Phil Pressey
Pressey was content to not force the action as he didn't even take his first shot until 17 minutes into the ball game. He got a little trigger happy in the second half and ultimately ended up with a pretty forgettable stat line of 5 points, 7 assists and 4 steals. While the Bowers dunk was the highlight of the game, Pressey should get 90% of the credit as he did a ridiculous spin-move with the dribble at half court that very few can pull off at full speed (no one does it better than Pressey). The no-look pass to Bowers was the cherry on top. Grade: 5/10.
Laurence Bowers
Bowers started off great by scoring the first 7 points of the game and hitting his first 5 shots (2 of which were 3s). He then continued to shoot well the entire half as he himself equaled the entire output of the Appalachian State team. He normally starts off slowly, so it was great to see him start strong. Unfortunately, he completely disappeared in the second half as his contribution to the team in the second stanza was 2 points, 1 rebound and 3 turnovers. Bowers has yet to put two good halves together this season. Will it happen? Inquiring minds want to know. Grade: 7/10.
Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi seems to have lost his touch from the line. Not much else worth saying. Grade: 4/10.
Negus Webster-Chan
Webster-Chan gets a lot of minutes and pretty much does nothing (0 points on 4 shots in 28 minutes). In essence, he is getting the minutes that would have been played by Michael Dixon. He is not one-tenth of the player that Dixon is, but that is the last I am going to say along those lines as the Dixon ship has sailed. My hope is that Jabari Brown is good enough on both ends to be getting all of these minutes because NWC is somewhat of a stand-in player at this point in his career in that he doesn't lose games, but neither does he win them. Grade: 4/10.
Earnest Ross
Ross had a nice stat line and I was happy with his presence on the boards. He had a nice sequence where he ran the floor and was able to finish with two lay-ups on consecutive possessions. His shot selection is still a little suspect, but I'm not going to complain too much in this game. Grade: 6/10.
Keion Bell
Bell is what he is. I for one am learning to accept him just as that. He is a great rebounder for his size and is decent enough on defense and in transition that he deserves the minutes that he is getting. His outside shot is horrible looking, but he knocked down one three in this game (the basketball term "rainbow" doesn't quite do his outside shot justice). I much prefer it when he picks his spots to attack the goal, but even then he rushes his shot a bit. What I LOVE about his game is that he is virtually automatic at the line and he has that awkward long-step to the goal which is going to draw some fouls. Bell is going to help this team. Grade: 6/10.
Tony Criswell
Criswell continues to be active on the boards in his limited game action (grabbed all 3 of his rebounds in his first 5 minutes of action). I wish he would be a little more judicious in his shot selection as he has a pretty quick trigger whenever he touches the ball on the offensive end of the floor. The thing is...he makes some of them. The problem with Criswell is that he has the game of a 6'5" small forward, but he's 6'9" (which I guess really isn't a problem...surely those 4 inches come in handy from time to time). If Criswell could figure out how to play good defense, his minutes would double. Grade: 7/10.
Rosburg and Jankovic
Rosburg continues to get minutes and he actually did a couple of nice things while in the game early on by taking two charges. But when both he and Jankovic were in at the same time at the end of the first half, Appalachian State went on a 6-0 run to close out the half. Based upon what we have seen from these two, it really would have made sense to redshirt one of them as they just don't seem to bring much when you consider that between the two of them, they played 16 minutes and finished with a grand total of 2 points on 4 field goals and 2 free throws. No need to give these guys a grade.
Overall Thoughts
I considered this game (and the next two) as fillers. Let's get Brown in the rotation and see what this team has as it preps for the meat of the season.
I don't have any desire to discuss the Dixon situation. But I will say this, losing him is a huge blow to this team's chances to be really good. I know the team is very upset (even angry) about how everything played out and are still a bit shell-shocked at the realization that Dixon will not be playing with them this year (from a legitimate source). While I don't expect anyone to perform as well as Mike would have, this does give plenty of opportunity for someone else to step up and be a primary weapon this year. The lone positive in all of this is simply this...we know what we have to work with and they have been working together in all of the games up to this point in the season. Let's hope they pull together and turn into a darn good team.
Next up: SEMO on Tuesday.
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