Hartford Game

[OrangeDane]

Ok...my first post of the season...this game is a must win if U-A is to have any shot at all at finishing in the top 2 spots in the league. The Bingo game was frightening...hopefully just a case of the kids having a bad night combined with the subliminal impact of playing an 0-19 team. They obviously play well enough to win at home, some times extremely well, in fact. Road games are a vastly different story and the defense which is not terrific on most nights is generally prettty weak on the road particularly when playing teams at or below thier talent level. My sense is that the patience of fans and the UA admin may wear thin if this team doesn't come close to meeting the perhaps elevated expectations of the preseason. I think Coach Brown needs to get this team in that top tier or start floating his resume...and that journey to the top starts with Hartford.

[Dane96]

See...I see it different. How do you fire a Coach that has done what he has academically...and has assembled a team that is one "tough-guy" (e.g. Levi Levine, Brian Lillis, pick a player who is fiery) away from being solid.

 

This team, with a big man JUCO next year (ahem...read 'ZO...these teams are near replica's to the pre-Kirsten playing days)is a shoo in for Top 2 next year.

 

Good luck with that McElroy. Now...an epic collapse by the Danes is a whole other story...but a Top 4 finish with such a young squad, and you aren't getting rid of Coach. Plus...I think it would lead to MASS DEFECTIONS...MASS! That's just my opinion.

 

That said, I think the Danes break the AWAY game schneid...in a BIG WAY vs. Hartford.

[UA'08]

See...I see it different. How do you fire a Coach that has done what he has academically...and has assembled a team that is one "tough-guy" (e.g. Levi Levine, Brian Lillis, pick a player who is fiery) away from being solid.

 

This team, with a big man JUCO next year (ahem...read 'ZO...these teams are near replica's to the pre-Kirsten playing days)is a shoo in for Top 2 next year.

 

Good luck with that McElroy. Now...an epic collapse by the Danes is a whole other story...but a Top 4 finish with such a young squad, and you aren't getting rid of Coach. Plus...I think it would lead to MASS DEFECTIONS...MASS! That's just my opinion.

 

That said, I think the Danes break the AWAY game schneid...in a BIG WAY vs. Hartford.

young? they have 4 juniors, which one is a red shirt, in the starting rotation and a sophomore. the bench includes a juco junior and two red shirt sophomores. i just dont getn how everyone says we have a young team. whats everyone going to say next year when we have 6 seniors on the team and 2 red shirt juniors? so you can go from a young team to an old veteran team in one season. black, aronhalt, puk, watts, iati and metcalf have all been together for almost 3 seasons now.

[Dane96]

Are you for real. Rhetorical. And I am not answering any reply because anyone with anyone understanding gets what I am getting at. I will say this. THE CORE will be SR. heavy...but there is nothing wrong with that.

 

If you hadn't noticed...we are losing b/c of depth...and defense.

[UA'08]

we are not young and im sure there are people here that would agree. that was my only point. i never said we dont lack depth or defense.

[Dane Pound]

I'm not sure who I want to win tonight's SBU - BU game. Usually I'd root for SBU to lose but I think if Boston wins there is no catching them for the league title. They have the easiest schedule to close out the season.

[MRSGDG]

Watching the SB/ BU game on ESPNU.. anyone just catch that replay of the scramble on the floor? Everyone's fav player Tommy stuck his leg out to try and trip the BU players from getting to the ball. Trashy.

[DanesRGood]

Anyone going to the game? I'll be there with my son. Hopefully to see a WIN.

[McFan]

OK, I'll bite a bit on this.

 

I think if we finish in fourth, or better, and do well (everyone can define that on their own) in the tournament CB stays. My frustration is that he didn't allow this team to play like this last year. We can debate the Timmy/Seuro differences if you want, but this is essentially the same team. Somebody else can do the math and prove me right/wrong but I would guess that Seuro plays more minutes than Tim did and if you average it out Tim's all around numbers would have been similar to Seuro. I'm talking points/RB's/assist/TO's. He was never given the freedom that Seuro is. Don't get me wrong, I like that he has that freedom and the wins are adding up. I just don't see why Coach and some on this board didn't seem to think we would have won more games last year with this style.

 

And yes he is to be commended for the academic success of his teams. I do actually factor that in.

 

Dane Pound brought it up on the Bing. thread, but I like the small line-up we had late in the game w/ Devlin as the center. Five guys that could score and hopefully defend mobile bigs a little better than our bigs have shown. It obviously won't work against strong bigs, but not a lot of those floating around the AE.

[Dane96]

I think you are 100% correct...except I think Logan is just THAT much better this year...and Mike Black is healthy. But premise-wise you are correct.

 

Chalk it up to Coach taking more risks, e.g. knowing his players can't play some D...so no hook when assignments are missed ala Timmy?! Just a guess.

 

BTW...for other comments, yeah...I watched that game last night and Tommy Brenton is a punk...flat out punk.

[McFan]

Do we lose too much rebounding with the small line-up?

[Dane96]

Well, that depends on who we play. Against SBU, Vermont and BU...I think that could be trouble. Against Hartford...no way.

[Clickclack]

Last time we beat Hartford on the road was 07/08 season...this is going to be a very difficult road game. All I ask for is come away with the win any way we can. Hartford always gives us a hard time...

 

Regarding Brown...I really like what he's been doing the last couple of years on the recruiting trail and it feels like things are starting to pay off. What I mean is that a number of pieces that we have an especially those that are unfortunately injured (Hooley) and Page (red-shirted) all look like legit D1 players. I don't see any Mike Yocums or Reids being recruited. Our depth needs another year to develop but we lose no one to graduation. If Brown can do a decent job down the stretch, lets say get to 18 W and then win one or two in the AE tourney he should come back. If we falter down the stretch and win lets say 16 games again I'd be very disappointed. At that point no matter what the AD decides I'd be OK with it. Keep in mind he has a great chance to get his 3rd, yes only 3rd winning season in what 11 years? Lets face it, and I like Brown, I've defended him MANY times, he seems like a good guy, he cares about the kids in the program, the kids here are good citizens who do well in school, he does it the right way BUT we need more then 2 winning season in 11 years, that's not enough.

[Dane Pound]

According to the stats on ESPN Tim averaged two minutes more per game last year than Suero is this year.

 

I think some of the offensive change has been a greater trust in Mike Black and Logan with the addition of Suero. I don't mind seeing CB change things to suit his roster. I'd like to see better defense but really I don't want to see Suero picking up hand check fouls out on the perimeter. He gets five "America East" charging calls a game and I want to see him use them all on the offensive end.

 

The biggest irony from last year to this year is that last year we were among the league leaders in field goal defense last year with Tim who was harranged throughout his career as a bad defender. He leaves and we become a worse defensive team. Go figure.

 

I think Guerrier rebounds pretty well. He seriously gets off the floor to rebound in traffic. I'd worry as much about him getting posted up but how many AE forwards do we have to worry about doing that consistently.

 

It's funny, Vermont fans saw us play last week and talked about the fact that we should bring everyone back next year and how scary we could be. We're talking about if we should keep our coach or not. Funny stuff.

 

I hope we learned some kind of lesson from the Bing game for today. Historically we seem to play poorly at Hartford, even when they aren't very good. Many times I've sat in their gym and wondered about the facility. Our three point shooters never seem to have a good night in that building. Other places, UMBC in particular, they seem to go bananas.

[Clickclack]

I don't think anyone is hating on Brown but the program is at a bit of a cross road this being his last season on the current contract. There are certain realities that can't be ignored but there does appear to be very solid momentum after the 7 win season. We need to keep moving as a program in the right direction...2 winning season is 2 winning season. It's a sensitive topic, I recognize that, I wish the team luck with every win this decision becomes easier to make.