Really solid games from Murphy, Mason, and Lynch today. Jordan is playing so well right now, very few teams have an answer for him. I would have liked to have seen this team put away Rutgers a little earlier than they did, but the game was never in any real danger. It was nice to see Dupree hit a couple late jumpers (even though they were mid-rangers) as his shot was way off for much of the game. The announcers said he lost 19 lbs due to the leg infection and it was clear he wasn't quite 100% out there, but he was able to get some key steals. I don't know how to quite put in to words what I am seeing with Amir, but it seems like there is a strength and/or explosion issue that wasn't there last year that is noticeably present this year. He drives to the paint and has a hard time getting a quality shot up with defenders often getting a hand on the ball in his gather or being able to bother his shot. He's definitely a quality player and had a great half against Miami, but something athletically seems a bit off as he didn't struggle on his drives to the rack to this degree last season.
One aspect defensively I noticed today is that the backside guard on defense is getting caught in the paint and letting their man get open corner 3's. It happened with both Nate and Amir for sure. It's usually a ball screen action started on the other wing, guard drives or big rolls, our big (usually Reggie) is there to stop it, but the guard from the backside is also in the paint (or close to it) behind our big. That was leaving the pass to the corner for a wide open 3.
Davonte had an absolutely brutal stretch where his guy scored on him 3 consecutive times and he also went 0-2 from the line during that stretch. Then in the second half, he was inbouding the ball and Mason didn't come to him like he wanted (I believe some of this sequence was on Mason) he then tried to throw a lob pass over the big who was defending and it was stolen by the big who then went right at Davonte, missed, and then got his own board and put it in. I didn't love Davonte's effort on that play not his body language going to the bench. Nate may have hung him out to dry a bit by not moving better to give him an easy inbounds, but that was an ugly sequence. I did think it was noteworthy that Davonte got in the game before Michael today, but I imagine we will see Hurt get the first minutes against Nebraska. Got to be patient with both these guys (Hurt was by far the better of the two today) and hope they improve.
It was nice to see Isaiah make the wide open 3 in the second half. I know his percentage has been awful, but very few of his looks have been that good. I think it's been more of a shot selection thing with him than him actually being a poor shooter.
Bakary's minutes were solid today, hopefully he can build on that. As for Jamir Harris, it appeared that Pitino was angry with him after a Nebraska 3 and got someone up to replace him immediately.
