Chris Datres

Our offensive system is pathetic for the talent that is on the floor. The sub patterns again mystified me. As Mat mentioned, May finally gets into a rhythm and he gets pulled. Charles helps get us within 1 with 10:00 left and he gets pulled. Doherty immediately schools Paar and we never get back into it. We're in mid-January and we have zero clue as to a rotation that works. Of course, if guys play in 2-3 minute shifts, how can you ever figure out a rotation? I stated this after the Monmouth debacle but our best offensive players need to be getting 30-35 minutes per night. You can't get into any offensive flow when the personnel changes on every other stoppage. Then when they actually get into a flow, someone's coming out for no reason. Charleston is going to be a bloodbath. If that line is anywhere in single digits, lay the wood on CoC.

Ripken saved me and my crew from some sort of bodily injury. In spring of 97, we took our campus sports show to Camden Yards (shout out Bill Stetka) and we had our chairs down the RF line. At one point, we caught on camera Cal and Tony Tarasco goofing around in the chairs. A few minutes later, Cal comes up to us and says that he's going to be in big trouble in kangaroo court if anyone ever sees that video. But then he got serious and said that we might want to move closer to the dugout because we're right in the line of fire if a lefty ropes one down the line. We move our stuff and about 10 minutes later, Mo Vaughn is in the cage and he sends a rocket right about where we had been set up. It's been 20+ years since I've been in Camden Yards and I'm way overdue to get back. Games at Memorial Stadium (both football and baseball) were pretty fun with the right atmosphere but if it was a blazing summer day, it could get uncomfortable too.

It can be difficult to find, but here's the current list of active homecourt win streaks: https://www.warrennolan.com/basketball/2024/stats-streaks-current-home-wins

Yeah, I liked that DW got into the lane again but as soon as his initial look wasn't there, he had Tarke on the wing and Tejada in the corner again (though the defender had Tejada shaded pretty well -- someone watched the tape from Saturday) so a kickout might have been better. But at least he had a look from inside. What I didn't like was the play that tied the game in regulation. CT should be miles from that play and just let the ballhandlers take care of it. I'm still flummoxed by our insistence in having CT be a handler against pressure D. 15 straight at home, a SECU record. 7 more to tie the school record set in 1993-95.

Speaking of Dayton, if you want a real outside-the-box thing to do, go to the US Air Force museum outside Dayton. If you have any interest in airplanes, rockets, the history of flight, you can find a treasure trove there. I went a couple of years ago to kill time before a Dayton hoops game and wish I had another 2 hours there. The crown jewel for this history buff was the refurbished Air Force One that LBJ was sworn in on after JFK was killed. The best part is that it's free since it's a government installation. And that will end this edition of travel recommendations, brought to you by AAA.

Yeah, there was zero reason for an extension. Nothing has been done to earn that and by inferred logic, you could guess that a simple trip to the conference championship game will merit another year on the contract. Sometimes, a little job insecurity gives one a bit of extra incentive to up their production and I agree with you that in this age of the portal and short-term players, a lame duck situation isn't as dire as it used to be.

I'll second that recommendation on Cincy with the food & beer side. The Reds are also at home that weekend against the Brewers so you could make a pretty fun sports weekend out of it.

I know we rightfully get worked up by how things are drawn up on offense but the setup for the final play was really well done. First rule of final possessions is go to the basket if you’re tied. DW is our best at that and great court vision to find Tejada. Can’t get a much better look than that and he drills it.

If you downplay and belittle a win, you either bet on Wilmington or you’re just a miserable person. Like, how can one put asterisks on a buzzer-beating win? It’s a tired act and one that shouldn’t be quoted so others don’t have to see it unless they choose to.

Making UNCW 0-2 is a pretty good thing. Nice when a team follows the rules for the final possession rather than just pound pound chuck.

I thought I was watching bad basketball sitting at the top of the Breslin Center tonight and seeing Penn State's turnover total challenge their point total midway through the first half. And then I pulled up our score and saw down 43-38. Ok, no big deal. Wait...3 MINUTES LEFT IN THE GAME AND IT'S THAT SCORE?? Beyond pathetic and whatever offensive strides they had been making in the last couple of weeks went crashing thru the floor in this one. In chatting with someone else who pained themselves to watch that dreck, the conclusion I come to is that the substitution pattern and all of these line changes have to go. Take your best 5 offensive players and give them the bulk of the minutes. To me, that's DW, Tejada, May, CT, Sulaiman. I don't care about defensive matchups and blah blah blah. Make the other team adjust to us, not the other way around. Can't match up? Make adjustments. But this business of running guys to the scorer's table every 2 minutes and inevitably subbing out guys that are into a rhythm is mind-boggingly stupid and what it tells me is that either we have no cohesive rotation or there's zero trust in any of the guys out on the floor at a given time. And yes, running the offense through CT is a terrible idea. This offense needs more movement with cuts and passes. That's the only way you're gonna get open looks. The back to the basket crap ended in the late 90s. These kids are athletes and they WANT to run. So let 'em. This plodding style isn't entertaining or effective as proven by tonight's disaster. Watch how Wilmington runs their offense on Saturday. It's stuff like that which we should be doing. Seahawks will be ticked after laying an egg in Philly tonight and they've already got a big road scalp in the SEC this year so they'll be more than ready to go.

Stanford Steve represented last night: https://twitter.com/stanfordsteve82/status/1742992956980650229?s=46&t=EVKcQgftLjvvjND07GaBLQ

It was one extension and it was probably for too many years. It's not like they've been tacking on a year each year. Though if it would make some of you squirm a bit more with anger, it would be kinda funny if they did that. But keep up that negativity! 👍

Not gonna get much out of this game other than the practice players getting their time in the spotlight and in the boxscore. But...for a guy like Cole, this could be what unlocks him. I get that he's been brought along very slowly since getting cleared to play but 21 minutes today is a real nice step and he showed a little of what he's capable of. Get him a little confidence today and then maybe he gets more into the rotation this week.

Congrats on #200. Considering that he started his career 2-33, this is a pretty monumental milestone that some won't acknowledge. Let's see what these guys got with the conference grind starting this week.

The game wasn’t very aesthetically pleasing so that didn’t make it feel like a loud, participating crowd. But at least we saw a W.

Boxscore says 2011. I thought it was a decent crowd for no students but didn’t think we cracked 2K. It was a pretty quiet crowd though. I guess I should have done more slamming of objects on seats.

Rumor has it that for the 200th win (a bunch of Coach K’s, Dean’s, Knight’s wins came vs 2-8 or worse teams…go figure), Pat will get a 1-yr extension.

The free throw shooting made me want to bite down on the kernels at the bottom of the bag of my nickel popcorn. That’s as bad as I’ve seen a college team shoot from the line. May nearly airballed one. I was a bit dismayed by the 28 3’s until my dad pointed out that just about all of them were good to great looks. So at least there weren’t any ill-advised 3’s where you’re like ‘what are you doing?’. Tarke looked to be a steady force out there. Gotta have him and DW to handle the press. And defensively, they brought it against a team that until the last 4 mins was shooting around 27%. Nice to get back in the win column but it’s very much still a work in progress headed into conference season. Also, was surprised the refs had restraint cuz Skerry could have easily got T’d up in first half when he hit 2 f bombs down the court and yelled BS across the court to one official. These college refs put up with way too much.

10 years ago today. Time does fly by…

Nicholls has 2 players from St Frances (couldn’t keep either of them at home?) so they will be extra motivated to scratch out a W on this homecoming trip. They’ve already tripped up one Tigers bunch (LSU) in their own den this season.

Nicholls just gave the Twerps all they could handle at the X. Might have to expect a defensive slopfest on Friday.

It’s tough to see but in the KU games I’ve watched, he’s been a non-factor and he’s looked overmatched at times. In the IU game Saturday, he missed early and had a turnover and was missing on D. I don’t think he played in the 2nd half. Still rooting for him but sometimes when you’re a big fish in a mid-major pond it doesn’t always translate to the big stage.

Why has CT regressed finishing at the cup? He hasn't been schooled correctly in how to finish. I've mentioned over and over about using tackling dummies on him to build toughness and finishing through contact. Instead, he shies away from it as much as possible. Free throws an epic disaster. CT at the line late with 1 to take the lead and it was last year's home game against Charleston all over again. May can NOT be that bad from the line for as good a shooter as he is everywhere else on the floor. It's completely unacceptable to be that consistently bad from the line and when you lose tight games, that's the first place you can go to look. As for the end of regulation, I'm a proponent of fouling when up by 3. *BUT*, if the other team has :04 and they gotta go 94 feet, then unless they loft the first pass into the frontcourt, let em chuck up a prayer and if it goes in, happy birthday. Reading that we didn't put a man on the inbounds pass makes this mess an even more horrendous error in tactic (PUT A MAN ON THE BALL, PITINO!!). If the first pass ends up in the backcourt, then play it out. I'd love to know what the instruction was in the huddle before that play happened. But here's the hidden play -- and the fact the Rules Committee changed this a few years ago really sucks -- used to be, if you got a technical foul, you lost the ball. Now, it's point of interruption. It's ludicrous (don't show up in my living room, Luda) that a team gets to keep the ball after a technical foul. Bryant took advantage and scored right away on the resumption of play whereas the way it's supposed to be (and still is in HS), we'd have had the ball up 4 and probably close things out. An incredibly frustrating loss but the silver lining is that it wasn't in conference so in the whole scheme of things, it really doesn't register much of a blip.

Can't imagine this is going to help Tarke's status for Saturday. This organization just can't let it go and admit their outdated stupidity. https://x.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1735387117583229078?s=20 (Those deemed eligible by the TRO who play within the period could still lose a year of eligibility)