Friday Night Report Card — Men's Hoops
It felt good to be back in the gym Friday night. Live pep bands, the smell of nachos, a couple CCAA teams getting inside from the cold ... all good things. It’s basketball season, and I like it.
What I don’t like is that I can’t be there again tonight, but hey, E-R sports editor Dave Davies deserves a vacation, especially since he’s working all seven days next week. I don’t mind working when I get to cover basketball, but not all my shifts can be winners.
Speaking of winners, Chico State coach Greg Clink had at least 24 hours to call himself that following Friday night’s win over UC Colorado Springs. I’m not quite sure what to make of this game. You never got the feel that Chico State had developed an identity yet, which admittedly is a tall order facing such a new group.
But I liked how they tried to be defensively tough, and the stats reflected a toughening-up from the first half to the second. These guys just have to get used to each other. Onto the grading...
UPS
Whoa, a Wildcat center. Andy Bocian looked good in his ability to give Chico State a presence in the paint. He’s been the leading scorer for this team before, so his 19 points and nine rebounds weren’t necessarily surprising, but it’s nice to see him getting used. I thought he got absolutely assaulted on several non-calls, and still hung tough in the post. And, despair not, Mike Martin fans, you’ve still got a big man who can shoot the 3. Pretty well, too.
I’d like to see what an offense with Bocian and Chris Sharp looks like; nobody could on Friday because Sharp sat out with an ankle injury sustained in Wednesday’s practice. The Wildcats aren’t commenting on it other than to say it’s probably not too serious; Sharp said it’s “not that big a deal.” He knows his ankle a lot better than I do, but in my defense, I haven’t spent much time with it.
Roderick Hawkins hates you if you have the ball. At least that’s how Hawkins looked on Friday. Defensively and on the boards, he stood out more than any other player on the floor. He grabbed nine rebounds and two steals, was stepping in front of people to take charges, diving for loose balls, and then when I went to get a soda, he stepped in front of the cashier and grabbed it. I went to throw my gum wrapper away, and he swatted it from the trash can. Then he taunted Mountain Lions ballhandlers, shouting “Come on!” at them (That part actually is true). Awesome.
A new York. Well, new to Chico State anyway. We’re talking, of course, about York Sims, who returned from knee surgery to change the tide of the whole game. Look, I like half-court offense just as much as the next guy, but sometimes it needs a shake-up. It’s like pudding. It’s fine by itself, but every once in a while, if you don’t stir it up, it will get that skin on top and all you’ll want to do is poke it and leave your fingerprints on it. Wait.
My point is that every team needs its slasher, a guy who can get to the cup, and Sims looked like that guy. He’ll get defended a tad better just because he’s left-handed and will be going to most defenders’ strong sides, but 17 points is no joke.
DOWNS
Stupid, stupid free throws. Yep, believe it or not the NCAA still has this rule that puts you 15 feet from the basket to shoot if you take a shot but get fouled. The trade-off is that nobody can bother your shot. Sounds easy, right? You see where I’m going with this.
The Wildcats went 20-of-32 (62.5 percent), which might not look so bad when compared to the free-throw dump the Mountain Lions took (10-of-17), but it’s still pretty terrible. Hawkins (2-of-6) and Junior Russell (6-of-10) were the worst offenders, not a good sign when you consider that Russell’s style of play lends itself to getting to the line.
Mama said there’d be days like this, Zach Graves. The sophomore went 0-for-7 from the field, including a few that hit nothing, in 16 minutes. I’m sure he couldn’t have been thrilled when A Guy I Don’t Know Personally Named Dave hit the half-court halftime shot.
Graves had a bunch of decent looks and was getting to the basket, but he looked like he was pressing, which is understandable if not forgivable for a young kid in his home opener. My money would be on this being the aberration. I like his enthusiasm and energy; let’s see if he rebounds.
Rebounding. This one might be a little unfair on those who are supposed to rebound, because a lot of it had to do with shot selection. There were a few times where the Wildcats would let ‘er rip with nobody in rebounding position, which itself isn’t particularly encouraging. But Bocian and Hawkins aside, there wasn’t strong evidence of much boxing out; it was more of a “go-get-the-ball” kind of rebounding. That might explain the 43-34 differential, although the Mountain Lions were surprisingly big. Still, they weren’t that big.