That'll do

[We R Final Four]

Ben still short on his 3s. Cant blame his legs on the first game of the year.

[Uncle Rico]

Peddle his azz

[Hards Alumni]

Right, cause Novak's 43 now.

And I, for one, am proud of being able to look at multiple data points over multiple seasons.

The implication I was making is that Steve at no time in his life could move like Ben.

[PGsHeroes32]

Right, cause Novak's 43 now.

And I, for one, am proud of being able to look at multiple data points over multiple seasons.

This seems to imply that Novaks age is all that's holding him back from having bens athleticism and at the same age he was similar to Ben in that regard

If so, contender for dumbest Marquette related post in scoop history.

If not, just not sure the relevancy to pointing out Novaks age.

[MUfan12]

Ben still short on his 3s. Cant blame his legs on the first game of the year.

He's putting a lot of pressure on himself. He came out super tight yesterday and it showed on all those front rim misses.

One thing that was noticable last night is they missed Oso calling everything out on defense. He was a savant at recognizing actions and plays and calling it out for his teammates.

[tower912]

For about the first five-eight minutes.   Giving up 43 points over the last 32 minutes is not nothing.

[THRILLHO]

This seems to imply that Novaks age is all that's holding him back from having bens athleticism and at the same age he was similar to Ben in that regard

If so, contender for dumbest Marquette related post in scoop history.

If not, just not sure the relevancy to pointing out Novaks age.

I took it as a joke

[Johnny B]

Hope I'm wrong but norman looking like symir Torrence 2.0

[Uncle Rico]

Hope I'm wrong but norman looking like symir Torrence 2.0

More like John Dawson

[PGsHeroes32]

Hope I'm wrong but norman looking like symir Torrence 2.0

If we were going off small samples and overreacting he would def be the one I'm still most worried about. He wasn't bad last night. But nothing showed me he's any different than last year with no real glimpses of his ultimate upside. Just a potentially decent bench guard to this point.

Unlike say Zaide who you can clearly see what he could potentially turn into as a bona fide starter/prospect.

[TallTitan34]

Unlike say Zaide who you can clearly see what he could potentially turn into as a bona fide starter/prospect.

Hopeful Zaide can turn into new Chase.

[Shaka Shart]

More like John Dawson

We should be so lucky

[MU82]

We've already got some declaring that MU is doomed because Gold - one game into his third season - is officially a bust. If they end up being right about Gold not having improved, they'll get to say, "I told you so," and they'll await high-fives from the rest of us.

[Skatastrophy]

Yeah ... pretty disappointed in Ben tonight. Had a pregame discussion that centered on can BG be a decent inside/out presence? ... and can he hold his own on defense against Big East and good non-conference 5s? Really hoping tonight was more aberrant.

Solid first post, welcome to the board

[wadesworld]

Gold will be fine, but people hugely underrate Henry.  Gold shoots it better from 3 and has more vertical explosiveness, but at least offensively, Henry does absolutely everything else far better.  Just watch the first two plays of this video.  Getting the rebound, pushing it up the full length of the court, finishing with an off hand running floater to the left.  That is insanely skilled, and this was him as a freshman in college.  Ben couldn't do that in an empty gym.  Then the ability (and aggressiveness) to catch the ball in the post, turn and face, and get by his defender one on one.  Get a guard switched onto Henry?  Sweet, give it to him at the nail, turn and face, rise up as if there's not even a defender there.  Ben can use his shooting to attack a closeout, but he's not breaking down a defender one on one.  And Hank was so much stronger than Ben is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-VvPFFJFpo

[Shooter McGavin]

Gold will be fine, but people hugely underrate Henry.  Gold shoots it better from 3 and has more vertical explosiveness, but at least offensively, Henry does absolutely everything else far better.  Just watch the first two plays of this video.  Getting the rebound, pushing it up the full length of the court, finishing with an off hand running floater to the left.  That is insanely skilled, and this was him as a freshman in college.  Ben couldn't do that in an empty gym.  Then the ability (and aggressiveness) to catch the ball in the post, turn and face, and get by his defender one on one.  Get a guard switched onto Henry?  Sweet, give it to him at the nail, turn and face, rise up as if there's not even a defender there.  Ben can use his shooting to attack a closeout, but he's not breaking down a defender one on one.  And Hank was so much stronger than Ben is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-VvPFFJFpo

Agree with this but Ben has plenty of skill and strength to get it done at a high level.   Henry was an alpha from the jump ball in his first game.  Ben needs to get that confidence.  Hopefully starting and having a few shots go through the net will have him off to the races. Biggest xfactor for the ceiling of this team.

[DoctorV]

Yep, Ben is nowhere close to Henry Ellenson or Steve Novak, those comps are simply because they are tall white dudes that don't spend their entire time inside.

Ben played poorly, but the season is a puppy and there's no chance Shaka doesn't give him every opportunity in the world to improve as the starting 5, as he should.

It seems apparent that confidence is a major factor at play.
Benny needs to start to think of himself as the multi-tooled athletic 5 man that he can become, but that's much easier said than done.
I will say that I think getting him some dunks and other paint buckets, and having him gain confidence by bruising inside and getting creative with scoring around the hoop is the much better approach then encouraging him to launch 3 after 3 early and often.
If it's open, take it, but if not there's no shame in moving the ball and crashing the boards.
When he misses his outside shot it likely affects the rest of his game so I would try to concentrate on improving some of his other strengths and let the shot fall in due time

[Tyler COLEk]

Gold did not have a good game. What bothered me right at the start is that he did not even jump when they tossed up the ball to start the game.

I was wondering if this was a Shaka directive to make a point to start the season on defense. There's no real disadvantage in losing the opening tip.

[1SE]

I took it as a joke

Thanks... it was.

But it's also a joke to suggest that Ben's slightly better movement in any way compensates for Novak's insanely better shooting. Again - two things can be true - 1) He's a nice kid, I want all the best for him (and for the team), and I hope he puts it all together and proves me wrong 2) Based on 2 seasons and 1 game of watching him play, I don't think he's a BE-caliber starting 5 nor is likely to get there.

[burger]

That will do pig.....That will do.....An iconic movie moment.....

https://ew.com/thmb/NG3uHkMOviB8LYkV_qxFOC7otgE=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/babe-1-b27965ae6919422094c6dc278b716650.jpg

Right after  "Christmas is carnage"....

[BM1090]

Instead of shorting a finger roll,.that ball needs to be dunked.  That is what disappointed me.

Definitely. And they went back to that action to open the second half and he went up to dunk it and got fouled. He'll figure it out.

[StillWarriors]

I was wondering if this was a Shaka directive to make a point to start the season on defense. There's no real disadvantage in losing the opening tip.

I thought the same.

[wadesworld]

Thanks... it was.

But it's also a joke to suggest that Ben's slightly better movement in any way compensates for Novak's insanely better shooting. Again - two things can be true - 1) He's a nice kid, I want all the best for him (and for the team), and I hope he puts it all together and proves me wrong 2) Based on 2 seasons and 1 game of watching him play, I don't think he's a BE-caliber starting 5 nor is likely to get there.

I don't expect Ben Gold to turn into Frank Kaminsky, but he had worse numbers through his freshman and sophomore seasons and went 1/4 for 2 points with 3 rebounds and 3 assists in the first game of his junior year.  He had a pretty good junior and senior season despite the underwhelming 2 years and 1 game datapoints.

Sometimes players who are sitting behind All Conference guys don't produce much because they don't play much.  It's crazy.  And sometimes college kids don't have huge games every game, so their first game in a season may be a stinker.  Throwing in the towel on Ben Gold because he didn't break out in game 1 as a starter is crazy.

[kclem]

Interesting stat - our two point shooting percentage of 83.8% was best in the country.

[BrewCity83]

Re:  the opening tip--I was at the game and watched the ref toss the ball up so far away from Ben, towards the Stony Brook guy, that Ben would have had to swipe at it early, when it was about chest high, or risk crashing on top of the other guy just to reach it.  That had to be the worst jump ball toss from a ref I can ever remember seeing.  That's why BG didn't even jump at it.