Opinion on Tigers After First Three Games

If your a returning reader I apologize for my lack of postings. Things has been a lot busier this year, so less time to blog.

Anyway, I have been very fortunate to see the Tigers live three times (vs. Christian Brothers, Fairfield, UMass) and once on television (vs. Chattanooga) early this season. There are many positives to take away and just as many negatives so early on.

Positives:

1) The early play of Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier. I've been pretty impressed. Anderson is making good decisions with the ball and showing excellent team leadership. He is taking good shots and not a whole lot of them. I can truly say I've only seen one ill-advised shot by Antonio in the four games combined. Sans the turnovers in today's win over Chattanooga, Anderson has been marvelous moving the ball around the court.

One of the most impressive things to me about Antonio has been the physical change. He has put on roughly 45 pounds since coming to Memphis three years ago. He now has the physical frame of a legitimate NBA guard (sort of like Tyreke Evans).

I suspect Anderson will put up very impressive "overall" statistics this year. I predict 9 points a game, 5 rebounds a game, 6 assists a game, better than a 3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. He will shot 46% from the floor and 35% from the arc. He will be the defensive specialist and play on opponents best 1,2 or 3 position player.

Robert Dozier has also been impressive and has FINALLY stepped up to be the player we always knew was out there, but always seemed to get lost in games. Robert has played with authority including going strong to the basket. He had a strong outing this afternoon and was very business-like putting on a consistent, productive effort without trying to do too much.

2) Tyreke Evans' composure and impressive ability to score around the rim (caveat - Reke needs serious help on developing an outside shooting touch).

3) Doneal Mack. Damn dude, aren't you glad your not suited up for the New Orleans Privateers.

4) Wesley Witherspoon. Wow, this guy has long term superstar type ability - think Todd Day, former Arkansas All-American and Razorback all-time leading scorer.

5) The D-FENSE !!!!!!!!!!!!

Negatives

1) Continued weakness from outside the arc. Never mind the awful performance against UMass. Versus Chattanooga Memphis was still bad sans Doneal Mack's 4 of 7 effort. Memphis needs more guys at a 33% to 38% clip.

2) Overall rebounding.

3) Playing for a full 40 minutes. Do you realize that Memphis has been behind in all four games they played 5 to 10 minutes in to the game? Sure they have woken up the second half of the first half (using defensive pressure), but the competition hasn't been top 50 either.

4) Turnovers. Sure it is early and freshman (Reke and Wesley) have combined for a lot of the errors.

5) Willie Kemp's confidence. Clearly Willie is struggling and Cal seems to have lost significant confidence in Kemp also replacing him as a starter and barely playing him versus Chattanooga today.