I am really looking forward to being on campus for the opener Friday night. I have officially put the pre-season "bumps in the road" behind me, hopefully the team has as well. Does anyone have an update on the injuries? Hope no one is in street clothes on Friday. Go Ramblers!!

I have no confirmed inside knowledge, but I would not expect Tanner Williams or Milton Doyle to be ready to play in the first several games of the season. The Tanner Williams injury sounds more severe, given his knee surgery last season and reports from the scrimmage and exhibition. Tony Nixon is banged up and didn't play at all in the exhibition, either. I'm hopeful for Milton Doyle to be able to play a few minutes by the Rockhurst game on Nov. 19, but no one knows what the extent of his injury could be. We'll obviously need him at full strength by the MVC season if we want to have enough depth to compete with teams in the middle of the standings.

I was very concerned by the performance of Cody Johnson in the Lewis game. He made two fouls and a turnover in two minutes on the court before being yanked. I don't think we can rely totally on O'Leary and Osborne to fill up the lane-- we're going to need minutes from somewhere else. If Tanner Williams is unable to play, Cody Johnson is not ready to play, and Jeremy King doesn't have the confidence of the coach yet, where are minutes in the paint going to come from? Christian Thomas can only do so much, and the physicality of the MVC season is going to take a huge toll on O'Leary and Osborne if they're expected to play 25+ minutes every game.

Moser is going to have to play either Johnson or King for at least 6-10 effective minutes a game, or if that simply isn't possible, develop some kind of three guard rotation that works. But with only five guards available who can be entrusted to play 15 minutes or more, the three guard rotation may have to wait until Doyle can get on the floor for 20 minutes a game.

It's a tough spot to be in with the first game of the season coming up in three days. And then you've got 7 games in 17 days after that.

One of the fouls called against Johnson was a pretty cheap offensive foul that set Moser over the edge screaming at the official for two straight possessions.

But yeah, I wish he or King had been able to play more minutes.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

If we are limited on our players, why not give King a chance to play? I mean, if we are going to be bad, might as well give him a shot to learn on the job.

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Cigarboy sucks!

Nick Osborne and Christian Thomas are going to log a LOT of minutes this season.

As for Cody Johnson, the main impression I came away with after the game was that he was moving around pretty well after limping noticeably in street clothes at the scrimmage. He also looked comfortable, not scared.

Jeremy King entered the game with about a minute left. He was so excited he initially forgot to check in at the scorer's table and could have gotten a technical but the ref reminded him to report.

I don't have much to go on, but I think Johnson's game is more advanced than King's and he will see the majority of minutes as back up for Osborne.

My main concern here is that I think Osbourne would have been a monster at the 4. If he has to defend the 5 all game he is going to be less effective. I wonder why we were not able to follow up 2012 recruiting class with a better 13 recruiting class specifically in terms of meeting needs.I heard Doyle was close.I am also curious about how the new emphasis on keeping hands and arms off effected the huge Lewis output the other day. There were lots of comments about defending the back door which is usually done by kind of a grab and go move.....Not so much anymore. The new rules if enforced will require some coaches to alter how they teach defense. Might see more zones.
GO RAMBLERS

This new emphasis on hand checking has been tried in the past and hardly lasts till the end of the season. It might be more serious this time. I hope so. All it does is eliminate a lot of lazy defense. Real defense is played with the feet. And I don't mean tripping.

We got killed on the backdoor cuts because defenders got lost--especially Turk. They would get caught ball watching and paid the price. It wasn't because they couldn't use hand checks. Porter has to teach them to move their feet and hips to block the cutter's entrance into the lane.

Jeremy King is simply not ready to play college ball. He's not good enough or strong enough to even learn on the job. Practice ought to serve him just fine for the time being. But I echo the concern about Osborne at the 5. His effectiveness against Lewis noticeably declined in the second half.