While I hesitate to make season-long inferences on the basis of single games, it doesn’t take long for me to feel comfortable making wild generalizations.  After five tough road games, the Wildcats have revealed themselves to be strong competitors with a very high collective upside.  Five bits for thought (likely so obvious that they should be characterized as leftovers at this point):     

1. Our freshmen are terrific.  Brooks, Downing, and Droney have shown tremendous promise and poise early in the season.  Each has the ability to do something that the vast majority of players in the Southern Conference cannot: create his own shot.  Brooks and Downing have that gunner mentality that our offense needs in moments of perimeter lollygagging.  All three have provided significant boosts within the first 200 minutes of their college careers and will no doubt figure prominently in the team’s success going forward.    

2. We’ve been aggressive on the glass. After getting beat on the boards by an undersized group of Quakers, the ‘Cats appear to have made a conscious effort to get after it on the glass.  Against West Virginia, Nebraska, Western Kentucky, and Rhode Island, Davidson (sans not-so-gentle Ben) grabbed 148 rebounds to our opponents’ 146.  Those numbers don’t do much for me in and of themselves, but they reflect to some degree the effort that I’ve seen so far.  The good guys are hustling.  FBE has, expectedly, been strong (though his hunger for the blocked shot creates room for the offensive rebound), Bootz has been good going up for the bounce, and Mann has been smart with the box.  I’ve been especially pleased with Droney’s nose for the ball.   

3. We generally lack offensive leadership.  I love this team’s equal opportunity offense—on any given night, any of a handful of guys can lead the charge—but I long for a dedicated distributor … a full-time quarterback.  I don’t think I’m just longing for the sort of floor command that Jason Richards brought in his last two years.  It seems too much to expect Brendan or JP to call the shots and then make them.  I like Droney and Cochran working for this spot, but I don’t get to watch the guys practice, nor do I know that much about basketball.   

4. We need more movement within twenty feet of the basket.  Too often we seem too timid to make a good entry pass or to take the ball to the hole (cf. Kuhlman and Brooks; see also Cohen’s streak to the basket against WKU).  In part, I suspect that this derives from the newness of the system to the vast majority of our minutes consumers. It’ll come, but I think it must if we are to have a consistent year.      

5. Until we develop our inside-out game, we will live and die by the longball.  This isn’t as much of a freestanding point as it is a corollary of #4.  If we settle for around the horn basketball, we’re going to have some hot nights and some cold ones, and we’re going to create a lot of long, easy rebounds and transition opportunities for our opponents.  

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.   

Base Rich