Game 1, 2023-24: Albany (11/7)

[bobolink]

I expected to be impressed, among the freshmen, by Curry and Davis. Instead Ndjigue and Foster looked good.
Only 5 turnovers and shooting 46% on 3s was excellent, even given a weak opponent. Good hustle by all throughout. The only bad play was the technical on Cross. Need him to stay in the game and he foolishly picked up a 3rd foul very early in the second half, which could have really hurt if there had been a better opponent. I'm convinced the 3 I was unimpressed by (Cross, Curry and Davis) will all be fine going forward.

[MakeMullinsGreatAgain]

I thought the crowd was pretty loud early on - good noise after 12-0 run and Albany timeout. Albany then went on a 11-2 run but it never seemed like they were in it - I think we responded with an 8-0 run and it never got any closer - at one point I believe we had a 35 point lead (maybe more) so the crowd was just giving a polite golf claps after every score. I haven't seen an announced attendance but my guess is somewhere around 4K.

I think there were more students than you would have thought if you were just watching on TV - they do not sit in the student section, they find empty seats in the lower bowl and just sit until a ticket holder kicks them out. If they all sat in the student section next to the band I bet it would have been 90% full. I think it only hold 500 so thats still not that impressive considering there are 40,000 students on campus but I'll take 500 students each game vs 50 like we've been seeing the past couple years

[Floyd]

I'd be surprised if there were 4k there, I'd guess 2500. Pretty sparse for opening game

I thought Cohen, Jayden, and Keon played pretty well. Jayden surprised me, very active, physical, and strong. He's a dog, I like him. Keon was very in control, strong drives to the hoop, confident & aggressive. He's gonna have a good year. Cohen was as advertised, savvy & steady, plays in control

I liked what I saw from DHS, he's good. Scrappy, can score, rebound, and defends tough. Foster will be a player, He's athletic and long. As he gets stronger, he'll be better. You can see Curry is talented, a bit out of control at times, but he could be really good

I thought Worthy was pretty good too, although he was victim of the wrath of Frank alot. He plays hard, has a good handle, and gets after it on D.

Cross, Davis, and Rahsool were a bit quiet, but contributed. Overall I like the young guys, it's a talented group. Lots of guys can score, they all seem to defend hard. Big teams could be a challenge for us, but I think we're athletic enough and aggressive to help on the glass.
Wildens experience and depth would have really helped this team

[Steve81]

Very happy for the win!!

[umassbaseball]

I'd be surprised if there were 4k there, I'd guess 2500. Pretty sparse for opening game

I thought Cohen, Jayden, and Keon played pretty well. Jayden surprised me, very active, physical, and strong. He's a dog, I like him. Keon was very in control, strong drives to the hoop, confident & aggressive. He's gonna have a good year. Cohen was as advertised, savvy & steady, plays in control

I liked what I saw from DHS, he's good. Scrappy, can score, rebound, and defends tough. Foster will be a player, He's athletic and long. As he gets stronger, he'll be better. You can see Curry is talented, a bit out of control at times, but he could be really good

I thought Worthy was pretty good too, although he was victim of the wrath of Frank alot. He plays hard, has a good handle, and gets after it on D.

Cross, Davis, and Rahsool were a bit quiet, but contributed. Overall I like the young guys, it's a talented group. Lots of guys can score, they all seem to defend hard. Big teams could be a challenge for us, but I think we're athletic enough and aggressive to help on the glass.
Wildens experience and depth would have really helped this team

They posted attendance of 3,015.

[69MG]

Replay at midnight on NESN (Spectrum channel 33). I'll be back later with thoughts on the game.

[69MG]

I'll keep it short.

Best players tonight were Cohen, Keon and Daniel. Diggins was close to making this list.

Guys who played OK, regardless of stats were Jayden, Worthy and Foster. Matt was OK, but needs to stay in control.

Looking for improvement from Curry and Davis.

I consider Foster a replacement for Gianni and he looks like he might be much better than Gianni. Keon is so much more confident than last year. Rahsool also looks a lot better than last year. Cohen is as advertised. He averaged 22 and 8 last year. I guess those are his numbers, except that he did it in 19 minutes tonight. I like Worthy and Jayden a lot. They do whatever is needed to help the team.

OK, it's just 1 game. I'll see how I feel after 2 games or 10 games.

[Upstate10]

Jayden is a stud. I was blown away by him. Just knows how to play and does the little things that need to be done to win basketball games.

[stevemaz]

Who is going to anoint a freshman as a future lottery pick after 1st game this year???

I assumed that was Maz's job?

I am not over the top high on any of the freshmen but think they are a solid group. Ndjigue showed me a lot on the defensive side and will be a pain in the ass to opponents. The real story last night is how Thompson and Diggins looked as they will be one of the best starting back courts in the A10/CUSA over the next few years.

[DanaDingle3]

I was blown away by Jayden, as well. When I hear 'glue guy' or whatever about a high school player, makes me think he'll be a good locker room guy, and he might be, but he has a nose for the ball and instincts that contribute to WINNING. That was plain to see.

Keon impressed me greatly. He was overmatched a lot last year, especially on the defensive end. Albany's not a great team. Let's see how he looks defensively against the Bonnies, but he sure as heck looked the part last night (made me think about Frank's comments about going through adversity, and coming out the other side better for it, as opposed to just bailing.) Keon's a testament to that. Kudos to him for toughing through. He looked great last night.

Frank was all over Worthy, asking him if he was going to guard anybody. Other than Jayden, who impressed, not much to take away from the other freshmen, other than they all have potential, and all seemed to play hard out there.

This looks to be a team, not just a collection of guys as last year turned out to be. We'll probably go as far as our backcourt will take us (front court is experienced HM-caliber), and there's quite a bit of runway there.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

I generally liked what I saw last night. Looks like they play hard, which in most cases is all I can ask for. It's one game, so I'm not getting my hopes up for an NCAA Tournament run quite yet... but there is hope from this game.

[Old Cage]

Interesting read from an Albany writer. Beagle will be a load but he is their only proven big. They, like us, have a ton of new guys.

https://www.dailygazette.com/sports/ual ... 5181b.html

^ This plus the fact that twitter posts said something like "Beagle will be the best player on the floor."

Well, he was 3-for-7 with 8 points, three boards and five turnovers. Our bigs took turns keeping him under control. For me, that was one of the best takeaways that might carry over to the A10.

[capezona]

At times when the starters were on the bench the floor play was a bit helter skelter. I'm sure that some of the combinations hadn't played together as a team in practice, or maybe it was just freshmen being freshmen. But regardless, I really liked the effort I saw. Really looking forward to seeing the team progress.

[natwam2547]

Cohen looked like Drew Timme-lite out there. I had no idea he had range, and like someone else said, his D was better than I imagined as well. He's just a scorer. His awkward, yet effective, off-balance hook shots reminded me of someone else too, I just can't put my finger on it yet.

Majok not being out there late in the game and having to run DHS with the clean up crew was unfortunate. Especially coming off an injury. They subbed Jayden in for him with just under 2 minutes left which I thought was smart.

Was really impressed with Foster. He also looks like he could be taller than his listed 6'8". Either that or DHS is smaller than his listed 6'8" because when they were side by side I thought Foster was definitely taller.

I don't think Diggins is getting enough love on the board. He had a great game. Looked a whole lot more confident out there.

I was surprised with the move to start Jayden over Davis, but it worked out, and I get it now. Not just because Davis struggled, but Jayden adds the missing piece on D if they are going to play small. Davis will find his stroke and still get 18-20 minutes I'd bet.

Curry struggled, but you can tell he has a high ceiling once he adjusts to the college game. Definitely doesn't lack for confidence, which I like for a talented freshman.

Worthy is also a guy who might not fill up the boxscore but is very useful and has a role.

I'll echo what everyone else has said about Keon as well. This might be a stretch, but he looked like a much more in shape version of Khalid El-Amin to me. Just the way he bounced around the floor and sort of the effective choppiness to his game. Sorry if this upsets fans on here. If the sort of hustle that led to that defensive play late in the game that he made which also involved 2 other players and an easy layup is what we can expect moving forward, this will be a very fun team to watch.

The fact that there wasn't a massive drop off to the bench was exciting.

*yes I know this was against Albany and they stink. It's all we have to work with right now.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

I don't think Diggins is getting enough love on the board. He had a great game. Looked a whole lot more confident out there.

Well, I mean, we were all told we shouldn't expect to rely on him and such... is that such a surprise?