Rainmen preview

With no Chris P in the house, hopefully we will get some great fans posting about the games. Today I didn't want to get into the game reviews because we are still working out the kinks. I really just wanted to give a quick overview of what I have seen through two exhibition wins.

It looks like Bennett will be playing the 2 mostly and responded with 28 and 25 pt games. He looks close to unstoppable when he is hitting three's at the rate he is. I love him coming off the high screens and being able to create or make his own shot. He looks fired up and like he really cares.

Crook is playing smart. He was able to work the paint today and it showed off with dunks and layups plus some excellent rebounding work. he got blocked by Pierre pretty bad (his 5th of 6) but otherwise I liked most of the defense and spirit he showed today. Be interesting to see if he starts but it looks like he will for now. The free throw shooting has not improved to say the least and it really needs to if he wants those minutes.

Strick has not played much. We know what we should get and he is still a huge fan favorite and assistant coach.

New Additions

Devon Norris- Played 2 mins today and scored his first bucket. Probably won't see much time.

Garry Gallimore- Added some great intensity on defense and can get the hoop as a 3. He started a fight with Jeanty and Pierre which fired up the crowd and got the team going. He could be a great player coming off the bench in a league where defense is not valued as highly.

Adris DeLeon- Coming in at point he has looked very good. He has control of the team when he is bringing the ball up. He was able to penetrate and get to the line and played tenacious defence. As a combo with Bennett I think this will give us a phenomenal 1-2 punch and good leadership.

Gary Ervin- Has looked excellent in two games coming in for Deleon. Another PG with great range and ability to get into the lane. He works very hard defensively and gives another great scoring option.

Gordon Malone- I haven't seen enough of Malone yet but I have a feeling he will be a very solid player starting centre or backup to McCarroll. Both a stepup from having Strick or Crook playing the 5 last year. More to come on Malone.

Jevohn Sheppard- Saw relatively limited action as the 2/3 guard and worked well on the permieter draining a couple threes and also getting in the lane. Would love to see his stats from the weekend.

Shagari Alleyne- Not sure about the big guy. His career stats are not great but in the first game he changed a bunch of shots from the perimeter. He has limited hands but seems nice. If he can stay central and block some shots and get a little more physical, he could give some minutes off the bench.

Mark McCarroll- Has some range for a big man and some very solid moves inside. He had a few boards and worked the glass well against Pierre today, giving at least a push with the big man. He looked to have a couple blocks as well and runs the floor decently.

Lonnel Shuler Jones- Saw some good minutes today and moved the ball well and got aggressively to the hoop. Liked what I saw today and will be interesting to see how he works into the rotation.

Desmond Ferguson- Moneyball has looked very assured and surprisingly quiet. He had a good scoring day in game one but didn't play as much in game two. He will be the starting 3 unless something weird happens.

The Team
Andre and Coach Berry have built an extremely strong and diverse team. It seems to be built around tenacious defense and fast breaking, but when they slow down, they can strike the three or get to the rack. There are options inside with Strick, McCarroll and Crook, while all of the guards can hit from distance. At least we know if one thing is not working, Coach Berry won't be afraid to change the team and the style of play. There is already some good attitude with The Fist Gallimore and Moneyball. They will definitely work hard for each other and effort should not be the reason that this team loses any games this year.

Coach Berry threw in some full court presses and some doubleteaming defence which has obviously been a priority in training. There are more than enough players to put points on the board and it will be interesting to see how the minutes get divided up. We may see a lot less of Strick this year and Norris will be on the bench. There are a lot of players that will need to play and if Berry can keep them team oriented, this will be an incredible year.

Other Teams
Manchester- Will be strong competition this year and I can't help but think they would have won had their coach and not their owner been on the bench. They should have put us away and have amazing three point shooters. I think we can hurt them downlow, but it will be tough for our threes to chase their guards on the perimeter.

QC- Jeanty and Pierre are good professionals. There is not a lot else on the squad that is really worrying. Glad I didn't have to buy Pierre that drink tonight..

Rainmen roll...over

This was a devastating loss for the Rainmen. A win would have put them comfortably in the seat for playoff birth as a wildcard. Instead, they laid a dud for coach Berry. The crowd was pumped but the players didn't respond. It was the first game in a while that it seemed like players just quit.

I have spoken before about how hard it is to build a fanbase with a constantly changing squad. It will be tough as I imagine the turnover of players could be large again. To be honest, I would see Bailey, Crook, Jimmy and maybe Ramey, McNeal and Silverhorn coming back for another year. If Millien plays well he could move up and Bennett seems bound for greater things, while Dandridge and Hammack have seen a major reduction in minutes and will go elsewhere for time.

The offense was poor from the beginning with Bennett continuing his terrible 3 point shooting this weekend ending up 3-16 over two game. It is amazing because his points in the paint cause all kinds of problems and allow other players to scratch for boards and points. Lets get the reigns on him and get him in the paint and kicking out. Our 3 pt shooting was horrendous all weekend with Silverhorn, Jimmy and Bennett missing many. Today we shot 20%, brutal. Hammack and Dandridge look like they have lost all confidence from the Lewis era.

That being said, the Kebs hit everything it seemed like. While they were only 46%, a lot of those misses came in the 4th when the game was done. EC again got exposed defensively and we were weak inside defensively. Our inability to get him in the offence showed today. The loss of Rob is showing in the paint. Bailey had a solid game with 12-9 and a couple assists and steals. Zach played some good defense today and Millien showed his 1v1 skills. I was also surprised the jeanty only had 7 points as he added instant impact to the game as did Strick. Strick worked hard but I would rather see him get the points than draw the fouls. That shooting is ugly Striquile!

The running commentary with their bench for the fourth quarter kept us entertained as Sweatpants, Bling and Simplice were hilarious. so it looks ike Hammack, Dandridge and Tyrone are getting mostly frozen out, making us a 9 player squad right now. I don't know if that is enough to carry us to the playoffs, but hopefully. It was hard to find many positives from the games at all as jean Phillippe and Anderson killed us.

Here's to hoping another week of practise gets us right.

Rainmen roll continues

I will continue on what CP had to say. Gill is a dirty player. He was taking cheapshots at Bennett especially when the play was done and the game was near over. He is obviously a talented player, but his mindset is all wrong. I really felt like Sections 22-24 got in his head and it sounded like there was good help from across the floor. Too many unnecessary threes.

I was happy at halftime when they closed to 8 points down and felt like they were going to win. With a coach like Les Berry, I feel so much more comfortable that adjustments will be made. He got them working around the zone with quick ball movement and more layups and short range Js plus fastbreak than in the first half. I didn't realise til afterwards that most of Bennett's points came in the paint as "The Voice" was 2-10 from 3. Dandridge-esque. Speaking of which, why, why, why? Why does he continue to heave up three balls. If he can work within the offence, I am sure he will get minutes and the points will come. Great game from EC with 19 and 12 and I felt Bailey played ok with some stats that don't show up on the sheet- defending his man and changing shots in the paint. I hope we don't lose too many minutes from him when Millien shows up. Hopefully with him playing the five, he will continue to thrive, but I can see minutes going elsewhere.

A few concerns. After a week of practise, we still don't have the offense as crisp as possible.
Strick, Jeanty and EC got taken to school by their forwards yesterday.
Our best defenders are Bennett, Jimmy, Zach and Bailey.
Lots of missed rebounding opportunities.
Focus dropped off after a great start to the game.
Outrebounded again. Millien/ Bailey can probably take care of this.

Highlights: 1) Zach pass to Hammack for layup
2) Zach/ bennett's D on Gill
3) Highlight plays including the 2 man alley-oop- amazing
4) EC starting to get back to form
5) Great work rate

Lets hope for another big win Sunday!