Auburn, Wed., Nov. 26, 8:00p, TruTV / 880 AM

If this team is going to compete at the highest level it’s going to need excel in transition. In order to do that it will need to rebound.

Can we get 40 minutes at pg, perhaps not. But the roster we have can be a good rebounding team. And it will need to be.
 
Jack Williams said:
Was clearly limping out there but don’t let that stop half this website from leaving him for dead
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I think he is fine, but why don’t we have a second play-maker. That’s insane.

He’s been hurt twice and fouled out once.

At this point just run a Fan of the Game sponsored by Maspeth Federal Savings. The fan gets 15 minutes at point guard. Logen would at least get in Pettiford’s head and draw a tech.
 
I’m pissed about this loss but we lost 2/3 last year in a tourney to Baylor and Georgia and still eventually got our stuff together if there’s a coach that can turn this around it’s the one we have. Houston lost 2 games in one of these tourneys last year and went to the national title game. This sucks right now but this team will get better.
 
One other thing to note: the team looked lazy or tired tonight, especially on a number of hustle rebounds. Either that was playing 3 games in 3 days (but auburn did too!) or CRP has to go, not sure which.

I do wish the press would have been employed earlier, it was a trademark at Louisville but maybe we don’t have the horses.
 
Even forgetting about the PG situation, the roster construction is funky and it desperately showed in the 2nd half tonight.

We have our supposed offensive studs in the backcourt - Jackson and Sanon. But they can't defend and they are inconsistent at best offensively.

Then we have our frontcourt guys of Mitchell, Hopkins, and Zuby. The problem there is none of those guys can shoot. At least 2 of them (or Prey for Zuby) are on the court at the same time. Lots of times all 3. That clogs everything up not only for them but for guys like Jackson who wants to get downhill. The lanes were clogged all night and it's why we shot sub 50% from 2. All 3 players are good and maybe even great as individuals, but they just aren't a fit together at all.

Now back to the PG situation, the best shooter we've had since Julian is forced to play on the ball far more than he should. It's clear he doesn't display any competence as the ballhandler in PnR and it's not his fault because that's not his game

The roster was built around having the offensive talent to avoid situations like the Arkansas game last year with Rick thinking he'll be able to coach up the defense by March. The individual offensive talent is there but the fit is not. And Rick needs to work a miracle to get the defense to a competent level for a deep March run.

This team will still be able to out-talent it's way through the Big East en route to a 5 or 6 seed. But very difficult to believe we'll be able to string together 2-3 wins in a row in March against the high level SEC/B10/B12 teams.
 
If Zach has any balls, he'd question Pitino hard on the makeup of PG and that the guards overall can't guard and why no one values the ball.
 
Marillac2 said:
I think he is fine, but why don’t we have a second play-maker. That’s insane.

He’s been hurt twice and fouled out once.

At this point just run a Fan of the Game sponsored by Maspeth Federal Savings. The fan gets 15 minutes at point guard. Logen would at least get in Pettiford’s head and draw a tech.
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We have at least 2 other playmakers, they are just both 6’9”+
 
Marillac2 said:
I think he is fine, but why don’t we have a second play-maker. That’s insane.

He’s been hurt twice and fouled out once.

At this point just run a Fan of the Game sponsored by Maspeth Federal Savings. The fan gets 15 minutes at point guard. Logen would at least get in Pettiford’s head and draw a tech.
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I have been in agreement on this from the beginning. The way we approached recruiting our backcourt was extremely flawed.

my issue is fans are just emotional and lashing out at darling like it’s his fuckin fault our coach and GM picked up a PG from Idaho state and said let’s roll with him and no one else
 
sirvoo said:
Genuine question, what is Darling good at? I can see very clearly what he’s not good at which is shooting and defending. Maybe it’s dribbling the ball up the floor and shoveling a 3 foot pass to Zuby at the top of the key, which to be fair seems to be a challenge for some players.
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Gotta ask Rick, I'm still clueless.
 
Our guards can’t penetrate and finish at the rim and they can’t stop the opposing guards from doing it to them. Guards that can’t stop dribble penetration and not having a shot blocker with length is a bad combination.
 
People become stubborn as they age.
St. John's were winning the Arkansas game, but Pitino didn't use RJ in the final five minutes when it was down by only two-points, which ultimately resulted in a loss.
Pitino was winning the Iowa State and Auburn games, but he failed to capitalize on foul trouble of the opposing teams, and ultimately losing.
We really need to judge whether pitino is making the right decisions to win the game these days.
 
MugCostanza said:
Even forgetting about the PG situation, the roster construction is funky and it desperately showed in the 2nd half tonight.

We have our supposed offensive studs in the backcourt - Jackson and Sanon. But they can't defend and they are inconsistent at best offensively.

Then we have our frontcourt guys of Mitchell, Hopkins, and Zuby. The problem there is none of those guys can shoot. At least 2 of them (or Prey for Zuby) are on the court at the same time. Lots of times all 3. That clogs everything up not only for them but for guys like Jackson who wants to get downhill. The lanes were clogged all night and it's why we shot sub 50% from 2. All 3 players are good and maybe even great as individuals, but they just aren't a fit together at all.

Now back to the PG situation, the best shooter we've had since Julian is forced to play on the ball far more than he should. It's clear he doesn't display any competence as the ballhandler in PnR and it's not his fault because that's not his game

The roster was built around having the offensive talent to avoid situations like the Arkansas game last year with Rick thinking he'll be able to coach up the defense by March. The individual offensive talent is there but the fit is not. And Rick needs to work a miracle to get the defense to a competent level for a deep March run.

This team will still be able to out-talent it's way through the Big East en route to a 5 or 6 seed. But very difficult to believe we'll be able to string together 2-3 wins in a row in March against the high level SEC/B10/B12 teams.
Click to expand...

Can I get a Hallelujah, can I get an amen
 
SJU2000alum15 said:
I’m pissed about this loss but we lost 2/3 last year in a tourney to Baylor and Georgia and still eventually got our stuff together if there’s a coach that can turn this around it’s the one we have. Houston lost 2 games in one of these tourneys last year and went to the national title game. This sucks right now but this team will get better.
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Maybe I'm just on the ledge, but I think what helped us get our act together was playing so many games against a weak BE. The team last year was great but they beat down weak teams and were just so much more athletic than all of the BE. One of the reasons we lost in the tourney last year was because the team finally saw a group that was as athletic and strong as they were.

This season may oddly resemble that one but with the overall record being worse and all these Q1 losses resulting in a lower seed. This is a tournament team. This is a top 25 team. This is not a final 4 team. Sweet 16 would be amazing.
 
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