May leads MBB over W&M 61-52

[mat1992 2,237]

1 minute ago, Chris Datres said:

Wonder how he'd respond to his critics about his substitution patterns.  You sprint out of the gates with a 12-0 lead and all the points come from the paint.  WM calls timeout to regroup and we come out of the timeout with a new lineup and everything stagnates.  Why??  Drill the F out of them with the starters and then work in the bench.  Just mind boggling why we'd change what works, especially after having so many sleepy starts.

As 88 said, it's remarkable that we're in 3rd place given how ragged this team plays and how disjointed we are at times.

It's the league. We are about to play the worst team that most teams have played already. How did Charleston nearly lose to that team tonight? Is this effort good enough to win the CAA title? Of course not. Right now, UNCW has the best team and player. They are also 1-5 against us with Siddler as coach.

[TSU88 1,074]

1 minute ago, Chris Datres said:

Wonder how he'd respond to his critics about his substitution patterns.  You sprint out of the gates with a 12-0 lead and all the points come from the paint.  WM calls timeout to regroup and we come out of the timeout with a new lineup and everything stagnates.  Why??  Drill the F out of them with the starters and then work in the bench.  Just mind boggling why we'd change what works, especially after having so many sleepy starts.

As 88 said, it's remarkable that we're in 3rd place given how ragged this team plays and how disjointed we are at times.

The following observation is not exactly a revelation, but I’m convinced his substitution pattern at the beginning of games is preordained, in the same way a football coach might script out the 1st 15-20 plays on offense. Thus, no matter how well the starting 5 might be playing, he’s going to sub guys in & out. Heaven forbid he should stray from this pattern, in the event the starting 5 is, you know, playing well. Say like jumping out to a 12-0 lead 

[mat1992 2,237]

I would say that sub pattern changed a bit because Charles was dominating down low early and then he didn't bring in Paar until around the 16:00 mark. Not sure if Paar is hurt again, but he's been painful to watch lately. Struggling to catch the ball in the post or just setting a simple screen up top. If a rebound comes to him in his hands, he's ok. If he has to move, forget it. I've come to the point as a fan and alum that I'm looking forward to seeing a big with skills next season and one with some size and a Bilal Dixon-type up front with Embeya. It's just painful to watch not just Paar but all of our post players attempting to score. I know we'll miss Charles on defense next season. It's been five years so we only remember the missed FTs, the missed bunnies, the tough jump hooks, the frustration fouls. Not the tough blocked shots and offensive rebounds. That part I'll miss. Not the former.

[Chris Datres 424]

7 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

It's the league. We are about to play the worst team that most teams have played already. How did Charleston nearly lose to that team tonight? Is this effort good enough to win the CAA title? Of course not. Right now, UNCW has the best team and player. They are also 1-5 against us with Siddler as coach.

To win the CAA, we need to have 3 efforts like the Charleston game.  That's our peak performance.  Obviously, that's asking a lot for this group.  We could probably have an Elon performance in the quarterfinal game after the double-bye and MAYBE get by (our luck, the Chickens would show up against us again) but after that, it has to be A+ because our history tells us that we go belly-up in the biggest spots at the end of the season.  But that's still a few weeks away.  Let's take care of the winless team this weekend and set our sights on the top of the table.

[mat1992 2,237]

4 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

To win the CAA, we need to have 3 efforts like the Charleston game.  That's our peak performance.  Obviously, that's asking a lot for this group.  We could probably have an Elon performance in the quarterfinal game after the double-bye and MAYBE get by (our luck, the Chickens would show up against us again) but after that, it has to be A+ because our history tells us that we go belly-up in the biggest spots at the end of the season.  But that's still a few weeks away.  Let's take care of the winless team this weekend and set our sights on the top of the table.

When we lost Marcus Watson in August, I didn't think we'd have a chance to be a top-four team. The fact that we have the potential to do that with this erratic offense is testament to the defense, rebounding and recruiting of HS players because the freshmen are pretty good. The fact that we're last in two-point shooting and might get that double-bye is even more bizarre. I have to double check that stat.

[mat1992 2,237]

We are 344th in 2-point shooting I believe before tonight. That's unheard of. 44.9%. Last season, we were somehow better at 49%, which is still not good, but Charles was better, we had Cam, Nygal and Sylla. Timberlake was also pretty good at the mid-range. In comparison, W&M is at 198 at 49.8%

https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/two-point-pct

 

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

Road win.   I’ll take it.  
Gotta make road foul shots in future games.  
Shark and May 9-15 and 4-6 from 3 combined 👏

 

[TSU88 1,074]

11 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

We are 344th in 2-point shooting I believe before tonight. That's unheard of. 44.9%. Last season, we were somehow better at 49%, which is still not good, but Charles was better, we had Cam, Nygal and Sylla. Timberlake was also pretty good at the mid-range. In comparison, W&M is at 198 at 49.8%

https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/two-point-pct

 

It really defies logic how such a poor shooting team is 9-4 & in 3rd place in conference play. I mean, we can call the offense erratic or inconsistent, but the end result is the same. Why he insists on playing at a glacial pace, when we have guys who can get out an run, is a question only Skerry can answer. I’m not saying we should try and emulate Paul Westhead’s  LMU teams, but I’m sick and tired of walking the ball up and chucking up a prayer at the end of the shot clock 

 

Edited February 16 by TSU88

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

11 hours ago, mat1992 said:

Whatever. We held them to 30%, so it should have been 40%? WTF are you watching? They aren't very good but our defense was good. Yeah, that's the end result to hold teams under 60 points and under 40% from the field. Nobody is f-ing perfect. We gave up a few layups on miscommunication.

I watched a game where the team in white/grey allowed a ton of open shots, both from deep and at the rim. The team in black also got 17 offensive rebounds (some were late helter skeleter) but regardless that is too many to allow to WM. luckily they couldn’t shoot and missed countless wide open looks including 50% from the FT line. Very fortunate to come out with a win. 
But again you’ll tell Me that today isn’t Friday February 16th and that there currently isn’t a blue sky in Baltimore so..

10 hours ago, Bay Area Tiger said:

Road win.   I’ll take it.  
Gotta make road foul shots in future games.  
Shark and May 9-15 and 4-6 from 3 combined 👏

 

Ugly win but take it and move on. 1 more win till an over .500 season!!!

[Tiger93 299]

It was frustrating that we shot 48.9% and William & Mary shot 30.3% and they were still in the game until the last couple of minutes. They shot 19 more shots than we did (66-47). I know a lot of that came in garbage time, but it shouldn't have come at all. This was a team we should beat by 20, but it was close because of a subpar effort.

I did think this might have been Charles Thompson's best all-around conference game of the season. I know he missed some bunnies and had that stupid outburst, but he was a physical force on the floor and was the best player in this game from start to finish in my opinion. Tarke was a little wild with some of his turnovers, but he only took six shots and also put his physical imprint on the game with a couple of steals and a nice block. It was nice to see May get a little bit of his shooting rhythm back too. I also liked the way Sulaiman play. They didn't have anyone to match Sulaiman or Thompson's physicality it is just unfortunately we can't make the second-chance layups to make them pay.

We just have to keep winning. This team has enough talent to make a conference race out of this and make it to Wilmington at 13-4. However, they also have enough inconsistency to lose three games between now and then and be fighting it out for 5 or 6 seed. It will probably end up somewhere in the middle.