MBB holds on to beat Morgan State 67-58

[mat1992 2,236]

29 minutes ago, Blounge said:

I loved seeing the chase parr/Charlie Thompson combo package. Put both those big bodies in and Morgan had no idea how to respond. Happy to see prime time parr have a breakout performance. CT is our draymond, emotional leader, heart and soul of the team, but don’t rely on him to make shots. Gotta be impressed with the way Dylan and Tejada battle as freshman. They need to grow up fast and play like seniors not freshman if we are gonna be good! The NCAA is not doing us any favors with the Tarke fiasco, complete malarkey! I was shocked when Mekai lowery swatted a shot then proceed to get swatted in the face by a Morgan state bear! Good for tejada for being a fearless freshman and getting in the bear’s face! I like that we have a chippy identity. The conference tourney game with college of Charleston almost resulted in a bench clearing brawl 30 seconds into the game. Let’s play into being the villain! Towson tough, york road bullies, bad boys of Burke avenue 

Personally, I'm not looking for a Chase/CT frontcourt as a regular thing since there's no spacing on offense and Chase has to guard guys about 4-5 inches shorter and much quicker. I'd rather see a smaller frontcourt with Tejada playing the 4, but right now, we're very limited in what we can do. They should do some out-of-the-box things and with Messiah Jones often in foul trouble and Sulaiman still trying to gain his footing defensively in D1, playing Chase at the 4 is fine. I thought it was a bit funny at the end of the half, when he had the ball at the three-point line, faked it and drove tyring a sweeping hook shot that missed. His brother Cole was on the sidelines telling him to jack a 3 up.

[Chris Datres 423]

Nice to be back in the house for another win.  I’m 3-0 in the ‘name your price’ Arena.  Though, should I have been surprised that the secu signage is still on the outside?  General Services moves as fast as the NCAA with the Tarke decision. 
 

To quote Bill Walton - This is the best game I’ve seen Chase Paar play.  He was assertive and seemed confident with the ball in his hand.  That slam in the first half was the strongest I’ve seen one of our big men take it in a while.  It bothered me even more to see it in person how CT refuses to go to the basket and instead does that fade crap.  He’d have 6-8 more points per game if he’d just go into Hulk mode at the rack.  But that’s something you have to instill and reinforce in practice.  
 

Guard play…tough to watch at the end.  We played with a double digit lead like we were down 4.  But that’s youth for ya.  We missed a number of PNR opportunities and when we finally went to it, CT got it to May for a corner 3.  It’s almost like the guards don’t know how to make an entry pass.  Both Paar and CT, and even Sulaiman, were showing their numbers deep in the paint and there was no pass.  Again, inexperienced guards are still tentative to make those passes.  
 

All told, take the win in a shorthanded situation and move on.  The Bunnies are gonna be tough on Friday night so we’re gonna need to be a lot more buttoned up. 

[mat1992 2,236]

A bigger concern is Jones, which is why I keep bringing up Tejada at the 4 and more Sulaiman, who had 9 and 7 in 18 minutes today. He gets the ball on the wing several times today and doesn't shoot the three. To me, he is a backup center even though he's only 6-6, 235. He's strictly a low-post player and doesn't really finish well inside against smaller or bigger guys. Sulamain at least has found a pet move with his back to the basket and then goes to his left. He's finishing a tad better than the others and Tejada, even though he is 20+ pounds lighter than the other big guys, finishes pretty well, especially on drives to the cup with either hand. Even though he struggled with the 3 tonight (made one early), he can be the stretch 4 we've been looking 4 but again, all that is difficult to do with no Cole, Tarke and Hicks.

[mat1992 2,236]

13 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

Nice to be back in the house for another win.  I’m 3-0 in the ‘name your price’ Arena.  Though, should I have been surprised that the secu signage is still on the outside?  General Services moves as fast as the NCAA with the Tarke decision. 
 

To quote Bill Walton - This is the best game I’ve seen Chase Paar play.  He was assertive and seemed confident with the ball in his hand.  That slam in the first half was the strongest I’ve seen one of our big men take it in a while.  It bothered me even more to see it in person how CT refuses to go to the basket and instead does that fade crap.  He’d have 6-8 more points per game if he’d just go into Hulk mode at the rack.  But that’s something you have to instill and reinforce in practice.  
 

Guard play…tough to watch at the end.  We played with a double digit lead like we were down 4.  But that’s youth for ya.  We missed a number of PNR opportunities and when we finally went to it, CT got it to May for a corner 3.  It’s almost like the guards don’t know how to make an entry pass.  Both Paar and CT, and even Sulaiman, were showing their numbers deep in the paint and there was no pass.  Again, inexperienced guards are still tentative to make those passes.  
 

All told, take the win in a shorthanded situation and move on.  The Bunnies are gonna be tough on Friday night so we’re gonna need to be a lot more buttoned up. 

Dylan Williamson is our only true guard and he's learning how to be a point guard. While had a couple of bad turnovers and one really bad foul, he did dish out five assists (4 TOs). That first three from May was well set up by Williamson and it was because we pushed the ball up the court off a miss. Not saying we have to play in the 50s in tempo, but it would be nice to let Williamson, Lowery and May get some transition opportunities. I thought the ball movement was awful in the first half and so was the lack of off-ball movement. In the second half, May, Tejada, and everyone in the paint had good looks. The ball movement was much better and then we just missed shots. There should have been more 10 assists, but I'm sure that's been said a lot over the years.

The fact that Wynston Tabbs, their leading scorer, got thrown out for slapping Lowery in the first half, didn't hurt our cause.

[mat1992 2,236]

BTW, it was good to see Chris at the game. If anybody wants to stop by before the game or at halftime, you guys know where I am. Right in the corner next to the band and I'll be happy to talk to you.

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

I thought Hicks was just in concussion protocol??  He’s coming back soon right?

 

[mat1992 2,236]

36 minutes ago, Bay Area Tiger said:

I thought Hicks was just in concussion protocol??  He’s coming back soon right?

 

He’s out for awhile. Guessing he’ll miss the next few games. This is not his first concussion.

 

 

[mat1992 2,236]

A rare appearance by Chase in a press conference 

 

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

11 hours ago, mat1992 said:

Dylan Williamson is our only true guard and he's learning how to be a point guard. While had a couple of bad turnovers and one really bad foul, he did dish out five assists (4 TOs). That first three from May was well set up by Williamson and it was because we pushed the ball up the court off a miss. Not saying we have to play in the 50s in tempo, but it would be nice to let Williamson, Lowery and May get some transition opportunities. I thought the ball movement was awful in the first half and so was the lack of off-ball movement. In the second half, May, Tejada, and everyone in the paint had good looks. The ball movement was much better and then we just missed shots. There should have been more 10 assists, but I'm sure that's been said a lot over the years.

The fact that Wynston Tabbs, their leading scorer, got thrown out for slapping Lowery in the first half, didn't hurt our cause.

Wish we would push it more too but that’s not going to happen. 
I think Williamson being thrust into the ball handler spot will pay dividends. Yes he’s better off the ball and can create his shot off the dribble more than most but he’s our leading assist man(not saying much) and has a 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.  That’s not bad considering.  He could have a few more more but some of our misses were ugly ones. 
 

5 needs to step up. And by step up, I mean play like even an average mid major role player.  If he can shoot 40 and 33 from the field and three, we are scoring ~68 a game not 60

[TSU88 1,073]

5 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

needs to step up. And by step up, I mean play like even an average mid major role player.  If he can shoot 40 and 33 from the field and three, we are scoring ~68 a game not 60

On this I agree. The success of the team this season was premised to some degree on the belief/hope that May would make the freshmen to sophomore year improvement, such that he would average in the low teens-not seamlessly step into Timberlake’s shoes, but at least be a consistent scoring threat. It’s obviously a small sample size so far, but the early results are not favorable