I found that it helps when you’re trying to evaluate a situation, especially pertaining to a basketball player’s performance, that you try to put yourself in their shoes as best you can, especially when it involves young new players and even more experienced players attempting to adapt to a brand new environment.
After weeks of summer practices and workouts and recent days of intense regular season practices, weight training, team meetings and film sessions, and individual skill development tutelage, players finally get the chance to compete against another team of guys with unfamiliar faces.
For starters, as Coach Kim English stated in his post-game presser, five key guys were not playing Saturday due to nursing injuries of varying degrees, and one player, Jabri Abdur-Rahim, was with family after the sudden death of his uncle, Amir Abdur-Rahim, a respected and very well-liked head coach of the University of South Florida.
These five players happen to be, at least on paper, guys slated to be getting the bulk of the minutes when the lights go on in real-time. Leading the list on the sidelines was Bryce Hopkins, the 6’7” 229 lb Sr Forward, who was just named to the 1st team All Big-East pre-season list. In addition, Jayden Pierre, the 6’2” 185 lb Jr starting point guard from last year, Rich Barron, the 6’5” 220 lb So. F/G, All Big-East freshman team member, and Christ Essandoko, the 7’0”290 lb R-So. Portal transfer from St. Joesph’s.
As Coach English mentioned, this gave a number of guys good extended minutes and an opportunity to get out there and play that they might not have been given otherwise.
Of the nine guys that played most of the minutes in this exhibition game vs UMass, only Corey Floyd, the 6’4”210 lb R-Jr. G, had played at all before in the AMP. For all the other players, it was a brand new experience In this building, and all of these nine guys had never played in a real game with each other at all. When you combine those facts with all the pent-up energy and the desire for these players to so much want to make a good 1st impression, it wasn’t surprising that there was a little tightness and frenetic intensity on display, especially in the 1st half.
Understandably, it was the two most experienced guys, Floyd and Miami portal transfer Sr G Bensley Joseph, that showed the best in all the mayhem. Corey Floyd shot the 3 well, which was a good sign, and was aggressive taken it to the hoop as was Joseph who showed some high level athleticism taking it strong to the hoop, one time barely missing an impressive sidewinder baseline dunk from the left baseline.
English also mentioned after the game that it was an opportunity to “Learn and improve”, and just about all of them showed some flashes of what is possible as individuals and as a team down the road. A lot of these guys will have some necessary growing pains- Wesley Cardet, the 6’6” 210, Jr. G acquired from the .ortal, is talented and will be a lot more productive once he gets acclimated to his new surroundings. Likewise with
Justyn Fernandez, the 6’5”205 lb R-So, came with Kim English from George Mason. He’s another talented guy who has to adjust after having to sit out a whole year due to a knee injury. I know what that’s like: being redshirted for a year and just biting at the bit to get out there and play. At some point, you’ll just stop pressing and let it happened.
Both Ryan Mela, a 6’6”200 lb fr, and Eli DeLaurier, a 6’10”225 lb R-fr, had their moments and showed signs of what might be down the road
Oswin Erhunmwunse the 6’10”220lb fr, displayed a few times with his elite athleticism why he was such a highly recruited player His quickness to penetration a few times, blocking a couple of shots and also utilizing his hands and quickness finishing a nice alley oop dunk off a feed from Joseph, showed a lot of potential upside.
But what was fun to watch and encouraging for them as a team was the way the rest of the team reacted to two new players: Anton Bonke, a 7’2” 270lb junior college transfer, from the South Sea Island nation of Vanuatu, and Nilavan Jotham Daniels, a 6’3”220 lb fr G from St Louis. Whenever Anton made a shot, grabbed a rebound, hustled after a loose ball, his teammates jumped up and cheered him on, and the same for Nilavan. When he made a key go-ahead 3-pointer, all his teammates rose in unison to enthusiastically encourage him. You could tell they were happy for both of them for the different paths they both took to get here and all the hard work they both have put in. Players pulling for each other like that is always a good sign. It also reflects effective coaching.
That feature of their mindset can go a long way towards achieving some cohesion as both Coaches and players try to learn from each other what combinations of all these disparate talents works best.
Patience on everyone’s part will be key. It should be fascinating to see how all this develops as English and his staff seek to hit on the right chemistry going forward, especially as all the key pieces hopefully get healthy and come together and somehow gel as a team.
