@Seton Hall, Tue., Jan. 16, 8:30p, FS-1

Marillac2 said:
Jenkins did get beaten badly on that blown dunk late. That’s inexcusable.

The positive is his blown defense somehow resulted in him getting fouled after the kid blew the wide open dunk and he actually went to the line for his only FTs.
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He gets blown by way too often playing man.
 
Seton Hall losses are always tough for me because I'm surrounded by Hall fans (and i have annual standing bets with them and have lost a fortune over the last 20 years). The worst thing I heard today was on the "Hall Line" SHU's postgame student run radio show. I don't believe this is factual accurate and if it is I'd be more upset with this performance so I will see what the board things. Is it possible that our NIL budget was $3.1M this year? If so, I'd expect a better product.
 
PARedman said:
I take a different view. I love the way we played Creighton right down to the wire. It was nerve-wracking, to be sure, but we played a good and previously ranked team in a hostile environment. Tonight's beat down was a real bummer and leaves me wondering...where do we go from here?
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I don’t disagree at all. This was more like ripping the band-aid off quickly in terms of frustration.

I think games like this can serve a purpose.
 
Not much to say, you don’t bring it as players you get your a$$ kicked. Blame Massiello all you want, players play or not and if you have to motivate BE players to play hard, you are beat before they throw the ball up. I agree with the mistake in keeping Alleyne on the bench with 2 fouls though. Yes, Wilcher was on the court when they cut the lead but extended minutes tend to expose inexperienced players. Luis, frankly, I am coming to the opinion he is just “fool’s gold” right now.
I have commented on Soriano for the last few weeks, I think the NBA ”talk” from Pitino has backfired. The NBA has no place for low post players and Soriano playing away from the basket on both ends of the court has exposed him at the college level and pretty much rendered him a non-factor. In general, I hate the preponderance of focus on the “next level“ all over college basketball. If a player is good enough to make the NBA, they will make it; college should not be a “minor league” and players should be focusing only on winning. It hurt us with Ponds, with Jakarr Sampson and who knows what other players. I root for the Johnnie’s, not for the NBA.
Anyway, on to Marquette, tough league and things are not looking up. Losing is one thing, getting consistently out hustled, jacking on offense and probably, number one, committing dumb and dumber fouls does not a good team make.
 
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What really bothers me is I was hoping Zuby got more PT than Soriano. Hoping the sickness going around is why he looked so bad. He should have DOMINATED. Plus, Zuby is getting better every day.

We just can’t catch a f’n break. We finally get team healthy & HOF coach gets covid. Plus, it seems he may have infected a few other team members. U can’t make this stuff up. That is why I am not getting crazy after this loss. To me it’s obvious that if we can get this entire team healthy by February we will be just fine IMO.

Fingers crossed.
 
Marillac2 said:
I don’t know if I would classify it that way. Richmond had 12 pts. Wusu had 16 and Dawes had 21.

It certainly wasn’t a good game for Alleyne. I’d agree to that.

I obviously knew Wusu would be a problem, but I didn’t realize Dawes was that good. And they are very well coached. Shaheen is a beast.
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Richmond didn’t abuse anyone. . .Got what he deserved when he was knocked to floor going for dunk in garbage time. . .He shot a low % and only takes shots in the paint. . .Even Wusu didn’t shoot a good % - but he did make a number of big 3s. . .Dawes killed us on the offensive end.

Other than that, it really was all about us not meeting their defensive intensity. . .that is their calling card (talent level is OK but not deep). . .

On our end, as others have pointed out, Joel is drifting away from the basket (even when he is down low). . .his great play this year has been largely attributable to his ability to create angles in the post. . .guys are leaning on him now (Bediako could have fouled out in the 1st half. . .continually pulling on Joel’s shirt) and he is getting doubled more. Seems like he isn’t creating the angles and has reverted to his past habit of shooting over his shoulder (like a guy with a stiff neck. . .LOL).

When things go south offensively, you need to contribute in other ways - rebounding and defense. In the past he would continue to rebound. . Lately he doesn’t appear to be fighting for boards. Dont mean to harp on Joel because he‘ll be back - but he either needs to hedge like the lower talent SH bigs were doing or he needs to stop switching. He is breaking down our defense repeatedly
 
I had written I'd be pleased with 1 and 2 this murderous stretch. Now I'd be ecstatic. We played great for 6 BE games out the box. Then we didn't. Mfp with his second clunker in a row. Dissapointing. Remains hot from 3, 10 for 21 48%, last 4 games. Never heard a scoreless streak chronicled by actual time before in any sport. That's new. Have my doubts that in 2024 a coach could be out with covid late Wednesday night then be on the bench Saturday at 12.
 
Short and simple they have to beat Marquette. This is not a 50 game season w wiggle room or “we peak in February” theories. Yes this is tough patch of season, but Dance teams recover from beatings and hold serve at home v quality opponents.
 
Not much more to be said. The reality is this is a team primarily of mid-major transfers and the results will therefore fluctuate, apparently quite wildly. Nice wins like X-Butler-Nova give delusions of sweet 16 grandeur, games like last night have us questioning whether the team will win another game. One game Luis is an NBA lottery pick, the next we have concerns the coaches are tired of him and he is an incredibly selfish player and can’t or won’t play defense. The best I can personally do is to try to keep an even, rational, intellectual approach and remember that this was supposed to be a transitional year and enjoy the high points. Easier said than done.

The most telling issue for me is the fouling. It is indicative of a fatal crack in the foundation of the team: that they are simply not quick enough to guard high end D1 guards and swing forwards, especially on the perimeter. Our defenders routinely lose 1v1 battles on the wing, and there is generally no weak side help rolling over in time. It leads to easy buckets, or even when the other team misses, our helping bigs are in reactionary mode as opposed to rebounding mode. Plus, we can’t shoot! Again, this is not rocket science; we have mid-major transfers playing against the 4 and 5 star NBA-aspiring cogs of top 25 programs like UConn and Creighton. I love Rick and I like where the program is going. I find this team enjoyable to root for and games like last night kill me. But we need better players.
 
If coach and dingle are sick, we can assume others probably are coming down with CoVid
With that said, I am a big fan of RP and I am confident he will figure out what is obvious to some of us. Just 5 quick thoughts.
We must play smarter to end the season on a high note.
- Cannot press if we keep fouling. One of the highest fouling team in the country. Lazy
- We cannot keep playing 10 players - players need to get in a rhythm. Players are losing confidence in their offensive game. ( Taylor/ Dingle )
- We need to play Dingle 30 minutes and see if he can put up 20 a game and let him play some point and let him drive to the hoop.
- give Zuby more time and try playing him with Soriano some ( he can get some of ledlum time )
-our guards need to penetrate and get to the line. They shoot no foul shots.
 
Agree Marquette game is key now. This is why those close losses are NOT moral victories. Losses lie that, when compounded by the one last night is what puts post season chances in peril. Gotta win the games you have a shot at, even if not favored, because games like last night happen. Have to steal a game here or there. We did win at Nova, but we had a few others that were within grasp. Last night wasn't one of them unfortunately.
 
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