– Redhawk Down
“Redhawk Down” is an understatement as our Cards completely dominated this game from start to finish. And looked pretty good in the last dress rehearsal before the big trip to the Bahamas this week to “Battle 4 Atlantis”. Cards roll 80-39.
When watching this game tonight it was very apparent that talent is everywhere on this squad. Yes Cards fans this team is very deep and loaded. They are the strongest at the most important spots on the floor point guard and center. Peyton Siva was the talk of the college basketball world before the season started a few weeks ago and so far he is living up to his billing. He is averaging 9 assist a game and that time he spent attending the Chris Paul point guard camp seems to be paying off. His shots seem more effortless and fundamentally sound. Tonight he had 6 points, 10 assist, and 4 steals. Gorgui Dieng was probably the second most hyped player in the time leading up to this season behind Peyton and he hasn’t disappointed either. He was one rebound shy of having his 3rd double-double in a row. He was not only great on the defensive side of the floor tonight but was very efficient on the offensive side of the ball as well. He had 11 points which included a monster dunk that will surely be on the top 10 plays of SportsCenter tonight. To go along with 9 boards and one steal.
And perhaps the biggest surprise of this early season has been the offensive performances by Russ Smith. He has been a scoring machine averaging over 20 a game and has lead in that category the last 3 times out. He had 23 points and was 5-7 from 3 point land tonight. One of my questions coming into this game was if Russ could start putting together more complete games by adding some assists and rebounding to his performances? Well tonight that answer was no. He didn’t have a rebound, assist, or a steal. I’m very impressed with his offensive out-put but in order for this team to go Russ is gonna have to add more to the stat sheet than what he’s done so far.
Welcome back Chane Behanan. He is such a polished and powerful player down low. He dominated his position tonight and when he establishes a low center of gravity he is gonna put any defender at a disadvantage. He also possesses strong hands to rebound the ball and soft hands to score it. He’s always capable of producing a double-double. My second question coming into this game was if he would continue his climb out of the hole he had dug for himself to start the season? The answer to that question is yes. Chane is back and he had 7 points with 7 rebounds in a solid performance tonight.
Was great to see this team come out and have a better shooting performance tonight. It seems like everyone was making threes. They shot 12-26 from three point land for 46.2% and also shot and impressive 80% from the free throw line hitting 12 of 15. But we all know that this team will not be champions because of their offense. If this team is cutting down the nets in Atlanta at the end of the season it will be because of their suffocating defense. Coming into this game the Cards had made 60 of their 159 points off of turnovers. Tonight they had 24 points off of turnovers and held Miami(OH) under 29% from the field. The defensive pressure was awesome in this game and the guys were flying all over the court. My third and final question heading into this game tonight was if we would see some match-up zone in preparation for tougher competition down the road? Didn’t see much of the zone but the full court pressure was awesome. And due to our depth we may not have to play as much zone this year. Looks like we will go man-to-man and press, press, press.
Tonight was a great dress rehearsal for the tough week ahead and without question our Cards played the part of the #2 team in the country.
Coach Pitino: “This was a great game for us, and we definitely played well in all facets of the game.”
