MBB falls at W&M 68-66

[Blounge 521]

I just don’t understand how Russell has regressed so much. He was playing great ball earlier in the year, but now he can’t seem to shoot or defend. He wasn’t wearing a headband last night like he usually does so maybe he needs to put his lucky headband back on.

I didn’t understand why Cam was the inbounder on the final play to Nic for the alley op. Shouldn’t we have our top scorer out there when we need a bucket desperately? 

Giving May the start over Conway was an interesting decision too knowing May can’t play on the road. Maybe put hicks in if Conway is too hurt to produce?

Also, the big fella, mayor of Towson, Charles Thompson is not giving us the spark he did last year. Not sure if his ankle injury in the tourney last year is the cause, but we need him to be an alpha.

Cam might need therapy. I’ve heard of golf therapy/sports psychologist. Maybe he needs to see a specialist to be able to better manage his emotions on the court. His technical fouls and turnovers are too costly.

Coach Skerry loves Nic because their both Massachusetts guys but if your prodigal son is shooting 1-9 how can you objectively make the decision to trust him to make a bucket at the buzzer?

[TSU88 1,074]

3 minutes ago, Blounge said:

I just don’t understand how Russell has regressed so much. He was playing great ball earlier in the year, but now he can’t seem to shoot or defend. He wasn’t wearing a headband last night like he usually does so maybe he needs to put his lucky headband back on.

I didn’t understand why Cam was the inbounder on the final play to Nic for the alley op. Shouldn’t we have our top scorer out there when we need a bucket desperately? 

Giving May the start over Conway was an interesting decision too knowing May can’t play on the road. Maybe put hicks in if Conway is too hurt to produce?

Also, the big fella, mayor of Towson, Charles Thompson is not giving us the spark he did last year. Not sure if his ankle injury in the tourney last year is the cause, but we need him to be an alpha.

Cam might need therapy. I’ve heard of golf therapy/sports psychologist. Maybe he needs to see a specialist to be able to better manage his emotions on the court. His technical fouls and turnovers are too costly.

Coach Skerry loves Nic because their both Massachusetts guys but if your prodigal son is shooting 1-9 how can you objectively make the decision to trust him to make a bucket at the buzzer?

So what I think I’m hearing you say is that there might be some cracks in the team’s foundation?🤔😆

I don’t know about Holden needing therapy, but after these last two games I sure as hell do

[TSU88 1,074]

There’s 5 seconds left in the game. We have the ball. Score is tied, or we’re down by 1-3 points. I’d like to see a show of hands of those who honestly believe the coaching staff will scheme up a good look or that one of our players will simply create a good look on their own and knock down the shot 

[mat1992 2,238]

16 minutes ago, Blounge said:

I just don’t understand how Russell has regressed so much. He was playing great ball earlier in the year, but now he can’t seem to shoot or defend. He wasn’t wearing a headband last night like he usually does so maybe he needs to put his lucky headband back on.

I didn’t understand why Cam was the inbounder on the final play to Nic for the alley op. Shouldn’t we have our top scorer out there when we need a bucket desperately? 

Giving May the start over Conway was an interesting decision too knowing May can’t play on the road. Maybe put hicks in if Conway is too hurt to produce?

Also, the big fella, mayor of Towson, Charles Thompson is not giving us the spark he did last year. Not sure if his ankle injury in the tourney last year is the cause, but we need him to be an alpha.

Cam might need therapy. I’ve heard of golf therapy/sports psychologist. Maybe he needs to see a specialist to be able to better manage his emotions on the court. His technical fouls and turnovers are too costly.

Coach Skerry loves Nic because their both Massachusetts guys but if your prodigal son is shooting 1-9 how can you objectively make the decision to trust him to make a bucket at the buzzer?

Cam is our best passer and is 6-5 so I don’t mind him inbounding the ball there. Not easy for a smaller guy to pass it over a long defender. Russell was ok defensively yesterday but there’s a reason why he was benched. As for Cam and his emotions, that’s something he might want to pursue, but it’s too late for Towson.

[TSU88 1,074]

4 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Russell was ok defensively yesterday but there’s a reason why he was benched

Since you brought it up, do you mean his offensive struggles, or some off-the-court issue was the reason he was benched? 

[Tiger93 299]

47 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Cam is our best passer and is 6-5 so I don’t mind him inbounding the ball there. Not easy for a smaller guy to pass it over a long defender. Russell was ok defensively yesterday but there’s a reason why he was benched. As for Cam and his emotions, that’s something he might want to pursue, but it’s too late for Towson.

Other than a turnaround buzzer-beater that full-court inbound worked about as good as expected. The William & Mary defender almost fouled Timberlake and it acted like an NBA timeout. The halfcourt inbound base was pretty good too, and the fact that that Timberlake tipped it and it hit the rim was as about as good as we could have hoped. There are a lot of things to not like, but that part was fine. Not a lot of great plays for down 2 from full court with 1.4 seconds left. 

[mat1992 2,238]

57 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

Since you brought it up, do you mean his offensive struggles, or some off-the-court issue was the reason he was benched? 

On court

[Tiger93 299]

There were a boatload of things to hate about this team from last night's game. William & Mary clearly made some adjustments from the first game that I am not completely sure we were ready for. They had way too many good looks from three-point land, and it showed in the final 10-19 numbers the Tribe put up. Our road form and play in tight games has been shaky all year, and that is equal parts coaching and execution from experienced veterans down the stretch. 

It has been an incredibly disappointing season this year pretty much since Gibson went down and we've be unable to regain form. I don't think we a lot of it on his injury, but this team just hasn't quite figured out to get to the level we all thought they would reach. That is a mix of a lot of things. 

The latest stretch has been tough losing three games by 13 total points, and really melting down in the stretch of all three games. We have played well enough in each to win, but we just aren't very good at making plays down the stretch this year. I am not sure we were awesome at it last year, but we were in such a grove we won a lot of games going away and toughed out some bad efforts for wins. 

I like others don't feel great about what is coming up down the stretch. That being said, we have a minimum of five games left, and I do think some of this can be righted with a win against Delaware who we owe some serious payback to after the last two meetings. This won't make up for anything in the past and it won't make me feel better about last year or even the stretch we are on now, but we have still have four regular-season games, this team has not stopped playing hard, and we have beaten everyone once but Delaware, Charleston and UNC-W (we will get chances to do that in the next two weeks). 

I just think it is a little misguided to whine like the season is already over and put down this team like they have already been knocked out of the tournament. Can we live in the present just a little, and save some of our disappointment for when it is actually completely warranted?

I get last night was a sucky game, that this season is a disappointment, and that we probably won't reach our goals we had, but as long as this group is still fighting to win (which I believe is the one thing I can't fault them on right now) I will try to muster up some belief and give some respect to the guys who still believe they can accomplish those goals. 

[TSU88 1,074]

12 minutes ago, Tiger93 said:

There were a boatload of things to hate about this team from last night's game. William & Mary clearly made some adjustments from the first game that I am not completely sure we were ready for. They had way too many good looks from three-point land, and it showed in the final 10-19 numbers the Tribe put up. Our road form and play in tight games has been shaky all year, and that is equal parts coaching and execution from experienced veterans down the stretch. 

It has been an incredibly disappointing season this year pretty much since Gibson went down and we've be unable to regain form. I don't think we a lot of it on his injury, but this team just hasn't quite figured out to get to the level we all thought they would reach. That is a mix of a lot of things. 

The latest stretch has been tough losing three games by 13 total points, and really melting down in the stretch of all three games. We have played well enough in each to win, but we just aren't very good at making plays down the stretch this year. I am not sure we were awesome at it last year, but we were in such a grove we won a lot of games going away and toughed out some bad efforts for wins. 

I like others don't feel great about what is coming up down the stretch. That being said, we have a minimum of five games left, and I do think some of this can be righted with a win against Delaware who we owe some serious payback to after the last two meetings. This won't make up for anything in the past and it won't make me feel better about last year or even the stretch we are on now, but we have still have four regular-season games, this team has not stopped playing hard, and we have beaten everyone once but Delaware, Charleston and UNC-W (we will get chances to do that in the next two weeks). 

I just think it is a little misguided to whine like the season is already over and put down this team like they have already been knocked out of the tournament. Can we live in the present just a little, and save some of our disappointment for when it is actually completely warranted?

I get last night was a sucky game, that this season is a disappointment, and that we probably won't reach our goals we had, but as long as this group is still fighting to win (which I believe is the one thing I can't fault them on right now) I will try to muster up some belief and give some respect to the guys who still believe they can accomplish those goals. 

If you think some of these posts are “whining” (which I don’t, but that’s in the eye of the reader) just wait to see what happens if (notice I didn’t say when) we lose in the 1st or 2nd round in DC.  Unfathomable we’ve never won more than 1 game in the conference tournament after all the years under this coach.  Hopefully this will be the year he breaks that ignominious streak 

[Tiger93 299]

26 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

If you think some of these posts are “whining” (which I don’t, but that’s in the eye of the reader) just wait to see what happens if (notice I didn’t say when) we lose in the 1st or 2nd round in DC.  Unfathomable we’ve never won more than 1 game in the conference tournament after all the years under this coach.  Hopefully this will be the year he breaks that ignominious streak 

It will make more sense in two weeks if and when it happens, but I know we all root for teams in different ways and I always try not to disrespect the passion we all have for this program since I wish there were more like all of us.

The one thing I can say about guys like Timberlake and Thompson is no matter what they do they will fight to the end, so I will try to be respectful and appreciative of their efforts and not write them off until the final buzzer of the last game sounds 

Finally, the comments about only being happy with 17 wins being loser's mentality crack me up. First off, very few actually believe that. Second, already assuming we will lose in the conference tournament by week three of the season is just as much, if not more, of a loser's mentality than those that are happy with the fact that we have a competitive team that is among the top four of the conference a decent amount of the time recently.

I get the unhappiness of the coach because all of us have things to some degree that drive us crazy about the way this team performs. However, once the season starts I'd like to think there is possibility it can be figured out. Even if by season's end sometimes I feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football.