Carino: SHU looking to 'show who we are' at Rady Children’s Invitational
- Thread starter Halldan1
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I think USC is ripe for the taking with their injuries and some seemingly early season struggles (losing to Irvine).
USC has been a little wobbly due to injuries.
No idea what to expect and looking forward to watching this team take a step up.
No idea what to expect and looking forward to watching this team take a step up.
Very winnable game given how badly hurt USC has been. Hopefully we have Everett back as we could take advantage of the height.
Not sure about a height advantage.
Hornery 6’10”
Morgan 6’11”
Iwuchukwu 7’1”
All three play significant minutes and that’s just their frontcourt. They have some big guards too. In fact, Boogie Ellis is their smallest player at 6’3”. Everyone else is 6’5” or taller.
Going 0-2 would represent the type of missed opportunity that we lament about the Willard era.
Games like these matter for making the NCAA field and for seeding. Losing both means having to win two of three at minimum from among Baylor, RU and Missouri or finding an extra win or two that we don't expect in Big East play.
All three play significant minutes and that’s just their frontcourt. They have some big guards too. In fact, Boogie Ellis is their smallest player at 6’3”. Everyone else is 6’5” or taller.
Their bigs are very raw and got constantly beat off the offensive glass by a smaller brown team. Let's see what happens
Two of USC’s best players – Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johson – came back for their recent game against Brown. Ellis is yet another 5th year star guard who spent his first 2 season at Memphis and Johnson a JR, a very good SG/SF type. Boogie was a Preseason All American. Then all the hype is on their stud freshman class led by Isaiah Collier with Bronny James still sidelined.
Their 10-point loss to UC Irvine was the only game both Ellis and Johnson missed.
Their strength is at guard/wing. Fortunately ours is too. Would be a HUGE win. It would remind me of the Kentucky game in 2018-19 when we were trying to figure out what that team was as we knew we had a star in Powell (Richmond?) and a potentially some good complementary players like Cale and Mamu (Dawes/Davis?), but who knew?
Their 10-point loss to UC Irvine was the only game both Ellis and Johnson missed.
Their strength is at guard/wing. Fortunately ours is too. Would be a HUGE win. It would remind me of the Kentucky game in 2018-19 when we were trying to figure out what that team was as we knew we had a star in Powell (Richmond?) and a potentially some good complementary players like Cale and Mamu (Dawes/Davis?), but who knew?
That 2018-19 group was a little further along than I think this group is and the Kentucky game was a couple of weeks deeper into the season than we are now.
That year we got smacked by Nebraska in Lincoln and then lost to St. Louis before going to Anaheim and winning the Wooden Legacy by beating Grand Canyon, Hawaii and Miami (solid but not great competition). We also lost to a good Louisville team before playing UK.
Conversely, this team has faced little competition or adversity to this point. It's a bit of a lesson on the differences in scheduling philosophy. Plus, I think we can agree that Powell and Richmond influence(d) a game differently.
Powell could light up the scoreboard (ask Calipari about that) and when he was in the zone, there was no stopping him. Richmond isn't close to that type of scorer though he can be with the right matchup. His strength revolves around his ability to get other players the ball in the right spot. It's then incumbent on the complementary players to convert.
I get the theoretical comparison, but I don't think this USC team is anywhere near as talented as that Kentucky group. That Kentucky team was "young", like many of them are, and we caught them early, but there were about 4 legit NBA players on that squad. And as I recall they had the big kid Grad Transfer from Stanford, I believe, who was supposed to provide some needed experience because of their youth.
KR looks better and along the lines of the player we hoped we were getting from Cuse years ago, no doubt. But I'll need to see about 25 high-level games this season, including most all of the BE schedule, before I start comparing him to probably our best player in decades.
I think Piratz's point (he made the original comparison) was at that time Powell wasn't quite that player although he had shown flashes to that point.
I’d say that’s pretty accurate. By the time this tournament is done, the team really will us who they are. Lots of question, and there will be some answers.
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