Would assume both teams had somewhat different agendas for this game, so always difficult to get a sense of things from these scrimmages. Props to Staten Island. After obviously getting stuck in traffic and arriving very late, they came out scrappy and hitting playground shots to grab the lead early and stay close in the first half. They have a platoon of good guards that hustled, shot well, and regularly double/triple-teamed SBU to give them fits (until SBU got better at seeing this coming and rotating the ball in the second half, which put that pressure to rest).
Mackenzie looked poised, simply looked like a "leader" out there right from the start. Had the look of a potential 4-year starter at point. While not great competition, he was smart with the ball and delivered a lot of solid passes.
Ochefu is a BIG body who looked nimble and shot well in warmups. During the game he looked a bit lost out there and didn't do too much against the small bigs of SI. We'll see how he develops, but he's a guy who could have massive potential in the AE.
Olaniyi played a lot and looked solid out there on the wing. Long played a bit less, I think, and is a stringy, athletic kid. Think he needs to put on some weight and muscle in the next couple of years. Cornish, yes, hobbled with a big wrap and ice on the leg.
All the returning SBU players did fine, enough to pull away and win in the second half. Mostly looked like they were just trying to get their legs and not get hurt. In terms of overall it just seemed SBU imposed their will and big bodies down low in the second half and also did better reversing the ball out of double-teams for open shots. It allowed them to pull away with the score, and that's about all that was along with getting to run up and down the floor in the arena for the night.
It'll be interesting to see how this team develops. Have to assume the rookies are going to play a lot this year, as they represent Boals's future team. We've had a number of years having THE guy who can lead and score, and this group doesn't look like it has one of those, at least yet. Are we going to have a platoon of 10+ guys each getting 5-8 points? Is someone or two going to break out this year and beyond?