It was nice to get back into Hilton on Friday. For how everything that I saw looked, other than nothing getting a video feed on the scoreboard, you wouldn't have been able to tell it was just a couple months ago that the lower bowl was several feet underwater.
My take on the exhibition game was that there weren't really any surprises:
We knew what the starting lineup was going to be a couple days before, and that held true. There's been a lot of talk about playing uptempo, and that's what we saw them do. We were told that DG is going to be the centerpiece to the offense, and he tied the team lead in shots attempted including 7 three point attempts. I will throw out there that he did look like a more confident shooter. He seemed to struggle knowing when to pass, and when to try and score, and there were times the last couple of years his confidence was broken
Some other thoughts:
Depth Is An Issue. We have 10 guys eligible, one who is injured (Phillips), and another who played only a little bit as he continues to try and get up to speed (McKnight). Then throw in the fact that we have a walk-on who's going to log serious minuts (Palo) and a prime redshirt candidate under normal circumstances (Railey). I know expectations are not high, and I also know this team will improve a ton with having 4 freshmen. We just cannot afford to have guys go down for significant amounts of time. So we have to knock on some wood that everybody can stay reasonably healthy, and nobody ever gets in foul trouble.... A guy can dream right?
As Expected Play Was A Little Sloppy. With having only played together for such a short amount of time, this was fully expected. As the game went on, it got a little better. But we mostly saw some wild passes.It will take several games to work the kinks out. Many players still do not really know what their roles are. All teams have room to grow in the beginning, and I could see it take the full non-conference or maybe even longer before guys on the team have an idea on what they are doing out there.
As Far As Players Go, It's TBD. Other than Diante Garrett looking like a more confident shooter, it was hard to draw many conclusions about the others. Jamie and Christopherson are the players we are used to seeing. I think Christopherson will have a better year now that he isn't sick anymore. With others its hard to say. Everybody played hard. But just because Godfrey had 6 blocks against guys who were shorter than him, doesn't mean he's going to be the shot block king when Big 12 play comes... Or maybe it does. You just can't draw conclusions based on one game. I thought the team struggled with mid range jumpers. Does that mean they are a bad shooting team, or does it mean they had an off day? Hard to know.
The real games start on Friday against Northern Arizona, and Sunday against Alabama State. I'll be in Boulder for the football game, but if you're in town, I think it's worth going and supporting this largely inexperienced team, as they try to build some confidence early in the season.