With the 31-game regular season tipping off Friday, Dan D?Antoni is trying to piece together a good rotation.
Now in his fourth season running the Marshall basketball program, he admits that the chemistry on his teams doesn?t click until later in the season. And remember, Rondale Watson isn?t due to regain academic eligibility until mid-December.
In the meantime, D?Antoni is hoping that Jarrod West complements the tandem of Jon Elmore and C.J. Burks. West showed some of that promise in the Thundering Herd?s two exhibition games, scoring 19 points with eight assists and five steals.
He did struggle shooting Sunday night against West Virginia Wesleyan, hitting just 1 of 7 from the floor.
Six-foot-9 Ajdin Penava scored 14 points in each game, doing so in just 15 minutes against Wesleyan. He was a perfect 6 for 6 in that game.
?He looks big,? D?Antoni said. ?Last year, he looked like he got smaller, not bigger. This year it looks like he?s expanding, he?s bigger when he plays.?
With Elmore, Burks, Penava and West more or less established, the question is what to do about the fifth man in the starting lineup, and the substitution patterns. D?Antoni has started the team?s only true center, Mijan Mijovic, with mixed results. Mijovic scored two points and pulled down nine rebounds in 28 minutes in the two games.
?He looked bad for about three quarters, then he had that four-minute spurt where he was looking like he?s supposed to,? D?Antoni said after the Wesleyan game. ?That?s really when we shot the gap, shot the lead.?
Dani Koljanin scored eight points and had seven rebounds, and provides a ?mature body, mature game.? Jannson Williams had 12 points in 13 minutes the previous Sunday against WVU Tech, but tailed off in the second game. Phil Bledsoe scored 14 points with nine rebounds in that game, and Christian Thieneman scored nine. Ot Elmore went a combined 2 of 11 from 3-point range, but he is one of the team?s best shooters in practice.
Darius George, who is clearly feeling his way, showed his athleticism in the second game, scoring seven. D?Antoni confirmed George will not be redshirting this winter.
?That Darius is going to be all right once he learns how to play,? D?Antoni said, half-jokingly.
The Herd tips off the season at 8 p.m. Friday against Tennessee-Martin at Cam Henderson Center. The coach is eager to see how his team operates.
?If Penava can play like he?s playing; I know what I?m going to get from John and C.J.,? D?Antoni said. ?The West kid will be a little up and down; Rondale will join them and that will solve that problem, in that we?ll have that rotation that will be pretty solid.
?We?ve just got to figure out Milan, Darius, Dani, Phil. I need two of them; we?ll see what happens. If I get three, all the better.?
Now in his fourth season running the Marshall basketball program, he admits that the chemistry on his teams doesn?t click until later in the season. And remember, Rondale Watson isn?t due to regain academic eligibility until mid-December.
In the meantime, D?Antoni is hoping that Jarrod West complements the tandem of Jon Elmore and C.J. Burks. West showed some of that promise in the Thundering Herd?s two exhibition games, scoring 19 points with eight assists and five steals.
He did struggle shooting Sunday night against West Virginia Wesleyan, hitting just 1 of 7 from the floor.
Six-foot-9 Ajdin Penava scored 14 points in each game, doing so in just 15 minutes against Wesleyan. He was a perfect 6 for 6 in that game.
?He looks big,? D?Antoni said. ?Last year, he looked like he got smaller, not bigger. This year it looks like he?s expanding, he?s bigger when he plays.?
With Elmore, Burks, Penava and West more or less established, the question is what to do about the fifth man in the starting lineup, and the substitution patterns. D?Antoni has started the team?s only true center, Mijan Mijovic, with mixed results. Mijovic scored two points and pulled down nine rebounds in 28 minutes in the two games.
?He looked bad for about three quarters, then he had that four-minute spurt where he was looking like he?s supposed to,? D?Antoni said after the Wesleyan game. ?That?s really when we shot the gap, shot the lead.?
Dani Koljanin scored eight points and had seven rebounds, and provides a ?mature body, mature game.? Jannson Williams had 12 points in 13 minutes the previous Sunday against WVU Tech, but tailed off in the second game. Phil Bledsoe scored 14 points with nine rebounds in that game, and Christian Thieneman scored nine. Ot Elmore went a combined 2 of 11 from 3-point range, but he is one of the team?s best shooters in practice.
Darius George, who is clearly feeling his way, showed his athleticism in the second game, scoring seven. D?Antoni confirmed George will not be redshirting this winter.
?That Darius is going to be all right once he learns how to play,? D?Antoni said, half-jokingly.
The Herd tips off the season at 8 p.m. Friday against Tennessee-Martin at Cam Henderson Center. The coach is eager to see how his team operates.
?If Penava can play like he?s playing; I know what I?m going to get from John and C.J.,? D?Antoni said. ?The West kid will be a little up and down; Rondale will join them and that will solve that problem, in that we?ll have that rotation that will be pretty solid.
?We?ve just got to figure out Milan, Darius, Dani, Phil. I need two of them; we?ll see what happens. If I get three, all the better.?
