Arch Madness - Thursday night game thread

[DUBulldog]

Not sure what to make of the future for Drake and MSU. Both teams have an enviable core of underclassmen to build around, but the coaching hasn't demonstrated the ability to generate results. Priority 1 for both teams is to retain talent.

It took Giacoletti 'til the last 2 games of the season to realize that Kale Abrahamson was killing his team. KA played 3 minutes total in the last 2 games of the year, and those were Drake's two best performances of the conference season.

Drake's one senior played 6 minutes yesterday, and the two juniors combines for 13 minutes. Everybody else was freshman and sophomores. The five guys who played 30+ minutes last night will all still be there next year and the year after (assuming nobody leaves) Bulldogs have 2 more big guys redshirting this season.

But, there's no question the Bulldogs need to get much more athletic. They have a juco point guard coming in next season who has led his team to a 25-5 record this season, but no other scholarships available. Gotta hope that 1-2 guys leave and that Giacoletti can get a couple of more athletic kids. They have the size, they have the shooting ability, just not athletic enough to compete this season.

Still not sure what he saw in that kid. He's had poor shooting mechanics since HS. With West Des Moines so close to Drake Giac wouldn't have to travel far to find out that the kid (and family) have very cancerous "me first" personalities. Too bad it ended up being such an issue at DU

I think he saw a local kid who had several "big-time" offers out of high school, and was a top-150 player on some lists. He probably knew nothing about the reputations of both Kale and his dad for being "difficult".

I didn't expect much out of Abrahamson, but he was far worse than anything I could have imagined.

[DUBulldog]

Is there confidence that Giacoletti will keep him playing fewer minutes next year too though?

That's the big question. If it had been just the Loyola game where he didn't play, I'd have my doubts; but it was two games in a row where he barely played (0 minutes, 3 minutes). All of the guys playing ahead of him in those two games were younger guys, and Drake played two of its better games of the season in those two. All that leads me to believe that Kale will start next season having to prove himself from the bottom. I don't see him as the kind of player who would accept an end-of-the-bench status.