ODU Postgame

[Chris Datres 427]

Last year in the NCAA Tournament, I saw numerous instances where a team was down less than 3 and had the last shot but ended up messing around with the ball and being forced to settle for a prayer from behind the arc that went begging.  I hoped that coaches would be better about handling end-of-game situations.  Unfortunately, our team does the same damn thing that I saw throughout last year's Tournament.  Down 1, final possession, and you have a couple of guys who can go to the rack and at least draw a foul and the result is a 25-foot prayer???  Freakin pathetic.  Between that and the endless turnovers that FRESHMAN make (stepping on the sideline TWICE, Deshaun?), I'm not sure what I'm more ticked off about.  For a veteran team to lay a fat egg in a game that should have been a W is extremely frustrating.

[TuTigers2012 1,079]

what do you expect? Skerry is an awful x and o coach. everytime he calls time outs late in games to draw up a play, I cringe.  Better off letting them play.  But deshaun and the front court were awful  zero production. and a ton of turnovers.

 

this game i expected to be a loss. top 4 c-usa team on the road with a team transitioning their style. 

 

Also can we ever get a point guard?? its like football looking for a qb.

[mat1992 2,259]

Skerry should have called timeout. He said on postgame that it was supposed to be a drive. If you have Zane and Mike, you want one of them to shoot but not settle for a 25-foot bomb. Remember, Zane is a sophomore and he's just getting used to those situations. But if he lowers the bad turnovers, he's gong to be an All-CAA player. He was great, Morsell was decent on both ends. Nobody else really showed up. Frontcourt was terrible on offense.

Point guard play was dreadful. Jordan always proves me wrong but I just don't see him as the backup point guard. He doesn't handle it well enough. Neither does Morman. You could tell Morman was out of sync having missed so much practice and the ex. games.

More later....

[mat1992 2,259]

Here are some Skerry quotes after the game

"We have to look at the blocked shots. We changed our shot at the rim. We had a poor whistle on one guy in particular I didn't like the turnovers, esp. from our seniors. Our seniors didn't take care of the ball. We got out of sync in a hostile environment. Disappointed in our offense. We'll get better. Just too many turnovers. Good effort. Good depth. We're going to play a lot of guys. Poor execution. Thought we were playing a guaranteed game. Seniors have to do a better job and have more poise. Settle us down in certain times. Zane carries us for awhile on offense. Al, Justin had pointblank layups. Have to make it. Big guys around the rim.

On last possession
We ran something for him (ZM). Has to drive it and get to the foul line. Disappointed. He'll learn from that. We had plenty of time. That's on me. We have to execute that better. Good game. Good battle.

[mat1992 2,259]

ODU is no joke. The Stith brothers can play and Caver is a quality point guard that we held to 4-14 from the field. Porter is a big man who can block shots. He killed Thomas and Gorham all night. Fortunately, that might be one of the more physical and athletic teams we'll play all year.

Here's the problem. EK is not a power forward. He's not a point guard. He's just a jack-of-all trades. But if he starts, he has to do more than get five fouls, three points and two rebounds. Just 1 for 5 from the floor. A couple of terrible 3s that didn't even come close. Gorham passed up a few threes and tried to go to the basket but he's awkward. I also thought he struggled with quicker forwards, who drove past him. But he played hard. He had 7 boards and even though he was 1 for 6, stay with him. If he plays better, he could start at the 4 or 5. I thought Tunstall was the best frontcourt player. He was active all night and had 7 boards. Was active on the press

We pressed most of the night. A little disappointed that we could only force 8 turnovers. But they had plenty of ballhandlers and experienced players. And if you score more, you can press more. We shot 7 of 26 from the field in the second half so not a lot you can do in your press. Tunstall and Ingram really make the press work. I know Ingram missed both of his shots. You know he had to be nervous playing close to home. He's going to be an exciting player for years to come.

I also noticed how small were when Gorham and Keith were up front. You can do that against some teams but it's not a good look defensively or on the boards against bigger teams.

[mat1992 2,259]

Getting back to Starr, he had three assists and three turnovers. That's not the kind of play you want from your senior. He doesn't need to be a Star. He just needs to be more unselfish on those drives and know if the other team has long shotblockers to drive and dish it back out.

But I'd like to see more of Prophete. He's kind of in the Starr mold as a big point guard who isn't very athletic. Yes, we desperately need a point guard next season. We need one this season but we don't need a great one. We just need Brian to take care of the ball and score 6-8 points. Play decent D.

 

[mat1992 2,259]

37 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

Last year in the NCAA Tournament, I saw numerous instances where a team was down less than 3 and had the last shot but ended up messing around with the ball and being forced to settle for a prayer from behind the arc that went begging.  I hoped that coaches would be better about handling end-of-game situations.  Unfortunately, our team does the same damn thing that I saw throughout last year's Tournament.  Down 1, final possession, and you have a couple of guys who can go to the rack and at least drYaw a foul and the result is a 25-foot prayer???  Freakin pathetic.  Between that and the endless turnovers that FRESHMAN make (stepping on the sideline TWICE, Deshaun?), I'm not sure what I'm more ticked off about.  For a veteran team to lay a fat egg in a game that should have been a W is extremely frustrating.

1

Veteran team yes, but Zane is not a vet. He just settled for that and they took away his left hand. He can go right but doesn't really go strong that side. Deshaun is coming off the bench and was terrible. He played just eight minutes and had four turnovers. He also missed a lot of time in preseason and it shows. Hopefully he's going to get back in the groove, because he's an outstanding defender. The press is perfect for him. 

[Chris Datres 427]

16 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Skerry should have called timeout. He said on postgame that it was supposed to be a drive. If you have Zane and Mike, you want one of them to shoot but not settle for a 25-foot bomb.

I'm usually in favor of letting the guys play it out but once it looked like they were just messing around with it and not looking to run any sort of set, then he should have gotten a timeout with 10 seconds left and get everyone set.  You run sets the entire game and then you get into the last 20 seconds and you don't know what to do.  And you've gotta get a shot up with 5-7 seconds left so if you do miss, you can get a rebound.  It's not just us, it's an epidemic throughout college basketball -- everyone has to just take the shot at the buzzer and it's usually a crappy one.

[mat1992 2,259]

I know 2012 talks about his lack of x's and o's but if you don't have a great point guard or a two-guard with great handles, I want to set something up. Get somebody a good shot, even if it's Gorham for 15 or Starr for an open look. Don't throw up that garbage. That's what happens when you leave it up to a talented sophomore that played about 15 minutes a game last season and now he's arguably the best player on the team.

[mat1992 2,259]

Agree that this game was disappointing mainly due to turnovers. We looked nervous at the beginning. Understandable. First game jitters on the road. What happened in the second half boggled the mind with 7 of 26 shooting, yet we still had a chance to win at the end. Hopefully we learn from this. The offense couldn't play much worse aside from two players and we lost by 3 on the road to a pretty good ODU team that is well-coached.