MBB falls to No. 6 Houston 65-49

[mat1992 2,236]

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=494370&_gl=1*14mkqlt*_ga*NDg5NjI1NzQyLjE2OTc5MjI1MTY.*_ga_2ZWVK1X7BJ*MTcwMDE4MjEzMS40LjEuMTcwMDE4NzAwOC4wLjAuMA..

This was to be expected and overall, Towson didn't play that poorly on the defensive end. The fact that we shot 38.1% from the field and 50% in the second half is a minor miracle against that team with three players out and two more that were injured. Tomiwa Sulaiman appeared to have suffered an ankle injury but did return (though was hobbling some). Also, Mekhi Lowery may have had a slight knee injury after attempting a dunk late in the game. Going 13 of 25 from the line didn't help. But we did hold an excellent Houston team to 41.4% shooting.

May led the Tigers with 10 points, but missed several open threes. At least is finding ways to score. Hicks (0-5), Williamson (0-5) and Tejada (2-8, 6 rebs) were just overwhelmed at times by their suffocating defense.

That's the major problem right now as they might have 9 or even 8 scholarship players on Friday night when they take on Utah or Wake Forest at 7pmET on ESPNU. 

Comments from Pat Skerry on TowsonTigers.com after the game

Skerry opening comments
“Houston is terrific. They are capable of winning the whole thing (national title). We didn’t have a good night at the foul line or making threes. They are deep. Don’t take a lot of possessions off. That kid Cryer is really good. They were leading the country in forcing turnovers. We took care of it tonight. Charlie played hard. Christian played a good game on both ends. Lowery showed a lot. Jones played well. 
I like our group. This is great for us. Playing high-level teams. Communication gets tested. Physical game playing Houston. We only have 10. Hoping to add a couple soon. Hope guys are healthy. Kelvin is as good a coach as anybody in the country. Can we be consistent tomorrow night? Utah has mountains. Can we take care of the ball and block out? Didn’t get to the offensive glass enough. 
 

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

Houston is legit. 3 straight sweet 16s, 1 seed last year and defends. Bad matchup for us. Our guards were awful. Shooting was poor and our best offense (getting our misses) was non existent.  Still made it competitive. Last 30 minutes for the game out scored then by 1. 
Wish we pulled some of those threes early on, instead of taking shot clock violations and ran some offense early on. Looked like deer in headlights. 
Didn’t embarrass ourselves. Closest game cougars have played all year. We have some nice pieces and role players. Even with tarke and Watson playing healthy not sure it’s enough. But Charleston did it last year with 9-12 decent guys.  
oh, us playing down a scholarship (2 really if count another tall player) hurts.  

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

Watching the night cap.  Two bad matchups for us. Utah is huge. Wake looks like they can shoot 

[mat1992 2,236]

https://towsontigers.com/news/2023/11/16/mens-basketball-towson-mens-basketball-falls-65-49-against-no-6-houston-on-thursday.aspx

It wasn't a bad effort considering what we have left in terms of scholarship players. We were already down 3 (Cole, Tarke, Watson) and then Sulaiman went down with ankle injury (it looked bad at fierst). He scored two nice layups in traffic early and one after the injury, looks more effective than Jones, who at least hit two corners 3s in the second half. We have what we have but need a lot better from Hicks and Williamson (combined 0-for-10). At least Williamson dished out four assists.

Cryer is a great college guard and their defense against us inbounding the ball was incredible. I know that's something we have to work on but geez, they were impressive defensively. 

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

We have who we have. All three that are out have been for a while. Sauliman being injured and maybe lowery hurts the depth. 

[mat1992 2,236]

2 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

We have who we have. All three that are out have been for a while. Sauliman being injured and maybe lowery hurts the depth. 

We can't make Sulaiman or Jones into guards. We only have two. When Debbie Antonelli kept saying we are thin in the frontcourt, that's really not true. You can always move Tejada up front and evem May is actually bigger than Cam. Tarke, Cole and Watson are all guards and it's killing us not to have at least one on the floor. Maybe one shows up next week or two. What we really need is for Williamson to score more. Maybe it's from the 2 spot, but that would mean playing Hicks at least 30 minutes a game until one of those guys shows up. I know Cole will be limited physically and in terms of furst, but at least he's a body who can shoot.

[mat1992 2,236]

Reading the comments on Twitter/X, a lot of Cougs fans thought they played poorly on offense. 

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

2 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Reading the comments on Twitter/X, a lot of Cougs fans thought they played poorly on offense. 

They did compared to their first three games but we were the best defensive teams they’ve played.   We may not play great or smart but we usually play well on defense and are physical. I hope 11 and 15 are special players for us 

 

6 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

We can't make Sulaiman or Jones into guards. We only have two. When Debbie Antonelli kept saying we are thin in the frontcourt, that's really not true. You can always move Tejada up front and evem May is actually bigger than Cam. Tarke, Cole and Watson are all guards and it's killing us not to have at least one on the floor. Maybe one shows up next week or two. What we really need is for Williamson to score more. Maybe it's from the 2 spot, but that would mean playing Hicks at least 30 minutes a game until one of those guys shows up. I know Cole will be limited physically and in terms of furst, but at least he's a body who can shoot.

This team was assembled this way.  Watson getting hurt was a wrench but tarkes eligibility could have been an issue that they had to know of. Waiting for him is better than no one or someone worse, with the Conway situation. Granted 0 could have helped us a lot  this year.