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Chris Datres

Hofstra debacle

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Welp, apparently no one learned from the Old Dominion endgame situation.  They have been KILLING Hofstra inside the entire game and yet the shot we get is with 5 seconds left on the clock and it comes from 23 feet out by BRIAN STARR????  It's a tie game, GO TO THE F'ING BASKET!!!  But nope, our best driver of the ball is hanging out in the right corner (Zane) and theoretically, our best creator (Morsell) is nowhere around the ball.  It's a gross, neverending cycle in the game of basketball that teams cannot figure out how to handle the endgame situation.  Here's a tip, everyone -- go back and watch TCU last night and what they did at the end of regulation, the end of the first overtime, and the end of the second overtime.  They ran something all three times and although the TCU player missed a wide open layup at the horn, the execution was outstanding.  That is the exception rather than the norm.  Zero excuse for what we did tonite.

That being said, we should have never been in that situation.  I left my house to get back to work and Zane hits 2 free throws to go up 10 with 5:00 left.  I get to work and we're tied with 90 seconds left.  What the hell happened there?  Checking the play-by-play...turnover, turnover, turnover...sounds about right.  That and not recognizing the only damn shooter that Hofstra has (he only had 35 on the nite) is a bad formula to follow.  Yes, we only missed 7 free throws on the night but those misses came at the wrong times.  And maybe most egregious and obvious of all was the push off that Wright-Foreman had when he hit the tying 3.  The official on that side of the floor had a perfect look at it and either ignored it or is too dumb to understand what it was.

A pretty pathetic loss tonite but the one bouquet I will toss will be in Justin Gorham's direction.  20 points on 7 of 7 shooting, most of which being of the layup/slam variety.  Great work by the guys finding him inside and really for 35 minutes, we did a real nice job against their defense when we would penetrate.  Eddie could have put up 20 himself if he had just shot 11 footers all day from below the foul line instead of trying to force it closer.  It's just too bad that no one in black & gold (coaches included?) could figure out that going to the basket was the best option on the last-second play.

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Can someone smarter than me answer the following: (1) why is playing with a lead like kryptonite to us?; (2) how does your best player doink 2 foul shots at the end?; (3) please tell me that idiotic shot Starr chucked up was not what was drawn up. Not only does he shoot too soon, he takes a lousy shot, with a long rebound, giving Hofstra time to hit the game winner; (4) why can we not draw up a decent end of game shot? How many times must we watch this dreck at the end of a game? 

Did I mention this was inexplicable & disgusting?

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Just now, TSU88 said:

Can someone smarter than me answer the following: (1) why is playing with a lead like kryptonite to us?; (2) how does your best player doink 2 foul shots at the end?; (3) please tell me that idiotic shot Starr chucked up was not what was drawn up. Not only does he shoot too soon, he takes a lousy shot, with a long rebound, giving Hofstra time to hit the game winner; (4) why can we not draw up a decent end of game shot? How many times must we watch this dreck at the end of a game? 

Did I mention this was inexplicable & disgusting?

I wish I had answers to your questions and until I see what happened in the 3 1/2 minutes of game time that I missed where we blew that lead, I can't really say anything other than what the play-by-play told me.  But like I said, it's not just us that can't handle end-of-clock situations.  It would have been very easy to run a simple set that would have led to someone getting into the lane or going to the basket and maybe getting a foul.  Shooting the ball with 5-6 seconds left isn't terrible but that shot in a tie game needs to come from about 15 feet closer.  But yes, that was a panic shot by the absolutely wrong person to be taking that shot at the end.

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Coaching coaching coaching.  Said to others around me hold the ball for 17 seconds and chuck it up to the rafters.  

 

Hofsrta had 3 players with 4 fouls and one fouled out.  OT would have won the game. 

Mike didn’t get the ball becuse skerry benched him the second half

 

9 more years of being more talented and decent to ok but never taking the next step  500 in conference seems the ceiling 

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Morsell played just 18 minutes tonight. He didn't play down the stretch. I think I'd rather have Chris in the game than DeShaun Mormon for offense. Even Morman's defense wasn't good tonight. I know Wright-Foreman is basically unguardable.

Let's start with a couple of points. I don't get not using Mike late in games. Pat said he had a bad game. No rebounds. Yet he's made big shots before. He should be in there with Zane and not Deshaun or Jordan.

The press has disappeared. They brought it back (zone press) late in the first half with Dennis at the head of it and they forced a turnover. Then they didn't press the rest of the way. Hofstra was sloppy with the ball. I think we press at least 20 minutes, we win. I don't know why you don't press with McNeill, Morsell, Morman, Tunstall and even EK and Zane. All pretty athletic or long in some form or fashion.

Pat is going to point to the defense and I think he's 1/2 right. The offense was terrible in the second half even though we shot 45% from the field. We couldn't make anything outside of 5 feet. The zone slowed the offense down to a very slow pace and I think once we get the 10 point lead we start playing the clock. That's what average teams do. Great teams put the games away. I don't know what we are but I certainly don't think we're close to being great. I almost feel we're stuck in the middle of the league despite going 2-1 on this homestand, it feels like we went 1-2 after tonight's loss.

Give Hofstra credit. I think we made their defense look good. And it's not a great D. Or even average. We struggle against zone because we' not a very good passing team.

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7 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Morsell played just 18 minutes tonight. He didn't play down the stretch. I think I'd rather have Chris in the game than DeShaun Mormon for offense. Even Morman's defense wasn't good tonight. I know Wright-Foreman is basically unguardable.

 

I'm 5'7 and can't really shoot over anyone too much taller than me.  But sure, I'll get out there and give it a shot!!

I would imagine Skerry will also point at the defensive rebounding as a problem in this game.  Hofstra is definitely a team we don't match up well with when Gustys and Sabety are in the game.  There was a lot of volleyball on the boards and for once, we weren't getting some of those that we normally gobble up.

Agree with you on the press.  They put it on at the end of the first half, drew a turnover and a bucket and then we never saw it again.  For a team that wants to play faster, they didn't really live up to that ideal in these 3 home games.

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This is demoralizing & spoils the previous 2 games on the homestand. Now we go into a hornets nest Saturday, against an undefeated conference foe in W&M. 

I assumed Morsell was injured. Guess not. 

Why, why, why not put the ball in ZM’s hands. Tell him drive with 5 seconds left. If he makes the shot, we win; if he gets fouled we maybe win; if he misses, it goes to OT and, as someone posted above, Hofstra was in serious trouble with fouls.

 I suppose I’m pessimistic by nature, but im really pessimistic about this team going forward. We are who we are-win 1, lose lose 1, maybe finish anywhere from 3-6 in the conference. Hard to imagine running the table in the conference tournament. A program adrift, unable to win close games by in large, lacking real signature W’s & unable to get to the dance. Always “wait’ll next year.”  It’s sort of like Groundhog Day.

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25 minutes ago, TigerNation said:

I thought we would atleast go to OT. Not sure why Starr has the ball at the end of the game and why he would take that shot. Skerry has to fix this. 

Starr is the best player with the ball because he's not a human turnover like some others. His job though should be to get the ball to Starr coming off a screen or drive to the basket. Maybe EK should get the ball at the end of games. Not many options. We don't really have a great shot creator.

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