Chris Datres

Morsell absolutely has to be on the floor in those final seconds. I didn't even realize that he wasn't in the game in the last 12 minutes. But his last act was a total BS call -- he got nailed for a charge which was not even close to being a charge. Had it been called correctly, that's an 'and 1' and we go up at least by 7 pending the free throw. But regardless of good call or bad call, your senior leader cannot lead if he's sitting on the pine for the last 12 minutes of a close game. The other lineup issue that needs to be resolved is that unless there's foul issues, you cannot sit Zane and Starr at the same time because Keith and McNeill as your primary ballhandlers is a recipe for disaster. They're not point guards nor should they be put in that position. This of course goes to the dilemma we have of who belongs in what position. It's too bad Prophete hasn't shown any sort of progress to get on the floor because even 5-8 minutes of him at the point would be helpful.

I'm 5'7 and can't really shoot over anyone too much taller than me. But sure, I'll get out there and give it a shot!! I would imagine Skerry will also point at the defensive rebounding as a problem in this game. Hofstra is definitely a team we don't match up well with when Gustys and Sabety are in the game. There was a lot of volleyball on the boards and for once, we weren't getting some of those that we normally gobble up. Agree with you on the press. They put it on at the end of the first half, drew a turnover and a bucket and then we never saw it again. For a team that wants to play faster, they didn't really live up to that ideal in these 3 home games.

I wish I had answers to your questions and until I see what happened in the 3 1/2 minutes of game time that I missed where we blew that lead, I can't really say anything other than what the play-by-play told me. But like I said, it's not just us that can't handle end-of-clock situations. It would have been very easy to run a simple set that would have led to someone getting into the lane or going to the basket and maybe getting a foul. Shooting the ball with 5-6 seconds left isn't terrible but that shot in a tie game needs to come from about 15 feet closer. But yes, that was a panic shot by the absolutely wrong person to be taking that shot at the end.

Live by the 3, die by the 3. I watched Florida shoot lights out from 3-point land in Portland on their way to almost winning the PK80. A week later, they can't find anything from there against FSU and Loyola-Chicago. If you face teams that can extend their defense and/or have length from their guards, it makes it a lot more difficult to hit from out there. I would guess that the scouting report has already been formulated for the Tribe. But first, let's take care of Foreman-Wright and Gustys and company on Thursday night. F-W went for 39 yesterday against Elon and he's just the kind of guy that could beat us at home.

I heap a lot of criticism on him but Thomas did an awesome job on Brantley today. It took until the 2nd half before I figured out who Brantley even was because he was such a non-entity in the first half (and I hadn't seen the first game last Saturday). This is two decent games in a row out of Thomas so let's hope he's building on something because Gustys is coming to town (23 rebs today vs Elon) and even though Hofstra ain't that great, he has the type of game that can railroad our chances. Offensively, I think it says a lot about our balance that Morsell can go 3-16 shooting and we still win pretty comfortably. 5 guys in double figures certainly helps. Just like during the 10-game winning streak when it seemed like a different guy stepping up each nite, I think we saw a little of that today with Gorham getting 11 (though that bricked layup in transition in the first half was a sight to behold). Gotta take care of business against Hofstra and keep the home streak alive. This little 3-game homestand may be just what the doctor ordered.

As Morsell said, it was good to shoot on the home rims finally and it looked like the familiar atmosphere helped the confidence. Shot the ball great all night and weren't really throwing up the ill-advised bricks that we were seeing on the road trip. Defense started off ragged again and we got caught chasing defenders a few times, which then got big men in foul trouble but they tuned it up much better in the 2nd half and it allowed them to pull away. Skerry's right, he needs to find McNeill more minutes and just hide him in each of the corners because that's his sweet spot. He gets his feet set in those areas and he's almost automatic. Actually saw a great post move out of Alex down on the box late in the game and his 2 free throws were pure. Maybe if they can keep working on that side of the game, they can make him more of a passing interest in the offense instead of having him just be a constant screener up top.

This better be the cure that ails us. Wilmington is not very good at all despite hanging 100 on Drexel the other night.

Defense was the worst I've seen it all season. On the ball, they were allowing too many leverage drives that forced help to come over and left shooters wide open. Another old problem cropped up and that was guys not recognizing shooters. You know Santa Ana is hot, DON'T LEAVE HIM!!! But then, we had this problem in the first half but Elon was bricking everything. I think they were 1 for their first 12 or 13 from the 3-point line. They could have been blowing us out if those were falling early. Then on the last defensive possession with the game in the balance, Starr is mismatched on a bigger guy who just backed him down and as soon as the help came, boom, wide open layup -- zero rotation. Just a disgusting effort at that end of the floor, especially in the 2nd half. Offensively, I'm getting sick of the dumb turnovers. What's a dumb turnover? When you try to make a play that has no shot of being there when you first concocted it in your brain to make it. Examples would be Morsell (or maybe it was Starr) trying to hit Zane under the basket when Zane wasn't going to be doing anything with it. Or the sequence when we could have had two fast break layups in the first half but Tunstall lost the ball before he could pass it and then Morman, I believe just chucked it ahead without really looking. Morman and Keith seem to like to just bull their way into the lane without any sort of purpose...just see what happens when they get there. On the final sequence with :16 left, why isn't Morsell on the floor? And better question, how does Zane not even touch the ball? The way he was going in the 2nd half, it should have been him driving to the basket with a potential kick to Morsell or McNeill for a corner 3. The lack of a competent big man is pretty glaring now as we hit conference play. Alex Thomas might as well not even be out there. He's had 2 1/2 seasons in the program and I think he's actually gotten worse. He still doesn't seem to grasp the basic concepts of defending the post or hedging on a screen without making contact. And he's zero threat on the offensive end so everyone can put more pressure on our guards. If you had told me on December 18 that we'd go 0-4 on the road trip, I'd have thought you were crazy. At minimum, I thought they would easily get 1, maybe even 2 of these road wins. Now, it looks like they left their basketball IQs in Belfast and I don't know if there's a JD type to pull the rest of the team aside before Friday night and talk some sense into them.

Did not get to see a second of the game today so I can't comment on anything that happened. However, we knew that this road game at Charleston was going to be a giant test. It didn't work out. Nothing is lost. But they gotta go to Elon on Tuesday and get back on the right track. Can't be starting in a hole again like we did last year.

I know this. If we win the CAA, they will have to evaluate us for seeding purposes. Having 6 road/neutral wins in the book already helps. That’s why the RPI going into last nite was in the mid 30s.

Doesn’t matter how you consider it. If the Committee gets to evaluate us, it will count as a road win...along with those other 5 games they have won away from home.

The Loyola demolition was at Reitz.

Pitt is NOT a good team. Not by any stretch. But give them credit for not wilting down 9 with 6 to play. Normally, a young team like that would have further imploded. Instead, it was us.

Pathetic. Really no other way to put it. Let’s not forget all the 1-2 efforts at the free throw line throughout the game. We got outmuscled...every time we got in the lane (minus the open Zane takes for layups), we went weak and couldn’t even draw a foul. Thomas will get a 3-second violation someday on an offensive board because he can’t just go up strong for a slam. Gotham, Tunstall, Eddie...they get it inside, it’s a circus adventure. And I said it at halftime - Pitt was 1 of 16 from 3 and we were only up 3. We get up 9 and do nothing to extend the lead further. We’ve taken 3 steps back with this road trip and we have a week to correct it before showtime.

Towson opens as a 4-point favorite in most books. No, you are not reading that wrong.

From Zane’s first shot of the game that got nothing but glass, I had a feeling this was gonna be a long nite. Skerry’s right, the defense was PATHETIC. No recognition of 3-point shooters at all in the first half. If they watched Saturday’s game against Sparty, they would have known that Oakland was a streaky 3-point shooting team. They not only looked like a team who hadn’t played a game in 11 days, but also a team that looked like they hadn’t practiced in 11 days. One bright spot I think is McNeill. He looks like he’s getting more and more comfortable with his shot. Hopefully he can keep taking advantage of his minutes. As for Pitt, they’re not good at all. Even worse without Luther in the lineup. If we’re ever gonna beat an ACC team, Friday is the time to do it.

Let’s take care of Oakland first before we start looking ahead to Friday.

DiNucci would be a good get but if it comes down to us vs. JMU in his choice, I don't like our chances, especially if JMU's current QB graduates (I don't know his status).

Way way waaaaaay too early for stuff like this but it's still fun to see, even if it's prior to conference play. https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/bracketology/ Jerry Palm, noted bracketologist on CBSSports.com has a Towson-Notre Dame 12/5 matchup in his latest bracket projection. Sign me up!!

They 'might' come out flat for the first couple of minutes of that Oakland game but when you consider the travel schedule they had from November 19 thru December 4, you know they were dying to have some time off like they do now. Recharge, get healthy, work on some stuff in practice, and then get back after it next week. I think being fresh for next week will be nothing but a good thing.

These guys need a break. Hopefully they can take care of UMBC and go into finals on a very high note. I really wish we'd put a shooter at the free throw line against a zone. Morsell or Zane could live there and when teams finally crashed on them, it would open up so many other opportunities. By putting Keith there, it invites turnovers and charges because Eddie gets out of control so much. That said, we did have some decent looks and just didn't knock them down. Morsell has to watch that when he drives from the short corner that he makes a quicker decision so he's not throwing it up for grabs once he gets trapped. But all in all, great effort to weather the storm and not do what many other Towson teams have done when they've given up a big lead like that.

Went and watched the 2nd half and OT this morning. First off, it wasn't THAT Ed Corbett officiating. Maybe his son? Anyway, I could maybe see Bozeman's gripe on the foul at :19 that earned him the T but after that, there was nothing for him to be mad about. That leads me to believe his bitching is more of a cover for his terrible coaching.

First off, GFY Bozeman. You seem to not have matured as a coach in all of these years that you've had an opportunity to. That and your shady NCAA past is why you're stuck at Morgan and probably will always be stuck there. Ed Corbett is a Final Four official. I've officiated with Jeff Pon when he was here in Florida. They're not at the levels they are if they have bias or are unprofessional. Perhaps Bozeman should coach his team rather than trying to do the officials' job as well. Any time I get a yappy coach like that, I tell them to coach their team and if they keep up, I ask them if they'd like to switch spots because "I bet I can coach your motion offense better than you do". That's only an extreme example and I rarely have to break it out. At the college level, it annoys the hell out of me that coaches have the leash that they have on the sidelines. A number of coaches get away with murder with how the confront the officials. Coach your damn team and stop riding the officials.

I was out reffing a rivalry game tonite so I saw none of it and was slightly surprised when I saw it was in OT (I kind of expected a competitive game given our schedule the last 3 weeks). How'd we yak the big lead in the 2nd half?

Feinstein gave us that one vote? Haha, that's pretty funny. Whenever I've talked to him and mentioned Towson, he has always spoken highly of Skerry.