Billikenboy

Totally blacked out now. Should have gone to the local bar to catch the game. This sucks?

Shittte

This sucks

Wow...

Nice

So it starts...gotta get through it to get the win.

Keep the updates coming. 101 app just died on me. Stream not working either.

True statement. Everyone is needed going forward but I suspect we will keep pulling our hair out for awhile.

I guess when no knows why we can just speculate. Seems more like personal issues not basketball related or he could be nursing an injury. We seldom find out till later anyway!

Most on this board can learn alot from you. Hard to believe in a obvious growth year there is so much whining and finger pointing when game by game the successes and failures are so different. Just accept that this team will be much better next year. Yes Sophs will be even better also.

School will be open once again!

Refreshing to hear sensible voice with all these pots and pans banging on here.

I think one contributor to our poor shooting is our defensive emphasis to set up for charges instead of blocking the shot. We probably lead the nation in this category. Our guys face this in practice everyday but in real games opponents only setup for charges when they must and typically contest the shot with a block. Shot deterrence goes a long way and allows teams to use their athleticism...watch Kentucky, Uconn or Louisville. When we face these teams our shooting percentage lowers because the shot are not as open as they are in practice. Case in point...MC or TL seldom hit contested shot but will hit the wide open ones. Same with AM but he possesses the quickest release on the team so his success rate is higher. Put a bigger guard on him and his numbers drop as well. Everyone seems to be used to setting up for charges on this team so penetrating guards, small forwards, and bigs know to simply slice right into out defense to get that easy jumper or runner. It is seldom deterred! Every now and then JM puts his hands in there to block the shot. No one else does that on this team. I will settle for one guy setting up for the charge while another is trying to toss that crap out anyday. When we face athletic teams that go for the block and contest the jumper we will lose everytime. The successful teams have learned to mix it up. Athleticism can be lost if not used on a regular basis. Notice our bigs get blocked in the paint regularly. Could this also be why some players are not finishing around the rim? Just a thought. I am sure we will hear other ones. ?

Good questions. Only time will tell from what I can see.

If you can tell what this all means and predict the future it would really excite me. I think it is time for all the whiners and naysayers on this board to go back to your warm lounge chairs and let the kids play. Incidentally no one is going anywhere...deal with that! JC will be here next year and so will all the players you obviously cannot come in the game for. Enjoy sipping your non-fat, decaf tiramasu frappacino while wearing that Billiken blue velvet robe.

We did better on the board on this game but certainly a concerted team effort to rbd would serve us well.

Team will be fine. I am confident that by the end of the conference play the learned group of men will emerge as a cohesive unit. I could care less about the mistakes on the court now. Now is the time to make them. For the guys getting the bulk of the minutes their roles are more defined now but for the others that we need to step up I see the emergence of better players that will solidify the team in the games ahead. We know what AY, MY, JM, and AM bring to the table right now. We need TL, MC, MB, DR, RA, BJ, MR, and AG to grow up fast as well. This is a talented group that is nowhere near where they should be as a team defensively or offensively. This is not an easy road to be on but it was bound to happen nevertheless. Just keep getting better. Maybe next one we can cut those turnovers to less than 10. We will certainly need to have control over those before we meet VCU!

I think coaches have their hands full just trying to be competitive and win games.

Yes I understand your point but what is sorely missed on this board is that even with all the practice and skill work done with these kids they must be given time in game situations to use those reps. If you get very few minutes then growth is slowed. For TL I am sure the lack of playing time has hurt him and his confidence. Their mistakes must be made on the court in game situations in order for them to grow and when they do coaching staff has to address them, correct it, then reinforce positive growth that they learned from the mistake. That is going on right now but it is awful to watch. So my thing is play them now since you did not do it much in OOC schedule. Almost like not giving the sophs meaningful mins last year surely hurt their development. So it has got to happen now somehow. I would also like to see roles clearly defined out there because sometimes I cannot tell who is doing what. Proper technique will go a long way too. I do not mind RA putting the ball on the floor but his technique is bad so correct it to make him more effective. TL shooting quick 3s, that is what he was told to do. He missed them but if he made them then we will say he should have been brought in sooner. MC is not a confident dribbler and tends to hold the ball too long in transition. So make him better. So much to work on and the season is passing us by. Just some thoughts..

TL is not Ellis even though you might want him to be and him bulking up has not hurt his performance. The trainer knows more about what his best performance weight is than anyone on this board. Granted he and others did not play well last game but the sky is not falling in either. If anything a more aggressive TL might help.

Good observation...still up to staff to fine tune the lineup. May have been a shot in the dark but it did not work. Well off to the next one!

Granted the kid had a bad game and was definitely trying to do too much but no one person shoulders any such loss. We played well in the 1st and just reverted to our BS in the 2nd. I think there was growth but against a good vet team like this it just is not as obvious. I say build on what we did in 1st half.

How does us getting beat on the boards and turning the ball over 20 plus times throughout the game equate to a stretch. We just got beat plain and simple.

Lets calm our doom and gloom with a little lets wait and see. Season is not over yet!

So true!