General Observations Post-Exhibition
Was mentioned on the post-game, but the enthusiasm and energy rarely waned last night. That's a good sign, because they'll need that effort to be competitive.
Obviously this is a young and relatively inexperienced squad and they are going to foul A LOT. It's part of the learning curve and will temper my expectations for the season. Flyers are going to give away points at the free throw line.
Some of that is freshman reaching, being out of position et al, but I'm also concerned about Flyers defense at the point of attack. If they can't stifle the dribble-drive that's going to exacerbate the fouling issues. I'm not sure the starting back court is going to prevent their counterparts in the A10 from getting wherever they want whenever they want. Mitigating that somewhat is the Flyers length. They forced the Panthers into a lot of tough finishes, but the competition is only going to get bigger, stronger and faster.
With the team-wide length, Coach Grant is going to have an interchangeable defense switching all over the floor. Saw some nice fight from the guards cross-matched in the post and decent showing from the bigs guarding out in space. You can envision Flyers with a swarming, switching defense that walls off the paint and contests a lot of jumpers. I thought the rotations were better than expected given the coaching change and inexperience. Coach Grant is clearly looking to establish defensive identity first and foremost.
On the other side of the ball, the contrast between Coach Grant and Coach Miller couldn't be more stark. Coach Miller ran an up-tempo motion offense designed to generate open looks - all predicated on screening and ball-movement. Not that the Flyers didn't share the ball last night, but Coach Grant's offense appears to be much heavier on PNR action.
Flyers ran a lot of high-ball screens and side PNR. D. Davis had quite a few great pocket passes last night out of the PNR. Appears to be a lot more reads in Coach Grant's offense. It's a player's system though. He clearly wants players making plays and creating offense for themselves and each other. I think the learning curve is going to be steeper and require a higher-level recruit than Coach Miller was bringing in to be successful, but the ceiling is higher. Coach Grant is going to need multiple play-makers with skill and BB IQ on the floor to make it work, but if he gets there it's going to be tough to defend.
I'll leave player comments for the Player Observations thread that was already started.
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