(11-26-2019 09:20 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  Sounds depressing. What are we losing by? 10 or more?

You got that right! I listened on the radio and things sounded pretty good, never really in doubt, and nice statistical games from several players. Then several hours later I come and read all these posts and I could swear that we lost the game by double digits.

(11-26-2019 09:32 PM)EvanJ Wrote:  Tyler Hamilton became the 13th player and first CAA player from 2010-2011 to the present to have at least 4 assists, at least 3 fouls, at least 1 turnover, at least 1 blocked shot, 0 field goal attempts, and 0 free throw attempts.

You forgot to mention the most important parts of that stat: that all of it occurred on a Tuesday.....in November.....in a year ending in "9"..... for a rookie coach..... against a team from the OVC.....you get my drift.

(11-27-2019 12:15 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(11-26-2019 09:20 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  Sounds depressing. What are we losing by? 10 or more?

You got that right! I listened on the radio and things sounded pretty good, never really in doubt, and nice statistical games from several players. Then several hours later I come and read all these posts and I could swear that we lost the game by double digits.

We got up 41-22 in the first half, and from that point on were outscored. Jay on the postgame said that the game never really felt in doubt, but that it was mostly because we made runs to extend and then they'd make runs to chip away. We shot the ball really, really well, and that overwhelmed any other aspect of the game. We played very sloppily at times, but once the ball was in the air it went in more often than not.

Right now the team looks vulnerable to the dribble drive and it seems to be because after handing a driving guard off to a big, our guards don't know where to rotate. The team seems to be a little out of synch defensively. There were many missed defensive rotations that turned into open shots that Morehead State just missed. We generally rebounded well, and we played pretty good initial defense, but the little things just aren't quite there yet. Credit Morehead State for a lot of that, though. We won't see many guards as good all-around as their #12.

(11-27-2019 12:15 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(11-26-2019 09:32 PM)EvanJ Wrote:  Tyler Hamilton became the 13th player and first CAA player from 2010-2011 to the present to have at least 4 assists, at least 3 fouls, at least 1 turnover, at least 1 blocked shot, 0 field goal attempts, and 0 free throw attempts.

You forgot to mention the most important parts of that stat: that all of it occurred on a Tuesday.....in November.....in a year ending in "9"..... for a rookie coach..... against a team from the OVC.....you get my drift.

It sums up Hamilton's season to this point though. He's on the court for a lot of minutes, and does basically everything except shoot and score. He's got a very strange looking stat line on the season, but you wouldn't say he's invisible or playing poorly. He gets a reasonable amount of touches on offense, attacks the basket but doesn't ever take a shot. It also doesn't seem like he's avoiding shooting, but more that the natural flow of his play doesn't end up in him shooting. In watching him in person in 2 home games, I would have guessed that he had somewhere between 3-5 shots per game and a couple of points, but he has yet to score at home. I don't know if it comes across in all of this, but I don't really think it's necessarily a positive or a negative, just that it's kind of a unique thing.

Hamilton plays very good defense all the time when he's in there.

Good win for the guys last night. It appeared their concentration strayed at times, but they always bounced back at the right times. And Morehead's guards were good as others have pointed out...very athletic and smart.

We really enjoyed Nate's night...especially when he brought the ball down court as kind of a huge guard!

I wonder if the guards are instructed to just get back in transition when an outside shot goes up. Looking at the highlight reel from the game, rebounding long jumpers looks like the last thing on their minds. On some of the 3's, there wasn't a white jersey anywhere inside the 3pt line and guys backpedaling rather than crashing. I know we won the game and the rebounding stats, but it's the little things that could improve this team.

I know he isn’t perfect, but I am so impressed by and proud of Luke and how hard he has worked to improve, and the confidence he is playing with on the offensive end. It’s one of the most significant jumps I’ve seen between years and Coach referred to his strong work ethic outside of practice during his postgame interview on Flo.

Nate’s ballhandling certainly has improved as well.

Would love to see some better D rotations but hopefully that will come. Nice to get the win while still giving ourselves much to work on.

I’ll take 5-2. Congrats guys!


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(11-26-2019 09:32 PM)EvanJ Wrote:  Tyler Hamilton became the 13th player and first CAA player from 2010-2011 to the present to have at least 4 assists, at least 3 fouls, at least 1 turnover, at least 1 blocked shot, 0 field goal attempts, and 0 free throw attempts.

You have WAAAAAY too much free time, dude.

(Thanks for the info!)

(11-27-2019 05:21 AM)mrjoolius Wrote:  I wonder if the guards are instructed to just get back in transition when an outside shot goes up. Looking at the highlight reel from the game, rebounding long jumpers looks like the last thing on their minds. On some of the 3's, there wasn't a white jersey anywhere inside the 3pt line and guys backpedaling rather than crashing. I know we won the game and the rebounding stats, but it's the little things that could improve this team.

Dane said at the luncheon last month they want to defend the fast break so the two bigs crash the boards and the others drop back


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(11-27-2019 05:20 AM)bubbadog57 Wrote:  We really enjoyed Nate's night...especially when he brought the ball down court as kind of a huge guard!

I noticed how comfortable Andy and Nate are bringing the ball up the court. Not that they should be doing that routinely, but if/when they have to, they can handle it.

I also noticed they both shoot jumpers and free throws left-handed. Not sure how that's escaped me until now (I used to shoot left-handed...back in the day) but that only adds to the challenge for our opponents: 7' and 6'10" that shoot lefty. Who knew!

Just how well have we enjoyed shooting 3's at home so far? From our two home games combined:
Loewe 4-7 (57%)
Barnes 5-7 (71%)
Scott 4-6 (67%)
Van Vliet 4-6 (67%)
Knight 2-4 (50%)

A good win against a team with some talent. Biggest weakness in that performance was easily our defense of penetration and then team defense / rotation to help. It was pretty bad. But otherwise, the team played well, stayed composed every time Morehead went on a run, and stuck together. Lights out shooting, especially from our starters, was the difference in the game. Starters shot 66% from 3!

Good to see us perform well at the FT line - at least in the first 35 minutes. It fell off there at the end.

Ayesa has been a much better shooter on the road thus far, which is unusual. But he’ll get going at home too.

Loewe is making so many of us smile right now. Hard work and grit/determination pays off. What an amazing jump from last year. He is a completely different player. He gets the credit, but let’s also not overlook the coaching skill required to support and build confidence in someone like Luke.

Perhaps those of you who know X’s and O’s better can answer this question. Did the Morehead defense do something different in the 2nd half that allowed us to get the ball in the post to Nate and Andy, or did we actually just start prioritizing that? If it’s the former, then okay. But if the latter, why the heck don’t we do that for all 40 minutes? I don’t mind the bigs shooting 3’s if they’re open and the shot happens within the flow of the offense, but why wouldn’t at least one of them touch it in the post every single possession?


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(11-27-2019 08:36 AM)wmmii Wrote:  

(11-27-2019 05:21 AM)mrjoolius Wrote:  I wonder if the guards are instructed to just get back in transition when an outside shot goes up. Looking at the highlight reel from the game, rebounding long jumpers looks like the last thing on their minds. On some of the 3's, there wasn't a white jersey anywhere inside the 3pt line and guys backpedaling rather than crashing. I know we won the game and the rebounding stats, but it's the little things that could improve this team.

Dane said at the luncheon last month they want to defend the fast break so the two bigs crash the boards and the others drop back


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OK. Makes more sense if that is the strategy.

(11-27-2019 08:36 AM)wmmii Wrote:  

(11-27-2019 05:21 AM)mrjoolius Wrote:  I wonder if the guards are instructed to just get back in transition when an outside shot goes up. Looking at the highlight reel from the game, rebounding long jumpers looks like the last thing on their minds. On some of the 3's, there wasn't a white jersey anywhere inside the 3pt line and guys backpedaling rather than crashing. I know we won the game and the rebounding stats, but it's the little things that could improve this team.

Dane said at the luncheon last month they want to defend the fast break so the two bigs crash the boards and the others drop back

I noticed that pattern particularly at the Stanford game. Its relative importance is indicated by whether the Tribe wins or loses, I guess. Also, that pattern (as laid out by wmmii) doesn't work when it is the bigs themselves who are firing up the 3-pointers.

(11-27-2019 08:43 AM)ScottyB757 Wrote:  

(11-27-2019 05:20 AM)bubbadog57 Wrote:  We really enjoyed Nate's night...especially when he brought the ball down court as kind of a huge guard!

I noticed how comfortable Andy and Nate are bringing the ball up the court. Not that they should be doing that routinely, but if/when they have to, they can handle it.

I remember a game last year which we lost by a very close margin (and don't ask me for specifics because I don't recall which game it was) when Nate was bringing the ball up court. A quick guard stole the ball and went in for an easy layup --- and we wound up losing that game. In other words, I would prefer if Nate would let the guards do their job and bring the ball up. Sure, it is all about showing the NBA scouts his versatility (also the main reason Nate shoots so many treys) but I don't want that kind of stuff to cost the Tribe a game. (Nate does seem to have improved his 3-point shooting from last year. He seems to be taking about twice as many per game this year. That is just from my impressions; someone else can look it up if they are so motivated.)

(11-27-2019 08:53 AM)ColonelEbirt Wrote:  Loewe is making so many of us smile right now. Hard work and grit/determination pays off. What an amazing jump from last year. He is a completely different player. He gets the credit, but let’s also not overlook the coaching skill required to support and build confidence in someone like Luke.

Don't forget that we could also have lost him last spring in the transfer portal if any other team had been so inclined as to show interest. There might be one or two coaches kicking themselves right now .....

The othyer thing about Luke that we may forget about was how he missed much of his senior year due to the car wreck. He was a stud during his junior year and gave us a verbal commit early. Also, he seems to thrive as the second guard and struggled getting his own shot when he plays point. Getting Barnes may have actually solved two guard slots.

Give credit to Julian Boatner, as well. He is the one that has worked most with Loewe. Coach said, last night, that Luke had worn Boatner out, taking so many shots before and after practices and Julian was there for most of it. Also, we all remember how good a shooter Boatner was, so, definitely a good choice for a shooting instructor.

Speaking of Luke, there isn't a guard I feel more comfortable with bringing the ball up under pressure--even including Barnes. He is just under control and level headed. One might say he is Cool Hand Luke.

Wait...Morehead has one good player. They've beaten no one and lost by 18 vs good D1 competition. I still think Wofford offered the best litmus test.

Glad we're 5-2 and I think our team will only get better. Looking forward to league play.

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It is so important for our guards to establish themselves as legitimate scoring threats in our offense and make the teams in our conference have to guard them. I do not think that there is a team in our league that can guard Nate and Andy straight up without a lot of help and you have to make them pay when they attempt to deny our bigs the ball. I have to admit that I wondered where we would get our points from this year outside of Nate and maybe Andy. It is worth noting that at this point Thornton, Bryce, and Luke have all scored 20+ points in a game.

The transformation of Luke is simply amazing. He is aggressively looking for his shot and is taking the ball strong to the hole. And he is still working his butt off on defense. I am guessing that it must feel good to not have to glance over at the scorers table to see if your replacement is waiting to come in.

I love Quinn Blair's aggressive blue collar play. He truly looks like a football player who is a very good basketball player. He is another kid who looks like he has figured out how to let the game come to him. I also like the fact that Dane is giving him some opportunities to play the small forward position with both Nate and Andy in the game.

There is certainly no "deer in the headlights" look on the faces of Ayesa and Rainers when they are on the floor. Both have the look of tough international players. And I like that Ayesa is not shy about shooting the ball. His shots will begin to fall.

One additional comment about our apparent decision to not send many players to the offensive boards. There was a moment in the first half when Nate was at the foul line for a one and one and Quinn was our guy to Nate's right on the free throw line. I swear that when Nate's first shot left his hand I saw Quinn leave his spot and start racing to the other end of the court and then quickly return when the first shot went in. Maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me.

(11-27-2019 09:52 AM)WMTRIBE75 Wrote:  There was a moment in the first half when Nate was at the foul line for a one and one and Quinn was our guy to Nate's right on the free throw line. I swear that when Nate's first shot left his hand I saw Quinn leave his spot and start racing to the other end of the court and then quickly return when the first shot went in. Maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me.

I think it was just a Quinn brain fart thinking it was the 2nd shot. I remember that play and seeing the guys, including Nate, chuckling about it.

I don't know if everyone read through the Game Notes or not, so I am going to leave this little blurb here to commemorate Nate's 100th game in a Tribe uniform.

Senior Nathan Knight played in his 100th career game against Morehead State. He became the ninth player in school history to score 1,600 points (So, even non-math majors, like myself, can figure out he is averaging 16 ppg for his career...)... He tallied his fifth double-double of the season and 27th of his career.


Congrats, Nate.