by Rogabee
After getting home late due to the Squirrel Hill Tunnel going down to one lane, here's my relatively quick thoughts. Anything else feel free to ask in the forums!
The first two games of the night featured no Duquesne players. In the first game, Zanna was the clear star of the game and looked like a man among boys out there. Terrific game for Talib. However, all the rest of Zanna's team didn't give him much help, though PTG did win it at the wire.
As for the second game...Lamar Patterson was huge for Pitt again. If he could put together a regular season based off his summer league performance last year and tonight...look out! Nate Adrian was also very good for WVU.
Overall the Pitt newcomers looked very good. Newkirk matched up well against Kendrick Perry and caused him fits that I haven't seen Perry have before. Artis is going to be a rock solid player for Pitt, perhaps even this year. He's a strong kid who still has the athleticism required to compete in the ACC. Some of the others proved to look good tonight also, particularly Jones but also Young and Johnson. The major question mark for Pitt at PG still looks suspect though after what I saw tonight.
As far as others for WVU, Terry Henderson had a very good game. Brandon Watkins had very soft hands and is a very strong passer for someone his size. Eron Harris played well with The Lair, and Devin Williams at 6-9 was dynamite for stretches.
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In the third game, The Lair (Ovie Soko, Jeremiah Jones, Desmond Ridenour, LG Gill for DU) defeated GNC (Colter, Jerry Jones, Jordan Robinson, and Darius Lewis for DU). The one-point win came off a four point play with 17 seconds left by LG Gill, draining a trey while getting fouled. Colter's three on the other end came up short, and The Lair held on.
DU Recap.
Colter, Jerry Jones, Jeremiah Jones. Nothing much of any value to report on the newbies. Colter did look a bit stronger, but their games resembled last year's performance.
Ovie Soko. Too bad we only get him for one year because he looked good. Soko was aggressive, attacking the basket and drawing fouls left and right. He was also strong enough to finish many times despite the contact. One thing about him...he's not afraid to try to take over a game if you need it. Defensive lapses must be corrected.
LG Gill (6-6). Started off invisible. I was starting to wonder partway thru the first half why Ferry offered him a schollie as he wouldn't play D (not that anybody played much outside the first 15 minutes of the first game), wasn't moving to get open, and was seemingly invisible. However, he certainly heated up! He showed a midrange game and looked comfortable at the FT line on offense in addition to hitting the clutch shots to help The Lair pull out the W. His defense improved a lot from first half to second half also. You can see the talent there...
Desmond Ridenour (6-2). Good overall athlete who was able to create his own shot on O. The problem was he wasn't hitting his shots tonight. Had a terrific block from behind that was the block of the night for a DU player. A solid athlete who should be able to help the team with his athleticism and length for his frame.
Darius Lewis (6-10). Once again, we seem like we're going to struggle inside if tonight was any indication and that Coach Rhodes has a lot on his hand. Lewis seemed to struggle grabbing rebounds (dropped two if I saw it correctly) but did grab some traffic boards. He appeared very raw offensively in mostly every facet aside from showing off one midrange jumper, but did miss an offensive rebound putback from within two feet. He for the most part stood his ground well on D and played tall without fouling if it was within 5 feet or so of the bucket. However, if you got him away from the hoop he had a tendency to reach. He has some talent, but will be a project IMO.
Jordan Robinson (6-8). He did provide some rebounding and muscle inside, but didn't do anything else to stand out in much of a positive way. Does have the strength required for an A-10 PF. As is typical with early bigs, he fouled a ton (or would have if they would have called fouls) and wouldn't have been able to play more than 10 minutes would this have been a normal game.
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DU Numbers (in no particular order)
Soko - 62
Colter - 72
Jeremiah Jones - 37
LG Gill - 78
Jerry Jones - 59
Jordan Robinson - 120
Darius Lewis - 121
I'll post the other numbers that I have midday tomorrow.
by Rogabee
