MBB beats Drexel 64-58 without Holden

[Tiger93 299]

I will start this off by saying I think this team needs Cam to be a top level CAA team, and I hope this was only a short-term thing. I enjoy a lot of what he brings to the team and it is great to have a multi-dimensional player like him on the team who can affect the game in so many ways. 

All that being said, there just has been something off with him this year and particularly in the last four games. Coming into the Drexel game, Holden had 23 turnovers in the last four games 31% of the 73 for the team (18.25 turnovers per game). Last night, Towson had only its fourth game of the year with less than 10 turnovers (5 of which came from Russell, who got a little sloppy at the end of the game).

Last night, Towson had its fourth-best FG pct. game of the year (.455, still not all that great), held an opponent to the lowest shooting percentage (.407) since Mercer (partially due to horrible perimeter shooting by Drexel), and had its third-best three-point shooting performance (.462) of the year. I think there is no doubt that Cam makes this team better, but his decision-making and defense lately have hurt the team and I do believe last night we saw a more locked in effort as a team.

I don't think this all related to Cam not playing, but whatever way this team did last night they needed to clean up a lot of what has been ailing them during this losing streak. For one game they did that. This four-game stretch that includes at Delaware and Hofstra at home (as well as two absolute should-win games against Stony Brook) should help us see if we can get back on track taking care of the all, shooting a little better and playing better defense. 

As others have referenced, it is probably not fully sustainable without Cam the rest of the way but I think it was a good get-back-to-basics effort. Again, I hope this is short-term situation and nothing long-term because he was a big part of the most successful D-1 regular-season this program has had. 

 

[TuTigers2012 1,062]

2 hours ago, Blounge said:

Sekou had his best performance at SECU this far. Was close to writing him off as a bust. Hicks stepped up and played better. Timberlake needs to shoot like that every game. Charlie looking like himself again.

drexel was bad, couldn’t buy a bucket for long stretches. Good to get a win and get that 5 game losing streak stink off us. But this is not gonna cut it against the UNCWs and CofCs of the world. 
 

hope Cam returns. Hope Gibson returns. Hope Parr returns. Without them it’s gonna be tough load management

It’s going to be tough regardless. 

1 hour ago, Blounge said:

There was no DP Dough calzone promo to get the butts in the seats

Wouldn’t call that playing down. Drexel is a meh team. We currently are a meh team. 
our marketing and promotions staff is below meh 

[Royal Tiger 57]

Good defensive effort against a bad offensive team. 64 points with just 8 turnovers and Nick and Sylla playing at their ceiling is not too encouraging. Luckily there are a lot of bad teams in this conference that 9-9 and 5 seed is probably attainable with what's left and go 1-1 in CAAT.  18 wins this year and people will be ecstatic here, just playing with the hand we are dealt this year! Despite being near unanimous preseason favorites and preseason top 80 team, looking more like McNeil and Alex Thomas type season.

[Blazer49 184]

11 hours ago, mat1992 said:

He didn't play tonight. Maybe we took care of the ball better because of it. He handles the ball 75% of the time and hasn't taken care of the ball.

Kind of a cryptic message here from coach.  Seems like whatever happened with him possibly involved coach/coaches.  Whatever it is, it needs to be addressed quick as possible, back next game, two more games, not coming back decide and announce soon.

Best of both worlds for me, thanks to that late three by Drexel.  Towson wins but doesn't cover!  You have to continue to fade this team when favored for the time being.

[mat1992 2,233]

44 minutes ago, Royal Tiger said:

Good defensive effort against a bad offensive team. 64 points with just 8 turnovers and Nick and Sylla playing at their ceiling is not too encouraging. Luckily there are a lot of bad teams in this conference that 9-9 and 5 seed is probably attainable with what's left and go 1-1 in CAAT.  18 wins this year and people will be ecstatic here, just playing with the hand we are dealt this year! Despite being near unanimous preseason favorites and preseason top 80 team, looking more like McNeil and Alex Thomas type season.

Nobody will be ecstatic with 18 wins and a fifth seed even if Cam and Gibby don’t play the rest of the year.

[TSU88 1,073]

5 hours ago, Blounge said:

Remind me what happened to Morman?

He got kicked off the team during the season, several years ago 

[TuTigers2012 1,062]

1 hour ago, mat1992 said:

Nobody will be ecstatic with 18 wins and a fifth seed even if Cam and Gibby don’t play the rest of the year.

Not saying you will be, but there certainly are some that will

[TigerFan54 102]

Nice piece on CT -- he's as impressive a guy off the court as he is on it.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2023/1/5/mens-basketball-student-athlete-spotlight-charles-thompson.aspx

 

[mat1992 2,233]

7 minutes ago, TigerFan54 said:

Nice piece on CT -- he's as impressive a guy off the court as he is on it.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2023/1/5/mens-basketball-student-athlete-spotlight-charles-thompson.aspx

 

Put that in the General thread

[Tiger93 299]

1 hour ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Not saying you will be, but there certainly are some that will

Not many will be. We were below expectations in the non-conference part of what we all expected so far as well as the NET rankings. We are still only two games into the conference season so any judgement at this point would be ridiculous. We are all free to project what we think will happen and how we will judge it, but we have very little conference play data yet.

That being said, based on what we entered the season expecting I don't think any of us will be happy at 9-9 in conference play, 18 wins and one in the conference tournament. What we think should be done as a result of that will likely vary as it often does on this message and almost every other message board I have ever visited when it comes to topics like that. That is why we post and have these conversations.