an honest question

[statefan]

If some knowledgable poster could explain our defensive strategy tonight to me, I'd be most appreciative.

[WH96]

My thoughts looking at the score....Giving up under 70 points is not bad. We should win a majority of the games when our opponet scores in the 60's or less. Offensively we struggled hitting open shots. This could be a good thing for the guys....get this over before the conference begins. Now they know that every game is not going to be cake walk. Refs didn't help of course...the RACC is never a home court advanatage with refs.

[McFan]

I'm not sure if the score tells the whole story on D.

 

Trim had 29 and probobly shot 75% from the floor. Until 10:00 left we were fronting him. I'm not sure why. It was not working. Late in the game Zoellner went to the other side and actually was effective and was a part of the run, defensively. Trim showed me no back to the basket moves, maybe he has them, but fronting him was not effective.

[Dane Pound]

Agree with you McFan that Zoellner was more effective in the second half. Other than that and maybe the play of Iati there weren't any positives. It was only one game so I'm not going to jump off any bridges but that was ugly as hell.

[Patch]

Sure fire formula for defeat.......

 

Levi - 12 minutes, 5 fouls

 

Jamar (0/5), Brent(1/6) & Lucious(0/2) for 1-13 from 3

 

Lucious 36 min 0 defensive rebounds & 0/2 from the FT line. Something is not right with him.

 

Team out rebounded 38-26

 

18 TOs

 

We shoot about 35% including 22% from 3

 

We lose by 2???????

 

We lose by 2!!!!!!!

 

I think our offense hurt us more than our defense.

[alum73]

a lot of bad turnovers. there's always some, but we threw the ball away or into traffic way too much. Trim had a nice drop step to the basket. fronting him did not work well because he shot over the help easily. i really dislike 2 of the refs, but that's how it goes. bad long weekend vb and bb both take it on the chin.

[UA66]

This game bothered me so much I couldn't sleep last night. This was a game that we should win - and have to win to have credibility.

 

A lot of things bothered me about this game:

There was too much perimeter play,i.e. little attempt to get the ball inside. Numerous times I saw guys cutting unfettered to the hoop and the man with the ball simply ignored him. We ain't going nowhere if we don't develop an inside game because there will be nights as last night when the outside game disappears.

 

Decision making was slow and poor. This is where the absence of Lillis at full health hurts the most.

 

It seems like our set plays are repetitive and quickly become predictable and defenseable.

 

The intensity level was low until too late. SH was so much quicker, especially in the first half, both offensively and defensively. I don't believe for a moment that was because they had better athletes. We seemed to be stuck in second gear and moving like it was a practice run-through - witness the number of stolen passes because they were lazy passes.

 

There's more but my blood pressure can't take it. We must the win the games we are supposed to win.

[reeder]

Disappointing loss. Listened to the game on the radio and Brown almost sounded depressed in the post game interview. Clearly post play in general needs to be worked on - offensively and defensively.

 

Some thoughts and comments on the game:

1. Would a zone have slowed the post play in the first half?

2. I agree that UA needs to make it a habit to get the ball in the post - they must also get it out quickly if the player isn't open.

3. Lucious missed two critical free throws

4. This was eerily similar to some of the conference games last year (albeit an extreme) where UA couldn't make any perimeter shot and didn't have a way to get the ball in the post.

5. They have to go play San Diego State next that has an all conference post player.

6. Kudos to Brent who apparently took a pretty hard elbow and came back into the game.

 

 

Even with the loss, there was some good news

1. Zoellner played an inspired second half - a lot of blocks and he seemed more active

2. This was almost "the perfect storm" for things going wrong - pretty much all of their deficiencies were seen - post defense, reliance on the perimeter offense, occassional lack of intensity. Even with that, they were in a position to win - the 2 missed free throws hurt and they had the last possession.

[daneguy04]

For those of us that were not in Albany can someone please post as to the fan attendance/involvement of the home opener last night?

Thanks.

[Classof72/74]

For those of us that were not in Albany can someone please post as to the fan attendance/involvement of the home opener last night?

Thanks.

10519[/snapback]

 

 

Box score showed attendance as just over 2500, but it looked bigger to me.

 

The crowd got pretty involved, but there were moments of silent despair

[Big D]

I would say fan involvement was ok, given that there wasn't much to cheer about, especially during the middle 20 minutes of the game. There were alot of fouls and turnovers, so the Danes never really got the kind of rhythm that energizes the crowd. Decent student turnout, but always can be better.

 

A zone D might have helped, but SH scored alot of easy baskets in transition off of our missed shots. Trim was good at getting to the low block quickly, and making his drop step move before we could double him. SH seemed quicker, and definitely played with more energy. It was painful to watch, but Danes got what they deserved.

 

Iati was the only returning player who played a good game. Everyone else underperformed.

[GODANESGO]

daneguy04,

2542 for attendence (largest home opener in DI history for us). I thought the crowd involvement was nothing too great. Although I'm sure the first half shocked a lot of the crowd, expecting us to start lighting up the scoreboard and jumping out to a good lead, which obviously didn't happen. I was happy with the Rowdies turn out and support for the team, especially late in the game.

 

As for my thoughts on the game:

 

First, I can't agree enough that we have almost no inside game whatsoever. Aside from an occasional slice by Jamar and Lou then an attempted post-up game by Brent in the second half, we could not do anything down low or in the lane. Most of Jamar's penetration was stopped as he looked a bit slower than usual (maybe because of the hip flexor?). Possibly why his assists increased for the game and points went down. When we're not making outside shots at all and our passes are being picked off like they were, we're not going to win too many games. And it wasn't just this game. Even in our ex. against McGill, we lit it up from the outside but didn't/couldn't (not sure which anymore) get the ball inside, both post play and drives to the hope.

 

Second, Zo was a STOPPER under the hoop in the second half. 4 nice blocks, altered shots, and really decreased the effectiveness of Trim. That said, I have NO idea how he managed 8 boards, especially 5 of them offensive. I think this is where we see his slowness compared to the rest of the players out there. Quick misses, odd bounces of the rim would just eat him up. He could've had 15 rebounds if he held on to the ones that sped right through his hands. I hope we see a lot more of second half Zo this season.

 

Where has Lou gone this season???? Can it really all be attributed to his high ankle sprain from a couple weeks back? Just not the same player, especially shooter, we saw last year.

 

Aside from making a nice 12 footer at one point, Levi just didn't have it at all in the game. I'm sure the crappy early foul calls got to him, but still, we need his play.

 

Iati is a stud and will be a big part of our success if we can get there this year. Has amazingly quick catch and shoot.

 

The refs were crappy, like usual in this conference. They need to be taught consistancy. They seem to get in streaks of calling touch fouls like crazy, then nothing at all. Then in the post they would call anything that resembled contact down lown in streaks, then just let hacks happen with no whistle. Both teams felt the effects of this poor refing (42 fouls in the game), but I think these poor calls just hurt us more, stopping our momentum and rhythm at important times.

 

36% (23 of 63) of SH's points came from the charity stripe. Poor refs or not, this CAN'T happen.

 

Hopefully we right the ship. Some solitude can be had in the fact that we played THAT crappy last night and still only lost by two, although it'd be nice if we can learn to execute (or even get off a shot) when it comes to the last few seconds of a neck and neck game.

[olddog71]

Good posts, everyone, on the reasons for our defeat and the disappointment we all share on the outcome.

 

I have just one comment on the crowd. I thought the crowd was pretty much into the game for the first home event of the year. I too thought the crowd was bigger than the official count, but I am not going to argue.

 

The frustrating aspect of the attendance for me is the frequent defeats UAlbany suffers when we have a large crowd. I know logically that we will enjoy the biggest attendance for the most important games when we have a lesser chance to win, but this trend still troubles me.

 

Other teams see that we are not all that competitive at home. We have enjoyed a tradition over the last few decades of having a better attendance than other schools competing at whatever level we are playing. Our place should be a site where the opponents expect to lose.

 

But I am just disgusted that we too frequently lose when we have big crowds. That trend affects the following games after the loss. It was crucial that we win last night, especially when we are supposed to be the superior Division I team in the area this year. We did not do it. A victory - even a one-point win - would have propelled interest in our program. We really lost an opportunity last night.

 

It's disgusting when I look at the Times-Union's webpage and find Siena's coverage on top of ours -- especially when we were the home team with a greater impact on the readership.

 

I hope this team, with all its supposed promise, can alter the trend and win a lot more often. I hope we do it soon, and I hope we do not lose another home game this season.

[Dane Pound]

The crowd seemed into for a few minutes during the first half and at the end of the game. It has seemed to me that when we've had larger crowds most of the newcomers are more curious than fans. They really don't want to get involved and more often than not just sit there. I think that's what GDG alluded to in his post-more people didn't necessarily add more noise.

 

Playing better certainly would have helped though.

 

One thing I noticed last night that also happened a few times last year. When Jamar comes out of the game the team left on the floor looks like it goes into panic mode. They take a lot of bad shots and don't look cohesive at all. I understand that he's a terrific player but there are still a lot of offensive weapons on the floor when he goes out.

 

I'll be interested to see how Lillis fits in with this team when he's 100%. He only played 6 minutes last night and probably made the best 3 or 4 entry passes of the night for us. He threw a terrific pass to Zoellner under the hoop. Sacred Heart really put on a clinic on creative ways to feed the post and other than Lillis I don't know that we have that part of the game down yet.

 

One thing Brown mentioned post-game was the lack of energy. On my way to the RACC I actually thought this team might come out TOO fired up for the home opener. I was really surprised and the lack of emotion early on. I almost suspected 5 minutes in or so that Brown might do one of Coach K's sub the whole starting 5 out for guys on the bench.

 

As they're killing us on the AE board for last night's loss it's probably good to remember that Vermont through in an early season loss to American last year. People were all over them too. That seemed to wake them up and hopefully that's was last nights game does as well.

[GODANESGO]

The crowd seemed into for a few minutes during the first half and at the end of the game. It has seemed to me that when we've had larger crowds most of the newcomers are more curious than fans. They really don't want to get involved and more often than not just sit there. I think that's what GDG alluded to in his post-more people didn't necessarily add more noise.

10524[/snapback]

 

Exactly, and that applies to the two (under the hoops) student sections as well. The north hoop has the students who just come cause it's kinda the cool place to be so they just slide right through the doors and down the stairs right in front of them. And then our south hoop section has the Rowdies/students fans who are really into the game.

 

The loss certainly didn't help to convert any of those causual attendees into fans and hopefully didn't hurt the future attendence of the "follow the hype" type fan in our Rowdies section.