Schasz Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 I was concerned about a mental letdown after a draining and heartbreaking (thanks to the refs) loss to Marquette and couple this with USM coming in with a huge high with a win over Memphis and this one had upset written all over it. Well, we held on by the skin of our teeth and I'll take it. We are now 9-5 and 2-1 in conference. Let's get the next two at home, and get some Mo before hitting the road. This was a game where a short bench hurts us as we come back pretty quick against what may be a more physical squad than ours. Somehow...Someway...I'm hoping that we can get better production from our bench. If that could happen soon then we take some of the pressure off Reggie. I'll be interested in what the folks that went to the game have to say about our effort. I hope that DePaul beats Memphis tonight and they were in the 1st half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basketbill Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 this is exactly why a team has to play good defense. If not for that we lose! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gister Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 I thought that to open the game S. Miss did a good job ...but we were slow to close on the shooter and they hit their shots. After about 7-8 mmins our intensity picked up and we played great D. With the start they had and the loss to Marquete this could have very easily gotten out of control. It says a lot for our guys that they were able to pick it up and get a win out of this game. Wow ... was TF tough and were they big. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 I thought the team played really really tough. Southern Miss was huge, they had Linebackers at every position and they hung all over us on defense most of the time without being called for fouls. Izik though he ahd no points was playing extremely well. He had 3 assists and fed Tom one other time that got him to the line. His defense was very good as well as he and Sloan were switching off on their big boy Jasper. When Izik got hurt it took several minutes for the team to get it back together. Reggie showed another dimension to his game tonight. He was penetrating and getting fouls throughout the game sacrificing his body. He was denied his 3 point shot and still got off 20 points. Fisher was solid as usual. Tom Frericks really helped us and really killed us. Even against this physical team he was a step above them inside on both ends. But his fould shooting was unacceptable. He missed both FTs TWICE in the game one of them in the final minute. I think he finished 2-7 or 8 from the line. Reggie was the only other guy to get there much and he didn't fare much better. Any kind of FT shooting from this group and we win this game by a 10 point margin. Good teams still win when they don't play their best. We got one of those tonight. Frericks will be shooting FTs tomorrow till his arms fall off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 i am not on the same page with this steamrolling belief that the team is becoming too dependent on reggie. i just dont see it. it is no where near as one dimensional of a team as we have been seeing almost every season since larry the legend. of course larry's team was a one man show. two years later, i think love was it. the next year jeffers dominated the show. the last two years has been the worst examples with the marque show. at least josh, frericks, drejaj and sloan have taken turns supporting reggie. imo, reggie appears to have the strong back to carry more if asked. i say ride that horse...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 I agree Roy ... every team has a leading scorer and Reggie is ours. The difference is that this year there is much more movement and we don't completely fall apart if Reggie is out. Also Josh and Tom of late give us more options. Remember that Josh not Reggie won the KSt. game. Reggie is the man ... but this year if a team takes him away we still have other options and the team knows it. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NashvilleBilliken Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Ramsey kept saying toward the end of the game how tired Reggie looked. IMO, if we are going to survive in the conference tourney and beyond, we NEED to have some productivity off the bench. We have had two games in four days. Reggie played huge minutes in both. With Brad demanding such high intensity at all times, he is going to need some rests. If JJ or Clarke don't step it up, I'm afraid we may be too tired come the end of the season... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 great point. the previous two seasons with marqueball, when marque was out or stopped, we had some games where we would go 7-10 minutes without scoring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 I am looking at DC more than JJ. The guards are the ones getting tired IMO, not the big men. We have 4 Big Men in the Rotation right now which I think serves our needs, with Izik being able to step in if desperation call for it. Drejaj does a little fill in for Izik, Bryant, and Fish. But Fish and Bryant are logging a LOT of minutes. It would be nice to see Clarke or even Hunt maybe for 10 minutes a gain (if we can afford it), just to give Bryant and Fish some Breathers. Admitedly last night Izik's Bruised knee hurt us in terms of minutes. But a 7 man rotation is being effective and I hate to move away from it BUT it will not work in the Conference Tourney. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NashvilleBilliken Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Good point. If DC could put in 8-10 minutes a game of solid play, I think it could tremendously help. That would mean all the more rest for our gaurds which would lead to more energy; which is a must for solid defense. I wonder how much this is related to the fact that we didn't score in the last few minutes of the game yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 If Darren Clarke could come in and play without the team defense deteriorating, then he would play him. Apparently, Clarke is even further behind in understanding the defensive system than Reggie Bryant and Tom Frericks have been. I can understand. Clarke just came from high school, where he was taught certain principles on defense, and now he has to "unlearn" those principles and master Coach Soderberg's. If you have to think about where you're supposed to be or what you're supposed to do at a given time or circumstance, you'll be a step or two slow and perhaps even look like you're playing at three-quarters speed. Clarke will have to really internalize the system in order to react, rather than think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.