Quick Observations from 2nd Annual Blue vs. Gold Scrimmage

Photo by Ryan Messier/Paint Touches

It’s here. The season opener may still be almost a month away but there’s no doubt that college basketball season is upon us. Current students are preparing for mid-terms, Milwaukee has developed a noticeable chill in the air, and Jon Rothstein is tweeting out obvious statements and claiming they are the product of well embedded moles instead of them just being common sense. But there is no more obvious sign that our holy season is beginning than live basketball being played in front of fans at the Fiserv Forum.

I will endeavor to give a quick recap of the scrimmage, give some thoughts about each individual player, and wrap up with some possible implications for the season. A caveat before reading, I am relying on my memory and some hastily typed notes from my notes app to make this summary. Continuing the theme of media blackouts, Marquette has decided not to release a scrimmage box score this season. I can only assume that Shaka really wants to limit the amount of data on the team that’s out there for future opponents to use. With apologies to Coach Smart, we at Paint Touches believe our out of town or otherwise occupied fans deserve to know how the team looked…besides, I doubt Mick Cronin and Bill Self are subscribers anyway.

Blue Team:
Tyler Kolek
Tre Norman
Kam Jones
David Joplin
Oso Ighodaro

Bench: Caedin Hamilton

Coaches: DeAndre Haynes & Nevada Smith

Gold Team:
Sean Jones
Stevie Mitchell
Chase Ross
Zaide Lowery
Ben Gold

Bench: Al Amadou

Coaches: Neill Barry & Cody Hatt

At first glance, the teams appeared to be very one sided. Blue team featured four likely starters (Shaka has publicly commented on Joplin being a starter this season) who combined for one Big East 6MOY award, three All-Big East selections, one Big East POY award, and an All-American selection. I’m not sure exactly the criteria the staff used to make the teams (maybe best offense vs best defense?) but given that TyKo/Oso/Kam were on the Blue team last season and Stevie/Sean/Gold were on the Gold team last season (and the remaining six didn’t participate in the scrimmage last season), there must be a logic to it.

Last season, Blue made the game into a laugher quickly, jumping out to a 24-6 lead early in the first half. This year’s version couldn’t have been more different. Gold team scored the initial bucket (a Zaide Lowery take to the hoop) and Kolek responded by scoring seven straight points for the Blue team. From there, it was a competitive back and forth affair with multiple ties and lead changes up until the final few minutes before halftime. Blue started to lock in from three and a Joplin corner three at the buzzer gave Blue a nine-point 42-33 halftime lead.
The Gold team came out fired up for the second half. They turned up the pressure right out of the gate and managed to frustrate Kolek and Kam into some uncharacteristic turnovers. There was a stretch of three consecutive Blue turnovers followed by Kam Jones hitting the side of the backboard on a three-point attempt. Meanwhile, Gold team found multiple guys for three pointers and in no time, Gold had a 51-48 lead (that’s an 18-6 run to start the half for those of you who struggle with the math). The scrimmage had referees, but it seemed like they had been given a mandate to let the guys play. It wasn’t quite “no blood, no foul” but no one was giving any of their teammates any quarter.

Gold could never fully pull away from Blue, but they continued to frustrate them on defense and score just enough. With 34 seconds left, Blue team had the ball down four. Kolek pushed the tempo off a rebound and managed to go coast to coast for a layup to bring it within two. The Gold team then unwisely inbounded into the corner (saw that mistake a few times last season) and Kam managed to deflect the inbounds pass out of bounds. It was unclear who it went off, but the stripes gave it back to the Gold team. With the benefit of replay, it’s possible that could have been a costly turnover. From there, Lowery made two high pressure free throws to push them back to four. Kam, rather than trying to score quickly and foul, tried to get it all back by leaning into a defender and shooting a three. No foul was called, the shot didn’t go in, the Gold Team lobbed it to a sprinting Ross who put down an uncontested windmill dunk for the exclamation point on a six-point Gold victory.

Team Observations:
Shooters, shooters everywhere:
Last season, Marquette was a slightly above average three-point shooting team ranking at 101st in 3P%. TyKo and Joplin shot high percentages at high clips, and Kam shot a decent percentage at a very high clip, but the rest of the team shot slightly below average from deep. Bad shooting nights had the tendency to cost Marquette on important stages. While any team can have an off shooting night, I don’t think this team will see too many of them. Every player except Caedin Hamilton attempted a three during the thirty-minute scrimmage and I think every player but Ighodaro and Amadou had at least one go in. Tyler, Kam, and Joplin are all still deadly from three, but at least in this small sample size, secondary shooters like Mitchell, Sean, Gold, and Chase have seemed to have taken a step forward. Freshmen Norman and Lowery can also shoot, and Oso appears to at least be capable of shooting threes this season. It’s hard to imagine last year’s elite offense being significantly better, but with this many snipers I think Shaka is about to turn the offense up to 11.

Deep 1-4, Shallow at the 5
Marquette is lousy with quality guards and wings. TyKo and Kam were already elite. Chase seems to have made the leap to dude. Stevie, Joplin, and Sean all looked improved from last season. Both Lowery and Norman appeared to be Big East ready. How Shaka is going to find playing time for all 8 of them (spoiler, he won’t) is beyond me but what a beautiful problem to have. I truly believe that guys like Sean, Lowery, and Norman, who will be fighting for the last spot in our rotation, would be capable of starting for a couple of our Big East brethren this season. The center position is a little shakier. Don’t get me wrong, Oso and Gold are going to be one of the top (if not the top) center duos in the Big East. Oso is already an All-Big East center and Gold appears to have taken a big step, but there is a drop off from there. Shaka has already announced that Hamilton will be redshirting this season which leaves only Al Amadou as the emergency center. Amadou clearly has talent but like most freshman bigs, he looks like he could use a year to develop. Given that Ben has already spent time in a cast this offseason for shin splints, the lack of depth is a bit concerning. On the plus side, Oso can play over 30 minutes a night if needed be though that certainly wouldn’t be ideal.

Improved Interior Defense
It’s tough to truly gauge the quality of the defense from a single intra-squad scrimmage. The players are extremely familiar with each other. They know what they like to do on offense and are intimately familiar with the coach’s scheme. Not only that, but in Marquette’s case, they have talented bigs in Oso and Gold, but no mountains masquerading as men like UConn’s Donovan Clingan. With those caveats in place, the 2P defense seems to have improved from last season. Last year’s scrimmage featured several dunks and easy drives to the hoop. Besides Ross’ breakaway exclamation point, I believe there was only one dunk given up the whole scrimmage and even that required Kolek to give Stevie a well-placed stiff-arm to the chest to clear space for Oso to throw it down. Everything seemed to at least be challenged inside the arc, which would be a welcome change from last season. The memory of Tyson Walker going 8-14 from 2 in the round of 32 is still seared into my eyeballs.
Now for some thoughts on each player, obviously with the understanding that this is all based on me watching 30 minutes of live action while simultaneously wrangling a three-year-old and a three-month-old.

#1 Kam Jones
Of the big three, Kam clearly had the roughest performance. He can still shoot the three, no concerns there, but he did not get anything going to the rim in this scrimmage. Probably the biggest reveal of last year’s scrimmage was the preview of Kam’s soon to be elite 2P%. It was not on display this go around. Still, one scrimmage does not undo the season’s worth of evidence we have that Kam is an elite around the rim scorer. Kam also showed some high energy on defense and nearly forced a crucial turnover in the final 30 seconds.

#2 Chase Ross
Marquette fans, we have a dude. We all saw the potential last season but if this scrimmage is any indication, it is going to be realized this season. Chase brought his usual relentless defense, but his offense appears to have taken a significant jump. He shot the three with confidence, he made smart Stevie Mitchell like cuts for easy scores, and there were multiple times that he weaved through blue’s defense before finishing with a soft touch. No box score was released but I am certain that Ross led all scorers. I don’t know that he will start, but at very least he is going to make sure that the Big East sixth man of the year award stays home in the Al this season.

#4 Stevie Mitchell
Stevie is still the whirlwind of a pest that we’ve come to love and adore. He was disruptive, high energy, and throwing himself all over the court as he is wont to do. His shot looked improved (in a very small sample size). He had a nifty pump fake that caused Oso to go flying by before calmly sinking a corner three as the shot clock expired. He showed more confidence as a ball handler and distributor. I was surprised that there was more than one time he was caught out of position on defense leading to at least one wide open three for Joplin. Ross will have a case to take Stevie’s starting job, but I don’t think it is a given.

#5 Tre Norman
Norman didn’t have the prettiest scrimmage. I think he only scored once though he also had a strong take that earned him free throws. Norman did have the best non-Kolek pass of the game, an extremely smooth wraparound pass along the baseline that ended up in perfect position for Caedin Hamilton to lay it in. That was Hamilton’s only bucket of the scrimmage so to put in a place where Hamilton could score is impressive. I think Norman looked generally solid on defense. I only saw once where his man managed to score in the half court, though he failed utterly and completely to stop Stevie on a fast break in the second half. Norman managed to rip the ball away from Ross on one occasion and had a nice possession of help defense where got between Gold and a surefire dunk, saving two points, and then tapping the rebound away from Gold to Kolek. Norman will certainly be in the mix for one of the last two rotation spots.

#10 Zaide Lowery
Lowery was the most exciting newcomer of the day. The freshman showed zero fear, launching several threes, and making a few drives to the basket. Lowery is a beast of a guard and while I wouldn’t call him a good defender yet, he clearly has that potential. My expectations for Lowery are a little more tempered than most that I have seen. His aggressiveness paid off in the scrimmage but several of his shots were very early in the shot clock and didn’t seem to be in the flow of the game. But and this is a big but, he made more of those shots than he missed. Add in that he seems to be a good rebounder and he will make strong case to make the rotation. Lowery’s game reminds me of a young Kam Jones, but his build reminds me of Deonte “Bane” Burton. Put that savviness in that build, give it some time, and we are going to end up loving Mr. Lowery.

#11 Tyler Kolek
Kolek did not have his best game. He scored the first seven points for Blue before going quiet for most of the game. In the second half, Gold turned up the pressure and was clearly able to mess with Kolek’s game a bit, forcing a few bad turnovers. However, when it came down to the final minute, Kolek showed the grit he is known for, making a tough layup over Ben Gold, and then pushing the tempo and making an easy coast to coast layup to pull Blue within two. While this wasn’t his best performance, I have absolutely zero worries about our starting PG. Also, to the surprise of nobody, Kolek was chirping at everyone the entire scrimmage.

#12 Ben Gold
Bennie got big. The amount of good weight that Ben has put on is clearly noticeable. Despite that, he looked improved from three and showed a willingness and ability to put the ball on the floor. The most exciting thing I noticed about Ben was that he was starting to use his size effectively to power through smaller defenders. He also appears to be much improved on the boards though there were a few I noticed that got taken away from him when they shouldn’t have been. Ben showed improvement on the defensive end as well. He had a few blocks and many more contests. There were also multiple times that he was switched onto a guard and held his own. At one point, Blue created an iso for Kolek who was being guarded by Ben. Ben managed to hold his own and forced Kolek into a bad mid-range shot that didn’t go in. He’s certainly not starting over Oso, but he is going to play some very valuable minutes off the bench assuming he’s healthy. I did notice that Ben seemed to get a lot more breathers than any other player. Hopefully that’s not indicative of any lingering shin issues.

#13 Oso Ighodaro
Oso was the clear top player for the Blue team. He looks bigger than last season but still has the toolkit of moves around the post for either easy scores or perfect dimes. Gold could sometimes contain Oso but whenever poor Amadou was given that assignment it was a massacre. Again, no box score but I’m fairly certain that Oso was the top scorer and rebounder for the Blue team. A new wrinkle in Oso’s bag of tricks is the long ball. Oso attempted two threes, both wide open and both were misses. One was a trailer in transition ala Jae Crowder that looked good but just missed. The other…well it at least hit the rim. I don’t know how much we’ll be able to count on Oso bombs this season, but it looks like he’s being encouraged to at least try them. If he can even hit 30% from three, that could add a very dangerous new element to our offense.

#21 Al Amadou
Al had a rough day. He has great size and certainly looks the part of a Shaka big man but it’s clear that he’s going to need some time to develop. He didn’t show much on the offensive end though he is at least willing to attempt a three. It missed badly but we now know it’s in his arsenal. Defensively, Amadou had no answer for Ighodaro. If Oso got the ball in the paint against Amadou, it was two points. What I did see from Amadou was that he guarded the perimeter quite well for his size. Gold often switched on everything, and Amadou often looked more comfortable guarding the likes of Kolek and Kam than he did Oso. Al also showed good off the ball defense in transition on a play where every other Gold player lost track of Oso and he was heading for an alley oop. Amadou stepped up to cut him off from the basket and Blue had to fall back into a half court set. Amadou will be a fine emergency center this season, though hopefully his services won’t be needed often.

#22 Sean Jones
I’ve seen some other recaps praising Sean’s performance in the scrimmage. He’s improved from last season but I’m not sure if he’s improved enough to hold off Lowery and Norman. He splashed a couple threes and looked confident shooting some high-pressure free throws (well as high of pressure as free throws during a scrimmage can be). He is also still the ultra-quick disruptor on defense that he was a year ago. However, on offense, Sean repeatedly fell into the trap of driving in too deep, having nowhere to go, and then either putting up a missed shot or having to kick it out to reset the offense. Sean has the niftiest ball handling of anyone on the squad, but it never seemed to lead to points. Case in point, Sean had one of the quickest spin moves I had ever seen, leaving Joplin completely behind. Despite that, Joplin managed to recover, turn, and swat away Sean’s shot with ease because Sean didn’t get the shot off quick enough. Sean did manage to get a little revenge on Joplin by stepping in and taking a charge on what would have been an easy two from Joplin. Sean is going to find himself battling to hold of Lowery and Norman from taking his spot in the rotation.

#23 David Joplin
Joplin has transformed his body. He is leaner, meaner, and somehow his shot looks even better. Joplin didn’t make all his threes, but he made enough that it felt like he was shooting free throws out there. What I didn’t see that I hoped to was more three level scoring from the Jopwagon. Joplin had a few drives, but I think all but one of them ended up in a miss or a turnover. We’ve heard a lot about Joplin developing an ability to create his own shot, but it wasn’t on display in this game. Defensively, Joplin looked very solid in the post. He had great help defense and managed to hold off the much bigger Ben Gold more than once. Unfortunately, he was still getting burned on the perimeter more often than we would like. Joplin should be a serviceable replacement for O-Max, but don’t expect him to be the beartrap that O-Max often was.

#35 Caedin Hamilton
The newest member of the team looked like the newest member of the team. He is a physical specimen. Comparisons to Theo John are not unfair. He looked a little tentative on offense and is clearly still learning the team defense, understandable given how short his tenure with the program has been. He managed to score one bucket off a beautiful feed from Norman. He also had a man-sized rebound that he ripped out of the hands of Ben Gold. Given that he hasn’t played basketball for very long, there seems to be a lot of untapped potential here. He may end up being a pleasant surprise after his redshirt season.

Implications:
This team is going to be very very good. While Kolek and Kam didn’t have their best games, it was no fluke that the Gold team beat the Blue team. Blue contained four likely starters and the top-rated freshman but a team of one likely starter and a bunch of reserves won out because Marquette is going to be DEEP this season. Last year we had one of the most elite top six players but there was a bit of a drop off after that. This season the drop off will be negligible. Returning top players like Stevie and Joplin look significantly improved. Chase looks better as a sixth man than Joplin did last season (and all he did was when Big East 6MOY). And Gold looks improved enough to be the best backup center in the conference. The only potential pitfall besides injury that I see is how they replace O-Max’s defense. O-Max’s ability to simply take players like Jordan Hawkins off the board was crucial to Marquette’s success. I’m not sure who does that on this roster.

Given the depth, it’s tempting to say that we are going to run a ten-man rotation. Shaka’s history and coaching common sense tells us that Shaka is likely to trim the roster down to nine by conference play. I think it is non-debatable that seven players have already taken nine of the roster spots (the four returning starters, Joplin, Chase, and Ben). That leaves two spots for five scholarship players. Hamilton’s intention to redshirt has already been announced and Amadou seems to clearly be a step behind, leaving us with three players for the last two spots. One of Sean, Lowery, and Noman will end up being the top guy not in the rotation. Lowery certainly looked like a rotation player this scrimmage, but I wouldn’t call him a guarantee yet. I think all three are going to get chances to prove themselves in the non-conference before Big East play begins.