Last night's 30-point win was far from perfect. A ten minute stretch of poor play in the first half is enough to give this group plenty of things to work on.
On balance, though, the final numbers from the game offer some positives. The Herd shot well, 50% from the field, 45% from three, and 80% from the line. They handled the ball well, handing out 20 assists on 38 made shots and committing only 6 turnovers. Defensively, they held UPIKE to 38% shooting from the field, 33% from three, and out rebounded UPIKE 48-36.
Herd fans should expect all of these things when playing an out-manned NAIA squad, and in the end, we got them. What is notable is that in every statistical category outlined above, the Herd out-performed last year's team in its 83-69 win over UPIKE, with the exception of assists; the 20 assists last night matched the 20 assists in last year's contest. One other interesting stat - the 13 made threes last night matched the high water mark for made threes last year (13 against Miami and 13 against Coastal Carolina).
At this early juncture, it appears the coaching staff is considering a 9 man rotation - Curfman, Voyles, Obinna, Martin, Conner, Crawford, Fricks, Nutter, and McKey. That is a bit deeper than last year's team, which went primarily with 7 guys. One might expect Goran to see spot duty against particularly big opposing centers. Of course, it is way too early to consider this as the team's final configuration.