Game 1: Dartmouth

[ramster]

But it was our largest opening game crowd in the history of the school! I'll Take it and build from there.

[rambone 78]

ramster is right on this one....6000+ for Dartmouth would have been unthinkable usually......

[Iggy1979]

Extra long post game AP story since we are ranked. Good quotes from EC.

http://scores.espn.com/ncb/recap?gameId=400918430

This is key because newspaper's around the country routinely run AP's Top 25 roundup,

[Seawrightspostgame]

SLU seats 10,600 in a major city.

[rambone 78]

Small nitpicks from the Dartmouth game.....cut down on the fouling in spite of the aggressive defense...we use too much hands and not enough feet...except for Stan it looks like.....

FT's again......won't win against a team like Cincy if they do that.....

It's the first game though, so reserving judgement......I also expect the FT shooting to improve.....3 pt. shooting will be fine I think.....

One more observation....Hassan will have a monster season if he stays healthy...he must if we are to meet expectations.....the freshmen bigs will take time to become significant contributors.

[Rhody83]

Was at the game. Great crowd. EC looked great. Hass dominated at the end of the first half & in the second half.
Glad Dan got everyone plenty of playing time. Defense is going to be the key.
I have to hold back on being overly optimistic. Dartmouth finished 6th in the Ivy last year.
It is hard to tell if the bench will be impactful against good competition.
Robinson definitely will be on defense. I would say he is the best defensive G on the team
I like Dowtin
Way to many fouls (25)
Outside shooting was bad - Terrell and Garrett were 1-10 in the first half
FT shooting needs to get better

The Cincy game will be the real test.

[ramster]

ramster is right on this one....6000+ for Dartmouth would have been unthinkable usually......

"Right On this one?"

As in "even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while?"

[Blue Man]

I think the most noticeable thing that hasn't been talked about was the rotations.

The reason Dan Hurley should've got a pass with regards to the past 4 seasons (winning, recruiting, and culture aside) was because this is the first time he had the depth of a lineup to use as he wanted. We ran an 11 man rotation last night and it didn't look like play dropped off whatsoever. There may have been offensive shortcomings between the starters and bench guys, but it certainly seems like they'll be able to carry the load.

That's gonna help a lot in tourney scenarios like this weekend to keep everyone fresh.

[RhowdyRam02]

I don't know if it's his increased focus on staying cool, he thought it wasn't worth blowing up considering the level of opponent or both, but Dan didn't get a bench warning, I don't remember him stomping at all and things of that nature. At one point in the first half he started to argue a call and turned and walked away.

[reef]

That's good we need DH to be as cool calm and collected as can be on the sidelines, hopefully no more temper tantrums