Not too much you can say about Wednesday’s game except a great job by the Bulldogs putting away a much inferior opponent, with a 75-50 win over Lincoln. I’m not going to comment much on the game because it was honestly not a competition for much of the time. Lincoln did pull within 8 in the second half, but to me, it was much more due to the Bulldogs letting up and having too many mental lapses than anything else. Once they hammered their foot back down on the accelerator, Lincoln scored something like one field goal in just about the last ten minutes and the Bulldogs pulled away quickly.
Josh Parker led the way with 22 points – showing quite a bit of maturity and growth since last year. If this year is going to be the year of someone stepping up, he surely looks to be a prime candidate. Over his past three games now, JP has averaged 15.3 points per game and has shown a very nice touch from beyond the arc, shooting 6-9. Meanwhile, Craig Stanley took another step forward with 11 assists to just two turnovers. While we were admittedly playing a DII school, 11 assists is impressive regardless.
I also realized why Coach Phelps might be a pretty smart guy – he saw from the beginning that the lineup of Young, Stanley, and Parker on the floor at the same time has the potential to be special. I’ll admit that I was surely one that was critical of Parker not playing enough, but I think I’ve caught on to Phelps’ plan. It appears that, all along, he was attempting to move Parker to the 2 – while also bringing Stanley along at the same time at the 1. The result is that you end up with a lightning quick lineup that, coupled with Bucky on the perimeter, can shoot the heck out of the ball but still get to the basket at will AND can pass the ball exceptionally.
We saw quite a bit of Parker with the ball in the open court in transition – and I think that’s where he is exceptionally talented as a point guard. It appears that those opportunities are still going to exist for him, and at the same time he can now continue to grow into a role that he can be relied upon to score as well. This is significant – I think it’s been discussed at length why a one-option offense does not work – having another solid option (Parker) that can score on his own makes us considerably more dynamic and incredibly difficult to defend.
On top of that, it appears that the guys have really taken to it as well. JP mentioned on the radio last night that those three have been especially working together in practice, and that they call themselves “Team Three”. For a team that is searching for its identity offensively, I think the lightning quickness of team three certainly offers a glimpse of what this team’s identity can be, and even more exciting, the potential that this team has as those three continue to develop. We continue to see one or two of them step up every game. If they can continue to develop, and Josh Young can get his shot back – Team Three could be pretty dangerous heading into Ames.
Until then, we have the Iowa Realty tournament tonight against Texas Pan American (2-5) and North Carolina Central (0-7). Both teams are in the 320-340 range of the RPI. While it’s not always the most reliable metric at this time of year, it’s fair to say that any team that is that low is bad. In fact, that might be too nice of a description. I’ll hold the low blows until after we play this weekend and finish the tune up for Ames.
They also mentioned during the Mediacom broadcast that Parker had been switched to the 2 spot. To me this was the moment that I realized that Phelps is probably going to do great things here. This move is great on so many levels. First it lets Stanley know that he’s the guy. You never want your point guard stressing because he has someone just waiting to replace him when he makes a mistake. It also means the starting 5 are probably set, and can get that much more time together in practice. Finally as you pointed out, it pushes us up there with the top valley teams as far as starting athleticism. Phelps’ incoming class is regarded fairly highly by ESPN as well.
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