First off, when watching the game I think it was pretty obvious that Long Beach St is not a good team. I would expect them to finish right around .500 this year. So what does losing to a team like that mean for this basketball team?

1. I will give them a little bit of a pass for starting the game at 11:45pm. That is going to have an effect on you whether you are young or not. The body isn't used to playing serious basketball at that time of night/morning.

2. Turnovers - If the team turns the ball over at the rate they did against LBSU then they are not a good team. KC with 7 turnovers. Davis with 6. Some were horrendous offensive fouls (the one against Fischer early is one of the worst calls I have ever seen).

3. Shooting - 5-20 from 3 won't cut it. 38% from the free throw line won't cut it. Yes it was only 1 game, but I see a potential problem here. Who on our team would you trust at the free throw line? We certainly will be better than 38%, but Collinsworth, Davis (shot 68% his freshman year which certainly isn't horrible), Kaufusi (looked like our only competent free throw shooter) Austin and Aytes have me a bit worried. These guys are going to get fouled and need to take advantage of those shots.

4. Nick Emery - Nick is one of our best athletes on the floor, but every game/practice/scrimmage I have watched he has had a hard time putting the ball in the basket. Let's hope this is just rust/mission legs. We need him to be a scorer. Our guards were 11-36 from the floor. That is awful. Emery was 1-8.

5. Corbin Kaufusi - Kaufusi was the best player on the floor. I am extremely impressed with how far he has come.

6. Kyle Collinsworth - We need Kyle to be a leader on this team. He didn't look anything like a leader in this game. I have seen posts about the attitude not being right which I hope are false. He doesn't need to be a big time scorer for this team to be good (not his game), but he needs to cut down on mistakes and put the team in the right position. He needs to make the right play with the game on the line. He certainly did some good in this one, but he needs to be much better.

7. Jake Toolson - Jake seemed to be showing a different part of his game in the preseason games, then now he is back to his old self. 2-5 from the field. 2-5 from 3. 2-5 from 2 to 5 feet behind the 3 point line. I would like to see Jake be more than just a deep spot up shooter. I would also like to see him put himself in better position so that when he receives the pass he is on the line and not 3 feet behind it.

Bottom Line: Every game counts so losing this one will hurt on selection Sunday, but I don't think it will become a pattern. I think the game time had an effect and I think the team got out of sorts partly because of it. I expect them to learn from this and calm down and play their game in the future.

What worries me? None of our guards seemed to be able to create their own shot. Along these lines we had no mid range game.

What I like? Kaufusi, Davis and Aytes are all capable scorers down low. That is the best front court we have in quite awhile. I love the potential and talent coming off of the bench. We are much deeper than in years past.

After two games I expect this team to be better than last year's team. There is certainly more talent there. They need KC to be a leader; hopefully that happens.