Houston from da'Couch in Maryland ......

[Taj79]

.... I got what I expected.  That was a decent game, against a decent team, ranked #24, in their building and we played tot-to-toe with them to the end.  The bounces did not go our way at the end --- whether that was commission or omission I don't know but the result did not surprise me.  Neither would an opposite result if it had gone the other way.  And it could have ----- that was a very makeable shot for Bess on the rebound miss at the end.  He makes that and we are in overtime.  We just came up a little short --- did we lose or just run out of time?  I don't know.

What I liked:  the team has yet to play a complete game but the signs were there.  Isabell was pretty much the guy we expected way back in early November.  Sixteen points off the bench.  Seemed in tune with everyone else for the first time.  Did go a little hero ball late but you can't demand leadership then balk about it when it happens.  Bess was his usual good self.   And Goodwin, sans the underneath on the last screen, was not bad and an improvement on what he has been so far.  Another double-double speaks to that. 

What I disliked:  free throw shooting remains the main issue.  Sorry, 61% is never going to cut it but according to 'A10 Talk' there is an epidemic around the entire league.  The second issue that remains is the lack of any exterior shooting.  We are getting 'good' shots.  The college game has turned into the 'jack a three' game and we don't have anyone with any consistency to do that.  One thing I've noticed too is that we don't encourage Gordon to go to work on the down low until the second half.  We need to get the ball down low more BUT we also need the bigs to send it out real quickly if anyone does to us what Houston did going forward -- they doubled the low entry immediately the whole game.  We also got beat on the boards but even Ford knew that was coming.  And I don't thin a -6 is really all that bad.  Even with that, we are one shot away from overtime.

Questions:  still not quite sure what the offense is.  The weave appears at best a time consumer.  But then when done, the ball ends up with Thatch and/or French and that's usually not a good thing.  The fact that Thatch disappeared after his career game was not surprising.  He's a freshman.  The Post headline a few days back said 'freshmen guards a key.'  Not even close.  DJ Foreman continues to play on ice skates out there.  French is a marked man with fouls.  How does a $60 million revamp of Hofheinz Pavilion NOT include shot clock electronics?  I have no clue what the ref -- behind the huddle --- believes he saw when hitting Bess with that technical.  I saw nothing; the announcers saw nothing.  Ditto the guy, obscured by the Houston big, call the push foul late on Foreman when the Houston guard collided with his own man.  That was a travel all the way.  Perception rules, however.  The announcing team was part of the "AAC on ESPN."  They said so themselves.  I had never seen Juliane Viani before ... likely because I don't watch the AAC much.  But they were all pro-AAC so the fact she was lost in most cases did not surprise me.  Dispatching her to show the flood line in the tunnel under the basket and then to have the damn Pavilion deliver barbeque courtside was really stupid and all just fluff for the AAC.  She could, however, work for me! 

Bottom line:  we had a chance.  That's really all you could ask for.

[Cowboy]

-yep, we had a chance, all sorts of factors why we didn't cash in on it, some of our own doing that if we fix we win that game and many others

-don't take this as me being Debbie Downer, not the intent, we only have so many chances during a season and I would have for it to come down to winning three games in three days in Brooklyn with a limited roster so let's make hay with the chances we have remaining so it doesn't come to that

[slu72]

Good summary. I think we finally got a glimpse of the FR JGood. Hopefully, he continues on that path. The low TO count is encouraging as well. FT's continue to cost us dearly. Two losses in fact. Yesterday and Pitt. They very well can cost us down the road, but, at this point, how do you fix it? 

Now the O scheme, whatever it is, needs fixing. Two things bug me: the weave and lack of player movement once it stops. However, the cut by Bess and pass from Foreman for an easy jam was good to see. Run that over and over in film sessions so the point is driven home; you can't just stand around out there. As for the inside game it's been the same all year. We're seeing 2-3 guys collapse every time we make an interior pass. Ford says he was only stressing only a small part of the O he wants to implement. Well, you can begin anytime teaching the rest of it. 

[JohnnyJumpUp]

I think that was Isabell's best all around game, he was great defensively. SLU really took care of the ball with only 8 turnovers. It was nice to see that play out of a timeout, Foreman to Bess on the baseline. Gordon needs to get the ball in his hands more inside. Three dogshit calls that stood out to me were 1) Bess getting called for a foul with 1 second left on the shot clock at the end of the first half, while going for the rebound, he didn't even touch the guy, this allowed them to grab a lead gping into half 2)the T on Bess, both players barely bumped each other, that had to be one of the weakest technical foul calls I've ever seen, this allowed Houston to cut their deficit from six to two 3) Foreman getting that foul call at the end was an absolute joke, giving them 2 free throws in place of the turnover. Both second half calls were made by the same ref. Those calls were huge in a close game like this. 

[Billiken Rich]

38 minutes ago, JohnnyJumpUp said:

I think that was Isabell's best all around game, he was great defensively. SLU really took care of the ball with only 8 turnovers. It was nice to see that play out of a timeout, Foreman to Bess on the baseline. Gordon needs to get the ball in his hands more inside. Three dogshit calls that stood out to me were 1) Bess getting called for a foul with 1 second left on the shot clock at the end of the first half, while going for the rebound, he didn't even touch the guy, this allowed them to grab a lead gping into half 2)the T on Bess, both players barely bumped each other, that had to be one of the weakest technical foul calls I've ever seen, this allowed Houston to cut their deficit from six to two 3) Foreman getting that foul call at the end was an absolute joke, giving them 2 free throws in place of the turnover. Both second half calls were made by the same ref. Those calls were huge in a close game like this. 

Out of reactions..... +1

[DirtyRican]

52 minutes ago, JohnnyJumpUp said:

I think that was Isabell's best all around game, he was great defensively. SLU really took care of the ball with only 8 turnovers. It was nice to see that play out of a timeout, Foreman to Bess on the baseline. Gordon needs to get the ball in his hands more inside. Three dogshit calls that stood out to me were 1) Bess getting called for a foul with 1 second left on the shot clock at the end of the first half, while going for the rebound, he didn't even touch the guy, this allowed them to grab a lead gping into half 2)the T on Bess, both players barely bumped each other, that had to be one of the weakest technical foul calls I've ever seen, this allowed Houston to cut their deficit from six to two 3) Foreman getting that foul call at the end was an absolute joke, giving them 2 free throws in place of the turnover. Both second half calls were made by the same ref. Those calls were huge in a close game like this. 

We are a good team but can't overcome those things on the road.  I was surprised you didn't go put that ref in a headlock.

[billikenfan05]

8 minutes ago, DirtyRican said:

We are a good team but can't overcome those things on the road.  I was surprised you didn't go put that ref in a headlock.

I was waiting for it.

[SShoe]

54 minutes ago, JohnnyJumpUp said:

I think that was Isabell's best all around game, he was great defensively. SLU really took care of the ball with only 8 turnovers. It was nice to see that play out of a timeout, Foreman to Bess on the baseline. Gordon needs to get the ball in his hands more inside. Three dogshit calls that stood out to me were 1) Bess getting called for a foul with 1 second left on the shot clock at the end of the first half, while going for the rebound, he didn't even touch the guy, this allowed them to grab a lead gping into half 2)the T on Bess, both players barely bumped each other, that had to be one of the weakest technical foul calls I've ever seen, this allowed Houston to cut their deficit from six to two 3) Foreman getting that foul call at the end was an absolute joke, giving them 2 free throws in place of the turnover. Both second half calls were made by the same ref. Those calls were huge in a close game like this. 

I love college hoops, but the poor officiating is making the sport much more difficult to watch.   I hate being the guy blames the refs since we still should've won this game, but these 3 calls were about as bad as they come and, ultimately, impacted the outcome.  

[JohnnyJumpUp]

9 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

I was waiting for it.

I'm not a tough guy like you!

[JohnnyJumpUp]

15 minutes ago, DirtyRican said:

We are a good team but can't overcome those things on the road.  I was surprised you didn't go put that ref in a headlock.

After the call on Foreman, Ford ran out to the ref at half court and took his jacket off, I thought he was going to throw down.

[DirtyRican]

19 minutes ago, JohnnyJumpUp said:

After the call on Foreman, Ford ran out to the ref at half court and took his jacket off, I thought he was going to throw down.

Ford maybe small but he's feisty!

[Taj79]

The backdoor pass from Foreman to Bess came after a timeout I believe.  Great call.  You can't continually run that because it count son an overplay by the defense.  You get maybe one chance per game to foist that on someone.  That's about it. 

Those three calls were certainly egregious but I saw many more.  The foul call on Foreman when Jarreau drove and jumped into him to initiate contact.  That's a charge.  The whole thing with Foreman's drive and the block call -- the defender was in the restricted area.   I thought the institution of that ended the questions of charge or block.  Both dumb ass announcers glossed over that little fact.  The T on the Houston player may or may not have been warranted.  He was jawing pretty good at Bess, I think.  Make up call or not, I'll take it but it still does not erase the sting when there is a ref near the huddle when all the changes happen and then the third guy comes running around from the back side to hit Bess up. 

I'm with sshoe on the refs ..... I don't want to blame them.  But to ignore all the mugging and call what they do, I don't get it.  The other thing that really hacks me off is this 'let's go to the monitor' crap that seems to be happening every half, every game.  Not only is it done, but it takes a hell of a lot longer than it does for you and me at home.  What are they looking at?  First replay on Goodwin's last attempt, I could see his toe on the line, no three.  I know what the intent was, it just seems to be backfiring and killing the end of game flow.  Ditto that damn shot clock issue.  Hit the home team with a technical if their equipment isn't up to par.  And finally, that damn subbing after a made free throw.  Even for the shooter.  Just stop it. 

[Quality Is Job 1]

3 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

The backdoor pass from Foreman to Bess came after a timeout I believe.  Great call.  You can't continually run that because it count son an overplay by the defense.  You get maybe one chance per game to foist that on someone.  That's about it. 

Those three calls were certainly egregious but I saw many more.  The foul call on Foreman when Jarreau drove and jumped into him to initiate contact.  That's a charge.  The whole thing with Foreman's drive and the block call -- the defender was in the restricted area.   I thought the institution of that ended the questions of charge or block.  Both dumb ass announcers glossed over that little fact.  The T on the Houston player may or may not have been warranted.  He was jawing pretty good at Bess, I think.  Make up call or not, I'll take it but it still does not erase the sting when there is a ref near the huddle when all the changes happen and then the third guy comes running around from the back side to hit Bess up. 

I'm with sshoe on the refs ..... I don't want to blame them.  But to ignore all the mugging and call what they do, I don't get it.  The other thing that really hacks me off is this 'let's go to the monitor' crap that seems to be happening every half, every game.  Not only is it done, but it takes a hell of a lot longer than it does for you and me at home.  What are they looking at?  First replay on Goodwin's last attempt, I could see his toe on the line, no three.  I know what the intent was, it just seems to be backfiring and killing the end of game flow.  Ditto that damn shot clock issue.  Hit the home team with a technical if their equipment isn't up to par.  And finally, that damn subbing after a made free throw.  Even for the shooter.  Just stop it. 

I can't go along with this [what I've highlighted in bold].  It's part of the game.

[billikenfan05]

7 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

The backdoor pass from Foreman to Bess came after a timeout I believe.  Great call.  You can't continually run that because it count son an overplay by the defense.  You get maybe one chance per game to foist that on someone.  That's about it. 

Those three calls were certainly egregious but I saw many more.  The foul call on Foreman when Jarreau drove and jumped into him to initiate contact.  That's a charge.  The whole thing with Foreman's drive and the block call -- the defender was in the restricted area.   I thought the institution of that ended the questions of charge or block.  Both dumb ass announcers glossed over that little fact.  The T on the Houston player may or may not have been warranted.  He was jawing pretty good at Bess, I think.  Make up call or not, I'll take it but it still does not erase the sting when there is a ref near the huddle when all the changes happen and then the third guy comes running around from the back side to hit Bess up. 

I'm with sshoe on the refs ..... I don't want to blame them.  But to ignore all the mugging and call what they do, I don't get it.  The other thing that really hacks me off is this 'let's go to the monitor' crap that seems to be happening every half, every game.  Not only is it done, but it takes a hell of a lot longer than it does for you and me at home.  What are they looking at?  First replay on Goodwin's last attempt, I could see his toe on the line, no three.  I know what the intent was, it just seems to be backfiring and killing the end of game flow.  Ditto that damn shot clock issue.  Hit the home team with a technical if their equipment isn't up to par.  And finally, that damn subbing after a made free throw.  Even for the shooter.  Just stop it. 

Let’s not forget the foul call on French where he just stood there and took the contact as the player swung his elbow up to lay the ball in. 

[Taj79]

Tons of shite ---- too many to mention, too many to remember.  The 'A10 Talk' sees it too .....it's in their 'Bad Luck, Bad Coaching Or Both?' article.

[Taj79]

I can accept your disagreement thicks ..... however, I like the subbing when it's offense for defense or the guy is in foul trouble.   But it happens every time it seems ...... and that is mostly a ploy to set the defense if you ask me.  It disrupts the flow and when it's warranted fine.  But every single time?