Ship derailed Friday night by something that plagued the team at times last season — poor three-point shooting. A performance of 4-for-24 beyond the line is not going to get it done very often, certainly not against a preseason Top 25 such as Virginia Union. The game was close because VUU didn't shoot much better. A lot of guards getting minutes appears to show that Coach Fite is still up in the air about the point guard position and how that gets resolved will be the key to whether the Raiders have a good or average season. One early-season surprise (at least to me) has been the limited minutes for Mike Dunn, who saw quite a bit of playing time last year. He got only two minutes Friday night. Don't know whether something is going on with him or he is just being outperformed by the others. Freshmen Tim Conner and Trey Martin got some points in limited minutes, and I suspect more might be seen of them as the season goes on. Problem is probably dividing the minutes of Martin, who'd be best at shooting guard, with those of four returning senior and grad forwards. Haven't seen any minutes from Mike Smith, the Kutztown transfer, leading me to believe there is an injury there barring any other explanation.
Several of Ship's losses last year followed this template — a good defensive performance marred by inexplicably bad shooting. Hope we're not on that road again this year. We shall see. The early schedule we have will not be friendly to off nights.
Several of Ship's losses last year followed this template — a good defensive performance marred by inexplicably bad shooting. Hope we're not on that road again this year. We shall see. The early schedule we have will not be friendly to off nights.
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