TuTigers2012

2 hours ago, Tgr4life said:

You are correct that I was not in the huddle. History is my teacher. In nine years there has not been one moment that Towson has won a significant close game. The only one that even comes close is the W & M game that Mike Morsell made a shot late. You would hope for more than that in nine years. 

Giving the devil his due, Skerry has brought a tough style of basketball to Towson. He has raised the program from the rankings in the 330's, but good coaches......coaches that get extensions....win the close games through their coaching. He just in nine years has not won a significant game. You are right about being all over the coah. It is because in nine years, with extensions for many more, he in reality, has won nothing! Nice guy, but being a nice guy should not get you extensions, any more than beating Rio Grande should.

Mike was also out of bounds on that play (SHHHHH) 

But I went back to 12/13 season and looked at the records of the team in 6 point or less games and OT ones. I was surprised with the results: 

13/14- 12-6

14/15- 9-2

15/16- 6-8

16/17 9-8

17/18 7-10

18/19 4-11

19/20 0-2

53-60 overall

I thought we would have been worse overall. Yes, a lot of the wins came with Bennimon and Company, but was expected it to be like 25%

2 hours ago, tualum said:

Uh huh, we'll see... lol

I'm not a rah rah rah Skerry and hoops person on here like most.  I've bought into the hype on players before and not on others, but Pat rarely plays freshmen to start the season. And when he does its for little spurts here and there, TJ, JD, Mike, Zane, Gorham, etc.  He is putting Gibson and Charles out there, which is good.

6 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

Damn double posts.  So I’ll go ahead and answer my own 2 questions - no, you weren’t and no, they didn’t.  So how’d you know what he told them?  Ya think just maybe that whatever was set up may have broken down because <gasp> the other team may have defended it pretty well?  Would you rather something be forced and we turned it over?  I’m sure had that happened, you’d have been all over that too as the coach’s fault. 

Chris (I'm not attempting to pick a fight and piss you or anyone else off), we get it, you like Rob and Pat and think they should be here for as long as they want to be, going off of 1 good, 3 mediocre and then 1 to 2 bad seasons. That's fine and your opinion, and one that is shared by others on here.  The other group feels that after years and years, it comes time when they really need to win something meaningful, especially when unwarranted long term extensions are being handed out freely. Anyone can disagree and argue with me about the extension given to Pat when they started 10-1, but they would be wrong. There was absolutely no need for it at that time. Plain and simple. 

The comment you made before about people who bash the coaches and programs are the ones who do not know anything about them, is comical. Some on here, attend all home games, watch the team on the road, former members of the program and former players.  Your point about the two sides is valid. No one here is that dumb to think whatever play is called will result in a wide open easy shot, with the defense lying down.  But we have seen it over and over and over and over again. Late game situations out of time outs, almost always result in a bad shot or turnover. We all know Pat, some more than others, and the kind of guy he is. Hard nose, his way or the highway kind of coach, who typically pulls players after a mistake.  With that being said I feel, and can see that, players late in games, don't deviate off of what was told to them in the TO. It could be that they are scared to go off script or that they just don't know what to do. That is on the coaches. Should the players be "audibling" if they see something isn't working? Maybe?  Does Pat and Co notice something isn't working based off the defense and make adjustments on the fly? Typically No. And that is an issue when we hold the ball for the first 18-20 seconds before beginning to run anything (and no I'm not talking about a tie game with 30 seconds left, holding for the last shot)  Should there be a second play called in the TO just in case? Probably. And he does not, that I know from personal experience. We score a majority of our points off of missed shots (not in early transition but in a later version of it), off of offensive rebounds, and 1 play/offense, Horns Up.

It is great that we aren't a laughing stock, suffering through 5-28 seasons and on APR violations like under Kennedy and prior regimes. Trust me, I lived through that first hand and it f'ing sucked.  We have gotten to the point of respectability and have also plateaued under Skerry. Again you can argue this all you want, but its correct.  I, along with everyone else here, know and understand it is not financial feasible to fire him in the upcoming years, but we are upset as to why we can't due to an absurd and unwarranted contract extension.  And that is on Tim Leonard. I know Pat personally, and he is a great guy and father and has done a lot for the school and community.  Turned around a crappy program? Check.  Graduate players? Check.  Do good in the community/university? Check. I, along with everyone on here, whether they want him here forever or gone tomorrow, or somewhere in between, am grateful for that.  But it is time to win games in the CAA tournament, make a championship game appearance, and win the CAA's.

Back onto the positives. We almost beat the #15 team last night on the road, with some players have bad performances. That's pretty impressive. What is more impressive, is that we barely ran our offense (offensive rebounding) and still had a 1 possession game under 1 minute left.

10 hours ago, tualum said:

. I'm not sold on Gibson yet even though it's my first time seeing him play live. Dottin made some good shots and had his moments..

That's your problem.  For an 18 year old freshman, he is going to be good.  He won't average 25-6-6 but he will be a very solid and heady player for us

11 hours ago, mat1992 said:

I think you are on to something. They did move the three-point line to the International distance of 22 feet and change. Wouldn't affect guys like Gibson, Gray seems ok with is. Even Tunstall is a better 3-point shooter. Howard wasn't impacted by it in practice when he was on the team. But yeah, Brian, despite his strength, might be....or he's just in a slump.

I really think it does have something to do with it.  I don't remember alot of his 3's being short, they seem to be long, so maybe his over compensating?  For a program that historically doesn't shoot or make a ton of 3's I would think the line movement helps us. Even just another foot or so inside the arc can help us grab more defensive rebounds.  I'd like to see more pick and pop with both tunstall and gray.  Set a screen for dottin and gibson and peel off for a 3 or mid range. They both can shoot!

11 hours ago, Royal Tiger said:

Good effort. Bertrand really has a good chance to be a solid robin, now just have to get batman's shot going. Gibson struggled vs better athletes, but not sure if dottin is capable of a better offensive performance than he had tonight. Will be fine down low defensively all year if nakye is capable of not fouling like tonight. 

Two games in a row struggled to score down the stretch. Has a skerry set out of a timeout ever worked? Always ends up launching a wild 3.

As mentioned not going to have a great ooc record but playing about 6 teams that would be favored to win CAA this year (kent, fl, xavier, buffalo/uconn?, 3rd charleston game, vermont, liberty). With Timberlake coming back and 9 strong should be favored for caa regular season title. Problem will always be skerry throws in a few home clunkers and end of game execution. 

Exactly.  And they've rarely worked.  The only one I can think of, is Mike in Ireland and that looked fairly helter skelter, not sure a fade away baseline jumper from 15 was what they were looking for.  

The problem is typically 3 fold:  1. He is not a good X and O coach, so calling a time out hurt.     2. We typically do not have great shooters/offensive players, and slowing the game down hurts. Rather then running a regular play or finding something in transition (where we actually can score).    3. It sets the defense and allows for them to sub.  If other teams have their more offensively minded (shooters) in, I would rather us go against them then bigger stronger bodies.

Good effort and hope they can use this as a positive.  Again late game situations we struggle.  It’s the same record over and over. Players come and go but there is one constant... and we all know what (who) that is...

the 3 line moved back about a foot right? That must be playing with Brian’s head. Damn 

https://247sports.com/college/florida/Article/Hopefully-Zunigas-frustration-is-over-138515876

8 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

Keys to this one...
 

Offensively - shoot better than 45% and limit turnovers

Defensively - wall off the paint and get out on 3-pt shooters (not impossible to do both at the same time)

If you listen to the radio broadcast tonite, you might hear that repeated. 😉

Not sure if we have anyone to match up with Blackshear.  Sanders probably but he’ll foul out in 6 mins. 

6?!

17 hours ago, mat1992 said:

“Historically, Towson has been a poor defensive team, but they...”

Not a lot of research done in that article. Later, he talks about how bad Fobbs is as a three-point shooter because he went 0-for-8 against Kent State. He certainly wasn't bad last season at around 37%.

Well for football, they are correct!

51 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Maybe the bar deal wasn’t consummated by Monday?

That could be.  It would have been nice for them to think/attempt to get it together earlier.  A watch party on campus (ideally SECU but that wouldn't fill up) or at PAWS or around campus would be nice too.

Love that Andy Kennedy is doing the color for the game.  Really liked his insight last year doing games, as an ex coach. Especially since he is coming from that league. 

56 minutes ago, Royal Tiger said:

Saw that and good idea.  Problem is you get to these events and nobody from Towson athletics is there and the C&R bartenders have no idea about the watch party.

Exactly.  Also, just an idea here, call me crazy but... wouldn't they want to have put that ad up on the big screen and made an announcement Monday during the game??!! I mean, you had 1,800 people and most are committed fans...

37 minutes ago, Tigerfan said:

Yes. Even our basketball attendance has dropped. We go from 10,000 students in the 1980's to 23,000 and we draw the same number of students? We also have 9,000 more students living within 2 miles of campus compared to the 1980's. School administration has done a poor job.

If there were 300 there last night, after halftime when the greek kids who were only there for greek night (waste of time, they dont bring anything to sporting events), took their little pictures and left, it was down to 50 or so.   

17 minutes ago, sr16 said:

I bet half those attendees at the Morgan game were Morgan students. Lol. Seems like we peek at 2k

Eh, there were a decent amount of morgan people there, mostly older folks.  

There's no reason the bottom bowl shouldn't be full for most games, especially weekend ones. But when you have 75-300 students at most, attending, it doesn't help out the numbers

3 minutes ago, sr16 said:

Wonder what they drew post 10-1 start

Morgan game to go 9-1, 2,456 *** Largest game since Senior night 2/18/17, When JD came back

UMBC game to go 10-1 1,632 (Saturday)

First 3 conference games, 1,251(Fri), 1,410(Sun), 1,257(Thurs)

First Conf game with students 2,076 (Sat)  Senior Night (sat) 1,271

5 minutes ago, Blounge said:

Al David said it best just win, baby win! Gotta get two W’s to go dancing. I didn’t understand the hero sports article was saying that we would miss out based on what happened to Elon last year. Seems irrelevant. 

I’d also be interested to know the numbers of how many people are subscribed to FloSports and tune into our games. I hope they do away with them next year.

The article was written before last weeks game. But still odd... Elon lost their RB later in the year than we lost Shane, they started 6-2 with a win over JMU, we haven't beaten anyone good and started 3-3, They played 10 games, we are playing 12, They lost 2 straight to end the year, If we lose 2 we would be out, (losing 1 also eliminates us). Literally nothing is similar.

LOL NO! we are stuck with Flo in the CAA like we are stuck with Rob and Skerry.

7 minutes ago, griggey20 said:

Gotta think 2 wins and we are in no matter what anyone else does, no?

Yes, but weirder things have happened. If Nova, and UNH win out, both are in along with JMU. Do they take 4 CAA teams in a down year, after what happened last year?  It would be interesting because then we would most likely play the Patriot, NEC or Big South Champ in, Lafayette, CCSU or Monmouth.

37 minutes ago, sr16 said:

https://herosports.com/fcs/football-2019-playoff-predictions-jmu-ndsu-11-bzbz

North Dakota can only get to 7 wins if they win out, 11 game schedule (both game are very winnable and at home)  7-4

Sam Houston can only win 7 D1 wins if they win out, as they played a non D1 (both games very winnable and at home) They have the name recognition over us though.  7-4

Southern Ill would need to win out to get to 8 wins  @WIU  W and then home against NDSU. 7-5

Austin Peay and SEMO both have 7 wins and play 2 bottom feeders each.  They will be 9-3 and both in.

Nicholls, McNeese and SELA all have 6 wins.  They play each other so hopefully will knock each other down. SELA plays on 11 due to a cancellation and Nicholls played 2 FBS teams.

Wofford has Fuman and Citadel left and has 6 wins and only plays 11 games. Would be nice for us to have Citadel knock them off.

Albany has UNH and SB left.  Would like for them to lose to UNH and then beat SB.  I think if we both finish 8-4/7-5 they get in over us on the ass kicking they handed earlier this year.

It's going to be interesting because there are going to be a lot of 11 game teams with 7-4 records being compared to 7-5 teams.

Also, sorry in advance as this is going to cause a lot of anger by the old timers on here... But it's time to get better PA and radio people for our programs.  Tom Judd was back? Filling in last night and sounded like he was drunk or on something. He could not tell which team was which and kept getting Dottin confused with Kent's 5 and Dennis with the little guard. This wasn't a one time thing to. It happened numerous times throughout the game.  Yes, we wore blue, but come on.  He even got loud and celebrated a few Kent buckets, either thinking they were ours or IDK!

I won't even get started on how bad radio broadcasts are... but a change is needed and would be nice.

Also, on our feed and scoreboard, we should not be showing numerous replays of an opponents massive dunk that turned momentum. 

So, in typical Towson athletics fashion, their giveaways/promotions have been a failure.  The dollar hot dog night was for the first 50, yes 50, people.  When I inquired about the magnetic schedule and T-Shirt the last 2 games, no event staff or ticket scanner had a clue what I was talking about. 

7 minutes ago, sr16 said:

I mentioned this in the chat but the one commentator said Howard is no longer with the team. For whatever thats worth 

Yeah, him not at the first game, writing was on the wall.

9 hours ago, TSU88 said:

I really thought this team would go 11-deep before the season. Amazing how quickly that changed. 

You must be new here to Towson hoops😏

9 hours ago, mat1992 said:

More about the game

I don't think they are sure what they are going to do with Solomon. Now that Sanders is back and Solly is not 100%, he's probably not going to play. But what if another frontcourt player goes down? I think they'll just wait to decide.

I really think Gray should be used at power forward and small forward to rest Fobbs or when Fobbs goes to the 2. With Betrand playing so many minutes at the 2, Fobbs has to play nearly the entire game. It's obvious that Gray is not great defensively and is mediocre at putting the ball on the deck. But if you play him at the 3, have him post up smaller guys (he's 6-8, 220ish). You'd like to see him drive against bigger guys, but he's really just a face-up 4. And he's a damn good shooter. This is not Alex Gavrilovic. He's athletic. But when you have an offensive weapon who is unique, you have to use him. To me, Charles Thompson is a center. Sanders is a center. Dennis can play the 4/5 and it was great to see him make two threes. But you can't count on double digits every night from him.

Gibson was great until he probably got tired at the end. He didn't have any assists (great look to Sanders who got stuffed) but had just one turnover. I don't know if I've been more excited to see a freshman point guard develop and get better at all phases. Even defensively, if he's a bit overmatched, he does have quick hands and is tough for a 170-pounder. At some point, he's going to need to start. Dottin is fine off the bench. I thought he did a great job tonight playing within himself. He had five assists, four rebounds and no turnovers. Nearly a perfect game for a point guard, except that he shot 2 of 7 from the field and has no range past 3 feet. Why would defenders go out and play him tight? Make him shoot. That's what opponents are doing but I thought he played one of his best games in 23 minutes of action. And he does have the size to play with Gibson (6-2, 210) while playing some two guard or the point with Gibson at the 2.

And nobody is surprised that Sanders fouled out in 13 minutes. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for being injured most of preseason and barely practicing. He didn't move his feet well and always tend to reach. I was on the other side of the court, so I didn't see the double tech, but I know Pat was pissed. Again, tall bald ref with rough night. Maybe Sanders just gets it based on rep.

As for Howard, my assumption is that he's done. It would be nice to get a statement for the program. But I doubt he returns and that's more of a hunch then getting any big tip. At some point, just make a decision, unless they are waiting to see how Nick is when he returns. 

On to Gainesville and ESPN2 on Thursday night.

I've been impressed with Gibson defensively. He's not going to be on the all defensive team, but he isn't four mcglynn out there either. He slides his feet well and cuts drivers off effectively enough.

The bald ref was awful, not a reason we lost as they were awful for both sides.  The constant LONG reviews were laughable. As far as the Sanders T, I was sitting right there, he wasn't saying anything, but 5 was barking and getting in a few of our players faces. If you are going to give doubles out there, atleast give it to the one on our team that was instigating it, in Betrand.

9 hours ago, mat1992 said:

Comments from Pat Skerry

"Credit to Kent State, they have a really good team. We knew that. Our guys are bummed out. I told our guys that we have a lot of opportunities. Tonight we had a great opportunity. In the big picture, it's about performance. How do we perform to get where we want to get in March. Could have went either way. I like how hard our guys played. Brian and Allen going 10 for 33 and 1 for 15 from three, I'm not sure how we forced overtime. Brian is a guy we want taking shots and we believe in him. We'll get that right. There were some good things. We took care of the ball. We were decent defensively. We just didn't get it done. It was a high-level game."

 

No morale victories. We got shots. We didn't turn the ball over much. We had one to start the overtime. I thought we got shots and got fouled. We didn't make them. We're going to shoot the ball more from the perimeter. Today was Sanders' first game and he didn't play well. That hurt us. Eventually against good teams, we need a little bit of that inside-out. Dennis does what Dennis does. Pretty happy with Charles. He's going to be a good player. At one point, we had (freshmen) Jason and Charles out there for a lot of minutes. That's only going to help us later on. 

 

Wrong coach, Kent forced overtime, not us. I was surprised to see how few turnovers were listed on the stat sheet, as we were sloppy all night with the ball. It also felt like they blocked more than 9 shots.