Kent State outlasts MBB in overtime, 84-80

[mat1992 2,231]

10 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

What was the deal with Solomon tonight? If we ever get everyone back, seems like we have more than an 8-man rotation (Gibson, Dottin, Fobbs, Betrand, Timberlake, Gray, Tunstall, Sanders, Thompson & Solomon)

Yeah, that's 10. They figure that 8 or 9 is enough and it is on most teams. But what if you are down to a 7-man rotation due to injuries or something else. I think that's why they can wait a bit to make a final judgement on him and Howard. 

[mat1992 2,231]

1 hour ago, TSU88 said:

2 chances to win in regulation time. I was trying to think of when we’ve won a game at the buzzer during the Skerry era, other than N. Ireland. 
 

Hard to win when Fobbs & Betrand shoot 10-26, & Gray & Sanders contribute very little.
 

 

 

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Gibson is already our 2nd best player. I don’t quite understand why he didn’t touch the ball on either of the last 2 possessions in regulation.

Disappointing game from Sanders. I hope it was attributable to being rusty. Tunstall is a pretty decent outside shooter. Too bad he missed the foul shot that would have put us up by 3 near the end of regulation. I’m curious to see what kind of team we have once Timberlake & Solomon U (who sat out tonight) are back. 

I’m not sure we’re going to face a lot of teams in the CAA that are better than Kent State.

 

 

Gibson did touch the ball. He inbounded it to Betrand, who was the only guy open and well, that didn't work out. I agree that at some point, they need to put the ball in his hands and not just rely on some miraculous drive (to his left) by Fobbs. Last year, that's all we had. Fobbs sometimes hitting the shot but usually Towson falling short. Well, you were hoping that Betrand or Timberlake would be one of the other options along with Gray. I think Betrand has to go back to what he was originally and that's a slasher. He's big for a guard and he can shoot over guys. Plus he's athletic. He's not a great shooter yet. He's gotten better but I just don't like the falling down after every shot. He hurt himself tonight trying to be James Harden. Not getting calls that way. Ultimately, they have to realize that while Fobbs is the best scorer, he can only do so much when the opponent knows exactly what he's going to do. Go left and not pass to the open man.

[TSU88 1,070]

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

[mat1992 2,231]

24 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

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

Yup, so did they. Until Timberlake got hurt, Solomon had a scope and had his knee drained, Betrand and Gibson bumped heads, Sanders got hurt, and Howard got sent packing. Even Mims was coming off surgery and couldn't show much in preseason. It must be something in the Towson water. Hopefully the women stay healthy.

[Chris Datres 423]

I wish Fobbs would have realized at some point that the jumper wasn't going to fall and that he'd just keep taking the ball into the lane and start working thru traffic.  If the 3's not there, find something else that works.  Same thing with Betrand on the final inbounds play.  There was 4 seconds left, plenty of time to get a couple of dribbles to the elbow and hit a pull up.  Unfortunately, the execution just wasn't there on either of the final shots but at least Fobbs drove in, which is the way it should be handled on the final play.  But, the mentality nowadays in most players is to settle for 3's.  The other big disappointment was not being able to get a rebound when we needed it in the last 20 seconds or getting a stop at all in the last 4-5 minutes.  We just couldn't push that lead out any further once it hovered around 1-2 points.  

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

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.

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

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.

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

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😏

[mat1992 2,231]

 

[sr16 158]

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