MBB falls to Liberty 66-54 (story)

[mat1992 2,237]

https://towsontigers.com/news/2019/12/20/mens-basketball-gibson-and-fobbs-lead-towson-against-liberty.aspx

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=289435

Sure, better team won. Can't go 6-of-14 from the line and turn the ball over 9 times against a non-pressing team in the second half against a good team. Pretty much same story. I'll be back chatting tomorrow for Saturday's Tulane game at 1pmET. They lost to a very good Akron team by 1 at the buzzer. Different Tulane team. Very athletic. A lot of P5 transfers for Ron Hunter.

Here are Skerry's quotes after the game on TSN

Coach Skerry
We didn't help ourselves from the foul line. Liberty is a terrific team. We did enough for 30-32 minutes to win the ball game. I believe in the group. I'm the guy that scheduled these teams. But there has to be a mental toughness where you don't make that turnover. I thought Jason was good. Brian has to play better. Dennis has to rebound the ball. Some good things. We haven't done enough for long enough stretches to beat really good teams. Hopefully we can get to that. It's a little bit frustrating.

At the half?
I'm not sure why would be complacent. It's a mental toughness thing. You have to stick with what helps us, esp. against good teams. We changed our ballscreen coverage. They had some looks they didn't make in the first half. I didn't think we took care of the ball, make foul shots, didn't block out. Didn't contest 3s. We weren't surprised with what we saw. We have stretches where we get away from we need to do. Good teams make you pay.

On Tulane
They're good. Different team. We are different too. Another great opportunity before we go on break and play in conference. Need to play smarter at key times.

[mat1992 2,237]

Also, we pushed the tempo in the first half. We tried in the second half, but we didn't rebound enough (-9 ratio in 2nd half). We pressed with under 2 minutes left and got a steal. We were more athletic than they were. Why not put Gray and Tunstall in the game and trap, press. Use their length because you aren't going to match up with their girth. Betrand, Gray, Tunstall and Dottin. Your defensive pressing and trapping squad.

[mat1992 2,237]

 

[TSU88 1,073]

Just got home from the game. Not a bad venue; will go back for our 1st game of CAA tournament.

As for the team, what is there to say. I’ve been to every home game, plus Morgan State & now tonight. I don’t think we’re very good, though maybe the quality of competition in conference play will be generally inferior to the OOC schedule we played. 

Was encouraged by Gibson’s play tonight, but there was no one else to be encouraged by. There will be the occasional outlier game, but, generally speaking, this team (as with many Skerry team’s) is going to struggle to score. I believe it will be the norm that this team, at least against good competition, will have 1-2 scoring deserts a night, where it will go 5-7 minutes without scoring. Other than when in transition, every position is a death struggle to score. Other than Fobbs, where are the points going to consistently come from? Betrand is struggling, Sanders will be a non-entity on nights like tonight, where he’s in early foul trouble, Gray might occasionally break double digits in a game, but I believe more times than not he’ll be a non-factor. Let’s see, who else? Dottin, Tunstall, Thompson? Maybe the 3 of them average 10-12 ppg. Timberlake? He can’t shoot (his foul shooting tonight was abysmal). Not being a good shooter is generally a liability for a shooting guard 😳. 

I’m not calling for the coach to be fired. He’s not going anywhere for years to come. His style of play/type of players he recruits speaks for itself. It is what it is.

My prediction: ceiling is 5th place in conference, with real possibility of being in one of the play-in games, come conference tournament time.
 

 

[mat1992 2,237]

So tell me more about the venue. Parking? DId you go by subway? What was the seating like?

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

3 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

So tell me more about the venue. Parking? DId you go by subway? What was the seating like?

Parking isn’t bad a few close lots and one on the other side. Had a shuttle run back and forth and was easy and the people were nice. 

Venue is nice but small. Dark lighting. No center hung scoreboard. Two side ones. Seats are close to action. Very pricy concessions. Bathrooms are small if there was a crowd it would be backed up. 

Its in a bad neighborhood and there’s nothing around. No bar. Restaurants. Or hotel. But when I left there was a cop with lights on at EVERY corner 

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

Liberty was meh. Solid team but wasn’t to impressed. It was there for us to win by 4 points in 12 minutes won’t do it. 

Got bullied by their bigs all night and kept switching. Poor Gibson got switched onto the 280 pound kid a few times. No real adjustments by skerry not surprised though.  

Gibson had a good game. No one else really  some very interesting calls by the refs tonight. 

Hopefully we can salvage one tomorrow and end OOC 5-6

[tualum 108]

5 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Parking isn’t bad a few close lots and one on the other side. Had a shuttle run back and forth and was easy and the people were nice. 

Venue is nice but small. Dark lighting. No center hung scoreboard. Two side ones. Seats are close to action. Very pricy concessions. Bathrooms are small if there was a crowd it would be backed up. 

Its in a bad neighborhood and there’s nothing around. No bar. Restaurants. Or hotel. But when I left there was a cop with lights on at EVERY corner 

Welcome to DC. Lol

[mat1992 2,237]

I would say the foul on Sanders where he tried to draw a change and was called for a foul was a joke. He ended up with three and might have had three in the first half anyways. But when you lose by 12, and you have two long droughts in the game, the refs were pretty irrelevant.

[TSU88 1,073]

I drove to Greenbelt & took the metro from there. The venue is satisfactory. It’s not a great neighborhood, but DC cops had a presence and I felt safe. Helluva lot more than I can say for when I’m in Baltimore.