Chris Datres

Thought they should have tried more zone than just that one possession in the first half. Charleston wasn't hitting anything from the outside unless it was Riller on a pull-up. We didn't have anyone that could handle his drives in the first half and we paid for it there. Thomas went back to his brain-dead ways playing defense. Some of the fouls he commits are ones that I don't see get made in JV high school games. Just has to be more basketball smarts on his part. I'm happy that Dottin started. He continues to build equity at that position. Howard once again gave us next to nothing at the offensive end of the floor. If he could just find his shot and get into double figures on a semi-regular basis, the offense would be in a lot better shape. This team needs more scorers than just Fobbs and in these games they lose, they just don't get it. Also, I wish we would stop this epidemic of driving to the basket and then just tossing a pass clear back out to the 3-point line. Take the damn ball strong and get a foul and maybe an and-1. If you get called for a charge, so be it but geez, be more aggressive and stronger at looking at stuff around the basket. We had at least 3 turnovers in the first half because we had guys go to the basket and instead of trying to take it up in traffic and draw contact, we're tossing it out to the top of the key and the pass gets picked off for a fastbreak opportunity.

Combination of a lot of things burned us today. There was bad defense with the lack of recognizing shooters (Milon) and allowing at least 5 backdoor layups. The complete disappearance of Howard from the offense contributed greatly. Dottin should be the starting point guard and Howard, at best, should be a 2-guard. Dottin at least takes care of the ball and he tries to move the defense around with his penetration. Sanders and Solomon need to be a bit stronger on any drives to the basket. The backboard isn't there for decoration; they need to use it. Thomas reverted back to his old form so his days of trying to be the next Craig Hodges is over. But defensively, it was a real mess and these guys need to figure out how to play better team defense and properly closing out on shooters.

Yeah, I've been very unimpressed with Sanders thus far. I'll give him credit for greatly improving his free throw stroke and not being as much of a liability there but it seems some of the shots he does attempt are rushed. He took a turnaround jumper from just inside the free throw line in the first half yesterday that I don't think he ever had eyes on the basket as he shot it...looked like something out of a game in the '70s. If he and Solomon could become a bit more refined in the post, they'd be better options offensively. Good points made by @TSU88...we had some open looks and couldn't get them to fall against the man and then when W&M went zone, nobody knew what to do with the ball. That's where Dottin & Fobbs have to use their penetration ability to move the zone around and create open windows. That's part of the reason why the Tribe had so many assists -- their ball movement was very crisp.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2018/12/28/mens-basketball-tigers-roar-past-elon-77-60.aspx http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=242068 When did Alex Thomas morph into Raul de Pablo????? Holy crap, if he ever gets consistent with that 15-17 foot jumper, that's going to open things up. Offensively, great job working the ball around and getting open looks. Took care of the ball for the most part and didn't force too much. Got a little raw around the basket with Solomon but that'll come. Dottin at the point seemed to calm things down and I like how he penetrates looking for something to happen. To me, he's a much better ballhandler than Howard is. Defensively, we got a lot of 1-and-dones at that end. Rebounding was on point the entire game, even more so in the 2nd half. And they did a decent job of paying attention to the shooters and keeping them from lighting it up from 3. 1-0, on to Williamsburg.

I think it's a pretty good idea because Dottin can at least try to draw Howard's defender off of him with his penetration and then kick it out to a set Howard for shots. I thought when Dottin was in the game early 2nd half, Skerry didn't do him any favors by not having any offense on the floor -- no Howard, no Fobbs. Until Betrand finds his offense, he's not that great of an option. But when Howard came into the game and the two of them were out there together, things opened up more. That and Thomas decided to shoot lights out.

Jordan Dangerfield getting a shoutout after recovering the blocked punt for the Steelers against the Chargers.

Rob's won a conference championship and been to the playoffs now 3 times, including a trip to the national championship game in which they had to win not one, but two games on the road in rough conditions. I don't think the two coaches compare. And I saw a green sky once...one of the nastiest thunderstorms/hailstorms I've ever experienced in Dallas a number of years ago. 😁

I knew you were going to go this route... The CAA is an all-or-nothing league. Regular season championships only get you into the NIT. Championship game appearances only get you on TV. If you don't win the tournament championship game, you're not getting an at-large bid. So hey, here's your participation award for making it to the title game and losing (W&M are racking these up).

Since Northeastern joined the conference in 2005, they and W&M have combined to win one more CAA basketball championship than we have.

Yeah, let's recruit someone who will be academically ineligible. Great idea. We haven't had that on our point guard checklist referenced above.

Do you even hear what you’re saying or did another personality seep out?

It’s not defeatist at all. I call it being a realist. I don’t want to be 1-3 right now but I also look at a roster of rookies that haven’t established game chemistry yet and see that it’s gonna be a work in progress. I’ll be much more disappointed in the situation if we get to Atlantic City in a month and we’re still sitting on 1-3 wins and not showing any improvement. Face it, we’re in a situation where three days in March are the only true important time since we’re never gonna sniff any at-large prospects. And oh btw, Skerry’s not the one turning it over or shooting poorly from the FT line. You don’t think he knows it needs fixing? They only had 9 to’s yesterday. There, he coached them up enough for that.

I think Citadel missed a FG on the first drive of the 2nd half to take a 13-10 lead and after that, it was curtains. Almost like part of Bama's fee they were paying Citadel included keeping it competitive for a half.

I guess every coach we have in the department is on the hot seat. What did we say weeks ago about this team -- don't have expectations. And yet, here we are with people already whining about the start of the season.

Only got to see this game in bits and pieces and what I did see was mostly us on offense. What you saw today is what happens when a team has good defensive talent and coaching and comes in with a gameplan to stop the other team's best player. JMU made sure to keep Flacco under wraps and wouldn't allow him to extend plays. Meanwhile, we get gouged all over the place in the 2nd quarter. Hopefully we did enough before today to get us in. Delaware got beat but that probably doesn't matter. If the Scoobys can pull off the upset over SB, I think it helps us greatly. But that's why you don't put it in someone else's hands. We had it on our hands against Delaware and could have pulled it out against Maine without a bad defense and some bonehead playcalling (sense a theme?).

ROOOOOOOOBY ROOBY ROOOOOOOOOO!! Albany hits a FG at the horn to beat Stony Brook 25-23!! So the CAA final standings are Maine & JMU at 8-3, they're in. Delaware, Towson, SB at 7-4 and Elon at 6-4. Gotta think with head-to-heads over SB and Elon, we're in a lot better shape if it comes down to that, which it should. Thanks, Albany!! Oh yeah, and UNH is 4-7 so we may have to sweat that one too.

Stony Brook scores with :17 left to steal it from the Scooby Doos, who apparently couldn't get any 2-point plays to work.

I'd like to find that out for sure. Just gotta get in and then see how things break.

I'd hardly call a game-winning scoring drive with 4:00 left and then a goal line stand in the last minute a 'woodshed' beating. But I know you like to play the fatalist role. The bracketology and the rankings logic (whatever that's good for) makes it seem like we're in really good shape. But I'll always go back to the snub a few years ago when we tore up UNH on the road (the definition of woodshed) and were told that we weren't invited.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2018/11/10/-20-football-earns-31-point-win-in-top-5-victory-at-elon.aspx That was allegedly the #5 team in the nation? A road win like that should look awfully good on the resume. Too bad it wasn't the last game of the season and our last piece of evidence to the committee. I've been tough on the defense most of the season but especially the last 2 weeks. That was an excellent effort on their part. They got to the QB consistently, stopped the regular running game, and came up with a number of key stops. Offensively, the line was a bit porous on a few pass plays and it forced Flacco into some bad situations. We're very lucky that the first pick went out of bounds instead of back to our 15 when the game was tight. We're fortunate that the refs called Flacco's forward progress dead (rightfully so) and it didn't lead to a scoop & score when it was 24-10. Hopefully, we've put away the ghosts of the previous 2 weeks and carry THIS performance into a really big game next week that could be for a share of the conference championship as well as that playoff berth we want so badly.

I'd like to see a bit more of the power running game that we saw on the drive that put us up 34-10. I'd think that JMU will expect us to keep the ball in Flacco's hands most of the time and they'd be smart to key on him. It will be a big game for the running backs and the o-line especially to step up.

Next week's CAA schedule of importance to us: Elon (6-3, 4-2) at Maine (7-3, 6-1) Villanova at Delaware (7-3, 5-2) Stony Brook (7-3, 5-2) at Albany JMU (7-3, 5-2) at Towson (7-3, 5-2) If we win, we're in. That's a lock. If we lose, I think we need a Maine win to feel okay. If we can get a Maine win and an Albany win, that would be tremendous but a Maine win and 1 of a Nova win and/or Albany win might be good enough. Might be. But the good news is that we can still control our own situation. If we hadn't spit up Delaware and Maine, we'd already be hanging a banner.

As I see it, if Maine beats Richmond (and they're up 14-3 in the 2nd as I write this), we would not be able to win the conference outright since we lost to Maine. Now if it works out that Elon beats Maine next week and we beat JMU, there could be 5 teams at 6-2 and tied for first. That would mean JMU would be in 6th at 5-3 and you know they're not getting left out of the playoffs. But if we take care of business next week, the only question should be who we play in the first round. Unless New Hampshire somehow sneaks in the field. I don't put anything past the committee.

No surprise that we got virtually nothing out of Thomas again. I openly laughed when he attempted that corner 3. Was actually surprised that he hit rim. But hey, at least he didn't commit any illegal screens and didn't foul out. I like Howard at the point. He seemed pretty confident with the ball and if he gets his feet set, he can be a weapon from the arc. I like Fobbs and Timberlake being aggressive and going to the basket, just have to work more on the finish. I think it would be better if Tunstall started. He seemed to be a lot more active, especially on the offensive end, than what I've seen in the past. I like Sanders trying to be a bull in a china shop inside but he needs to be a bit more under control. The rest of the newcomers I couldn't really get much of a bead on them. See what comes down the line in the next couple of games. Overall, I liked the way they battled especially in the first half. Game is probably tied at halftime if they were anywhere close to competent at the foul line and they hadn't lost Jerome on the perimeter in the last 5 minutes. I also think it's pretty good that for a virtually new team they only had 14 turnovers. A lot of that can be traced to the vast experience of Virginia's players within that defense.

If you want to get into sEmantics (E, not Y...I thought our school educated better than that), I'd argue that Towson already has 2 wins over winning teams as they were over 500 when we played them. We can't control what happens after the fact. Nova was 2-0 (with a win over a 1-A team) when we beat them and Stony Brook was 4-1 when we pounded them. I get it that the ones making the most noise are the ones that hate coaches but perhaps the examination should wait until after the damn season is over. This isn't the pros where they make changes during the season. Unless it's a complete FUBAR (read: Kansas), a good AD doesn't make an evaluation until the end of the year. If/when we take out Elon and JMU and make the playoffs, how will that change the naysayers' mindset?