Sorry it's late but I was waiting until the football game was over.
1. The offense looks completely different this year. Last year we were very deliberate. We walked the ball up. This year we get the ball up the floor with urgency. Last season we either cleared out for Ike or Maldonado. I saw very little of that. It's a lot of motion, spacing, and re-spacing to manipulate defenders and find open guys. There was a very nice sequence where we swung the ball to all 5 players around the three point line and buried the three at the end of it. It was glorious to watch. Ike and Maldo still get post touches. It just happens in a different way. Last year it was very slow and it usually involved someone getting backed down. Now it's happening quickly, before the defense can rotate and double. I think we're going to see Ike playing a lot more from the outside in this season. We're definitely playing at a quicker pace. We had a couple of oops, one in transition and one in the half court offense. It looks like we'll have a little more "Dunktown" in this team.
2. Defensively we have the personnel to be elite, but we're not anywhere near elite yet. That length is going to suffocate people. The physicality of our players will allow us to dominate teams that aren't strong. The issue of us not being able to keep guys like House out of the lane looks like it's over. Ethan got to the rack some, but I didn't really see anyone getting to the rack on Ethan.
If we had a real game today the starters would have been: Maldo, Noah, Wenzel, J.O., Graham. They started the scrimmage with all those guys on one squad. That's today's starting 5.
Individually:
1. If you want to see Graham Ike wearing Brown and Gold you better watch him this season. He's going to the league. He is our best player. He was the most polished player on the floor. He looks like he's ready for the regular season right now. Today, we didn't feed him in the post as much. He played a lot on the exterior, made both of his three point attempts, and at times was handling the ball like a point guard. He wasn't backing guys down as much. He was dribbling past them on the way to the rim. Graham looks like he added outside elements to his already dominant inside game. His handles today we're incredibly impressive.
2. Maldonado played very well. He still runs the point a lot, but he isn't the only guy bringing it up the floor. They we're moving him around quite a bit. Maldonado was very good today and didn't have turnover issues.
3. Noah Reynolds might be the best 3 point shooter on the team now that Drake is gone. I didn't see him charging down the lane out of control like he did last season. He played pretty solid defense as well. Noah looked good. His decision making was excellent.
4. Before today, I thought the Slim Reaper(Nate Barnhart) was too skinny to play. Now, I'm not sure. He might be too skinny defensively. I didn't see enough to determine that. The guy makes a lot of plays. He did at last years scrimmage as well. He's a great help defender because he blocks shots without even having to jump. He's a very good rebounder. He's smart. He can pass. He seems to be in the right place often. He buried a couple of threes and is a good shooter at all three levels(inside, mid-range, and outside). I wouldn't be surprised to see him play this year as a redshirt freshmen. Out of everyone I watched, he surprised me the most. If the Slim Reaper can defend, he's going to be a major problem for people. I didn't keep stats, but he led the team in blocks, was up there in rebounds, and was probably top 4 in points.
Newcomers:
1. I have to mention Jake Kyman first. He impressed me the most. The dude hit 3 threes in a row, until I jinxed him by telling my wife, "He's not going to miss all season". It wasn't just his shooting that impressed me. I didn't understand what Linder meant when he described Jake as a "basketball player". I do now. The guy just gets it. His movement is efficient and results in him getting a lot of open looks. He does a lot of little things most fans don't notice(setting screens, diving for loose balls). He might have the highest basketball I.Q. on the team and everyone on this team is smart. He just makes plays. He's a potential fan favorite this season.
2. Ethan Anderson is fun to watch. He brings the ball up with pace. He has great handles. He goes to the rack strong. He looked really good defensively. He looks like a guy that can cover the Matt Bradley's and Jalen House's of the league. He will end up on Sports Center Top 10 tossing lobs to J.O. and Max in transition. He's the real deal at point guard.
3. Max is another guy that adds a lot defensively. His length, quickness, and athleticism allows him to cover almost anyone in our league. He jumps the passing lanes. He had a couple of steals today that led to easy transition hoops. Maldonado served him up a sweet oop in transition. I think Linder is pushing him the hardest right now, like he did with Wenzel at the start of last season. He struggled with the altitude a bit(called for a sub), but if he can stay on the floor, he's probably one of the top defenders in the MWC right now. He's bringing Dunktown back with his defense and ability in transition. Max is a one man fast break.
4. Caden looked as good as anyone else on our team trying to defend Graham. I saw a play where he called out for help trying to defend Graham and got a guy to rotate to double him. He ended up fouling Graham, but calling for the double and fouling Graham we're both the right thing to do in that situation. I think he's going to be good against MWC opponents not named Graham Ike. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately, he has to guard Graham Ike as a true freshman.
We've got a lot of work to do in the 37 days leading to our first game, but we look really promising. Iron sharpens iron, and the Dome of Doom has an abundance of iron. They just need to keep grinding. We're big. We're long. We're deep. We're experienced. We have leaders. We have shooters. We have passers. We have handlers. We have elite defenders. We have rebounders. We've got it ALL.
Having said that, we have sloppy plays, we have turnovers, we have lazy passes, we have stupid fouls, we have missed rotations, we have crashers not crashing, we're still not in game shape, guys need to learn how Linder wants them to space the floor, and a lot of guys aren't shooting the ball as well as they need to be. We've got a lot of work to do to eliminate all of those negatives. If that happens, the sky is the limit for this team.
opcorn: 
