(01-06-2018 08:20 AM)82hawk Wrote:  Bill, I get your point so let's take it to the logical conclusion. Who do you start? Sure, the walk on PG is quick...he's 5'6" and weighs 150 lbs. Who does he replace? Talley, Taylor, Fornes? And how does that look for 25 minutes per game instead of 5?

Ok, how about Powell? Does he start? If so, who does he replace?

Ok. So, now we start Brown and Powell because they play tough defense. Can they score? Naw, they can't. We all know that which is why they are walk ons and not scholarship players. But hey, let's continue on.

So. Brown, Taylor, Powell, Cacok all start. What about Bryan? Does he start? He can't defend a 2x4 and he can't score. Estime? Who cares. We'll let Bryan and Estime rotate. Or does Gary start?

Brown, Taylor, Powell, Cacok and Bryan start. I see maybe 59 ppg. capability on the table IF Cacok can average 18 ppg. and Taylor can average 18 ppg. We can sub in Talley and Fornes to spark the offense and maybe not get blown out by 25 in every CAA game.

I like it.

OR....OR....OR...We can play more zone and maybe extend some full court press with players who know how to press and have been successful with the press. Of course, that would require some coaching responsibility instead of chastising and blaming the players.

And, I didn't see the presser yet, but did I hear correctly we were trying to avoid injury"? What, did he not care about Cacok getting injured, because he played the whole game. BS. We quit on that game with almost 7 minutes left. We pulled our starters and called it a day. We also made and continue to make a HUGE mistake when both Gary and Estime are in the game together, which is where their run happened and the lead ballooned to 20.

This was a 2 point game at 32-34 in the first half with 5:07 left in the half. At that point, everyone was contributing on offense. The last 5 minutes of the first half we scored three points on a Taylor jumper and Cacok hit a FT. Meanwhile, Towson hit a three, three jumpers and two FT's to extend the lead to 10.

Second half we came out and chipped away at the lead, getting as close as 5 points at the 17:09 mark. At 15:05 Talley hit a jumper and we were down 6. Then Talley and Fornes were subbed out and Gary and Estime came in. Can we not run our starters for more than 5 minute stretches in the middle of a comeback run?

At 11:00 minutes, just 4 minutes after the substitutions, we were down 15. A nine point swing and the game was essentially over. We never got any closer.

I'm sick of the excuses...or hats off to the other teams for having great nights. Everybody shoots over 50% against us. Everybody is a great 3 point shooting team against us. Everybody can drive to the basket against us. WE CANNOT DEFEND WELL PLAYING MAN. It's really that simple. PLAY MORE ZONE...OR PRESS. And, we cannot put Estime and Gary in while we take Talley and Fornes out at the same time. We lose too much scoring and upper class leadership on the court. Talley can play more minutes and so can Fornes. When we have Gary, Estime, Taylor, Bryan and Cacok on the court together, we only have two legitimate scoring threats in Taylor and Cacok. As a result, we try to force the ball to Cacok in the post and commit TO's.

We do not have a deep bench. Agreed. So our starters are going to have to play more minutes. It sucks, but its' the only way we win games. Last year Bryce(34.3), Flemmings(34.7) and Ingram(33.5) all averaged at least 33 minutes per game...AND WE PRESSED. This year, nobody averages over 28 minutes per game...why?
Talley(28.0), Cacok(27.9), Taylor(26.8) and Fornes(25.5) play the most. Cacok and Talley sit because of fouls a lot. Is that the reason? If it is, gee, what could we possibly do to limit fouls and allow our best players to be on the court 5-6 minutes more per game? Bueller, anyone? Did he say ZONE?

This isn't rocket science, and the game of basketball isn't a new one. There are solutions to problems that have been around for decades. Our solution is staring us in the face. PLAY MORE ZONE...a lot more. As a result you can keep your best players on the court five minutes more per game and stop the drives and fouls that limit PT for your best players. Ta da!

That was a fun exercise, and feel free to tell me what is wrong here. But, I expect nothing will change. We will continue to play mostly man, play our best players less than we did last year when we pressed, allow ourselves to be driven on and scored on at will, AND LOSE. Fun times. I can't wait until the CAA tournament.

Aaaand there's the meltdown.

The answers here are pretty simple. We don't have a lot of talent. We lost 4/5 starters, an entire recruiting class, that forward we lost to K-State, and had a brand new coaching staff.

It's tough to make lemonade out of oranges. I suggest you re-calibrate your expectations a bit. Your posts aren't very fun to read these days.