Bowling Green, Fri. Nov. 9, 6:30p, FS2 / 570 WMCA

[quote="Mike Zaun" post=301424]Very big scare last night. Anyone who says Rutgers will not be an issue is dead wrong. They always are even in some of our best years recently. They scare me to death because they have size, a great coach, and they are a power team like us. If we win I can see it being a lot like this game where every point is huge. I hope this was just BG catching us off guard but I feel like we all say that way too much for a veteran team with this much talent in year 4 of Mullin. When we played Loyola, they still got some open looks but couldn't make them. BG got them and did make them. They were also bigger.

I made it a point to keep an eye on the coaches and their body language from behind the basket. Mullin looked very confused and stood about 8 ft from the huddle during a timeout while GSJ was in the center of it. Mitch just shook his head most of the game. I keep seeing more evidence this staff is in over their heads, but I keep trying to repress it because I want to believe this is a big year for us. We just play hero ball and no one's moving around without the ball on offense. We pass around, pass around, nothing is there and then we gave it to Heron who breaks down a defender and drives at the rim with 3 guys on him. Luckily he was able to finish well and make his jumpers. Simon looks lost unfortunately. He's such a great kid and I know he will get out of the rut, but he gets to the hoop and it's all iron and bounces right back out. Seemingly every time. Dixon missed a layup on a fastbreak. We left at least 20 pts on the board between missed FT's and missed bunnies.[/quote]

BG made their share of mistakes too. Plenty of missed FTs, blown layups, and mishandling the ball that would have been easy baskets. That's part of the game. As for the staff, one talented and experienced basketball mind to help with practice, recruiting and game prep should have been accomplished by now. I'm no Lavin fan, but at least he had enough sense to know his limitations and bring in Dunlap and then Whitesell. If the AD does one thing, I hope it's that.
 
[quote="Ray Morgan" post=301426][quote="Mike Zaun" post=301424]Very big scare last night. Anyone who says Rutgers will not be an issue is dead wrong. They always are even in some of our best years recently. They scare me to death because they have size, a great coach, and they are a power team like us. If we win I can see it being a lot like this game where every point is huge. I hope this was just BG catching us off guard but I feel like we all say that way too much for a veteran team with this much talent in year 4 of Mullin. When we played Loyola, they still got some open looks but couldn't make them. BG got them and did make them. They were also bigger.

I made it a point to keep an eye on the coaches and their body language from behind the basket. Mullin looked very confused and stood about 8 ft from the huddle during a timeout while GSJ was in the center of it. Mitch just shook his head most of the game. I keep seeing more evidence this staff is in over their heads, but I keep trying to repress it because I want to believe this is a big year for us. We just play hero ball and no one's moving around without the ball on offense. We pass around, pass around, nothing is there and then we gave it to Heron who breaks down a defender and drives at the rim with 3 guys on him. Luckily he was able to finish well and make his jumpers. Simon looks lost unfortunately. He's such a great kid and I know he will get out of the rut, but he gets to the hoop and it's all iron and bounces right back out. Seemingly every time. Dixon missed a layup on a fastbreak. We left at least 20 pts on the board between missed FT's and missed bunnies.[/quote]

BG made their share of mistakes too. Plenty of missed FTs, blown layups, and mishandling the ball that would have been easy baskets. That's part of the game. As for the staff, one talented and experienced basketball mind to help with practice, recruiting and game prep should have been accomplished by now. I'm no Lavin fan, but at least he had enough sense to know his limitations and bring in Dunlap and then Whitesell. If the AD does one thing, I hope it's that.[/quote]

Cragg knows how important a winning basketball team is to our school beyond athletics. A great basketball program increases enrollment. It also increases attendance and fundraising. He's all business and does not seem swayed by emotion...he won't put up with this stuff for very long.
 
[quote="Mike Zaun" post=301430][quote="Ray Morgan" post=301426][quote="Mike Zaun" post=301424]Very big scare last night. Anyone who says Rutgers will not be an issue is dead wrong. They always are even in some of our best years recently. They scare me to death because they have size, a great coach, and they are a power team like us. If we win I can see it being a lot like this game where every point is huge. I hope this was just BG catching us off guard but I feel like we all say that way too much for a veteran team with this much talent in year 4 of Mullin. When we played Loyola, they still got some open looks but couldn't make them. BG got them and did make them. They were also bigger.

I made it a point to keep an eye on the coaches and their body language from behind the basket. Mullin looked very confused and stood about 8 ft from the huddle during a timeout while GSJ was in the center of it. Mitch just shook his head most of the game. I keep seeing more evidence this staff is in over their heads, but I keep trying to repress it because I want to believe this is a big year for us. We just play hero ball and no one's moving around without the ball on offense. We pass around, pass around, nothing is there and then we gave it to Heron who breaks down a defender and drives at the rim with 3 guys on him. Luckily he was able to finish well and make his jumpers. Simon looks lost unfortunately. He's such a great kid and I know he will get out of the rut, but he gets to the hoop and it's all iron and bounces right back out. Seemingly every time. Dixon missed a layup on a fastbreak. We left at least 20 pts on the board between missed FT's and missed bunnies.[/quote]

BG made their share of mistakes too. Plenty of missed FTs, blown layups, and mishandling the ball that would have been easy baskets. That's part of the game. As for the staff, one talented and experienced basketball mind to help with practice, recruiting and game prep should have been accomplished by now. I'm no Lavin fan, but at least he had enough sense to know his limitations and bring in Dunlap and then Whitesell. If the AD does one thing, I hope it's that.[/quote]

Cragg knows how important a winning basketball team is to our school beyond athletics. A great basketball program increases enrollment. It also increases attendance and fundraising. He's all business and does not seem swayed by emotion...he won't put up with this stuff for very long.[/quote]

A lot of hype this season yet CA looked empty in the first half. Did seem to fill up more later. How was the attendance and was it a noisy and engaged fan base?
 
Rainy early Friday night starting time with horrendous traffic explains the late arriving crowd. Crowd was very engaged especially during second half comeback run. For those calling for Cragg to take action on improving the assistant coaching staff just how stubborn or stupid does Mo have to be not to have done it on his own by now. Maybe he enjoys being befuddled and stupefied standing outside the huddles ( and don't repeat the excuse maybe we are financially hamstrung because as i and others have mentioned even if the school placed financial limits due to the Slice fiasco Mo could have contributed part of his own 2 mill salary as an investment in himself). As for blaming players for not exerting defensive effort it still comes back to coach for either not holding them accountable or not inspiring them to put forth the effort in the first place. Mullin has 2 five stars and a plethora of 4 stars and without checking be willing to bet BG was made up of at best 3 star level talent and yet we struggle at home in a game decided in the final seconds to win.
 
I DVR'ed the game and did not know the score. As the game started, I thought we were going to win by 30 points. Then like someone turned a switch, we turned to all the bad habits we displayed last year.
We had no big man in the middle and BG exploited that to the fullest. They are a fairly big team. They used that to their credit. We are soft in the middle and we are going to have to deal with that deficiency all year long.
We have blazing speed and some very talented kids, but they sometimes run around like they are playing a pickup game. We rush shots, many times we are out of position and have no one underneath the basket so it is a one and done.
There are times when we look great, but there are many times when we are so out of any sane tempo that we look bewildered. All of this has to be dealt with now, or we will face a very long season.
We are good, but not so good that we can afford to give opponents, open looks, and bunnies. We do not show a tough defensive grit that I feel is needed if we are to compete.
Bowling Green is not a bad team, but we are going to play much better, they have some speed and good shooters, but we will face better. Unless we make the adjustments to deal with these issues, better teams will pick at our weaknesses and we could be in trouble.
Oh, we have some great players. Much better than we have had in decades but we are glaringly weak in the middle. If our speed does not negate this weakness along with some ferocious rebounding, I am afraid of what lies ahead.
I have never uttered a bad word toward our coaching staff, but it seems to me, that they have a very simple plan shoot, shoot, shoot, like the NBA. Defense oh if you do that, good, but make sure your run and shoot, THIS IS NOT THE NBA, and these kids will lose badly if that is how they play the game. Coach Mullin, wake up, this is the college game. If you don't change your approach, opposing teams will destroy us.
 
Didn't think Bowling Green played like a last place team. Once again our three point defense was porous, falling behind picks. Having taken only 4 foul shots in the first half tells us a lot about our lack of driving to the basket.No excuse just look at the athleticism and speed of this team.
What would we be without Heron? Probably not in the top 5 of the Big East. Don't believe Trimble took one shot but certainly turned our defense around in the second half.
Looks like last year as far as getting offensive boards. Talk about confidence in his game Ponds exhibited it in the second half.
 
[quote="lawmanfan" post=301334]The first 2 games have shown the same common thread:

1. The offense will be fine. There are a ton of scoring options, and if all else fails you can still give the ball to Ponds and get out of the way.

2. The intensity and effort on D and the boards are woefully lacking. To be competitive, this team needs to commit to gang rebounding, playing fundamentally sound D, and playing with focus on every defensive possession. There are far too many fouls that stem from not moving their feet and playing with basic defensive principles. And if they do not make it difficult for opponents to bring the ball up the court and then to get the ball inside, they will get crushed by a team with a good post game.

3. There is no evidence thus far that the coaching staff has identified, is concerned about, or is doing anything about any of the items in #2.

I suspect the Rutgers game may be a rude awakening for our group (if tonight's game wasn't) if they do not show up with a completely different attitude about defense.[/quote]

Two next-day thoughts to add to this:

1. I cannot understand why we are not pressing and trapping. There is plenty of depth to do that, it would provoke some more defensive intensity, likely get some turnovers and run-outs that would create the pace we want to play at, and at a minimum would delay opponents from getting into a halfcourt set where we are likely to struggle against post players. I suppose the answer is probably that without Owens as a backstop and getting zero from Keita so far, the staff doesn't want the press to get beat for an easy bucket. But IMHO it's a case of pick your poison, with this roster I think they're better off pressing.

2. In a related point to #1, if you can't find minutes for Earlington, Williams and Roberts against the teams we are playing, you're doing something wrong. I have no problem if what's going on is the staff trying to get the top of the rotation set early on. But ultimately i think the team is going to have to go to pressure defense if it is going anywhere, and if that's what happens they should take full advantage of their depth.

Unrelated point: Mikey Dixon may not turn out to be a Big East star, but he is absolutely the kind of player who makes your program better. Great addition to the team, and will be a starter next year.
 
Amazing how in less than a week, our attitude went from "with our bad OOC we need to go undefeated until the start of BE play" to "thank God we beat Bowling Green, Rutgers will be really tough".

So far we've played 4 games (2 exhibition), and none of them have been reassuring. Only 1 game (opening night) was an acceptable result. That to me is an obvious trend rather than an abnormality. The team currently is not very good.

Of course, things can change. Everyone is talking about the lack of a big man (rightfully so), but there's a LOT more than that to work on that we actually can control. Season is still within our control, big man or not. We may ultimately not have enough pieces to make an NCAA Tournament run, but before we worry about that we need to put together a winning resume. So far we've done the absolute bare minimum (stayed alive).
 
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I feel like I watched a different game than some posters. I was not impressed with Trimble. He was walking about on offense and basically running around waving his arms of defense. I think any success he had was due to poor BG performance. Please less Trimble time and more Dixon.
 
[quote="lawmanfan" post=301447]

1. pressing and trapping...
2. Earlington, Williams and Roberts...
[/quote]

Agreed especially on #2. #1 may be that they are worried about fouls. With spurts of defensive intensive we got into major foul trouble. But the answer is probably in combining both these issues especially since Mullin was talking up Williams as a defender. How about a defensive spark lineup where a couple of combinations go out to cause havoc for a few minutes with a mix of guys like:

Option 1) Dixon, Williams, Roberts
Option 2) Dixon, WIlliams, Earlington

Obviously Simon is the #1 option here but if he is a foul concern you mix it up with other players. Just having Ponds or Heron in any mix means that you won't lose your scoring.
 
One thing re: Bowling Green's preseason ranking.

They were picked last out of six in the MAC East Division.

However, all the sites that pick teams 1-353 have them in the top 200 (or around there), and ahead of at least 3, maybe 4 MAC West teams, so they're not the worst team in the MAC. As Buffalo proved last night, the MAC will be one of the stronger mid-major leagues this year, as it is virtually every year.

Not offering an excuse for our performance, but I did want to dispell the myth that Bowling Green was the worst team in the MAC.
 
look i feel for trimble but disagree. His feet are too slow and got beat yesterday multiple times. He is a perfect role player to come in a drain a clutch 3 once in awhile. Why he is getting so many mins is beyond me. We have better players on the bench who still need to develop. Give them mins. We know what Trimble is capable of and its a role player on this team. Give those mins to Dixon, GW, and Josh
 
[quote="Knight" post=301450]I feel like I watched a different game than some posters. I was not impressed with Trimble. He was walking about on offense and basically running around waving his arms of defense. I think any success he had was due to poor BG performance. Please less Trimble time and more Dixon.[/quote]

Mullin gave Dixon his Lavin teaching moment by benching him therefore Trimble got his minutes but Williams is faster than Trimble so his DNP is mystifying as are most Mullin bench decisions.
 
Is there something more to Williams sitting on the bench? Based on everything I've read, it doesn't make sense why he wouldn't play for at least a few minutes.

Red shirt candidate?
 
SlyFox wrote:

"As for Owens and Yakwe , looks like they are playing their Roles like they did here . Owens Blocking Shots but, being outmuscled in the post . "

Tariq is not playing a post game at Texas Tech, he is playing power forward. TT has a 6'8 260lb center. In 16 minutes in his first game Owens had 9 points and 9 rebounds. In 10 minutes in his second game he had 6 blocks. Last night he scored 9 pints, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a block.
I would say he got exactly what he wanted in the transfer. We did not recruit a big at the 4 or 5 better than Tariq. Unfortunately he is a big loss.
 
Posters want to see Earlington, Williams and Roberts? We barely won with our best players. All 3 will make mistakes. We don't have that kind of margin for error.
 
[quote="Class of 72" post=301456][quote="Knight" post=301450]I feel like I watched a different game than some posters. I was not impressed with Trimble. He was walking about on offense and basically running around waving his arms of defense. I think any success he had was due to poor BG performance. Please less Trimble time and more Dixon.[/quote]

Mullin gave Dixon his Lavin teaching moment by benching him therefore Trimble got his minutes but Williams is faster than Trimble so his DNP is mystifying as are most Mullin bench decisions.[/quote] Trimble with his hair up like that is taller though and we needed size
 
So, my take FWIW. I went to the doubleheader at Annapolis last night so I watched our game this morning. I found it so intriguing I watched it twice and somewhat broke it down, reverting back to my coaching days. Also took a look at the stats in relation to what I saw. I apologize in advance because am sure I will be repeating observations already posted. Here goes -
The game broke down to 4 distinctive sections; first, the first 4-5 minutes where we passed well, shot well, defended pretty well and went up on the scoreboard.
Second, the next 17-18 minutes where BG took over, we played very poorly on both ends, they played well, culminating in their 11 point lead a couple of minutes into the 2nd half.
At that point Mullin called time out, a time out that turned the game around and fostered in the third game within the game if you will. Our defense improved exponentially, more pressure on the ball for sure, not perfect, just an obvious increased sustained commitment on that end. And we started to just be a little more patient on offense, playing a little more team oriented ball while still taking advantage of our one on one breakdown ability. So from about the 18 minute mark to about the 2 minute mark we outscored BG by 20 points.
Which brings us to section 4 where on the surface it all went to crap. But breaking it down, did it really?
Play by play -
At just under 2 minutes Simon pushes and feeds Figueroa and he gets fouled, good play but 2 missed free throws begins the hurt.
We get the ball back and Ponds gets a good look but probably went too fast and the good look doesn’t drop; not a horrible play but more time off the clock was probably the way to go.
Next possession, we run clock, Clark gets a good look at a 3, misses, and Figueroa commits a horrible over the back, really bad play #1.
Horrible play #2, Simon pushes to nowhere and turns the ball over and that lack of discipline keeps BG in the game. As our foul shooting deserted us, that play sets the whole nail biting scenario up.
Because, BG then gets a good look and scores, Ponds goes 1 for 2, BG makes a nice runner, Heron missed 2 foul shots.
BG makes a layup, Heron misses 2 more fouls but steals the outlet and ices the game.
So we made, in my opinion, 2 really bad plays down the stretch that were magnified big time by missing a bushel full of foul shots down the stretch. Not good, but you either make fouls at the end or wind up on the shrinks couch.
Finally, two other observations -
Opponents, very little respect for them on this board. A team is as good as they play that night and BG has some talent for sure and played well. We ground out the win after being down and losing Keita. IMO that does more in building a team than blowout wins anytime. I will also mention that we used our fouls very intelligently down the stretch, not letting BG lay the ball in but rather earning it at the line and their misses is exactly why you do that.
Finally, rebounding. Stats mean nothing in a vacuum so let’s take a look at them. Yes, on the surface, that outrebounded us 38-28 which gives all kind of fodder to the anti-Mullin crowd. But, over simplifying to a degree, you get killed on the boards by giving up offensive rebound and there we actually had 7 to their 6, so offensive rebounds were not a big factor for either team. Defensive rebounds where BG statistically beat us 32-21 are a product of number of shots taken and missed by your opponent. BG shot better than us, so less defensive rebounds available to us but more important, we turned them over 20 times to our 8, again, less shots by them, less opportunities for rebounds by us. I would contend the rebounding was generally a non-factor in the game.
 
Thank you good analysis maybe a little too factual and intelligent for the crowd that is satisfied with claims that Mullin is/isn't this or that... !
 
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