You can blame this loss on our poor three-point shooting in the second half, but I would pin the loss on Cullop. Cullop has certain principles that she sticks with too stubbornly, like never playing a player with two fouls in the first half, never playing a player with three fouls in the third quarter, and (most relevant here) never playing a player with four fouls until the last few minutes of the game. I completely agree with kazoo that you put Lockett on Bambule and trust that she won't pick up her fourth foul.

Also, I have not seen any other team choose not to help out on Hooks at all under any circumstances, as Toledo did tonight. You've got to mix things up defensively a little bit. Otherwise, it is inevitable that the Rockets will face foul trouble guarding Hooks and Johnson on the drive all night with absolutely no help. Hooks is too good. You can't allow her to have unlimited time to maneuver against a solo defender.

(01-27-2022 01:33 AM)Lester Wrote:  You can blame this loss on our poor three-point shooting in the second half, but I would pin the loss on Cullop. Cullop has certain principles that she sticks with too stubbornly, like never playing a player with two fouls in the first half, never playing a player with three fouls in the third quarter, and (most relevant here) never playing a player with four fouls until the last few minutes of the game. I completely agree with kazoo that you put Lockett on Bambule and trust that she won't pick up her fourth foul.

Also, I have not seen any other team choose not to help out on Hooks at all under any circumstances, as Toledo did tonight. You've got to mix things up defensively a little bit. Otherwise, it is inevitable that the Rockets will face foul trouble guarding Hooks and Johnson on the drive all night with absolutely no help. Hooks is too good. You can't allow her to have unlimited time to maneuver against a solo defender.

Yeah, except Ohio has come from behind a number of times beating teams who doubled Hooks and then got burned on threes from the corner by Bambule or Burris. Heck, that just happened this week against Buffalo. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Cullop's philosophy has always been better to give up 2s rather than threes, against teams like CMU or Ohio. That has worked really well against CMU in recent years, but not Ohio so much.

The UT D was working pretty well until Goss picked up her 4th, as she was containing Hooks at least as well as any other MAC player I have seen. But once she couldn't guard her close, things kinda fell apart. Still, make 2 or 3 of the wide open threes UT had and they likely still win.

Disappointing loss for sure. BG is going to be an equally, if not more so, difficult out on Saturday. TBH, OU and BG were the two teams I was most worried about UT playing. Well, a loss had to happen at some point. Too bad it was at home, but hopefully they learn and get better. Hopefully also they can work Garcia into the lineup here and there the rest of the year.

(01-27-2022 08:16 AM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  

(01-27-2022 01:33 AM)Lester Wrote:  You can blame this loss on our poor three-point shooting in the second half, but I would pin the loss on Cullop. Cullop has certain principles that she sticks with too stubbornly, like never playing a player with two fouls in the first half, never playing a player with three fouls in the third quarter, and (most relevant here) never playing a player with four fouls until the last few minutes of the game. I completely agree with kazoo that you put Lockett on Bambule and trust that she won't pick up her fourth foul.

Also, I have not seen any other team choose not to help out on Hooks at all under any circumstances, as Toledo did tonight. You've got to mix things up defensively a little bit. Otherwise, it is inevitable that the Rockets will face foul trouble guarding Hooks and Johnson on the drive all night with absolutely no help. Hooks is too good. You can't allow her to have unlimited time to maneuver against a solo defender.

Yeah, except Ohio has come from behind a number of times beating teams who doubled Hooks and then got burned on threes from the corner by Bambule or Burris. Heck, that just happened this week against Buffalo. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Cullop's philosophy has always been better to give up 2s rather than threes, against teams like CMU or Ohio. That has worked really well against CMU in recent years, but not Ohio so much.

The UT D was working pretty well until Goss picked up her 4th, as she was containing Hooks at least as well as any other MAC player I have seen. But once she couldn't guard her close, things kinda fell apart. Still, make 2 or 3 of the wide open threes UT had and they likely still win.

Disappointing loss for sure. BG is going to be an equally, if not more so, difficult out on Saturday. TBH, OU and BG were the two teams I was most worried about UT playing. Well, a loss had to happen at some point. Too bad it was at home, but hopefully they learn and get better. Hopefully also they can work Garcia into the lineup here and there the rest of the year.

I don't disagree with your points, northcoast. It's just that Cullop is rigid. Sometimes I wish she would be flexible to deal with an unusual situation. How about a zone defense? That way, Cook isn't forced to guard on the perimeter, and Noveroske can play without being a defensive liability. Then, when Hooks drives to the basket, she has to get a shot up over a 6'5" center. I take your point that Ohio is a good team and tough to beat, but I think we're better.

(01-27-2022 08:24 AM)Lester Wrote:  

(01-27-2022 08:16 AM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  

(01-27-2022 01:33 AM)Lester Wrote:  You can blame this loss on our poor three-point shooting in the second half, but I would pin the loss on Cullop. Cullop has certain principles that she sticks with too stubbornly, like never playing a player with two fouls in the first half, never playing a player with three fouls in the third quarter, and (most relevant here) never playing a player with four fouls until the last few minutes of the game. I completely agree with kazoo that you put Lockett on Bambule and trust that she won't pick up her fourth foul.

Also, I have not seen any other team choose not to help out on Hooks at all under any circumstances, as Toledo did tonight. You've got to mix things up defensively a little bit. Otherwise, it is inevitable that the Rockets will face foul trouble guarding Hooks and Johnson on the drive all night with absolutely no help. Hooks is too good. You can't allow her to have unlimited time to maneuver against a solo defender.

Yeah, except Ohio has come from behind a number of times beating teams who doubled Hooks and then got burned on threes from the corner by Bambule or Burris. Heck, that just happened this week against Buffalo. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Cullop's philosophy has always been better to give up 2s rather than threes, against teams like CMU or Ohio. That has worked really well against CMU in recent years, but not Ohio so much.

The UT D was working pretty well until Goss picked up her 4th, as she was containing Hooks at least as well as any other MAC player I have seen. But once she couldn't guard her close, things kinda fell apart. Still, make 2 or 3 of the wide open threes UT had and they likely still win.

Disappointing loss for sure. BG is going to be an equally, if not more so, difficult out on Saturday. TBH, OU and BG were the two teams I was most worried about UT playing. Well, a loss had to happen at some point. Too bad it was at home, but hopefully they learn and get better. Hopefully also they can work Garcia into the lineup here and there the rest of the year.

I don't disagree with your points, northcoast. It's just that Cullop is rigid. Sometimes I wish she would be flexible to deal with an unusual situation. How about a zone defense? That way, Cook isn't forced to guard on the perimeter, and Noveroske can play without being a defensive liability. Then, when Hooks drives to the basket, she has to get a shot up over a 6'5" center. I take your point that Ohio is a good team and tough to beat, but I think we're better.

We were the better team for 34 minutes of the game. Then we voluntarily removed our best player from the game when we didn't need to do so.

There are people on this board who have better ideas about playing the last few minutes of the OU game than the coaching staff. Cullop's post-game comments told me she didn't know how to use her players in that situation.

(01-27-2022 11:07 AM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  There are people on this board who have better ideas about playing the last few minutes of the OU game than the coaching staff. Cullop's post-game comments told me she didn't know how to use her players in that situation.

I think Cullop is a fine coach and an outstanding person and we are fortunate to have her. We all make mistakes and clearly in my mind she contributed to the collapse with removing Q with only 6 minutes remaining, close game against excellent opponent, and 3 fouls.

Lol. How many teams beat top 100 squads shooting that poorly? We have shot awful plenty of times and still pulled out wins. It was bound to happen eventually. You cant coach a player to make a wide open 3. If we make 3 more shots we win the game. End of story. 5th year MAC history leader in scoring had 30 against us again... Oh well IMO.

(01-27-2022 07:04 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Lol. How many teams beat top 100 squads shooting that poorly? We have shot awful plenty of times and still pulled out wins. It was bound to happen eventually. You cant coach a player to make a wide open 3. If we make 3 more shots we win the game. End of story. 5th year MAC history leader in scoring had 30 against us again... Oh well IMO.

Nobody criticized Cullop for the missed threes. We are generally a good defensive team. Against Ohio, we weren't. We scored plenty of points to win.

(01-28-2022 07:38 AM)Lester Wrote:  

(01-27-2022 07:04 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Lol. How many teams beat top 100 squads shooting that poorly? We have shot awful plenty of times and still pulled out wins. It was bound to happen eventually. You cant coach a player to make a wide open 3. If we make 3 more shots we win the game. End of story. 5th year MAC history leader in scoring had 30 against us again... Oh well IMO.

Nobody criticized Cullop for the missed threes. We are generally a good defensive team. Against Ohio, we weren't. We scored plenty of points to win.

Not in that pace of game. We lost because we missed open shots... 2 points in final 5 mins. Thats it. Nothing else. We were on pace for 83 points. scored 72.

(01-28-2022 02:45 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 07:38 AM)Lester Wrote:  

(01-27-2022 07:04 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Lol. How many teams beat top 100 squads shooting that poorly? We have shot awful plenty of times and still pulled out wins. It was bound to happen eventually. You cant coach a player to make a wide open 3. If we make 3 more shots we win the game. End of story. 5th year MAC history leader in scoring had 30 against us again... Oh well IMO.

Nobody criticized Cullop for the missed threes. We are generally a good defensive team. Against Ohio, we weren't. We scored plenty of points to win.

Not in that pace of game. We lost because we missed open shots... 2 points in final 5 mins. Thats it. Nothing else. We were on pace for 83 points. scored 72.

That's just wrong. The pace of the game was very slow. Ohio walked the ball up the court all night. 72 should have been plenty. Ohio scored 28 in the 4th. We couldn't get a stop.

(01-28-2022 03:44 PM)Lester Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 02:45 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 07:38 AM)Lester Wrote:  

(01-27-2022 07:04 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Lol. How many teams beat top 100 squads shooting that poorly? We have shot awful plenty of times and still pulled out wins. It was bound to happen eventually. You cant coach a player to make a wide open 3. If we make 3 more shots we win the game. End of story. 5th year MAC history leader in scoring had 30 against us again... Oh well IMO.

Nobody criticized Cullop for the missed threes. We are generally a good defensive team. Against Ohio, we weren't. We scored plenty of points to win.

Not in that pace of game. We lost because we missed open shots... 2 points in final 5 mins. Thats it. Nothing else. We were on pace for 83 points. scored 72.

That's just wrong. The pace of the game was very slow. Ohio walked the ball up the court all night. 72 should have been plenty. Ohio scored 28 in the 4th. We couldn't get a stop.

Both are true. The first quarter was high scoring too. Against the best scorer in recent MAC history... we knew Ohio could score on us. On anybody. They had more Monday vs. UB. The fact was, we were up 4 with 5 mins left and scored 2 more points lol. They scored 13. Couple with their 15 in the first half of that qtr....

(01-27-2022 11:07 AM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  There are people on this board who have better ideas about playing the last few minutes of the OU game than the coaching staff. Cullop's post-game comments told me she didn't know how to use her players in that situation.

After all these years running one of the better programs in the MAC you would think TC would have a better grasp on certain situations which would enable her to come out on top like the OU game... If you are adamant about not changing your coaching philosophy to adapt to a game that is starting to get away from you, well, what can you say or do !!