Exhibition: a post-mortem

Fletcher Page and Seth Emerson have some nice recaps of the exhibition up, so I'll try not to repeat too much of what has already been said.

The good:

• Yante Maten looks ready.  Sure, the competition wasn't stout, but he has good court awareness, he knows where the basket is, and he shows above-average touch around the rim.  These are all things most high school post players struggle with early on.
• J.J. Frazier was the best point guard on the floor.  He has a score-first mentality, too, which is what this team needs - especially without Kenny Gaines on the floor.  You can tell his finger is always on the trigger.  If he had it his way, he'd attempt 10 3-pointers per game.  He also had multiple steals and a blocked shot...just a really nice night for him.
• Marcus Thornton is primed for a big year.  He didn't play much (a combination of foul trouble and coaches choice), but when he did, he pretty much over-powered the (undersized) Georgia Southwestern defenders.
• There were open shots all night.  Hitting open shots is as important as getting open shots, but the looks were there.  The Dawgs seem to understand what Mark Fox wants them to do on offense...they just have to start cashing in.
• 16 assists.

The bad:

• Free throw shooting is still a major concern with this team.  It's 15 feet, fellas, and it's not moving.  Let's figure this out.
• Actually, ALL shooting is still a major concern with this team.  I suspect someone stayed late last night checking the rims for damage.
• J.J. Frazier was the best point guard on the floor.  This is no shot at J.J., but there was no evident improvement in Charles Mann's game.  On the second or third possession, Charles drove and kicked to a wide open Taylor Echols in the corner (it was beautiful).  Echols missed the shot, and it was almost like Charles said, "Forget this mess," and completely reverted back to bad Charles.  He turned it over way too much, and when he got to the rim, he couldn't finish.  He looked like he was sleepwalking.  Let's hope he just needs the bright lights of a regular season game to wake him up.
• No one wants the 3 spot.  Neither Cameron Forte nor Kenny Paul Geno did much to grab hold of the vacancy left by Brandon Morris.  Geno looks marginally improved, and he can jump out of the gym, but he's not yet the weapon that Morris was.  Forte had a couple of nice drives, but his range doesn't extend beyond about 5 feet from the basket.

The ugly:

• Georgia just couldn't finish in the paint.  Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Dawgs missed layups and chippies all night.  As sloppy as the game was, Georgia would have won by 20+ had they simply taken what they were given.

It's important to remember that this was an exhibition, and Mark Fox coached it as such.  Georgia Southwestern was playing to win, and good for them for doing so.  They also had a pretty nice contingent of fans, and they deserve props for that - Americus is not necessarily close.

Georgia didn't have Kenny Gaines (get well soon, Kenny), and bench players like Houston Kessler and Taylor Echols saw extensive court time.  There was absolutely no rhythm to the game because Fox spent so much time toying with lineups.  It was ugly to watch, but hopefully he saw what he needed to see.

Now we wait.  I have no idea what to expect next Friday.  Can this team beat Georgia Tech - even without Kenny Gaines?  Absolutely.  Can they lose by 20?  Absolutely.  We're a week from finding out what these guys are made of.