Umass Postgame Thoughts

[davidnark]

-I hope Dwayne is OK. He didn't come out after half time, and the PA announcer called for his dad to come down three times. The radio guys didn't sound alarmed, so hopefully that is a good sign.

-I thought we played really good basketball with Kevin at the point and Brown at the three. It gave us a big offensive boost. Brown looks like an entirely different player under Majerus.

-Lisch, Liddell, Meyer, and Brown all had great games maximizing their varying skill sets.

-Husak rebounded, defended, and passed well. He looked like he was just rushing and throwing up his shots.

-Relphorde looked slow and under-sized strength-wise. I am not convinced that he has the strength and/or quickness to be a regular contributor at this level.

-Eberhardt is the worst jumping and finishing power forward since Newborne. There must have been a half a dozen opportunities for him to flush nice assists in the paint, but his lack of spring and vertical resulted in easy blocks for UMass's athletes. One one occasion he had an and-one finish, but he had to fall away and throw it over the defender rather than finish strong. We need some combination of Conklin, Reed, Thompson, and/or a future front court signee to finish these type of plays next year.

-With the exception of our late first half struggles against the zone, Majerus's offense looked real good today. I can't figure out why UMass ever came out of the zone.

[moytoy12]

-I hope Dwayne is OK. He didn't come out after half time, and the PA announcer called for his dad to come down three times. The radio guys didn't sound alarmed, so hopefully that is a good sign.

-I thought we played really good basketball with Kevin at the point and Brown at the three. It gave us a big offensive boost. Brown looks like an entirely different player under Majerus.

-Lisch, Liddell, Meyer, and Brown all had great games maximizing their varying skill sets.

-Husak rebounded, defended, and passed well. He looked like he was just rushing and throwing up his shots.

-Relphorde looked slow and under-sized strength-wise. I am not convinced that he has the strength and/or quickness to be a regular contributor at this level.

-Eberhardt is the worst jumping and finishing power forward since Newborne. There must have been a half a dozen opportunities for him to flush nice assists in the paint, but his lack of spring and vertical resulted in easy blocks for UMass's athletes. One one occasion he had an and-one finish, but he had to fall away and throw it over the defender rather than finish strong. We need some combination of Conklin, Reed, Thompson, and/or a future front court signee to finish these type of plays next year.

-With the exception of our late first half struggles against the zone, Majerus's offense looked real good today. I can't figure out why UMass ever came out of the zone.

Outside of the one blown layup, Brown looked great. Nice stroke, under control, good strong D.

Yep, Eberhardt isn't going to be dunking on anyone anytime soon. Each time he went up and was blocked I immediately started picturing Willie jamming it home.

At least one area where Majerus' coaching is more effective than Sodie's was, is in breaking the press. Even without Polk, we did a decent job of breaking the press and getting into a decent half-court set.

[davidnark]

At least one area where Majerus' coaching is more effective than Sodie's was, is in breaking the press. Even without Polk, we did a decent job of breaking the press and getting into a decent half-court set.

How about two areas. Today, we had three separate buckets off of beautifully planned and executed in-bounds plays. I don't know if we scored three buckets off of in-bounds plays during Soderberg's five years at SLU.

[JaleJarr]

Great win for the team today. Pretty much controlled the tempo from beginning to end.

Coaching Staff rated an A- today, would have been A+ but I felt Adam Knollmeyer should have played more.

Hell he should have played twice the time of Barry Eberhart.

Barry Eberhart-D/ Offers nothing defensively and is very limited offensively. I can't say if he is being limited

due to the injury or the fact that he is playing out of position.

Danny Brown-A minus/ Danny would have been an A+ if not for the blown layup. I'm really concerned about

Danny as he has clearly sold his soul to the devil. His turnaround this year is nothing short of extradordinary.

Danny was a playmaker this game. Danny knocked down open shot after open shot, he could possibly step into

the role of the 3rd scorer.

Bryce Husak C minus/ Bryce was average today. He wasn't really a force today defensively however UMass didn't

present much of a test today. Bryce's hands are such a huge liability. I think he and Paul were involved in 3 consecutive

turnovers in the 2nd half.

Luke Meyer B plus/ Luke's number won't show a great game, but his early play really sparked the team. Luke made

some beautiful cuts for some easy layups. He rebounded well and missed a double-double by 1 point and 1 rebound.

Luke even contributed 2 blocks for good measure. He played his usual aggressive defense and was probably the only

post players besides Adam that was willing to mix it up.

Kevin Lisch B plus/ Although Kevin only shot 6-13 from the field I'll give him a pass as at least 4 of those shots were taken

with the shot clock running down. He played 33 minutes with only 1 turnover. He kept the defense honest by penetrating and

generally played with a clear mindset. He was the team's primary ball handler during the 2nd half and got others involved with 4 assists. He was clearly tired as he gave up an offensive rebound late in the 2nd half but he still went 3 for 3 at the line.

Tommie Liddell C plus/ I would have rated him at least a B minus but his defensive play was inconsistent. I thought at times he made Forbes appear to be a better player than what he is. Coach criticized Tommie earlier in the year about playing soft and avoiding contact. This game was a microcosm of Majerus' thinking. Tommie had two of his shot blocked by avoiding contact. One blocked came on a drive to the basket where he attempted a finger roll. The other block came on a fast break when all he had to do was force some contact from Gaffney. Tommie has to understand that two made free throws are just as good as a made layup. In fact I'd take the two free throws everytime.

[jgcurtin]

That second half team with DB played well defensively and BH appeared a bit more aggressive at times. But his shot was certainly not there today. Rammer said something in the post-game about DP having some injury to his ribs. They were waiting for word from the staff to see how serious it was. Great effort, about 15 points below UMass per game average.

[davidnark]

Tommie Liddell C plus/ I would have rated him at least a B minus but his defensive play was inconsistent. I thought at times he made Forbes appear to be a better player than what he is. Coach criticized Tommie earlier in the year about playing soft and avoiding contact. This game was a microcosm of Majerus' thinking. Tommie had two of his shot blocked by avoiding contact. One blocked came on a drive to the basket where he attempted a finger roll. The other block came on a fast break when all he had to do was force some contact from Gaffney. Tommie has to understand that two made free throws are just as good as a made layup. In fact I'd take the two free throws everytime.

Tommie had some real nice moments today, but I would have loved to have seen him just use his great athleticism to throw down a dunk on his fast break layup that was blocked late in the game. Had we lost the game, it would have been a big play because UMass got a quick two the other day. I would love to see a little more of the Tommie Liddell that wants to posterize his defender when he gets in the paint.

I think Danny blew the layup because he couldn't decide whether to lay it up or dunk it, so he ended up laying it right off the rim.

[moytoy12]

How about two areas. Today, we had three separate buckets off of beautifully planned and executed in-bounds plays. I don't know if we scored three buckets off of in-bounds plays during Soderberg's five years at SLU.

Good call, you're absolutely right. The one thing I still can't figure out is why Bryce shades toward the top of the arch when he is defending on the perimeter. When he does this, he is woefully out of position and can't recover when his guy rolls to the hoop. I've got to believe the coaching staff is instructing to take that position.

[moytoy12]

Tommie Liddell C plus/ I would have rated him at least a B minus but his defensive play was inconsistent. I thought at times he made Forbes appear to be a better player than what he is. Coach criticized Tommie earlier in the year about playing soft and avoiding contact. This game was a microcosm of Majerus' thinking. Tommie had two of his shot blocked by avoiding contact. One blocked came on a drive to the basket where he attempted a finger roll. The other block came on a fast break when all he had to do was force some contact from Gaffney. Tommie has to understand that two made free throws are just as good as a made layup. In fact I'd take the two free throws everytime.

You're tough Jale, but I suspect you have a better basketball eye than myself. I thought Tommie played a B+ game. One thing i did notice was how well Tommie was blocking out for boards.

[JaleJarr]

I think Danny blew the layup because he couldn't decide whether to lay it up or dunk it, so he ended up laying it right off the rim.

I was thinking the same thing. I laughed it off as Danny was having too good of a game for me to be upset.

I can't say enough about today's game plan. I felt we could beat UMass because they haven't made a

commitment to defense. They score nearly 85ppg but give up 79ppg. It's teams like Temple and GW that give us

the most fits as they get after it defensively. Teams that want to run up and down play to the strengths of Tommie,

Kevin, and Danny.

[JaleJarr]

You're tough Jale, but I suspect you have a better basketball eye than myself. I thought Tommie played a B+ game. One thing i did notice was how well Tommie was blocking out for boards.

I can be at times but I've been watching Tommie since the age of 10. I like the rebounding as well. Coach has adjusted the

coaching a bit. Tommie is in much better rebounding position.

I was charting the game and I know how some people feel about stats, but these numbers are telling. They are not 100% accurate as I didn't have a view of the shot clock every play but when the team put up a shot with 10 or more seconds remaining on the shot clock in the 1st half I had them shooting 13/14. When the shot clock got under 10 seconds I had them 2/13. I think this lends credence to my thinking that players tend to shoot better when they take the shots they seek. Again kudos to the staff for such a wonderful gameplan.

[Parks 68]

You're tough Jale, but I suspect you have a better basketball eye than myself. I thought Tommie played a B+ game. One thing i did notice was how well Tommie was blocking out for boards.

Bryce played much better today than his numbers showed. In the first half, his screens opened three to four easy drives to the basket. On UMass free throws that were missed, he backed his man out and the Bills got the rebound. He did miss a couple of 8 footers but he was consistently makeing them in the warm up. Two dunks. The second didn't count but was awesome as he was in exactly the right place and time to follow up on a missed shot. Too bad he didn't get the points.

Tommie was very good offensively, he still slacks off on his man on defense. His man sank a couple of threes while he was a good five feet away.

Danny was awesome. What a good game for him.

Luke got some bad foul calls today but still delivered his yeoman performance. He had three back door cuts to the basket that resulted in points. Good for him. Adam played well. Kevin does it all. Agree that he was tired at the end of the game but he picked up and continued to deliver. What a guy!

A nice win for the bills.

[Sheltiedave]

It's actually fairly easy to set up the defensive gameplan against teams that love to run - get four people back ASAP to play defense. We could always play it well against Memphis, Louisville, and now it is UMass and RI. Throws a huge monkey wrench in the teams who love to run, and are not coached to play a grind-it-out half court set.

After seeing Danny again today, I'm convinced his knee injury was a great advantage for his play this year, forcing him to play within himself, and booting him over to SF. It is a pleasure to see him thinking game rather than scoring.

In another two full years, Rickma's offense will be a big boost against the more athletic teams who overplay us. The best two games I have seen it executed have now been the LaSalle and UMass games, where we routinely scored easy baskets from back cuts off the overplay.

[STL Hoops Insider]

Polk set the temp early and made himself a factor. I think he scored the first 4 points of the game, both on runners with his off hand. Probably should use that more.

[JaleJarr]

Tommie was very good offensively, he still slacks off on his man on defense. His man sank a couple of threes while he was a good five feet away.

Danny was awesome. What a good game for him.

A nice win for the bills.

I think Tommie had a decent game offensively, but this was a game he should have scored 20 points easily.

Danny Brown is a completely different player with this staff. I think the jump he has made mentally is huge. Danny of the past would have had about 2 offensive fouls this game. I don't know if the leap has come from not being able to compete due the injury he has worked through or a combination of that matched with the coaching. Danny having to sit and really watch the game may have given him some insight that he couldn't get simply by playing. I don't recognize this new Danny but he is a keeper.

[JaleJarr]

Polk set the temp early and made himself a factor. I think he scored the first 4 points of the game, both on runners with his off hand. Probably should use that more.

I don't know about that. The first runner he made was a legitimate shot but the second runner was due to UMass conceding the following free throw. They didn't block out and Polk scored off a broken play. UMass is a poor defensive team. Most teams would force Polk to prove he can make a jumpshot before closing out on him.

[Billikan]

-I hope Dwayne is OK. He didn't come out after half time, and the PA announcer called for his dad to come down three times. The radio guys didn't sound alarmed, so hopefully that is a good sign.

-I thought we played really good basketball with Kevin at the point and Brown at the three. It gave us a big offensive boost. Brown looks like an entirely different player under Majerus.

-Lisch, Liddell, Meyer, and Brown all had great games maximizing their varying skill sets.

-Husak rebounded, defended, and passed well. He looked like he was just rushing and throwing up his shots.

-Relphorde looked slow and under-sized strength-wise. I am not convinced that he has the strength and/or quickness to be a regular contributor at this level.

-Eberhardt is the worst jumping and finishing power forward since Newborne. There must have been a half a dozen opportunities for him to flush nice assists in the paint, but his lack of spring and vertical resulted in easy blocks for UMass's athletes. One one occasion he had an and-one finish, but he had to fall away and throw it over the defender rather than finish strong. We need some combination of Conklin, Reed, Thompson, and/or a future front court signee to finish these type of plays next year.

-With the exception of our late first half struggles against the zone, Majerus's offense looked real good today. I can't figure out why UMass ever came out of the zone.

I sure hope that Dwayne is ok. The play where he got hurt may have been the key play in the game. We had choked a big first half lead and they had the ball down four with about 20 seconds left. They drove hard to the basket and Dwayne took the charge with a knee to the chest. The refs called the offensive foul and we got the ball back and they made an idiotic foul to send kevin to the line for 1 an 1 and he knocked down 2 to give us a six point lead at the break. DP also was playing fantastic defense on their lightning quick point guard. Kevin played him pretty well in the second half but not a good as DP.

This season is an incredible roller coaster. UMass was ranked 21st and we took it to them in a game if we hit our free throws and layups we win by 20. Two wins against ranked teams and it should have been 3 if we had hit one shot late against Dayton.

That tells me we have enough talent to compete. But we have played some of the sickest games in 20 years in Kent State, GW, Dayton on the road, BC, etc. The defense has been good most games but even the defense has been inconsistant. The offense is wildly inconsistant and I attribute that to two things: 1. When we hit some shots we seem to gain confidence and it has often continued for the entire game--as opposed to when we shoot bad and then that seems to stay with us for the duration and, 2. I think this coaching staff, as RM admitted in the paper today, took away the natural games of Tommie and Kevin to try to shoehorn the team into the complicated historic RM schemes and the team becomes paralyzed with indecision.. Toady, when we were playing instinctively we looked great.

Our group all commented today that Danny Brown has improved his overall game more in one year than any Billiken player we have ever seen. His play is SOLID! Last year I hoped he would never touch the ball on offense because he was a turnover waiting to happen and now he makes excellent plays with style and confidence. What an amazing transformation.

For their size and strength--at least just looking at them, Eberhardt and Relphorde may play be the softest inside players I have ever seen. Thin Tommie and Short Danny and not huge Luke batttled like tigers on the boards while the E and R duo was soft, soft, soft. I think we will see a new fire from the new guys next year and if these two do not step up we will see very little of them on the floor.

I do not know about everyone else but I was on pins and needles the entire game fearful that the refs would make calls to help them in their comeback and if started to happen in the last 5 minutes or so. That tall dark haired ref must have had a bet on UMass because I believe he made numerous calls and virtually all of them favored UMass even when it was obvous that he could not possibly see what happened because the play was on the other side of the floor and his view was blocked. The other two refs actually did make some calls down the stretch that were even handed but he was a joke.

I sure hope DP is back for Xavier. We need him to chase around their guards. Great win! Go Bills!

[SLU_Nick]

I don't know about that. The first runner he made was a legitimate shot but the second runner was due to UMass conceding the following free throw. They didn't block out and Polk scored off a broken play. UMass is a poor defensive team. Most teams would force Polk to prove he can make a jumpshot before closing out on him.

Vtime, Polk is not good even if he did come from Vashon. He is a nice kid but the fact is, we are better team without him.

Does anyone know what actually happened to him. I have never heard of any player's dad being called down to the locker room from the loud speaker. That is just strange. Has anyone heard anything?

DB played well and when we can shoot we are good. Everything fell into place right today...shots were falling like crazy for KL and they shot terribly. If they shoot at a 20% clip from three than it is a game at the end. I was like the announcers in that I just kept waiting for their shots to start falling.

But I am like Nashville now and think that we are almost final four team after this win and the next time we are on the road I will be suicidal....

Nick

[The Heckler]

Previous post

"Kevin Lisch B plus/ Although Kevin only shot 6-13 from the field I'll give him a pass as at least 4 of those shots were taken

with the shot clock running down. He played 33 minutes with only 1 turnover. He kept the defense honest by penetrating and

generally played with a clear mindset. He was the team's primary ball handler during the 2nd half and got others involved with 4 assists. He was clearly tired as he gave up an offensive rebound late in the 2nd half but he still went 3 for 3 at the line."

I would have to say Kevin should have received an A. He gaurded their top scorer and only gave up 6 points to Harris. If Harris gets his average, WE LOSE. As well as Danny played today, the star of the game was Kevin. I also think Kevin's shot is back. His pull up jumpers in the lane are helping his confidence and extending his game. His jumpers he made off 2 out of bounds plays in the second half help push our lead to a comfortable margin and we never were in trouble after those buckets.

We play so well at home, I wish we could fill the building. Each conference game at home has been a barn burner. We should finish up 5-4 giving us a 8-8 conference record, not sure what seed that will be, but we all know were going to have to win our turnament to get a chance at the dance.

[NH]

FYI Tommie guarded their top scorer

[The Heckler]

FYI Tommie guarded their top scorer

They have two that average 20 ppg, so they are both their top scorers.

[NH]

They have two that average 20 ppg, so they are both their top scorers.

forbes is a better, more proven scorer. That is by no means saying that Lisch didnt do an awesome job

[JaleJarr]

Previous post

I would have to say Kevin should have received an A. He gaurded their top scorer and only gave up 6 points to Harris. If Harris gets his average, WE LOSE. As well as Danny played today, the star of the game was Kevin. I also think Kevin's shot is back. His pull up jumpers in the lane are helping his confidence and extending his game. His jumpers he made off 2 out of bounds plays in the second half help push our lead to a comfortable margin and we never were in trouble after those buckets.

I guess I expect a little more from Kevin. He played a solid game but isn't that what you expect from Kevin. The star of the game would be someone who exceeded expectations. A stellar defense game and 16 points from Kevin is par for the course. Danny Brown scoring 14 points with 7 rebounds, 5 assists, & 2 blocks in 29 minutes is my star of the game.

[JaleJarr]

I do not know about everyone else but I was on pins and needles the entire game fearful that the refs would make calls to help them in their comeback and if started to happen in the last 5 minutes or so. That tall dark haired ref must have had a bet on UMass because I believe he made numerous calls and virtually all of them favored UMass even when it was obvous that he could not possibly see what happened because the play was on the other side of the floor and his view was blocked. The other two refs actually did make some calls down the stretch that were even handed but he was a joke.

I haven't seen the team on the road this year but I was nervous also. I was thinking that if the officiating is this

inconsistent at home, we don't stand a chance on the road. We have little margin for error, coupled with bad

officiating is possibly one of the causes of our inconsistent road play.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Polk set the temp early and made himself a factor. I think he scored the first 4 points of the game, both on runners with his off hand. Probably should use that more.

You mean that you, of all people, don't know that Dwayne Polk is right-handed? He just shoots free throws and jumpers with his left hand.

[davidnark]

This season is an incredible roller coaster. UMass was ranked 21st and we took it to them in a game if we hit our free throws and layups we win by 20. Two wins against ranked teams and it should have been 3 if we had hit one shot late against Dayton.

That tells me we have enough talent to compete. But we have played some of the sickest games in 20 years in Kent State, GW, Dayton on the road, BC, etc. The defense has been good most games but even the defense has been inconsistant. The offense is wildly inconsistant and I attribute that to two things: 1. When we hit some shots we seem to gain confidence and it has often continued for the entire game--as opposed to when we shoot bad and then that seems to stay with us for the duration and, 2. I think this coaching staff, as RM admitted in the paper today, took away the natural games of Tommie and Kevin to try to shoehorn the team into the complicated historic RM schemes and the team becomes paralyzed with indecision.. Toady, when we were playing instinctively we looked great.

I view the drastic inconsistency not as a reflection of the caliber of talent, but rather the lack thereof. This team's margin for error is so small that when the guards aren't hitting shots and the team isn't defending well, we can suffer a double-digit loss against anyone. If this team had any offensive talent in the post, we would have had another 15-20 points today and won easily. How many easy opportunities within eight feet did Eberhardt and Husak miss today? Without this interior threat, we are entirely dependent upon guards to hit shots and create offense despite being the focus of the other's teams defense. When those shots aren't falling, we can suffer record-breaking scoring droughts. When they are falling and we are taking advantage of a few transition opportunities, we can stay with most teams in the country. Unfortunately, until the talent improves those will remain big "ifs."