I missed the game last night
 

Went to my girlfriend's crappy company Christmas party,,,although I can't complain too much as we won the most free loot.

Anyway,,,for those who saw the game what are your thoughts?

Is it true that JT and Coach Rose had a tiff last night?

It was one of the most entertaining games I have watched in a long time. Very up tempo. Lots of great passing. Lamar was an athletic team and put on a full-court press for much of the game.

Rose showed that he agrees with my assessment of our freshman talent and started Collinsworth over Tavernari. Tav came off the bench and saw his regular minutes but not as many shots. Cummard got the post ups we have seen from Tav and showed a much more efficient offensive game than Tav. I think, if Tav can handle this role, this change could make our team better. Collinsworth is a better defender and rebounder than Tav (this change starts our 3 best defenders) and Cummard is more efficient offensively. Then, when the team is slumping on offense, you can insert Tav with the green light he loves so well.

I watched a little bit of the game.

I was glad to see Loyd knock down a couple of 3's. The announcers said he had a bad first half.

I actually think Loyd will be very solid in the future, and I will go out on a limb and say that Loyd actually has a bigger upside than Fredette.

I really like Loyds athelticism and attitude.

I think once he settles down and gets more comfortable watching he and Fredette together for 4 years will be fun.

Lloyd has a greater ability to penetrate and better defensive skills than Fredette. I don't think he will ever be the serious long range bomber that Fredette will be but I agree that he has better upside because of his overall athletic skills.

As we see with Tavernari, it's not particularly hard to stand next to someone 3 feet behind the 3-point line.

If your game is one-dimensional, it's not hard to shut you down. I'm not saying Fredette will always be one dimensional--he does have some ability to put the ball on the floor, but it is marginal at this level.

In my mind there are 3 facets to scoring as a guard. Outside shooting, mid-range jumper, and ability to get to the rim. Jimmer has to improve on the latter two.

I think Jimmer has a nice midrange jumper but is a little small and slow to get it off. Over time I expect he will either become a 3 point specialist (like Rose last year) or he will need to get to the rim (like you say above). If you can't get to the rim, you don't get to shoot the midrange jumper.

I would like to try and guard Jimmer.

I have no doubt he is a far superior to me. But I wonder how his slowness compares to my slowness.

When Rose pulled JT from the game in the first half, apparently Tav didn't think he should have been taken out because when Rose went to give him five and pat him on the back, Tavernari slapped up at Rose's hand pretty hard and pronounced showing his displeasure with being pulled. For good reason, that pissed off Rose who followed Tavernari to the end of the bench and had some words with JT - and it didn't appear they were discussing where they would meet for ice-cream cones after the game.