bigappleram wrote: ↑4 months ago
Not a referendum on the season at all, BUT there were some issues that have been prevalent this season that reared their heads in a big way yesterday...
1.) Most important to me is the compete level. We were simply bullied and out toughed. Our guys looked like they wanted to take their ball and go home. Besides Green there are still elements of this team that are charmin soft when the going gets tough and need to step up their attitude and intensity. Foumena needs to not be that guy that spikes the ball in the end zone when his team is down 30 and he is getting abused on the other end. I hate that shit.
2.) Defense. Atrocious. We made their 2 bigs look like Chamberlain and Shaq. Different type players but to say that doesn't bode well in facing Holmes is an understatement. Banks came in shooting it at 20% and was lights out. Pride got 2-3 early open looks that got him going and should have been a focus of our scout. He went off from there. But how they just dominated inside is the biggest concern moving forward. I do believe if Cross had played for Umass they would have done serious damage against our inside players. Brown is the toughest but the least skilled, Fou and Fuchs are skilled
3.) Turnovers. Atrocious. For about the 4th or 5th time that I can remember a loose ball bounced right to Zek and he fumbled it leading to an easy basket for the opponent. I'm not sure how that happens once let alone multiple times. Many turnovers due to lack of focus and execution and not because of amazingly aggressive defense. We do not turn teams over so it is imperative we keep our own turnovers to a minimum. It's impossible to make up a gap if you keep giving away possessions and on top of that do little to create incremental opportunities for yourself by forcing them.
That said, I'm more of the mindset that it's a one off complete turd of a game versus a new trend line. Ball don't lie. They were due to have a big game after laying a stinker and we were due to come back to earth a bit after playing out of our skull at home for stretches against Umass.
I hope the team shows up for Archie and for our own mental health on Saturday. I can't take another one of those. It's very very rare that I turn the game off even if we are way down and it's over. I stopped watching with 5 minutes left and flipped to the Loyola v Umass game. That's how bad it was.
Good points BAR. I went to the URI WBB vs Fordham game so watched this game on ESPN+ Replay. Ouch.
I was at the URI-UMASS game and rewatched it on ESPN+ next day. At halftime the URI ESPN+ Reporter grabbed Kenny Johnson for a minute and asked about their offense being good in the first half and what did he think URI needed to do to improve that offense in the 2nd half? Kenny looked at him kind of funny and said "Offense is Offense, we need to improve our defense, play physical, play tough........" Not exact words but he basically dismissed offense.
What I saw was that URI's offense vs St Bona did not do their defense any favors.
Blocked shots: In 1st half announcer said Venning had broken his career hi in BS of 4 with 6 blocks and there was still about 6 minutes left in the 1st half!!! Bonnies had 8 blocks and we had zero blocks. Some of those blocked shots ended up in Bonnies racing down the court with easy layups or hi % shots beating the defense down the court. All 8 blocks were against our guards: Estevez 3, Green 2, Kortright 2, House 1.
Steals: Bonnies 9, URI 3
Turnovers: Bonnies 6, URI 20; Wright 4, Estevez 3, Brown 3, Green 3, Kortright, House, Montgomery, Dubsky and Stewart 1 each. Only Fuchs (17 min) and Foumena (18 min) had zero TOs
It seemed like the Blocks, Steals by Bonnies and the TO's by URI often led to breakaways, hi % shots and Bonnies players made easy baskets that led to even ore confidence for their players to hit most anything they thew up there. TO's enabled to let Banks get out of his season long slump and score 14 points with a game hi 7 assists.
Will be interesting to see how we do today at Dayton. Maybe a case of overconfidence having an unexpected 3-0 start. We beat UMASS by 12 but without Cross and we were extraordinarily hot with 14-23 3Ps 61%; House 5-7, Estevez 4-5 and Green 4-7. Maybe overconfident and got shell shocked in Olean falling behind so fast we didn't know what hit us.
Hopefully we look back at the Bonnies loss as a good omen - optimistic hat firmly in place