vs Vermont (1/26)

[McFan]

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.

[McFan]

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.

[uofalbany]

If we get into the tournament, then we are all happy. It's been 6 years now since playing on a ncaa tourny court.

The problem and reality is.... we constantly lose important games against the top teams. A sign of weakness.

 

Top of the line coaches are able to extract from their players enough to win games like uvm @ HOME. Last night's game determined that we will not

be winning the regular season and we will not be hosting an AE championship game.

 

I think our kids can take the ae tournament, if they are coached well, and are mentally prepared to carry out an exceptional game plan and strategy. Question is, has Will Brown ever had an exceptional strategy? Will he this year in the tournament?

 

If it wasn't about winning and building the UA brand in college basketball, then the dude wouldn't be paid a ridiculous amount of money for

coaching a basketball team. If he can't rise this team above all of the other schools, instead of being somewhere in the middle of the pack, year in and year out, then find someone ready to take this program to the next level. It's a business deal. He gets a quarter million + per year and he consistantly comes up short when it matters. It could be considered a waste of cash. Perform or get out.

 

Maybe we don't have enough talent on the team.

Maybe we do have the talent, but don't have the proper strategy & leadership.

Either way, the results rest on coaching.

Edited January 27, 2013 by uofalbany

[Clickclack]

This year Coach Brown had me fooled somewhat. A few weeks ago I was ready to concede I'd been mistaken about him. Having watched both the BU and Vermont games on line, I'm backing to my original thinking. I think the players like him, but I do not think he is a winner, not will he ever be at UA.

 

I'm sorry... I'm as critical as anyone here but he made all the adjustments against BU... I can't fault him for that one. I'm just being honest....

[DanesRGood]

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.

[McFan]

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.

[DanesRGood]

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.

 

Agree on all points. Let me ask this. If I told you we would have a 10-6 conference record and the 3 seed in the tourney after Logan and Suero announced they were leaving you probably would've said, "I'll take it!". As the season got closer, people became more optimistic and 10-6 or 9-7 in conference might've been an expectation. Now, I think 8-8 would be really bad for this team.

 

If you look at the losses they aren't THAT bad.

 

OSU

Loyola - Full court pass/3 point play on a travel to lose it.

Quin - Another fluke play at the end with the ball "tipping" the rim.

UVM - Just a disaster. A HAMMERING

BU - Another fluke

UVM - Had a chance.

 

In 4 out of those 6 a difference bounce of the ball and we win. Do I love our offense? Not right now but we've been winning games. I do think this team is more talented offensively then they have shown recently though.

[UAalum72]

 

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.

Washington is now #77, Wagner #132. Hartford has a winning record.

 

Before people get carried away with this 'no good wins' problem, keep in mind that while Stony Brook has some close losses to good teams, their best wins are over Canisius (13-7, #117) and Rider (11-10, #158) and Hartford.

 

Vermont has beaten #87 Harvard, #94 Stony Brook, #127 Northeastern, and us

 

Boston U's best win has been .... us (and UVM).

[Clickclack]

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.

Washington is now #77, Wagner #132. Hartford has a winning record.

 

Before people get carried away with this 'no good wins' problem, keep in mind that while Stony Brook has some close losses to good teams, their best wins are over Canisius (13-7, #117) and Rider (11-10, #158) and Hartford.

 

Vermont has beaten #87 Harvard, #94 Stony Brook, #127 Northeastern, and us

 

Boston U's best win has been .... us (and UVM).

 

salient post...thank you for some perspective.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Clickclack

[LoganAronhaltsKnees]

Kind of surprised this hasn't been mentioned but, despite the fact that BU had to throw up some prayers to get us to overtime, Coach Brown should have ensured that the team fouled in the event of a turnover during the timeout before the final sequence of regulation. This was an eerily similar situation to last year's AE semifinal loss when the players seemed oblivious to the fact that the shot clock buzzer would be dangerously close to that of the game clock prior to the Dallis Joyner tip in. Brown is great at keeping his team in games, but has shown a tendency to lack attention to detail in late game situations.

 

With that said, he will deliver us a win tomorrow. Go Danes.

[UA'08]

I brought up the fouling so they don't get off the 3. It was in the BU game thread, but no replies to it.

[UAalum72]

Brown was on Wyland's show today (Wyland was off) and said that he has to rest Iati more, Jaoob now has achilles tendinitis in both ankles and hasn't been practicing.

 

Most of his spot was reaction to Iorizzo's column Sunday, calling it (among other things) 'crap' and 'garbage'; "when one team in the area is having a bad season, and it's the wrong team, this is what they're going to write about the other team"; he pays more attention to what basketball people say than Iorizzo, who after all is the former Siena beat writer.

 

I didn't tune in early enough to hear Iorizzo's defense.

[LoganAronhaltsKnees]

I brought up the fouling so they don't get off the 3. It was in the BU game thread, but no replies to it.

 

My apologies. Glad I'm not alone on that one.

[bob87]

Brown was on Wyland's show today (Wyland was off) and said that he has to rest Iati more, Jaoob now has achilles tendinitis in both ankles and hasn't been practicing.

 

Most of his spot was reaction to Iorizzo's column Sunday, calling it (among other things) 'crap' and 'garbage'; "when one team in the area is having a bad season, and it's the wrong team, this is what they're going to write about the other team"; he pays more attention to what basketball people say than Iorizzo, who after all is the former Siena beat writer.

 

I didn't tune in early enough to hear Iorizzo's defense.

 

I didn't get a chance to listen to the radio, but I am surprised that there isn't anything better to discuss on the radio than a hack from the TU.

[UA_MA_2000]

We were very close to being 2-0, or at least 1-1, over the past two games, and our loss to UVM took an unprecedented level of bad shooting and a couple threes that rattled out of the basket for us to lose. Some thoughts on the UVM game:

 

* Our defense broke down 3-4 times for easy baskets when UVM in-bounded the ball from under their own basket on the baseline.This contributed to at least 6-8 easy points in the game for UVM.

 

* UVM did not seem to have the same success as the red team did when double teaming our PG off our high-ball screens. I think Black did a very nice job at reading the double team quickly and stepping back to avoid it.

 

* UVM has held us to 45 and 43 points in the two games this year. They are a solid team, and good teams will make you shoot poorly from the floor and out-rebound you. If we play them in March, I would expect more of the same and wouldn't expect to see more than 120 combined points in the game, much like the AE Title game in 2007 (119 combined points). To beat UVM in March, we will need to rebound better, work just as hard on defense if not harder, and play better on offense. We are capable of doing all three and capable of beating UVM in their own building.

 

* With the exception of our backcourt, our team takes very few jump shots at, or beyond, the 12-to-15 foot range. This allowed UVM to play our guards very tight and then pack their entire frontcourt into the lane. We had nothing in the lane and close to the basket whenever anyone drove to the basket. Because UVM collapsed their defense in the lane (and rotated) very well, the only sure-fire way (that I can think of) to beat this is for a big man to step out of the lane and consistently receive the pass and knock down the jump shot. (i.e., like Puk often does). I'd like to see, e.g., Devlin take some jump shots out there to keep the defense spread out. I'd also like to see our PF and SF dribble drive more often, if for no other reason than to collapse the defense and free up a jump shooter. Freeing up the lane of UVM defenders might also help our offensive rebounding efforts.

 

* Iati is obviously one of the best three-point shooters in the nation. This draws his defender way out on him and prevents our opponents from playing zone defense against us. These are two of the good things that happen when he is out there. When Iati is resting on the bench, however, perhaps shift Hooley to SG (thereby freeing up a frontcourt slot) and encourage him to continue to drive and contend in the lane (Hooley reminds me a bit of Siggers with his height and ability to drive in the lane). If Hooley continues to work on his three-point shot, he is going to rack up some all-conference honors before he's done ... .

 

* I read a "Free Gary Johnson" post above. If the Chairman (DP) would allow me to obtain the floor, I move to free Gary Johnson. I'd like to see more of him in the games. I think now is the time to insert other players in the lineup and get them acclimated to the game pace and flow of things. Players will make mistakes at first, but better those mistakes come now than up in, e.g., Burlington in March. The more players that Coach can feel comfortable with as the season ripens, perhaps the more Coach can adjust the matchups and counter what defenses are doing to us.

 

* In 2006-07, we lost both regular-season games to UVM. Up 27-22 at the half of the AE Title game up in Burlington, we held on to beat Vermont at their place (60-59). At that time, wasn't it our first win up there ever? This team is capable of doing the same.

Edited January 29, 2013 by UA_MA_2000