Figured I'd get the ball rolling about the last tune-up game for Friday.

Self has said practice has been better since the 1st exhibition which I expected after the team gave him plenty of ammo to use in practice going forward. Some things I'm interested in seeing Tuesday.

1. Can the perimeter defense stay in front of anyone?

2. Will Svi & Greene continue to knock the rust off & make some shots. It's critical one of these guys can become a solid scorer off the bench.

3. Bragg & Mickelson, can they become the 1-2 punch that Black & Traylor were a few years ago?

4. Wayne, Wayne Wayne. Show us some moxy that you showed this summer.

5. Will the team put an inferior opponent away quickly or let them hang around.

Any others I missed, comments?

What will Vick show us?

Can Bragg continue his upward momentum swing from last week?

Will Lucas fall in love with the game again and play it to his ability or continue to go through the motions?

Will Traylor have more rebounds or Humter more blocked shots?

Who will lead the team in assist? Frank. Davonte or Wayme?

Perry? What will Perry do? Double double?

In order of importance:

1. Continued health/ healing: It's an exhibition. The most important thing is that everyone leaves in good health for both squads.

2. Wing scoring: Someone has to produce from the wing. Between Selden, Greene, Svi and Vick we need to see 25-30 points a night, otherwise the offense just won't have the diversity to be effective as the season rolls on.

3. A defined big rotation: three bigs will get the lion's share of the minutes, so it's important to see who Self taps to go along with Ellis for those minutes. With the current arrangement, I would like to see that be Mickelson and Bragg, but...

4. Free Cheick!: We will need Cheick to reach the full potential this year. It's not that we will be bad without him. It's just that this team could be great with him.

5. Sound defense: With the new emphasis, this is going to be a work in progress, but the issues so far have been both mental and physical. One of those areas has to get cleaned up, and soon.

@justanotherfan

As I was reading #3, I was waiting for the but... and sure enough you mentioned it.

4 would clear up #3 a whole lot easier..

Should be an opportunity to try a little bit of everything before Friday's opener.

FHSU will likely be down a bit this year as they lost a lot of their more athletic talent in the post due to graduation. Further their point guard (who is a smaller version of Frank Mason with just as much bulldog in him) is coming of an ACL surgery that seems to have slowed him down a few steps and changed his game.......whereas he used to split defenders and take his 5'9" frame to the goal now he seems to look to dish more. He was a DII All-American caliber point guard as a sophomore, but lost last year's second semester after the injury.

FHSU has been a mainstay near the top of the MIAA standings for many years, but was picked 6th in the preseason conference poll.

@BeddieKU23

You forgot to mention Olivis Wilde!

And when is Jeff bringing back his highly intelligent woman friend?

Oh, yes, basketball...um, I will be watching the rank order of committee substitutions at the 5, and also for a brief showing of the Good Ball, quick trigger offence from Korea, to give early opponents more to prepare for.

What does Fran know?

!ty.PNG ↗

@wrwlumpy wonder whose butt he's going to kiss this year w/the mayor gone? Not a favorite of mine, or mushberger.👎

@wrwlumpy He knows what we all know. All the others from Diallos high school have been cleared BUT Diallo. If the problem stems from his old High School (Which we have been lead to believe) then WHF? Everyone else passed the eye test for the NCAA.

@Statmachine Coach Self said last week that the issue stemmed from his time at Our Savior New America. If the problem is with the curriculum then how did everyone else slide by the NCAA's fingers? We once speculated that it had to be his course work from Mali but that doesn't seem to be the case either? Coach Self has said this investigation was not normal and I can not imagine what the problem is or what is going on?

@Statmachine

We may have been led in the wrong direction from the start. Diallo was at Our Savior the longest of his teammates so its likely his issues differ from theirs.

I believe the Mali stuff was asked for as part of the appeal to a negative ruling (or advisement from the NCAA that he would be denied if he didn't gather all of work from his time there.)

We know that the standards to get past the NCAA are remarkably low. The fact that this has taken so long, its got to be a serious issue & probably not just one class holding him up. Nothing about this is normal, the kid from Pitt said they asked him for Homework.. REALLY

@BeddieKU23 I think Bragg and Mickelson can be better than Traylor and Tarik.

Provided Wayne's ankle is almost healed, he needs to wrap that up tight and come out to play tomorrow. BUT, Coach Self needs to run offense for him specifically so he doesnt come out flat and look bored.