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UNI played two exhibition games (11/2 vs D-III Wartburg, 11/6 vs D-II University of Mary (N.D.))

Panthers won both, whew. Beat Wartburg 67-46, Beat U of Mary 57-38

What did we learn?
-Well, in a surprise, defense is still a focal point for the Panthers (42 ppg).
-Depth. 10 players played between 12-24 minutes in both games.
-Starting line-up: Ahelegbe, Moran, Dunham, O'Rear, Koch
-Panthers did show a willingness to run when numbers favored it, but still deliberate when it's not there.

What did we not learn?
-Size. Neither team had a player above 6'8" so UNI was not tested inside by a post presence-that'll change in the first game
-Anything in clutch time. Wartburg had a lead for a good chunk of the ifrst half but UNI caught them and pulled away. Mary was close for about 8 minutes before we slowly pulled away-held them scoreless for the first 5 minutes of the second half.
-What kind of shooting team we might be. Three-pointers were not falling (7/25 and 3/18) but were 75%+ on free throws in both games.
-Whether anyone will be a go-to scorer. Not that we may need that given a system that is willing to work it around for open shots. Scoring was spread around in both games (Ahelegbe had 15 in 1st game, 0 in 2nd-Sonnen had 2 points in game 1, 13 in game 2, etc.)

Stats, FWIW:
Ahelegbe 23 min avg, 7.5 ppg, 1 A, 1 TO, 2 reb
Moran 22.5 min, 7.5 ppg, 4.5 A, .5 TO, 3 reb, 3 steals
Dunham 22 min, 7.5 ppg, 1 A, 0 TO, 2 reb
Koch 16.5 min, 5 ppg, 5.5 reb, 1.5 A, 3 TO, 1.5 blocks
O'Rear 21 min, 6.5 ppg, 2.5 reb, 1.5 A, 1.5 TO, 1.5 steals
James 19 min, 8 ppg, 4 reb, 1 A, .5 TO, 1 steal
Sonnen 18 min, 7.5 ppg, 1.5 reb, 1 A, .5 TO
Rank 18 min, 3 ppg, 4 reb, 1 A
Pehl 14.5 min, 7 ppg, 4.5 reb, 1.5 TO
Morrison 12.5 min, 1 ppg, 2 reb

The only other likely to see action was RS Fr F/G Tyler Lange who avg 6 min and 2 reb in the two games

UNI opens the regular season Fri Nov 12, at Syracuse

offense was terrible.

After the Wartburg Game, Jake said that the percentage of practice time spent on defense to that point was around 85%. Might want to change that before Syracuse.

Like the Defense so far though.

Thanks for the synopsis...can I get a little more about your bench play? Is depth going to be a concern for you guys...I know it may be too early to tell but your best guess?

I can hear fans from other Valley teams once conference begins: "GD UNI, suppose to be down this year, why the heck can't we put them away?"

Little Eddie wrote:Thanks for the synopsis...can I get a little more about your bench play? Is depth going to be a concern for you guys...I know it may be too early to tell but your best guess?

Depth is not a concern. We will have depth, and it will be quality depth.

valleychamp wrote:

Little Eddie wrote:Thanks for the synopsis...can I get a little more about your bench play? Is depth going to be a concern for you guys...I know it may be too early to tell but your best guess?

Depth is not a concern. We will have depth, and it will be quality depth.

Perhaps, and I hope you are right. I would be a little concerned about our big guys if a couple of them get in foul trouble.

I would think you would need more than just a couple exhibition games to know for sure how deep your team is. How much experience is on the bench? I literally don't know, so perhaps they are more experienced than I think. However, if it's not a very experienced bench then you would need more than a couple exhibition games to see how deep the team will be. Coaches obviously give alot of players minutes to start figuring out a rotation. Some of those that got 10 mins may not even see much floor time when the season begins. Who knows?

Sonnen and James are first of the bench and both are very experienced. Both of them could easily be starters. They will bring a lot to this team.

Rank (freshman) and Pehl (redshirt soph) will be the bigs of the bench. Rank is very talented and will fit right in. And Pehl has his ups and downs, but he brings good size at 6'10.

And Lang (redshirt frosh), and Morrison (redshirt frosh) will give minutes as well.

James is "very experienced"? 5.9 minutes a game, 1.7 points per game, 20% FT shooter (1/5 on the year)

I wanted to compare those minutes to a familiar situation, so I checked who on WSU's roster was close to those kinds of minutes.

Kenny Manigault, 3rd option at PG - 7.2 minutes per game
Mason Felter - walkon - 4.4 minutes per game.

Neither is on WSU's roster this year.

Sonnen had 11 minutes per game, so he got some decent experience, but you can't call a 6 minutes a game pplayer "experienced", let alone "very experienced". James' stats look like those of a player who mainly got mop-up minutes. 5 FT's in a season qualifies as "very experienced"?

I recommend you re-evaluate some of your standards.