Chris Datres

Fun while it lasted. The turnover virus hasn’t been completely cured yet. Make adjustments and go get the Pukies next week.

Curious as to what Skerry's complaint was about the table. I couldn't watch any of the game thanks to work purposes. At one point, I see up 4 with 2:30 left and then I'm in the car and we've lost. The words out of my mouth were, 'fitting way to end this season'. There's a lot to be said about lack of skill level when it comes to this edition of Towson basketball. But you don't lose this many close games unless you're missing something and that's basketball smarts. I've harped on it numerous times throughout the season but a number of players on this team were not very basketball smart this season. One improvement that will be desperately needed for next season is someone, whether it's a returner or a newbie, to step up and be a vocal leader on the court to calm the ship when it starts listing. I didn't see any of that on this year's team. You can only coach so much from the sideline. It's up to the players on the floor to take control of things both physically and mentally in order to win close games and this year, we didn't have it.

It's horrendous. It's supposed to be about information and numbers and notes, not how much cutesy, cliche prose you can write up in your previews and game recaps. It's a wonder that other media outlets are able to get the correct information about us sometimes. Fun fact, when we put up over 100 against someone a couple of years ago, the postgame note was that it was the first time we scored over 100 since beating Washington in 1996, which is true. Problem was that it was Washington COLLEGE that we put 100 on and the postgame note was that it was against the HUSKIES!! I had to send an e-mail on that correction. Makes it real difficult sometimes to get concise numbers when doing research on a team for a broadcast or story if you don't have the right info.

I guess this poses as a Towson tournament preview but it reads like a cliche-ridden, bad speech from a coach who failed Motivation 101. https://towsontigers.com/news/2019/3/5/mens-basketball-with-belief-and-purpose-towson-dreaming-big.aspx Who writes this stuff?

Should we also take out the other winning years so it fits your agenda better?

There’s a number of people here whose agenda would be wrecked if we even beat JMU and have a shot at Hofstra on Sunday. Personally, they’ve shown that they have the capabilities but it’s tough to generate much enthusiasm after watching the last 2 1/2 games. But, let’s work on JMU first and get past them. We’re certainly capable of beating those clowns. But to make it any further, they’ll need 3 games like the first half of the Drexel home game.

Been waiting a long time to see something like this. Enjoy it for a couple of days and then back it up with a big weekend in Charlotte.

I was just coming on here to post that exact question. Yeah, the rankings don't matter all that much but it would be a nice little thing to put that 1 next to our name for at least one week and see how well the guys do with a target on their back.

It was all sunshine and balloons, I'm sure, when we hit 7 in a row to get that 5-point lead. The problem that has plagued us in all of these close losses is that everyone loses their damn basketball minds on the court. Why the hell are we chucking up contested 3's on consecutive trips in a 1-point game? We have guys that constantly stand around with the ball against a zone rather than moving it. Just like against Hofstra, when Fobbs got himself into the lane, they were able to find him for a 10-footer. That didn't happen enough tonite. For all the love that we have for rebounding, it doesn't mean much if you have crap off-the-ball defenders who don't know how to hedge correctly and who can't close out under control on shooters on skip passes. These guys played against W&M the first time, you'd think they'd remember the backdoor situations. Nope, they get caught staring at the ball. All that said, if we could have just had any type of leader on the court to take over things, we don't continue to lose these tight games. But no one has found their voice this year...or at least refuses to use it. I've been long done with our seniors who should be the ones with that voice. They're virtually worthless. It seems no one else has that demeanor yet to crack some skulls out there. As for the final play, someone like McNeill is the absolute last person I'd have making the decision on who to pass it to on an inbounds play. If he lets the play run, Fobbs is wide open at the top of the key and that's a much better look than Howard flailing about anywhere.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2019/2/27/mens-lacrosse-no-7-towson-takes-down-no-1-loyola.aspx GO HOME YOU DIRTY DOGS!!!! AWESOME AWESOME performance out of these guys. Everyone stepped up from necessary. Terrific showings from Woodall in the X and Canto in the cage.

Also...those gold jerseys are outstanding. I propose we keep them for the entire home season and not just one more selected "throwback" game.

Speaking of officials, I'm wondering what the more-educated lax fans here thought of the two crease calls that went against us -- McClean having a goal wiped out on his dive in the 4th and one of our guys getting pushed into the crease in the 2nd which seemed to escape the refs' vision until they saw him laying in the crease. I thought both were pretty questionable and tipped in the favor of the #1 team.

I thought last year's disease of sloppy turnovers seeping in during the 3rd quarter was going to cause us to wilt. But fortunately, the defense held firm and Canto was an absolute beast in net. But you're right, even if Loyola scored, we could feel comfortable that we'd get the ball right back with Woodall taking the faceoff. Just wish he could have scored on a couple of those 4th quarter wins where he went right down the middle of the field. He deserved one of those.

Possession will be 9/10 of the game tomorrow. Keep it out of their sticks and take advantage of what the defense gives them. Would've helped if this game started an hour later but I'll figure out a way around the work obstacles.

I believe it was Buie. And I know what you're saying about the finesse versus the team that goes inside. Most of the time it's the difference in defensive teachings and discipline that can determine it. Does a team have a bunch of bigs that stay in their cylinder or are they trying for the swat? The swatters are the automatic calls. BTW, it's always fun when someone likes to yap at me about fouls and points to the board and the discrepancy of team fouls on the board. Had a coach point it out to me a couple of weeks ago in a game and my response was, 'that team isn't fouling or else we'd call it'.

The number of 3s a team takes has nothing to do with how fouls are called and the ratio of free throws shot. Have you seen our team this year and some of the fouls they commit? Only officiating issue I had with last nite was Sanders getting the dumbass T for the staredown (right call) and then the Hofstra player doing the same thing in the 2nd half and only getting a verbal warning. That was BS - you established that you were gonna ring someone up so be consistent about it.

We got up 8, they hit a 3 on their next trip down the court. We got nothing at our end and on the next possession, Hofstra missed a shot and a ball got tipped toward the sideline that I thought Betrand could have had if he hustled for it. Instead, Hofstra guy saved it and we were in scramble mode on defense and they hit another 3 to cut it to 2 and then tied it on the next trip. So...many places I could go with this one. First, the bad stuff -- the wrong personnel was on the floor at the end of regulation. There's no way that an offensive liability like Dottin can be on the floor when there's an offensive possession late in the game. It's like you're playing 4 on 5 with his lack of shooting ability. Secondly, he dribbles the ball too damn much and it stagnates the offense. If Howard is running the show there, he can at least freelance when things break down and get a more confident look than what Dottin tossed up. Next, I thought Skerry's use of Solomon down the stretch was questionable. He's going along real well and cleaning up the boards and when we're up 66-65, he comes out of the game. He doesn't go back in until it was 80-78. You have a guy that was pretty warm and it's like he was forgotten about. Now, the good stuff -- they showed a long time ago that they can play with anyone in the conference, except for Hofstra. The next thing they have to conquer is finishing these games. But now they've shown that they're going to be a tough out no matter who they play. The adjustment made at halftime to put Fobbs at the foul line against the zone was brilliant. That completely opened up our offensive game. Only issue was that Hofstra switched to a hybrid box-and-one/matchup zone at the 8:00 timeout and then went man after the 4:00 timeout and we didn't adjust well to that. Kids nowadays, and this goes for all of college basketball, like to prove that there's air in the ball by dribbling it too much and we were no different and as a result, we started settling for forced stuff. Dottin played tremendous D on JWF all nite. That alone should have been good enough to win us the game if things had broken correctly at the offensive end. If Sanders could play more games like tonite (and yes, stop the extra stuff that causes turnovers and offensive fouls), we'd be in better shape going forward. I said it in the chat and I still believe it -- no such thing as moral victories. This sucked losing this game tonite because it's one that they really should have had. But I believe that if we can stay out of the play-in session that they'll give the 3 or 4 seed a giant run for their money. But it's the little things that we don't have a margin of error for that has caused us to lose games like tonite and at Charleston. Clean those things up and the wins will come.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2019/2/16/mens-basketball-perfect-first-half-lifts-towson-past-drexel.aspx First half - best we’ve played all season. Second half - very sloppy on both ends for both teams. But it was great to see shots falling regularly and it’s a good bounceback from Thursday’s loss.

There weren’t many bumps that went uncalled, especially when Drexel kept driving to the basket in the 2nd half. Our guys got a couple of dumb ones when hedging off a screen, something we get called on far too often. Refs must not have had anywhere they had to be today.

Does Rob have options for when Tom hits over .400 and the scouts love him and he decides to go Tebow? But that’s pretty great that he’s immediately contributing.

You know what they say about the best laid plans...I had a 2:30 basketball game scheduled and I figured that I'd be back home by halfway thru the first half of the hoops game. Instead, the tournament I was at had a scheduling snafu and my 2:30 game became a 4:00 game so I didn't get home until the game was already academic. It's nice to see the way they keep improving from one game to the next. With the exception of the Hofstra game, they really haven't been blown out of a conference game this season. They may not look pretty at times but they keep putting forth the effort. Fobbs was certainly giant today with that output and if he wants to be the guy, then by all means, let's allow him to be the guy. Now let's add to the Chickens misery on Thursday night. I'll hopefully be able to see one of these next 2 games but with being on Tiger Watch in LA, I'll probably miss both.

I think the shot clock rule could be the best thing for us because it will force us to look for offense. Too many times the past couple of years, I've felt like they've played stall too much and haven't taken advantage of open opportunities. Now they have to pick their spots more and today, they took advantage of a lot of those looks. Beating Hopkins is always fun because it doesn't happen that often but beating them by 9 is especially delicious.

As Mat noted in a different thread, CAA.tv has archives to check out. CAA also has a Youtube site with highlights of games. I watched the final play and I’m not gonna crush Sanders for missing that shot. He’s at a tough angle and trying to gather plus get it off before the buzzer. He’s not the greatest finisher as it is but without the chance to collect himself and go up, that shot was a lot more challenging. Overall, it’s real tough when your two best foul shooters clank front ends. We had seemed to have the FT situation under control until recently. But, the team overall has gotten better. They just show their inexperience at times, especially when playing with leads.

I admit that when he was bringing the ball up after hitting those 2 pull-up 3's, I was saying 'pull up again'. Probably needed another dribble. But at that point still in the first half, I didn't think it was that much off the beaten path to at least take a look at it. A game like today pretty much shows the difference between Hofstra and everyone else in the conference. We can get away with playing a wonky game and beat someone like NE. But we have to play beyond a perfect game to beat someone like Hofstra. The Dutch play a defense that we repeatedly get mystified by and that's an active zone. As you said, Mat, you have to move the ball against a zone as well as penetrate with passes as well as dribbling. I didn't like how we kept trying to set ball screens against a zone -- that'll never work and all it will do will cause illegal screens (had at least one today). We need guys who can hit that elbow jumper against that zone -- Fobbs hit a number of them but unfortunately, no one else could. Howard, McNeil, even Thomas should be able to take full advantage of that little dead zone at 13-15 feet to eat up the zone. But to get those opportunities, you gotta move the ball. Instead, we make sure that the ball has air in it.

100% agree with you on this point. I've been thinking this the last 3-4 games I've been able to watch. For someone who had at least a little D1 experience (albeit at Duquesne), he has done very little to be a pillar that the younger guys can learn from. What is it that he does well? Rebounding, maybe? That might be about it. He's turned into a liability on offense with his penchant for wanting to dribble whenever he gets it (and subsequently losing it or committing an offensive foul) or not being able to finish. Solomon in 20 games time has passed him in skill level offensively and I'd much rather than Solomon out there for the majority of the minutes. Defensively, Sanders commits some silly fouls and seems overmatched in a lot of 1-on-1 situations.