going up got old in a hurry.
Coleman did manage to pull down 7 rebounds in only 19 minutes of action, so there is some hope for his hands.
Play of the Game: With just over 11 minutes left in the first half, MCW was streaking down the lane when he kicked it out to wing to a waiting Trevor Cooney. Cooney fumbled the pass, but quickly recovered and got a shot up with a defender charging at him. The shot found nothing but the bottom of the net and a new era of irrational excitement was ushered in for me.
(SC)OOPS of the Game: About midway through the second half, Carter-Williams was a little too careless with the ball out top and got his pockets picked clean by Kenneth Ortiz. Give credit to MCW for sticking with the play though and hustling after Ortiz, causing him to rush his dunk attempt a little bit and stuff the ball straight into the front of the rim. Michael Carter-Williams and Kenneth Ortiz, you both get (SC)OOPS honors this game. Congratulations on your embarrassing efforts.
General Observations:
- I don't know who the official scorekeeper was, but Michael Carter-Williams must have given him a bunch of autographed memorabilia for his kids because there is no way he had only 3 turnovers. He got his lunch money taken at midcourt 3 times, yet alone the other forced passes he made. After seeing this performance, it will be interesting to see if any Big East teams try to press the Orange and see if they can't fluster MCW a little. He will certainly have to start being less careless with the ball.
- With that said, the Hyphen did put up 11 assists too (as many as the entire Wagner team), so it wasn't all bad. He also reigned in his shot selection a little bit from the opener. It didn't necessarily pay off in his shooting percentage, but at least he wasn't pinballing down the lane and throwing up circus shots again.
- Southerland has looked extremely confident in his shot so far this year, and has even shown a slightly expanded game now featuring some drives in addition to his spot-up jumpers. He has the ability to be a game-changer for this year's team if he can play like that all season.
- James Southerland and Rakeem Christmas are having one hell of a beard growing contest...
- As much as I like to bag on Keita, I have to give him credit too when he earns it. He played a great game, repeatedly getting open down low and finishing to the tune of 15 points. He also pulled down some tough rebounds and played some solid defense, ending up with 5 rebounds and 2 blocks to go with his career high in points. Behold the power of the Moussa.
- THAT was the Trevor Cooney era I was looking forward to for the last year plus. He showed us that dangerous outside shot, making 2 of 5 threes. But that is to be expected. What I wasn't expecting was the ability to drive when defenders closed out on him too hard and find an open teammate. Or the countless deflections that led to 6 steals. Or even the tip-in put back. He had himself a great all-around day.
- Quiet day for C.J. Fair. I guess the jersey isn't infallible.
- With the game well in hand, we got our first look at this year's walk-ons late in this game. Couple of thoughts... (1) Our walk-ons aren't very good at getting shots off and (2) Our walk-ons are very good at being metrosexual.
Case in point:
Those pictures don't every really do it justice. There must have been a shortage of hair gel on campus that day
Next Game: Wednesday (11/21) vs. Princeton @ 7:00 p.m.
The Orange try to feast on a bunch of Ivy League bookworms prior to everyone's Thanksgiving Day feast on Thursday.
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