Musketeer Madness

The 3 Leading rebounders in Game 1 were the 3 Transfers Rebounding from their old schools. Castlin had 8. Welage & Hankins had 7 each.
Rebounding is part of Defense & apparently the new guys get it. This is somewhat of a pun, but at the same time a serious comment.
Leftovers from last years roster may still be in that "lack of defense" mode. Basketball Jones apparently understands the new emphasis on Defense as he had 6 rebounds & 4 steals & has slimmed down to the point of being a Tyrant to deal with. Tyrant Jones. I was not at the game. Byron & Joe had me on the radio. They expected Castlin & Hankins to do ok on Defense, but both had a few nice comments about Welage on D also. I winter in Fla, but do have time to see the Evansville & Wisconsin games before leaving. Enjoy the 1 year you all get to see the transfers because I think all 3 could be special. The 3 Musketeers. Makes me want a candy bar.

Scruggs also had 6 rebounds which is quite good for a PG. The bench numbers were not good. Hankins rebounded well and blocked a ton of shots but was terrible from the line and didn't shoot well from the floor. Harden's line didn't seem to hurt the team but didn't seem to do much to help.

I only saw the 2nd half but generally the defense looked solid. There were some lapses on the perimeter on primary scoring threats but I didn't see the team open the lane for easy layups like the last several years. Hopefully that is because of improved defensive focus but possible it has something to do with the competition.

Harden is limiting turnovers so he might be a serviceable option off the bench but X is going to need to find a scoring threat to come off the bench if they want to make any noise this year. Obviously getting Q back in the starting rotation will improve this situation and this is only game 1 so maybe Hankins will typically shoot better. He definitely needs to shoot better from the line. Can't have anyone shooting 33% at the line, especially a big that will likely get plenty of opportunities.

Hopefully Welage can continue hitting deep shots and putting the ball on the floor as needed. I'm guessing Marshall will improve his shooting from deep, if not, this could be a long year.