Saginaw Valley St. (Exhibition) Game Thread
 

The season is officially here! Can't wait to see what is in store for this season!

Projected Starting Lineup for SVSU:

G 3 Kellen Smith 6'1" SR Covington, KY
G 5 Garrett Hall 6'3" JR Indianapolis, IN
G 11 Damon Bozeman 6'3" SR Detroit, MI
F 2 C.J. Turnage 6'5" JR Ypsilanti, MI
C 4 Caleb Davis 6'9" JR Perth, Australia

Those 5 started every game for them last year. Looks like Turnage is probably their best player.

Game is at 2 PM on Saturday Afternoon.


Chris do you want to start up another one of those game thread things up top and put this in there for me? Thanks!

From the svsucardinals.com web site:

"BAY CITY - The Saginaw Valley State University men's basketball team has been chosen to win the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) North Division in preseason balloting by the league's head coaches. "

"The Cardinals are coming off their best season since the program joined the ranks of the NCAA Division II level. SVSU posted a 21-9 overall record, including going 16-6 in GLIAC play. The 16 league victories marked a program record. SVSU qualified for the 2015 GLIAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed, where it defeated Findlay for the program's first victory in the tournament and berth in the semifinals round since the 1996-97 season.

Over the span of the season, SV rattled-off 13 consecutive victories, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since the 1989-90 season and the most since the program has been in D-II. The Cards led the league in field goal percentage with a mark of 47.3%. Under the coaching staff's guidance, Kellen Smith set a single-season record with 177 assists and was named to the GLIAC All-Defensive Team as well. Smith finished 15th nationally with 5.9 assists-per-game. C.J. Turnage earned All-GLIAC First Team honors while Damon Bozeman and Garrett Hall garnered All-GLIAC Second Team plaudits.

With the team's success came a surge in attendance at games as well, as the Cardinals drew more than 1,000 fans to James E. O'Neill Jr. Arena three times, including a school record 1,832 against Northwood University.

Saginaw Valley returns 11 players from last year's roster and all five starters. The team welcomes three newcomers as well for the 2015-16 season. "

Great posts guys. Thanks!

The WHIO radio broadcast of this game will be delayed until the conclusion of the Dayton v. Morehead football game. Larry mentioned this on the radio. He will be at Morehead, not sure who is doing the BB broadcast.

I would probably guess Tom Michaels would do the Play By Play

DaytonFlyers.com preview

http://daytonflyers.com/news/2015/11...103150251.aspx

David Jablonski ‏@DavidPJablonski 44s45 seconds ago Dayton, OH

Kendall Pollard has bruised shoulder. Archie Miller unsure if he'll play in scrimmage Saturday. Minutes might be limited.

David Jablonski ‏@DavidPJablonski now3 seconds ago Dayton, OH

Archie also unsure about Bobby Wehrli's status for Saturday. Has groin and hip injury. No contact at practice last two days.

Maybe a little earlier than they wanted but welcome to the show freshmen

Steve is a little slow afoot. Coupla loose balls that he got beat to by SVSU players. He made the first two points but also blew a dunk.

I unfortunately couldnt make it. Could an attendee post a small first half summary? A post after would be nice too. And God willing no injuries

Not there, but according to the stats, ud is up 14 at the half. Cooke has 9 scotch with 8 and Steve with 7

So nice to look at the UD bench and see a bunch of guys there vs. last year when it was 2 players and the walkons.

Thx Medford. Link?

Tweet from Dyshawn Pierre:

Here we go boys

Yup, he's definitely still a Flyer.

Watching the stream. Couple observations: Cooke looks good - aggressive, smooth, athletic, though he is 2/6 from the free throw line. Big Steve looks big. Pollard got T'd up for shoving after he took a hard foul - to mee, his two free throws looked good (as he made both). Crosby looks to have a nice burst, and his shot looks better - hit a couple FT, made a nice drive for a bucket.

Scoochie looks solid - can get wherever he wants on the court. Kyle D looks solid though he missed a couple threes. Had a real nice behind-the-back drop off pass to X Williams who was trailing on a fast break, but he blew the layup.

X looks like he has the tools to play well though he's looked a little shaky with the ball and his shot. Had made good moves and played good D. Sam Miller was the first big off the bench and has looked pretty good.

Best news: Pierre tweeted a screenshot of the stream with the caption "Here we go boys."
Posted via Mobile Device

I think the image of the day was 6 guys on the bench who had played. Great sight for the year.

Watching the stream 1H.

Love D. Davis' moxie going to the hoop, really has improved drives and defense. Extremely impressed with the year-over-year growth in his game. He clearly has worked hard on his ball handling as well.

Big Steve -- He is going to be inconsistent, some great use of his body posting, but missed an easy dunk as well. Does not yet know how to position correctly to grab offensive rebounds. Boxing out well on the defensive end.

Crosby -- looks like he will get 15 minutes a game -- playing good defense and excellent drives to the hoop. Playing like a guy who took an extra year of high school.

Mikesell -- impressed with his shot, but making freshman mistakes with just aimlessly passing to the next pass in the offense and defense anticipating this.

Cooke -- as advertised offensively, defensively, and rebounding. Missing a lot of foul shots, hopefully just an aberration as he will get to the line a lot with his aggressive drives.

Williams -- see the potential, but think he will be the 2nd most inconsistent behind Big Steve his year.

Miller -- solid but unspectacular, he will have steady progress IMHO. But a nice big body (but soft body right now).

Just some thoughts watching the 1H streaming.

Swampy,

THANK YOU for making my weekend.

This is VERY VERY telling i hope

I will flat out say that Steve right now is every bit as good as Kurt, Robinson or Scott were. He just has to be able to get his stamina to 20-30 minutes a game.

Impressed with Crosby, but I do not know if he has an outside shot. Miller is right there with Crosby.

DD has a different dimension this year.

Our frosh are weak stopping the dribble drive.

Glad to hear about Pierre's tweet. I am worried that he leaves a much bigger void than I thought. Pollard can't do it all and the frosh look very shaky. Miller and Mikesell look confused and unsure, and Steve is not quick enough.

On the good side, I thought Williams showed some promise, even though he did miss the layup on that great pass from Davis(?) I think he will eventually have a great career. And Crosby looks like he will be another Scoochie.

We may see more of Wehrlie than we expected.

All in all, GO FLYERS and COME BACK DYSHAWN!

Thx for all the info everybody.

My first time seeing the new guys play. After only one half, my thoughts:

Big Steve - A heck of a lot skinnier than I imagined. He looks so much slimmer than a year ago. He is very long and a force against a D-2 team with no size. His shot blocking hasn't quite been there, but I like what I see.

Cooke - Looking very good and smooth. Has a nice looking outside shot. Needs to start making FT's. Is very long on defense. Has been guarding the PG sometimes. He needs to be better at moving his feet on defense when guarding small guys, but he will have an impact this season.

Crosby - Very nice handle and good at driving to the basket. His outside shot is not pretty, has an odd shooting motion. Needs to get better at running the half court offense, but it is nice having a back-up PG for a change.

Williams - Looks athletic and has a surprisingly nice handle for a guy his size. He will take time to develop, but I think he has the most upside of all the frosh.

Miller - Seems like a steady kind of player. Has a nice looking stroke from the outside.

Mikesell - Seems like a smart player. Has a nice shot and a good handle for his size. He was the last to come in of all the frosh, but has played better than the others so far.

Pollard got a T and I haven't seen much of him since. He did swish 2 of 2 FT's and his form looks better. No weird side spin thingy.

This is Scoochie's team. He is in charge and with the ball in his hands, I'm at ease. We have ourselves one of the best, if not the best PG in the A-10. It may not always show in the stats, but if you watch the game, this guys runs the show like the best of them. He is going down as one of my all-time favorite Flyers.

Archie is in mid-season form. He has been giving it to the refs. I don't think he likes the way the Saginaw guys took down Pollard and Cooke on fast court plays, especially for an exhibition game.

So glad the season is finally here!

KP's free throw form is much-improved. Fewer moving parts and no goofy knuckleballs any more. He's 4-4 thus far

Agree KP's form much better for FTs.

Big Steve nice entry pass to KP.

Miller nice offensive rebounding.

Scoochie to Steve for the thunder dunk.

Impressive.

crosby needs to work on his shot. Teams will scout him and allow any shot behind 15 feet.

Now with pictorial goodness courtesy of David Jablonski:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTPEZRlWUAAcKir.jpg:large

Hard to imagine how slow he was 50 pounds ago.

Our centers, Miller and Steve, combined for 25 pts and 14 rebounds in 34 minutes. Steve was high scorer and rebounder on 7-9 and 1-2 for 15 pts and 7 boards in 17 minutes.

Big Steve was named player of the game I thought he looked good.
Posted via Mobile Device

how many minutes was the game.... a full 40?

any additional stats for anyone , or a link to a box score?

Great start. let's get this rolling!

I watched the first half on video feed and the second half, I was there in person. Steve is slow defending the dribble, but he is just so darn big and long, and takes so much space that the ball finds him when playing a team with the size of Saginaw. He is a nice offensive rebounder and Scoochie seems to be developing some chemistry with him. His slams can be impressive.

Scoochie looks fantastic. I think that Kyle Davis does too. Pollard is Pollard.

The veterans are as good or improved from last year, but the freshmen are going to need 10 games under their belts before they start to get some comfort level with division 1 basketball. I think we are going to be a much different team half-way through the season once those guys have some experience/seasoning. If Pierre comes back at about that time, we will be very, very deep. I think that we have great potential to be a very good defensive team. We have a lot of length.

It's an exhibition, so take it all for what it's worth.

As I've said before, I think Steve will get plenty of slop points as long as he stays within 3 feet of the basket. Height and wingspan advantage to tip shots in. He had 6 offensive rebounds and only 1 defensive rebound. Teams may attempt to pull Steve out of the box and then drive to the basket.

Since Mikesell was the last freshman to come in, I figured he would be the least polished, but by the end of the game, I didn't think he was so bad.

I was reluctant to see what Sam Miller can do, but he seemed okay for his role. Like Steve, he was able to get tips with his height and wing span. 4 of his 7 rebounds were offensive.

Crosby was agressive and has some moves, but might need to get in control more. He got called for a carry when he was trying to put a move on his defender.

Always liked Kyle Davis's aggression and court awareness. No different today.

Pollard was 6-7 from the line. Hopefully we don't have to worry about 50% free throw shooting today. Maybe he graduated from the 'Low Percentage Lottery' game this year.

Scoochie is just nice and smooth. Darrell and Cooke were doing their parts. Wehrli didn't do much in his 6 minutes.

Not sure that next Friday will show us alot, or if we truly have to wait until the midday game against Alabama to truly show what the Flyers can do. (Wait, does that mean Friday is a trap-game? Crap....)

http://daytonflyers.com/news/2015/11...107154522.aspx

Nice to see distributed scoring: 6 players in double figures, including 4 newcomers.

While he may have been sloppy Mikesell still had 5 assists and shot 4 for 5!

DD... no 3 point attempts , all from 2 point land.

Balanced scoring. Without DP, kinda what we need from players.

13 to 15 from COOKE
12 to 14 from Scooch

Pollard, kyle, DD all where we need. Sam Miller with a few.

Big Steve 10 to 12 would be great.

One thing I really liked to see from Pollard is how balanced he was through contact with his shot. He didn't make all of them, but several times he seemed to be able to hang in the air a second longer than you would expect, perfectly balanced, releasing his shot square up to the basket after floating a bit. I think that's a mark of a truly superior basketball player. He's not Michael Jordan, but he is not out of control.

Also, exhibition or not, they almost scored 100 even though I thought they didn't look like they were really functioning in top form.

Steve needs to learn to expect some snap passes under the basket. I saw a couple, maybe more, that surprised him and he could not handle. He could really shine with some drive and dish assists. I think he will be allright.

Bring back Pierre and this will be a monster team by January. I would not be surprised by a 9 and 4 non conference record followed by a 15 and 1 finish. (If everybody stays healthy and out of trouble.)

Good to see the freshman . . .Lots to work with . . . and lots of work to do. . . .

Most encouraging thing to me - Baby D has really improved. Definitely worked on his short jumper over the summer and showed it off today. Looked much more confident in all aspects of the game..

Isnt Baby D a toddler now? Maybe an adolescent?

Daryl frustrated me last year with his inability to get into the paint and to the hoop. Wow, today he was very, very active in getting to the hoop. It seems like every other time he touched the ball he was driving toward the rim. He had a couple of nice pull-ups near the rim. He is much improved as a player on both ends of the court. Coaching matters folks!!!!!!!!!!!!

didn't get to see the game but what stands out to me is Baby D, 5 assists, zero turnovers. That's pretty impressive and puts me back on track thinking he's going to be a star for this team, very soon.

One thing is obvious about Baby D. He can shoot from anywhere. He reminds me of Brian Roberts. Roberts also opened up the "drive to the hoop" side of his game as a Sophomore.

DD also played a couple of stints at point guard. Smart of Archie to develop him that way, as you never know anymore what might happen.

Some posters were concerned about Steve getting in early foul trouble if he started. I don't think he had any in his first tour on the floor and ended with 2 in 17 minutes.

For the few that care...

Individual Plus/Minus StatsLineup Plus/Minus Stats

I really liked what I saw out of Sam Miller. For once in a long while Dayton has an inside presence with Miller and McElvene. Both look promising. If everything goes to plan when/if Pierre comes back this is a possible starting lineup:

Smith 6-2
Cooke 6-5
Pollard 6-6
Pierre 6-6
McElvene 6-11

We still have solid players coming off the bench with D. Davis, K. Davis, Sam Miller, and Wherli

From what I saw Saturday, i wasn't that impressed with Xeyrious Williams from all they hype that has been around him.

Graduated from Wayne and have followed them closely since that time. Xeyrious is a high energy type of of player. Most of his points will come from kick out 3's, tip ins and fast break run outs. There are times that he telegraphs passes and will make the occasional dumb turnover. You can't teach his size, athleticism or shooting touch for his size. Hate to say it but I don't think he will ever be a guy that averages more than 10-12 ppg. Energy will be the main thing that he brings to Flyers.