Ugly win for F&M tonight over Juniata, despite the 82-60 final score. 26 turnovers is absurd. Even the 40-26 rebounding advantage is misleading because Juniata missed so many more shots than F&M.
I held off on posting after the first 2 games because I didn't know what to make of the team. Well, I still don't. I'm not sure I see quite as much potential as some other posters have noted. The inside guys simply don't have the size or strength to compete defensively against some frontcourts. They're getting pushed out of position consistently, making the entry passes easy, and I'm not sure how much they can improve that. I think their rebounding will continue to suffer because of this as well.
On offense, neither Hines nor Yost seems to be able to finish around the hoop. Yost's inability to go up strong is particularly frustrating because the rest of his game looks pretty good. Also, the guard depth, which should be a strength, has been disappointing. Outerbridge and Smith have been very good (although Smith may be forcing the issue too much), but no one else has stepped up. Chasen has looked lost. Hopefully he just needs more time to come all the way back from his injury (anybody know the details of that, by the way?).
Maybe I'm just being too impatient. I can see how this team could be very good against some types of teams, but they will struggle all year against teams with strong frontcourts.
