Iowa St., Mon., Nov. 24, 4:30p, TruTV / 1050 AM

ghostzapper said:
I am far more sick over the Giants blowing fourth quarter double digit leads every week 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀!!!!!!

Seriously though, it is way too early to get too upset. The three close losses we had (by 1, 2 and 7 point defeats) were all to top teams (#6 Michigan, #9 Alabama and #13 Iowa State). Those three teams combined, have lost only one single game and that was Alabama to #1 Purdue in a close affair.

The players we have, will need time to blend, develop chemistry and find their roles. Last season we lost to Baylor and Georgia early, but finished strong. The two seasons under Pitino have shown his SJU teams have improved significantly from November to March.

Are we winning the national championship with this group? That would be a bit of a stretch at this point, but the team's ceiling has not been defined and the close losses we are experiencing now may turn into wins later on if this year's team follows Pitino's pattern from years one and two.

For me I am not going to overanalyze our team at this point. I will wait and see how we develop going forward without making any proclamations about what we are or are not!
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The only real competition in the Big East this year is Uconn so if we continue losing to the Michigans, Iowa States, Alabamas of college basketball, this year we will not be remotely close to last year's overachieving team. We are overloaded with guys 6'4 or 6'5 who are average shooters, average defenders and bellow average ball handlers.
We will live or die with Zoobie, Bryce and Dillon as our core players. Sellers is a very good player. Everyone else seems to not understand their role which is where the lineup chemistry is crucial and where Pitino is behind the curve at present. We may eventually see more of our freshmen if current combinations don't meld in the backcourt. Today we could have used a little Ayo energy on defense.
Second guessing is part of the post game analysis when you keep losing close games.
😉😉😉
 
Delaware said:
Just watched the game. So disappointed.

Full transparency. I am a HS Basketball official. Just a horribly officiated basketball game. I'd love to see the grading of that crew for this game. It has to be really poor.
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The number of travels they let Iowa State get away with (especially #22) was insane. This wasn't giving them the benefit of the doubt on an extra half-step. It was 3 or 4 steps without dribbling every time. I don't know how, as a defense, you are supposed to "adjust" to that.

I also didn't get the overturn on the out of bounds. How much longer were they going to give Iowa State to challenge the call? Then, the refs clearly disagree, because they talk amongst themselves for a while. Isn't that enough to show that there is doubt, and the call should stand?

I also don't like the rule, that you can only win two challenges. That stopped Rick from using one about midway through the second half, when he clearly would have won again. I don't blame him. I wouldn't have trusted these guys to get it right at crunch time. We just didn't have a play like that occur late in the game.

You should have one challenge and keep retaining it as long as you win.
 
Initial reaction: disappointing
However, I think of how many times I have seen Michigan State come up small against big time teams in the fall semester. And come March they have their act together. I believe we will fall into that category. I think we have the individual talent, I think it will all come together.

Full disclosure: I thought the Yankees made a big mistake letting Wetteland walk, the kid backing him up wasn’t ready for the closer role in 1997.
 
Well, that sucked.
But I didn’t expect this team to be world beaters in November. The hope is that they can be by March. I still think that’s possible.

But man, roster construction really has us at a disadvantage.

We need to just keep getting better every game. Our best basketball is clearly ahead of us.
We don’t play Pitino level defense yet. And we don’t rebound the way he demands. It’s almost unfathomable to think those things won’t be much improved in February.

Will we have an offensive identity and settled roles? I don’t know. That will be the big question for the season. The other aspects will get better, I’m confident of that.
 
Mean Gene said:
I wouldn’t disagree with you on this Ghostzapper. The problem is the way the metrics work now and how the committee selects teams come tournament time. These early season OOC games mean so much more now. Especially with a weak Big East this year. We can’t wait too long for this team to develop the way this system is currently set up. Look what happened to Ricks team the first year he was here. It took them a long time to get it together and you also had weak Big East that year and what was the outcome. This is why I don’t like turning over an entire roster every year. We must go 3-1 in our four remaining OOC games against power conference teams. If we don’t , things really dicey.
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I think we will ultimately make the tournament if we are a top three Big East team. The losses we have thus far are to top fifteen teams and they are close losses to boot and ultimately not fatal to our long term outlook. Would we be in a better position, if we had won those games? For sure! That said, it made sense that we would lose some of these games to top competition, with so many new players on the roster.

Now if we wind up 12 and 8 or 11 and 9 or worse in the Big East then we might miss the dance because of these November losses, but if we are 16 and 4 or win the conference tournament then the losses might downgrade our seeding but won't keep us out of the dance like in Pitino year one. Last year we were seeded as a two and got knocked out in the second round. I think I would rather be a six seed and make it to the sweet sixteen or the elite eight, than have the type of tournament that we had last year.

All of this is speculation of course but I don't think it is time to panic. Games in November will not define us if we improve. Given the way the last two seasons have played out I would guess improvement is more likely than not. We shall see!!
 
Sadly, we actually could have easily won this game with a little more celebral play in the second half. We began the second half with two consecutive turnovers and ended it with a coach's decision not to use his last time out to set up a play with a team still not playing with a known playbook. I think the coaches need a come to Jesus moment and not to just genuflect to Pitino during games!
 
Amaseinyourface said:
I’m sure I’m annoying most of you with the Darling is not the issue stuff, but worth noting he’s got 17 assists, 9 steals and only 1 TO in 4 games.

If Sanon shows up in either big game, is there even a PG discussion? Of course there’s a chance the Sanon’s struggles are tied to the pg play.
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Sanon's issues aren't tied to PG play imo. He's a tough guy to work into the flow of an offense. His shot selection would still be questionable and that layup he blew today couldn't have been cleaner. Plus he's a negative defensively which obviously has nothing to do with PG play.

If anybody is hurting from lack of PG play it's Sellers and he was probably our 2nd best player tonight anyway. He'd be even better with someone getting him the ball consistently
 
Need to work the offense more through Zuby and Bryce. Teams will double Zuby which allows an open shooter. Bryce on the perimeter can drive by the majority of the 4s that will end up guarding him for a kickout open look.
 
Boo Harvey said:
Darling is serviceable but not much more. We should have passed on Jackson and recruited a good pg and darling as the backup. We also got killed on the boards down the stretch. We were out toughed
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I thought we were supposed to get lean and long after last year's NCAA failure. Certainly not the case.
 
It was a bad idea to rewatch the game knowing we lost by 1 point. Could have easily won this game. So many missed opportunities (turnovers, missed layups, Darling’s steal that was called a foul). Still have no idea why we didn’t challenge that call when the ball clearly went off the leg of the ISU defender. Need to rebound and defend better. Think Darling will be fine. Rick is asking a lot from him. More concerned with the lack of defense/rebounding from Sanon/Jackson. Hopefully one if not both step up moving forward.
 
stjohnnie75 said:
It was a bad idea to rewatch the game knowing we lost by 1 point. Could have easily won this game. So many missed opportunities (turnovers, missed layups, Darling’s steal that was called a foul). Still have no idea why we didn’t challenge that call when the ball clearly went off the leg of the ISU defender. Need to rebound and defend better. Think Darling will be fine. Rick is asking a lot from him. More concerned with the lack of defense/rebounding from Sanon/Jackson. Hopefully one if not both step up moving forward.
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Because even if he wins that challenge, it's his second one. He doesn't get another. Would you have trusted these refs to have gotten a call like that right late in the game? I didn't.

Looks bad because the potential play didn't happen, but I have no problem with Rick not challenging. The rule is flawed, though.
 
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