Reality check: Oakland smokes MBB, 97-86 (story)

[mat1992 2,259]

http://towsontigers.com/news/2017/12/20/mens-basketball-tigers-fall-on-the-road-at-oakland.aspx

 

This was more like a 22-24 point game. Mike Morsell hit a bunch of threes at the end to make the score look more palatable. Were they rusty to start the game? Sure but that's not an excuse at the start of the second half when Pat Skerry has to call a quick timeout because Morsell gives up a transition layup. But if they were sluggish after 11 days off, now they have just one day off before they face Pitt on Friday. No more accolades, no more 10-game winning streak, no more Top 25 votes.

Zane Martin had 22 points, while Morsell had 17. Jordan McNeill had a career-high 18 points. Tough night for Brian Starr, who had four turnovers and no assists in the first half, Kendrick Nunn had 31 points to lead the Grizzlies, the Illini transfer.

Towson ended up with 12 turnovers, while Oakland had 17. Oakland outrebounded the Tigers 34-31 and shot 53.8 percent from the field and made 11 of 24 from beyond the arc. Towson shot just 11 of 18 from the line, while Oakland made 30 of 36.

 

"He's a handful," said Skerry about Nunn in the postgame on TSN. "Our defense let us down. We played poorly. We fouled too much. That's what did us in. We fouled too much. Reaching. Silly fouls. We didn't take care of the ball in the first half. We did in the second half. We gave up 36 free throws, they hit 30. As poorly as we guarded, we fouled way too much. We looked like a team that had 11 days off. Just too many silly fouls. Alex had five fouls. Eddie five fouls. Mike four fouls. Just silly fouls"

"Pitt is good. We'll find out about out our group coming out of exams and before Christmas"

[TSU88 1,078]

Didn’t see the game, but no shame losing to these guys. Oakland may turn out to be the best team we play all season. Nunn may be the best player we face all season. Realistically, we weren’t going to run the table, so let’s use this as a “teaching moment” & move onto Pitt. Hopefully we can get a W there & then the “real season” begins with conference play. 

[TigersTigers 69]

And now for a quick reminder that we'll be fine:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'll be fine.

[mat1992 2,259]

I don't know. I don't think this team has played well since beating La Salle in Northern Ireland. Needed last-second shot to beat Manhattan without their best player, late deep three to tie Morgan State and beat them in OT and big run in last 10 minutes to beat up on UMBC. Way too much fouling tonight but I'm not worried about the D. They'll be fine. The O has to be better. When we move the ball and take quality shots, we can score 70-75 points. 

Do we need to beat Pitt desperately? No but we need to play well going into conference play. Pat Skerry's big slogan of this year is sacrifice. Ultimately, it's not about stats it's about winning and that means some guys have to sacrifice big numbers to win. Brian Starr is not a great a point guard and he doesn't need to score 20. But he needs to take care of the basketball and set people up. That didn't happen tonight. He looked to score nearly every time he had the ball. Was he in the same class as Kendrick Nunn? Of course not. He's the best player we'll play all year but CofC has three guards not as great but they are good. Our guards have go to play better and carry this team because we don't have a John Davis or Moto to give us 12-14ppg.

I'm not panicking but I can see some bad things that you can't just blame now on fatigue or rust. Let's get back to where we were in the Florida tournament and well, close to the way we played against Loyola (which was beyond good).

[TSU88 1,078]

Agreed. Time to tip our hat to Oakland & move on. Highly unlikely we’ll see as talented a trio in any other game this season as the 3 players on Oakland who scored 76 of their teams 97 points. One concern I do have is that we lack a consistent inside scoring threat, but it is what it is.

[mat1992 2,259]

Just now, TSU88 said:

Agreed. Time to tip our hat to Oakland & move on. Highly unlikely we’ll see as talented a trio in any other game this season as the 3 players on Oakland who scored 76 of their teams 97 points. One concern I do have is that we lack a consistent inside scoring threat, but it is what it is.

That was my concern with Moto and Davis gone. Thought that Gorham was going to be nearly as good but it seems like he's undersized and giving up a lot every time he plays in the paint. Tunstall and Thomas are not scorers. And then you have Eddie. I get his positives but he's not going to post up most power forwards and he's not going to blow by them without committing an offensive foul.

[Chris Datres 427]

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. 

[TSU88 1,078]

It’s too bad we don’t have Sanders, the Duquesne transfer this year. Someone who’s opinion I respect told me he could be a 12-14 ppg & 7 boards guy. But we’re going to have to make do this season with who we have. 

[mat1992 2,259]

3 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

It’s too bad we don’t have Sanders, the Duquesne transfer this year. Someone who’s opinion I respect told me he could be a 12-14 ppg & 7 boards guy. But we’re going to have to make do this season with who we have. 

I don't know about the points but they've been raving about him and I've been constantly saying he will start next season. He was a terrible foul shooter at Duquesne. He only averaged around 6-7ppg with the Dukes so 14ppg would be a lot but 10-12 and 7-8 rpg is realistic. He's a lot more mobile than Thomas, who really should be a 10-15mpg guy. We just need Gorham to get better to play the 4 spot next to Sanders because he's getting killed at the 5.

[TSU88 1,078]

Perhaps my last comments on tonight’s game: keep in mind Oakland went toe-to-toe with Michigan State for 34 minutes last Saturday before the Spartans pulled away in the last 6 minutes. And I agree that McNeil’s performance tonight is encouraging. Would be great if he could be an instant offense threat off the bench.