This team defies predictions, comments, and even discussion.

A superb win on a tough road court, coming from eight behind with 6:19 left in the game. As Tony noted on the radio after the game, all five guys made big plays in those final minutes.

After all the doomsday talk, and it was earned, the team played tough defense..really put the hammer down in those final six minutes and, in fact, much of the game.

Burchfield weighs perhaps 170 pounds on his thin 6-5 frame (and that's fully dressed with an overcoat on!). All he does is lead with eight rebounds, several in crunch time, while scoring 19 points and making a great defensive play.

Quite a bounceback last night.

(01-21-2018 12:20 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(01-20-2018 08:50 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Zorch won't like this: Elon killed us in free throws and, we won.

Indeed, we got lucky in that area -- we can't expect such gifts on a regular basis. We were only 8-15 (a killer for our NCAA-leading percentage). Fortunately, Elon was also only 13-19. What concerns me the most is that Nathan's FT shooting has gone way down in the last 4-5 games. Whatever he was doing great before, he needs to get back to doing it. Also, Cohn was only 1-3 including missing one of two technical foul free throws. As said, we got away with one here.

I actually only watched about 13 game minutes of the first half because I had to use a ticket to the Richmond Forum to hear W&M Alumna Glenn Close. She was okay but, as things turned out, I think I would have enjoyed the Tribe win more. The take-aways from reading the play-by-play:

1. Burchfield had a great game. Apparently it was relatively close to home for him and he probably had family at the game. Hey, whatever it takes. Maybe we should bus various family members to all the home and away games so that there are always one or two guys playing before family. :o)

2. Rowley also apparently had a great game!

3. Knight has simply GOT TO STOP with the stupid fouls (especially technicals). We need him on the court!

Knight has been stellar at the free throw line. In the five games prior to last night he was 32 - 38 (84.2%). This was a one game slump, and he made 3 of his last 4.

(01-21-2018 07:38 AM)BigTribe3 Wrote:  This team defies predictions, comments, and even discussion.

A superb win on a tough road court, coming from eight behind with 6:19 left in the game. As Tony noted on the radio after the game, all five guys made big plays in those final minutes.

After all the doomsday talk, and it was earned, the team played tough defense..really put the hammer down in those final six minutes and, in fact, much of the game.

Burchfield weighs perhaps 170 pounds on his thin 6-5 frame (and that's fully dressed with an overcoat on!). All he does is lead with eight rebounds, several in crunch time, while scoring 19 points and making a great defensive play.

Quite a bounceback last night.

To Paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill:

I cannot forecast to you the action of William & Mary men's hoops. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. The key is the amount of doubt that others place upon them giving them cause to rise to the occasion.

OK.
I sincerely doubt that this team can go into Towson and win. They are far superior athletically and skillfully, and we will be lucky to keep it in single digits.

Let's see if that works.

(01-21-2018 12:20 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(01-20-2018 08:50 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Zorch won't like this: Elon killed us in free throws and, we won.

Indeed, we got lucky in that area -- we can't expect such gifts on a regular basis. We were only 8-15 (a killer for our NCAA-leading percentage). Fortunately, Elon was also only 13-19. What concerns me the most is that Nathan's FT shooting has gone way down in the last 4-5 games. Whatever he was doing great before, he needs to get back to doing it. Also, Cohn was only 1-3 including missing one of two technical foul free throws. As said, we got away with one here.

I actually only watched about 13 game minutes of the first half because I had to use a ticket to the Richmond Forum to hear W&M Alumna Glenn Close. She was okay but, as things turned out, I think I would have enjoyed the Tribe win more. The take-aways from reading the play-by-play:

1. Burchfield had a great game. Apparently it was relatively close to home for him and he probably had family at the game. Hey, whatever it takes. Maybe we should bus various family members to all the home and away games so that there are always one or two guys playing before family. :o)

2. Rowley also apparently had a great game!

3. Knight has simply GOT TO STOP with the stupid fouls (especially technicals). We need him on the court!

I wouldn't credit home cooking for Connor's performance last night. High Point is closer to Concord than Elon is, and we know how that turned out.

Happy to get to see a victory in person. Yikes it has been a long time since I saw the Tribe win a game in football or hoops. Last win had been against Elon in the CAA tourney last March.

Officiating was rough both ways. I sat behind the Tribe basket in the first half and Elon basket in the second half. Lots of non calls underneath. From my vantage point I couldn't see the fouls on screens or the technical fouls. I am not saying that they weren't fouls, I just didn't have a good view.

Go Tribe!

(01-21-2018 09:45 AM)NC Tribe Wrote:  I wouldn't credit home cooking for Connor's performance last night. High Point is closer to Concord than Elon is, and we know how that turned out.

Happy to get to see a victory in person. Yikes it has been a long time since I saw the Tribe win a game in football or hoops. Last win had been against Elon in the CAA tourney last March.

Officiating was rough both ways. I sat behind the Tribe basket in the first half and Elon basket in the second half. Lots of non calls underneath. From my vantage point I couldn't see the fouls on screens or the technical fouls. I am not saying that they weren't fouls, I just didn't have a good view.

Go Tribe!

In general, most players (our team and other teams) set illegal screens, especially if there's a roll. Cole Harrison went the month of November before setting a legal screen, whether it was called or not.

Good screens are a very important part of our offense, though, and setting lazy screens was a big part of our struggles vs. Towson and Northeastern. When we're just going through the motions of the offense, players are drifting through setting screens and not helping separation for even that split second to get a shot off. Good screens lead to open looks, half-"baked" screens lead to low percentages.

(01-21-2018 08:21 AM)Tribe4SF Wrote:  

(01-21-2018 12:20 AM)Zorch Wrote:  What concerns me the most is that Nathan's FT shooting has gone way down in the last 4-5 games.

Knight has been stellar at the free throw line. In the five games prior to last night he was 32 - 38 (84.2%). This was a one game slump, and he made 3 of his last 4.

Knight has NOT been stellar at the free throw line. Take out the second JMU game where Knight went 12-12 and add in Elon where he went 3-8 and that makes him only 23-34 (a pedestrian 67.6%) in 5 of the last 6 games. In other words, the 12-12 game was just as much of an outlier lately as was the 3-8 game.

Of concern is that in the last 3 games Knight's FT % has been markedly lower than the team's FT % in those same games (10-13 76.9% v 10-11 90.9% Towson; 3-4 75% v 12-14 85.7% NE; 3-8 37.5% v 5-7 71.4% Elon).

So it looks to me, and the data seems to bear it out, that Nathan seems to be struggling at the line lately (certainly when compared to how well -- and how often -- he was shooting earlier in the year). We know all about how tired legs cause FT %s to go down late in the year -- but since we know about it we can take precautionary measures. (More rest but, more importantly IMO, more FT practice).

(01-21-2018 11:37 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(01-21-2018 08:21 AM)Tribe4SF Wrote:  

(01-21-2018 12:20 AM)Zorch Wrote:  What concerns me the most is that Nathan's FT shooting has gone way down in the last 4-5 games.

Knight has been stellar at the free throw line. In the five games prior to last night he was 32 - 38 (84.2%). This was a one game slump, and he made 3 of his last 4.

Knight has NOT been stellar at the free throw line. Take out the second JMU game where Knight went 12-12 and add in Elon where he went 3-8 and that makes him only 23-34 (a pedestrian 67.6%) in 5 of the last 6 games. In other words, the 12-12 game was just as much of an outlier lately as was the 3-8 game.

Of concern is that in the last 3 games Knight's FT % has been markedly lower than the team's FT % in those same games (10-13 76.9% v 10-11 90.9% Towson; 3-4 75% v 12-14 85.7% NE; 3-8 37.5% v 5-7 71.4% Elon).

So it looks to me, and the data seems to bear it out, that Nathan seems to be struggling at the line lately (certainly when compared to how well -- and how often -- he was shooting earlier in the year). We know all about how tired legs cause FT %s to go down late in the year -- but since we know about it we can take precautionary measures. (More rest but, more importantly IMO, more FT practice).

67% isn't pedestrian, especial for a big man. And, you can't support your incorrect point by removing a great performance and cherry picking games that support your stance.

If we shot 67% vs UD in the CAAT, we'd have walked into the NCAAT.

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(01-21-2018 11:50 AM)Tribal Wrote:  

(01-21-2018 11:37 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(01-21-2018 08:21 AM)Tribe4SF Wrote:  

(01-21-2018 12:20 AM)Zorch Wrote:  What concerns me the most is that Nathan's FT shooting has gone way down in the last 4-5 games.

Knight has been stellar at the free throw line. In the five games prior to last night he was 32 - 38 (84.2%). This was a one game slump, and he made 3 of his last 4.

Knight has NOT been stellar at the free throw line. Take out the second JMU game where Knight went 12-12 and add in Elon where he went 3-8 and that makes him only 23-34 (a pedestrian 67.6%) in 5 of the last 6 games. In other words, the 12-12 game was just as much of an outlier lately as was the 3-8 game.

Of concern is that in the last 3 games Knight's FT % has been markedly lower than the team's FT % in those same games (10-13 76.9% v 10-11 90.9% Towson; 3-4 75% v 12-14 85.7% NE; 3-8 37.5% v 5-7 71.4% Elon).

So it looks to me, and the data seems to bear it out, that Nathan seems to be struggling at the line lately (certainly when compared to how well -- and how often -- he was shooting earlier in the year). We know all about how tired legs cause FT %s to go down late in the year -- but since we know about it we can take precautionary measures. (More rest but, more importantly IMO, more FT practice).

67% isn't pedestrian, especial for a big man. And, you can't support your incorrect point by removing a great performance and cherry picking games that support your stance.

If we shot 67% vs UD in the CAAT, we'd have walked into the NCAAT.

67% IS pedestrian. There is no reason why any team cannot shoot at least 80% (as we are doing now).

I never bought into that argument that big men can't shoot free throws. That dates back to Wilt Chamberlain who apparently had better things to do than practice free throws (20,000 better things).

I did not cherry pick games. My original point said that Knight's FT shooting had gone down in the last 4-5 games. It was Tribe4SF who then proceeded to throw out the Elon game (the very game under discussion and which certainly contributed to my point that Knight had taken a downturn). So I countered his point by saying that the one 12-12 game was an outlier and that all five of the remaining games that totaled the six most recent games showed that Knight was shooting only 67%. No matter what percentage we think a big man should shoot, I don't think anybody would call 67% as "stellar". (Even counting the 12-12, Knight is shooting 35-46 76% which we all acknowledge as "good" but still does not qualify as "stellar"). (12-12 is stellar).

Concerning the CAAT game against UD, well, you have proven my point about how important FT shooting is.

No complaints from me. Last night was a very big win. We lost there last season. Elon has basically the same team that we battled last season in the CAA tournament. So, a win was significant. I also agree with Tribal that our defensive effort is hard to figure out. The team played D last night in the final 7 minutes.

Finally, i have watched aa many other games as ours this season. Northeastern was very beatable yesterday and got blown out by Charleston earlier in the season. Towson has 4 losses for a reason. Right now, there are at least 6 teams (maybe 7) that could win in Charleston. But all of them could also lose in Round 1. None of the teams measure up yet to last year's UNCW or Charleston team. But, maybe one will in 6 weeks.

I think the most feared team in the CAA by opposing coaches is the Tribe. We are the only team that has the ability to score at will from 3 with a big inside presence. I think it is the opposing players who take us for granted. I expect a very different game against Towson and Northeastern the second time around.

We are a great FT shooting team and Nathan is a big part of that accomplishment.

Know who isn't? Duke, Wisconsin, Miami, and Michigan. Pretty solid teams and none rank better than top 200 in FT %.

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This was a great TEAM effort! the TEAM got back to the basics playing TEAM O and good D plus bounced back when down 8 with under 7 minutes to play. To the debate about Knight shooting FT you can cherry pick your argument anyway on both sides. Drop out the best and worst game and he is 77% n the other 4 games-all of us have a good and bad day-move on.

The fact is that he has improved hugely in this area and for a big man is stellar! Thank you lucky stars we have him!!

This TEAM can be special and Towson is beatable-look at how they crumbled at UNCW last night-talk about bad FT shooting -that cost them the game.

(01-21-2018 01:35 PM)Tribe32 Wrote:  I think the most feared team in the CAA by opposing coaches is the Tribe. We are the only team that has the ability to score at will from 3 with a big inside presence. I think it is the opposing players who take us for granted. I expect a very different game against Towson and Northeastern the second time around.

Agree. NU and Towson are the only two conference games (2 of 8) where the opponent shot over 50%. As we know, both shot astronomically higher than that, 65-70%.

I don't see either repeating that and we should be relaxed, nothing to lose on those road games. We will be a decided underdog in both. Play loose.

(01-21-2018 01:50 PM)Tribal Wrote:  We are a great FT shooting team and Nathan is a big part of that accomplishment. << Agreed. I just want to make sure that we stay that way. >>

Know who isn't? Duke, Wisconsin, Miami, and Michigan. Pretty solid teams and none rank better than top 200 in FT %. << That tells me not to bet any serious money on any of those teams to win the NCAAT. >>

We are really complaining about our big man (who shot 59% from the line last season) shooting 70-80% over a five game stretch? (And that's WITHOUT including the game where he made 12 of 12 free throws and we lose if he misses a single one of them)

I don't understand this fan base some times...

To be fair, our fan base isn't complaining. One poster is complaining.

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I just hope Saturday's game was an outlier and not a regression to the mean

(01-20-2018 07:49 PM)WMtribe17 Wrote:  

(01-20-2018 07:46 PM)tribelifer Wrote:  They even had a time out before the play and still didn't start till there was 8 seconds to go.

And then when the 8 second mark hits, Cohn passes it to Rowley...

I don't mind starting it at 8 seconds, but it needs to be a drive or a drive and kick, not aimlessly passing it around the 3 point line until a prayer of a 3 is taken

I saw this during the game and wanted to respond once I had time and the video was online. I liked what the coaching staff drew up for the end of the half. It was a counter to one of our normal actions designed to get a good 3 point shooter, Rowley, an open look, which it did. Paul caught it further behind the 3 point line than he should have and leaned to the right after shooting it which made it look more rushed than it actually was, but it was actually an intelligently designed play, not aimlessly passing it around the 3 point line.

Here's the video link for the game: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wandm...ype=video.

Fast forward to the 18:50 mark. Elon scores their first basket, and then we enter our offense by hitting Nathan at top of key, guards and wings exchange, ball reversal and then to the wing, with Nathan setting a back screen for the reversal man and then a down screen for the other guard. Elon has this scouted and you can see Nathan's man sagging into the middle of the lane to cover Connor on the back screen. The Tribe Staff pays attention to how Elon is covering this motion.

Fast forward to the 55:15 mark for the last possession. David hits Paul at top of key, guards and wings exchange, Matt reverses to Connor who hits Oliver, and then instead of the back screen and down screen by Paul which Elon is expecting, Matt and Connor set a down screen for Paul. Connor in particular does a good job of hitting Paul's man, and Paul has an open 3 from straight away. The play was probably designed for him to take the 3 from 22 feet instead of 24. Posters are complaining that David doesn't start the play until the 8 second mark, but the entire motion only took 5 seconds to complete. Paul shoots with 3 seconds on the clock, which allows the opportunity for a tip-in offensively, but definitely does not allow for Elon to get a shot on the other end.

I was frustrated up until this game with our end of half possessions as well, because they usually featured David coming flying off a ball screen out of control. But in this case, a well-designed play to get a good 3 point shooter a shot that he happened to miss.