bbjunkie wrote:I was in Grand Forks last week and had heard that Red River was going to be one of the best teams in the East. Right now i can't imagine that they are....I watched them play West Fargo and then Bemidji. They played pretty well early against West Fargo and Bemidji, I think they had leads at halftime in both games. The schreiner kid had some moments but had trouble in the second half when teams adjusted. i would have to say Red River did no adjusting at halftime. They seem to run or call out many difeent offensive plays but they it seems they are all designed to free up a guard for a jump shot...no easy baskets for them. They did not do a very good job getting the ball inside unless schreiner would penetrate and dish..he did do that a few times but hat left 4 teamates standing around watching. Not much offense run to get thmpson posted up or free for a they. The games i saw teams adjusted to his good first halves and really made him a non-factor in the second half and he really seems to be the only option the coaches are working to get shots.
The defense of scheme was astounding. They are having the wings(guards), guys guarding the ball overplay, i mean really overplay their person to force them to drive he ball to the block..four feet from the basket, you know the colored block on the floor for freethrows..ya...they allow this person to dribble to 4 feet not to the baseline to the basket. Once there one of their big guys tries to take a charge or leaves his guy...red river is not all that big and besides Robb, no real shot blockers...so they give up four foot shot to the wing or if big guy leaves to soon, a layup to the other teams opposing big guy. Nelson from West Fargo.. Looked awesome as Farkas beat whoever was guarding him and he either got layup or Nelson got a bunny. Against Bemidji, their scorer just got funneled to the block and elevated over for two points.
For sure, the coach talked about his three guards being one of the tops in the state if not the top in the state...needs to realize you must play defense! He must have forgot about the kid at north and the West Fargo guards as a whole were better than Red River. And there is Wolf at Devils Lake and Rod at shanley...right? it was the guards from Bemidji that got Red River too. It almost lloks like the rest on defense so they have energy for offense. Battle played against Bemidji and he was rusty so hopefully he will get better but their defense is non-existent, and alot of turnovers but that happens, in my opinion, when you stand around and try to create off the dribble.
Schreiner is the real deal offensively but it seems that all kinds of offensive plays but only one, very ordinary. lackluster defense..their guards get beat a lot...seems to me when i watched them play last year at state it was kind of the same thing. Offense no defense.
To be more positive, I thought West Fargo looked pretty good. They did not get discouraged early when they wee down. They ran pretty simple offense but ran it well. They got a ton of really good shots in the second half. Their coach made some really good adjustments at half and his team executed very well in second half. They are not that big but they distributed the ball well and played good defense. It looks like they might be one of the best teams in the East. Farkas and Nelson were good and Hoy and Flatin play defense...to be fair, the games i saw was won by the team that made adjustments and played defense and that was not Red River. For Red River it can only get better...right? Wow, a disappointment for sure at this point. Looks like a long season.
just to shut you up for a bit..red river just beat north for the second time tonight.
