McFan

Seeing gary johnson do this right now angers me. He is supposedly one of the best athletes on this team according to the coaching staff, but is not given a chance until 20+ games into this season.

Saving for the tourney?

And Gary J could be having a "Siggers" moment.

I'm hopeful on that one. I was thinking that myself. Now, not that this puts him there but why does it take Coach so long on these type of guys? Remember Siggers was a defensive replacement for what I remember as 3/4 of his first year. So I guess I did find another place to fire some blame.

Bottom line: MIKE BLACK NEEDS TO MAN THE F' UP. I am sorry...he is making the top 3 teams (that's what BU, UVM and SBU are right now) look like they have ACC defenders.

 

He's gotta get mad and just fricken play. The other guys are doing what they can...but when an arguably Player of the Year Candidate up until the last 4 games goes south with his play...you are not winning.

 

This team is not built to win without its superstar...and neither were the Jamar teams.

 

MIKE BLACK...for all he has been...is letting his team down right now. Sorry kid...you are still an all-time Great Dane...but right now...you are soft. Yep...I'd honest to lord have that conversation with him if I were Coach Brown.

 

And I will get roasted here.

I won't contribute to any roasting. I would say there is plenty of blame to go around but he has been very disappointing during this stretch.

I'm not going to judge the job of Will Brown until the end of the season. I do agree it seems like we are on the same path as most seasons. I was hoping this year would be different. Still can be. I do think they need to change things up offensively somehow. Maybe trying some different things will open things up again for Iati some more. Black is just in a shooting funk. I think he will be back to scoring soon.

 

So right now, 5-3 in the conference with 8 games remaining.

 

SBU - Home

Bing - Home

UMBC - Away

Maine - Away

Hartford - Home

BU - Away

UNH - Home

SBU - Away

 

Another 5-3 would be 10-6 in the conference. If this team can turn it around a little bit and get more out of Puk, Rowley and Hooley combined with Black shooting better and they could go 6-2, 11-5 overall. I'm just trying to be optimistic. I'm not ready to change coaches because I think the team is having a very good season. If they pull out the BU game, fluke if you ask me, they are 6-2 in conference with two losses to a Vermont team who owns us defensively. I thought Saturday was a big game. Losing it makes Tuesday even bigger.

Maybe we are just hoping for too much? 11-5 would be good of course, but 10-6 in this conference just doesn't do it for me. Bing., UNH, UMBC, Hartford and Maine just aren't good basketball teams. Four of those are below 260 in rankings and three below 300. I see football moving up to CAA and with all the realignment in BB we haven't positioned ourselves for anything.

Let's see how the team plays against Stony Brook on Tuesday. In my opinion there is a huge difference between 1st and 2nd, not so much between 2nd and 3rd. The team is 16 and 6, best start in the school' s d1 history and there are rumblings about the coach. Be realistic with expectations and if we win on Tuesday, the team is in great shape.

Yup 16-6 and we have a lot of frustration. Thankfully we have that Washington win (and that was a great win) or else we would once again be saying what is the best team we have beat this year? Seriously who is it? Wagner? Navy? Maine? So despite enjoying the teams effort to get to 16-6 I just don't think it's headed in the right direction.

Let's see how the team plays against Stony Brook on Tuesday. In my opinion there is a huge difference between 1st and 2nd, not so much between 2nd and 3rd. The team is 16 and 6, best start in the school' s d1 history and there are rumblings about the coach. Be realistic with expectations and if we win on Tuesday, the team is in great shape.

 

No one should blame folks for being frustrated....it's been YEARS since we last beat UVM or BU....YEARS!

 

Kind of brings up the question people on the board were discussing back in December... does it matter 'who' we beat (whether it's Siena for the Cap Region pride, conf play with BU, UVM, etc) or that we get to the tournament at the end of the season? Is it acceptable for fans if we can get to the tournament this year if we don't beat BU or UVM in regular season.. makes the path that much harder, but is it an acceptable path?

 

On another note, I agree with everyone that something has to be done to shake things up. Iati is a great kid but his floaters haven't been working and he hasn't been hitting his 3s like he had been. Was interesting to see the offense/defense switch Brown did with Iati and DJ, reminded me of Ambrose and Hastings. I was happy to see they were at least trying that option. Mike has been off his game for some days now, wonder if it's in his head or what because we've seen his talent, he has it, but it's like it's gone MIA. Curious as to what Johnson, Page, Weigmann could bring even if it's just for 10mins or so a game.

In the end it is an acceptable path, but the history starts to get troubling. I think (and i know on my part) the frustration is that we've seen this story before and sense the departure of Jamar and Co., it doesn't have a good ending.

You cannot be successful at this level unless you have guards who are at least 6'2 and very atheletic. Iati and Black give it everything they have but they cannot compete against guys who are quicker and 4 or 5 inches taller.

Not sure that is written in stone. We had some decent success w/ a 6'1" guy named Jamar Wilson a few years back and his running mate at times was John Iati.

Another Will Brown team that has not been properly coached to handle an overly aggressive team.

The offensive perimeter passing that seems to be creeping back into games is giving me horrific flashbacks.

I need to see a championship or else bringing in fresh blood with improved coaching talent is in order. He might

or might not be a nice guy... makes zero difference to me. He hasn't proven his worth.

 

Of course, Black stays. Iati on the other hand, if he's not hitting shots when he gets them, he shouldn't be in there.

You recruit Page and Johnson and Evans and yet don't trust them to play in a game this ugly???

I think you still have to stick with black as bad has he's been.

 

Black yes... Stick with him...

Don't get me wrong I'm not looking to bench these guys but maybe 4-5 minutes less each? Again try something. 43 points at home is unacceptable. 1-22(or whatever it is) against the top teams is unacceptable.

2 blocks and 3 steals. Hard to do that.

And that one late possession late in the game down by 5 I think and we run 30 off of the shot clock to get Rowley a driving defended miss.

So the players have turned over how many times since Jamar and nothing to show. What is it that hasn't changed?

Oh, they did this on our court without one of their top dogs.

By the way do we even have a press? We allow others to dictate our game.

 

The record is better but is this team any better than last years team?

Nope we are not athletic enough to press. I think he's said every team has been more athletic than us all year in press conferences.

 

That's scary recruiting.

 

We tried "athletic" recruiting...apparently athletic also = dumb as a bag of rocks or = no heart...If Will Harris is the alternative I'll take more Rowley and Hooleys,

There has to be a happy medium???

Black and Iati 3-24. Iati 0-9.

It would understandable if it were 1 game but we have a pattern. Yet they are still getting 35+ minutes each. Why?

By the way do we even have a press? We allow others to dictate our game.

 

The record is better but is this team any better than last years team?

Nope we are not athletic enough to press. I think he's said every team has been more athletic than us all year in press conferences.

That's scary recruiting.

Iati sat all last year on the bench until the end of the year...see what happens when someone gets a chance...at least try someone else...

I agree. Funny that he couldn't find the floor last year and this year he barely exits the game. Try something.

By the way do we even have a press? We allow others to dictate our game.

The record is better but is this team any better than last years team?

This is going to be unpopular but need to sit Iati...teams have figured him out, can't get a shot off in the last month, to small on defense, can't get into the lane. Why is he out there so much?

 

Give Johnson or Page a chance...

Johnson got in for what 30 seconds. He did miss both of his shots but got two good looks and never sees the floor in the second half.

Could we (Coach Brown) try something, anything? Run out the same guys and the same offense and expect a different result.

Again outmuscled. We have nobody willing to knock anybody down. They throw the ball directly into your centers center, and nobody does anything. Hooley and Iati both take shots, still nothing. I'm not talking dirty but a good hard foul??

4100+ and that's what they see? Good luck keeping fan support.

I've thought about another guard setting the pick and the popping for a three. Should make the pass easier than hitting a rolling big. Plus our bigs might not be the best "rollers".

Had to figure they'd make a run of some sort. Now it's time to take charge (again).

Very good performance. We missed a ton of short ones (or turned it over underneath) early or this could have been real fun. To Clicks point the repeated pushes up the court were great to watch. With Black, Hooley, Rowley, Iati, and others that can handle we have the weapons to do that. Good crowd too.

Interesting that you picked that section of my post to comment on and not the fact that we were the STRONGEST offensive team last year and one of the better ones this year and have now gone 0-7 against the top of the AE...even with better offense then the teams we are consistently losing to.

 

I don't want to hear how 9-7 and a first round flame-out is good enough...

Unintentional, but who was #2 in offense last year? The team that represented us in the NCAA Tourney? As I've said you have to play D, but too much is made of the "Defense wins Championships". We didn't play a lick of D last year. When is the last AE Championship team that was not in the top 3 in scoring? It was VT. 10 years ago.

In the last nine years the Championship team has been #1 in offense 3 times, #2 in offense 5 times and #3 one time.

Flip that for Defense and you had one team at #2, five at #3 (including a tie), two at #4, and one at #5.

On average for the last nine years you have the 1.77 best offense and the 3.33 best defense winning the AE. In that span the best D has never won.

We'll have to agree to disagree on if O or D wins championships or not. But better days than this are ahead for this team.

"If you look at those years...there was only ONE count it ONE good defensive team in the AE that year according to numbers...everyone else was north of 100...go look it up. Last years winner under 100, the year before that...under 100"

And those years (including the VT years), were in my opinion the best the AE has been since we've joined. That was due to two strong offensive teams. Vermont w/ Coppenrath and Sorrentine and UA w/ Jamar,Jordan, Wilson, Siggers,. Again I'm not sure what goes into those efficiency numbers but I watched those NCAA teams and the UA glory years and those teams were strong, very strong offensively. In the efficiency #'s is every TO treated the same? If so, that is hugely flawed. The TO's we had today were garbage. Many a long ways from the basket with no upside. A TO while attacking the basket not as bad as there are a number of possible positive outcomes to attacking the basket (as compared to a pass to Metcalf at the top of the key getting stolen).

The good news is we are not as bad as we looked today offensively or defensively. There are a lot of poor teams in the AE and we are not one of them.

The bad new is that two teams have figured out how to completely shut down our offense. Other than Black we don't have a starter on offense that is efficient going to the basket in any form. Hooley can do it off the bench, but that's it. And today looked like a team that didn't give 100% effort. Nobody on the floor for us and we didn't put anybody on the floor for them. It's great when Metcalf gets the charge but please once go up and block, or attempt to, a shot.

"Offense puts butts in seats... Defense wins"

 

Actually I think that is just a cliche. Now it's not fair for me to compare AE w/ all of NCAA basketball and I'm not saying these teams didn't play defense but take a look at the most recent NCAA Champions:

 

Kentucky, UConn, Duke, UNC, Kansas, Florida, Florida, UNC, UConn, SU, Maryland, Duke.

 

One thing consistent on all these teams, they could score. Some off of their D, but these teams were offensive minded basketball teams. I hear it in BB and Football and in general it just isn't true. You need to be able to play defense but Offense wins Championships.

 

Today our D was terrible. But it was aided by the offense giving them the ball quite a few times and not scoring.

 

I strongly...STRONGLY disagree...using your criteria....

 

- Kentucky... (122/89 off/def eff)

- Connecticut...(116/90 off/def eff)

- Duke...(124/90 off/def eff)

- North Carolina...(124/90 off/def eff)

 

A similar picture is evident in the AE...all of the good AE teams have def. efficiency under 100...all the 'ish/medicore teams are over 100...Offense can come and go as slumps are inevitable...defense is predicated on effort and proper coaching of rotations and IQ.

I'll be honest off/def efficiency numbers are like the old QB rating figures. I don't know what they really mean. I do know that teams that score in the mid/upper 70's are the teams we see in the Championships every single year. In a 40 minute game that is good offense. When we won our two titles, we played good D, but we were a strong offensive team.

"Offense puts butts in seats... Defense wins"

Actually I think that is just a cliche. Now it's not fair for me to compare AE w/ all of NCAA basketball and I'm not saying these teams didn't play defense but take a look at the most recent NCAA Champions:

Kentucky, UConn, Duke, UNC, Kansas, Florida, Florida, UNC, UConn, SU, Maryland, Duke.

One thing consistent on all these teams, they could score. Some off of their D, but these teams were offensive minded basketball teams. I hear it in BB and Football and in general it just isn't true. You need to be able to play defense but Offense wins Championships.

In the last 10 years the winning teams have scored an average of 74 points, in the last 20 years it is 76 points, and 76 for the last 30 years.

Today our D was terrible. But it was aided by the offense giving them the ball quite a few times and not scoring.

Wow, 1 steal, 0 blocks. How is that even possible?