Wingate Exhibition Postgame

49ers Basketball Forum 🏀
1

Worse exhibition attendance ever? Less than 2,000. Maybe even 1,500. Everyone at the beach or didn’t have dvr so stayed home to watch the football game? Box score says 3,700… Maybe half that.

Boxscore: http://m.charlotte49ers.com/pdf9/2559766.pdf

Think I predicted 20 wins before the game, after the first half I would of said 15 wins, after the 2nd half I say 19.

Henry did nothing the first half then asserted himself on offense in the 2nd. At one point knocking down 3 threes in a row. Seemed he did that alot last year too, waiting until the last 10 min of the game before attacking. I know he’s trying to get everyone involved but he needs to attack more in the 1st. He should be our leading scorer.

Clayton’s first points were a jumper from about 10 feet out. As usual he was strong on the boards and got some put backs. Still needs work on his free throws.

Was impressed by Lester in the 2nd half. He showed his athleticism. He knocked down some shots and wasn’t scared to attack the rim.

Blakely loves his threes, but was 0-3 I think. He has an odd shot coming from his shoulder. He had an opportunity to go up hard to the rim from 5ft out but chose a jump shot that missed. Not sure what to think about him. He’s a freshman though.

Cherry played well, missed some threes though but looked quick on the floor.

Thorne looked pretty good. Nice hook shots and a dunk. Didn’t seem winded at all.

Bryan looks like he can contribute some but wouldn’t expect too much on offense. He’s a freshman so he should improve. I’d guess he averages 2-5 ppg.

Damn I hate Darion Clark transferred. We would be a lot better with him.

Defense was blah. Gave up open looks. Played better in 2nd half but wingate missed several good looks. Defense down low is a big question mark.

2

Lester did the same as Henry. Played lazy in first half but stepped it up in the second.

Fred was Fred. Nice to see him hit a jumper, butt he’s still bad from the line.

Thorne looked good.

Cherrys ability to move with the ball surprised me.

Bryan looked like he could fill in and nit make major mistakes, although I don’t expect much scoring from him.

Williams looked alright. Not much different than last year.

3

Intro music was hip hop which is better than the past rock music BUT it was still slow or seemed out of place in a basketball intro. I don’t know what it is but the intro creators are thinking way too much into it. It’s not rocket science. It needs to be hiphop with a fast beat. Anyone remember what it was? I would go as far to say the intro sucked! Terrible.

The player videos during intros is a ball smashing the court and breaking up around them. It’s different but not as good as the last 2 years.

Court looks good. Clean. The cusa is kinda hard to make out though.

Norm got himself a pick ax

They have a wall wrap in the concession area with player pics.

4

I wish they’d do that wall wrap all along the white walls inside the arena. Not exactly the same, but something similar to what the football stadium has.

5

This was what I expected for us having so many new bodies on the court. Hopefully, we get it going sooner or it will be much tougher to get a big 2nd half.

Lester plays above the rim. Looks ready to play big boy basketball with no problems.

Thorne looks like he can hold the center position just fine. Would’ve only had two fouls except for one bad call. Thorne needs to body up better to keep his guy farther from the hoop. He let them get up too close to the hoop to stop the baby hooks.

Henry can take over the game at will.

Clayton was a little disappointing with some of his play. FT shooting was bad. Still does what he does well with rebounds and put backs. Like the range he showed on his first shot.

TWill looked off tonight. He did ok, but I expect him to flash more.

Cherry is better than I thought he would be, but not automatic from 3.

The freshmen, well looked like freshmen.

I think we will be similar to last year with maybe 3 more wins thanks to CUSA schedule versus A10 schedule.

Crowd was disappointing. Alumni seating was pretty bare. Maybe many were watching football, but the student section should have had more students.

6

[quote=“Dowless, post:5, topic:28359”]This was what I expected for us having so many new bodies on the court. Hopefully, we get it going sooner or it will be much tougher to get a big 2nd half.

Lester plays above the rim. Looks ready to play big boy basketball with no problems.

Thorne looks like he can hold the center position just fine. Would’ve only had two fouls except for one bad call. Thorne needs to body up better to keep his guy farther from the hoop. He let them get up too close to the hoop to stop the baby hooks.

Henry can take over the game at will.

Clayton was a little disappointing with some of his play. FT shooting was bad. Still does what he does well with rebounds and put backs. Like the range he showed on his first shot.

TWill looked off tonight. He did ok, but I expect him to flash more.

Cherry is better than I thought he would be, but not automatic from 3.

The freshmen, well looked like freshmen.

I think we will be similar to last year with maybe 3 more wins thanks to CUSA schedule versus A10 schedule.

Crowd was disappointing. Alumni seating was pretty bare. Maybe many were watching football, but the student section should have had more students.[/quote]

Good/accurate assessment. First half: WTF?! Second half: team shifted into D1 b-ball gear and blew by them. We’ll get better.

7

I would have gone to Ex. DH if they showed FB on jumbotron. Not my fault they don’t.
Twitter says sub shop is gone. Where is GTG or PAD to investigate? I swear take time off to go to grad school, & journalism investigation dies. :))

8

I think you guys are going to have to give folks a pass on attendance. A tv football game against a ranked opponent trumps an exhibition game against a DII team any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

9

[quote=“49RFootballNow, post:8, topic:28359”]I think you guys are going to have to give folks a pass on attendance. A tv football game against a ranked opponent trumps an exhibition game against a DII team any day of the week and twice on Sunday.[/quote]agree. Even the people at the game were hanging out in the lobby a good bit watching the game.

10

i only got to see the first half of the game because i had to work but here are my thoughts.
they were defintely a step up in competition exhibition wise from pfeiffer and queens. they looked like they are probably one of the better d2 teams in the country. i was really impressed with their center. he had that hook shot down pat.
i am trying to temper my for how good i think thorne is going to be. he definitely still needs to consistently hit certain shots and needs to not get backed down as easily and become a better shot blocker but this kid’s upside is tremendous. he could be dominant. probably not yet but i think he will be.
clayton looked good other than the free thrown shooting. i am confident he will work on that. i liked that he looked confident when he hit that fifteen foot jump shot. he could be a great player if he could hit that semi-regularly. between him and thorne i think we have two front court studs. what we have after them is still in question.
lester looks great in transition and an underrated passer. he looks like a very good ballhandler. i would like to see major let him and williams run. not a lot of teams could keep up with them if they do. he needs to be more consistent offensively but he looks very talented. i love that he’s only a freshman(for all intents and purposes).
blakely did not do a lot for me to judge him on. he is definitely a small forward down the road. not a true post player but the skill and upside is there.
bryan had one nice tip that lead to an offensive rebound but other than that did not impress me. at best he is a willis hall(college of charleston power forward). not that there is anything wrong with that. if he does not improve a lot he will get lost in the shuffle and recurited over. does rebound hard.
i am still worried about our ability to stop dribble penetration and block shots but it is still early so hopefully we get better at that.
we should be helped out quite a bit by having ingram and benkovic there. we did not have a true backup point guard and we’re playing without two of our best three point shooters and i think having them changes a lot and does not put as much pressure on cherry. i like cherry. i think his shots will fall and he was better defensivley and he had a nice play where he drove and dished between two defenders for a layup. seems like a smart player and i like the combo of him and benkovic.
i am not making win predictions. these next three games, especially charleston, scare me. i’m encouraged by some things i saw today and scared about some things. i am not willing to commit to say that we are or are not a tournament team. i think it is doable but not definite.

11

This is the only time I would ever pull against the Niners, so I was there in my Wingate blue. Wingate’s homecoming was FB game was at 1 so very few Wingate fans there (though that may not have mattered). I would assume the Niners football game could have effected attendance, but the fact it was an exhibition at 4 in the afternoon may have been enough.

I could only be there for a half, but Wingate played the Niners pretty tough. They have won their conference tourney and advanced past the first round of the NCAA the past two years, so they are a team that expects to win. Should be a pretty good D2 team. This was likely the best exhibition opponent Charlotte has scheduled in a little while.

Wingate actually had a couple of athletic big guys that could match up with Clayton, at least in height. They bothered him early on, and gave him some hard fouls. Willie still shoots like Shaq from the free throw line.

Lester showed some pretty decent ball handling skills from what I saw, I would say he’s the third PG after Ingram. Looks like our best athlete.

Thorne had butter fingers early, but got it together as the game went on. Had some nice dunks down low.

Cherry missed some wide open looks, but looked more athletic than I expected him to be. Doesn’t seem like he’ll be a defensive liability like Benny is. If he knocks down the open threes this year, we’ll be tough to beat in CUSA.

It looks like Pierria got motivated in the the 2nd half, cuz he didn’t seem to do much in the first half but ended as leading scorer. If he can consistently knock down jump shots from the top of the key this year at a decent clip, and do what he usually does on defense, I really believe he will be CUSA player of the year.

[font=Verdana]I thought Charlotte was feeling out Wingate throughout the first half, wasn’t so much a lack of effort, as much as a lack of urgency on both defense and offense.[/font]

Wingate’s SG Daye hit a couple of long, heat-check threes for the Bulldogs, otherwise Charlotte would have likely had a 9 point lead at the half.

It was fun for me to see little ol Wingate in a real basketball arena against a big team like Charlotte as opposed to the glorified high school gym that we play in normally, but from here on out Go Niners!

12

[quote=“Wingate49erFan, post:11, topic:28359”]This is the only time I would ever pull against the Niners, so I was there in my Wingate blue. Wingate’s homecoming was FB game was at 1 so very few Wingate fans there (though that may not have mattered). I would assume the Niners football game could have effected attendance, but the fact it was an exhibition at 4 in the afternoon may have been enough.

I could only be there for a half, but Wingate played the Niners pretty tough. They have won their conference tourney and advanced past the first round of the NCAA the past two years, so they are a team that expects to win. Should be a pretty good D2 team. This was likely the best exhibition opponent Charlotte has scheduled in a little while.

Wingate actually had a couple of athletic big guys that could match up with Clayton, at least in height. They bothered him early on, and gave him some hard fouls. Willie still shoots like Shaq from the free throw line.

Lester showed some pretty decent ball handling skills from what I saw, I would say he’s the third PG after Ingram. Looks like our best athlete.

Thorne had butter fingers early, but got it together as the game went on. Had some nice dunks down low.

Cherry missed some wide open looks, but looked more athletic than I expected him to be. Doesn’t seem like he’ll be a defensive liability like Benny is. If he knocks down the open threes this year, we’ll be tough to beat in CUSA.

It looks like Pierria got motivated in the the 2nd half, cuz he didn’t seem to do much in the first half but ended as leading scorer. If he can consistently knock down jump shots from the top of the key this year at a decent clip, and do what he usually does on defense, I really believe he will be CUSA player of the year.

[font=verdana]I thought Charlotte was feeling out Wingate throughout the first half, wasn’t so much a lack of effort, as much as a lack of urgency on both defense and offense.[/font]

Wingate’s SG Daye hit a couple of long, heat-check threes for the Bulldogs, otherwise Charlotte would have likely had a 9 point lead at the half.

It was fun for me to see little ol Wingate in a real basketball arena against a big team like Charlotte as opposed to the glorified high school gym that we play in normally, but from here on out Go Niners![/quote]

i wouldnt mind having wingate’s center on our team. he had a very nice offensive game. their shooting guard was definitely not afraid to shoot. i liked that we stepped up in competition for our exhibition. i think we get more out of this than by beating a team like pfeiffer by 62 like last season. there was a decent amount of wingate fans at the game.

13

We always seem to play the first half of our exhibitions to the level of our competition, and then turn it on in the second half. In spite of some sloppiness there are some pluses.

Thorne plays both ends of the floor, has quick feet for a big guy, and is going to change a lot of shots. His stamina seemed pretty good. The hook shot is a lost art and he has a decent one that works especially well on put backs.

SJ is wrong. Big surprise! Cherry is going to get plenty of minutes this year. He moves well without the ball, plays decent defense, and can score well enough. Between his experience and shooting he will earn his scholarship.

Lester is going to be fun to watch. He may have what it takes to replace Mayfield. I liked Bryan. He is only a freshman but he seemed to know what he was supposed to be doing out there. I think he will develop just fine.

The GoldDusters recruited well and are ready for a strong season. I think football has them in coming into hoops season in game shape.

Henry and Clayton looked like they did last year, which is a good thing. I want to see our leadership come from them this year and it will take a few games to see how that goes. TWill didn’t show me anything new, but it is early so I will keep my fingers crossed. Blakely brings 5 fouls to the game. Hopefully there will be more.

14

If we had the depth we should have red shirted Blakely. He is half the thickness that Thorne is so he is going to get pushed around a lot this season. If he would have made a couple of those open 3’s we would be speaking differently of him. He does seem to hang out on the outside a bit much for a big man. Hopefully, he improves as a post player and brings a good outside shot along with it. He has some time to grow. Bryan looked ok, but he is about the same as Blakely in my opinion. He grabbed more minutes because he fills the roll of SF, but his numbers were not much different than Blakely’s. In 32 minutes of play they gave us 2 points on 1-7 shooting with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Those are small numbers, but the best things that they did is that they only gave up 1 foul and committed 0 turnovers. So they didn’t help much, but really didn’t hurt us any. I can live with that from those guys for now.

A little more about Thorne and his opponent. The Winthrop big men were as tall as Thorne, but were quick and looked polished for DII. Thorne ran well and played with good energy. He could have had 20 is some of his close shots would have fallen. He took one ugly outside shot starting from the 3 point line and stepping inside the arc. He looked timid and rushed that shot, but in warm-ups he showed that he can hit at that range. When Thorne took one shot I noticed he had the ball a foot and a half above any hands. Not going to block those. He has a good FT shot and looks confident from there. As he gets more game experience he will get even better. I think by mid-season he will be seen as an upgrade over Braz if not earlier.

15

i also want to say this about thorne. he really goes hard for rebounds. he was skying for some of those defensive rebounds and snatched them with two hands so nobody else could get them and he crashes the boards hards for offensive rebounds. when someone that big goes that hard for rebounds, it can really make him into a great player. he will have his up and down moments this season, as will any young big man but i think he will give us plenty of wow moments.

16

[quote=“Dowless, post:14, topic:28359”]If we had the depth we should have red shirted Blakely. He is half the thickness that Thorne is so he is going to get pushed around a lot this season. If he would have made a couple of those open 3’s we would be speaking differently of him. He does seem to hang out on the outside a bit much for a big man. Hopefully, he improves as a post player and brings a good outside shot along with it. He has some time to grow. Bryan looked ok, but he is about the same as Blakely in my opinion. He grabbed more minutes because he fills the roll of SF, but his numbers were not much different than Blakely’s. In 32 minutes of play they gave us 2 points on 1-7 shooting with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Those are small numbers, but the best things that they did is that they only gave up 1 foul and committed 0 turnovers. So they didn’t help much, but really didn’t hurt us any. I can live with that from those guys for now.

A little more about Thorne and his opponent. The Winthrop big men were as tall as Thorne, but were quick and looked polished for DII. Thorne ran well and played with good energy. He could have had 20 is some of his close shots would have fallen. He took one ugly outside shot starting from the 3 point line and stepping inside the arc. He looked timid and rushed that shot, but in warm-ups he showed that he can hit at that range. When Thorne took one shot I noticed he had the ball a foot and a half above any hands. Not going to block those. He has a good FT shot and looks confident from there. As he gets more game experience he will get even better. I think by mid-season he will be seen as an upgrade over Braz if not earlier.[/quote]I was thinking just the opposite. I am not sure what his numbers were, and they may have been fine, but it is a weird shot. He takes his left hand completely off the ball and shoots with one hand.

17

[quote=“Nugget, post:16, topic:28359”][quote=“Dowless, post:14, topic:28359”]If we had the depth we should have red shirted Blakely. He is half the thickness that Thorne is so he is going to get pushed around a lot this season. If he would have made a couple of those open 3’s we would be speaking differently of him. He does seem to hang out on the outside a bit much for a big man. Hopefully, he improves as a post player and brings a good outside shot along with it. He has some time to grow. Bryan looked ok, but he is about the same as Blakely in my opinion. He grabbed more minutes because he fills the roll of SF, but his numbers were not much different than Blakely’s. In 32 minutes of play they gave us 2 points on 1-7 shooting with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Those are small numbers, but the best things that they did is that they only gave up 1 foul and committed 0 turnovers. So they didn’t help much, but really didn’t hurt us any. I can live with that from those guys for now.

A little more about Thorne and his opponent. The Winthrop big men were as tall as Thorne, but were quick and looked polished for DII. Thorne ran well and played with good energy. He could have had 20 is some of his close shots would have fallen. He took one ugly outside shot starting from the 3 point line and stepping inside the arc. He looked timid and rushed that shot, but in warm-ups he showed that he can hit at that range. When Thorne took one shot I noticed he had the ball a foot and a half above any hands. Not going to block those. He has a good FT shot and looks confident from there. As he gets more game experience he will get even better. I think by mid-season he will be seen as an upgrade over Braz if not earlier.[/quote]I was thinking just the opposite. I am not sure what his numbers were, and they may have been fine, but it is a weird shot. He takes his left hand completely off the ball and shoots with one hand.[/quote]

He was 3-4. I’m not a coach so I don’t speak much of form, but as a spectator the arc and velocity of his FT’s look good for a guy of his size and they are consistent. If he can do it one handed great. Maybe Clayton should start the one handed toss as well. :slight_smile:

18

highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBiNSNSpTfU&feature=c4-overview&list=UUKuiGnWXMS4JfRlBZQGjzzg

postgame: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGS01646jAQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUKuiGnWXMS4JfRlBZQGjzzg

19

[quote=“Dowless, post:17, topic:28359”][quote=“Nugget, post:16, topic:28359”][quote=“Dowless, post:14, topic:28359”]If we had the depth we should have red shirted Blakely. He is half the thickness that Thorne is so he is going to get pushed around a lot this season. If he would have made a couple of those open 3’s we would be speaking differently of him. He does seem to hang out on the outside a bit much for a big man. Hopefully, he improves as a post player and brings a good outside shot along with it. He has some time to grow. Bryan looked ok, but he is about the same as Blakely in my opinion. He grabbed more minutes because he fills the roll of SF, but his numbers were not much different than Blakely’s. In 32 minutes of play they gave us 2 points on 1-7 shooting with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Those are small numbers, but the best things that they did is that they only gave up 1 foul and committed 0 turnovers. So they didn’t help much, but really didn’t hurt us any. I can live with that from those guys for now.

A little more about Thorne and his opponent. The Winthrop big men were as tall as Thorne, but were quick and looked polished for DII. Thorne ran well and played with good energy. He could have had 20 is some of his close shots would have fallen. He took one ugly outside shot starting from the 3 point line and stepping inside the arc. He looked timid and rushed that shot, but in warm-ups he showed that he can hit at that range. When Thorne took one shot I noticed he had the ball a foot and a half above any hands. Not going to block those. He has a good FT shot and looks confident from there. As he gets more game experience he will get even better. I think by mid-season he will be seen as an upgrade over Braz if not earlier.[/quote]I was thinking just the opposite. I am not sure what his numbers were, and they may have been fine, but it is a weird shot. He takes his left hand completely off the ball and shoots with one hand.[/quote]

He was 3-4. I’m not a coach so I don’t speak much of form, but as a spectator the arc and velocity of his FT’s look good for a guy of his size and they are consistent. If he can do it one handed great. Maybe Clayton should start the one handed toss as well. :)[/quote]No doubt about Clayton. He couldn’t win a dime in a Griffin Brothers Free-Throw Shooting Contest.

20

Blakely has a horrendous looking shot. OMG