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mat1992

MBB falls to JMU, 69-66 on Senior Night

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http://towsontigers.com/news/2018/2/17/mens-basketball-nipped-by-jmu-in-home-finale.aspx

17 turnovers and 10 of 23 from the line. Very late call in the last minute when Martin stole the ball and would have had an easy layup/dunk to tie the game but Mosley got the call and made both FTs. That's a four point swing but it shouldn't have come to that. Some of those passes today were just inexcusable. Throwing the ball to the bench. Gorham not looking for the pass when Starr throws it. Again problems inbounding the ball underneath the basket. Starr not on the same page with Gorham we're in the what, 29th game? Decent crowd for the snow. I'll have comments later. But JMU has some really good guards and our lack of size, length and athleticism up front hurts against a team like that. Even though we outrebounded them, it felt like we gave up every key offensive rebound.

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I thought I had seen more than the day's share of inexplicable turnovers during the lax game but no.  At least with lax, it was just their 2nd game of the season.  It was absurd seeing some of the miscues that were made tonite.  McNeill throws the ball into the JMU bench in the first half when all he had to do was take one more dribble and he had either a 5-foot pullup or a gliding layup.  But he's too weak physically to do anything near the basket (just witness the two layups he was nowhere close on in the first half, though he did get fouled on one of them).  Late in the game, it comes to Starr with 4 seconds on the shot clock and he's in the corner so he goes to the basket and rather than just taking it himself to see what happens, he tries to shovel it to Thomas who would have had zero chance of doing anything with the ball before the horn (know your personnel, you are the point guard, right?).  And then the free throws.  Pathetic.  A college team that shoots like that from the line should lose every time.  The call against Zane on the steal was questionable but Mosley sold it just enough with his body movement and the ref, who had zero angle to call what he think was contact, was gullible enough to buy it.  But you're right, it should have never come down to that.  We'll be lucky if we're not only one-and-done in Charleston but if we're even in that game because by that point, I bet these guys check out.

As for the final play and the shot being taken by Gorham and not Morsell or Zane, I actually didn't have an issue with it.  But I think Starr rushed the pass just a little bit.  If he waits another half second, Gorham has a cleaner look.  Everyone in purple knew it was going to be 23 or 0 getting that look and with 1.1 left, you don't have much time to do anything and it's tough to get any momentum toward the basket.  Gorham likely had the best look for the time on the clock.

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Pat Skerry opening comment
Disappointing loss. On a night when we guarded and rebounded, we didn't do a good job at the foul line, we had some
ridiculous turnovers. We just haven't shown the mental ability to finish close games.

We were 10 for 23 from the foul line. That's not intentional. We got there. We had really good foul shooting guys
statistically missing. They had guys in the 40s and 50s made them. Just careless turnovers. The last out of bounds,
Justin Gorham was wide open. We panicked and threw it away. I know our older guys really wanted to win and it was
their last performance here. What's totally hampered us is our mental ability to close ballgames. We're going to be
in them, we're going to play hard, we try to prepare. Unfortunately, it takes a little bit more than that. How many
of these have we had? A lot unfortunately. One night, it's where are we defensively. Then we struggle at the foul
line. Silly turnovers. Six turnovers is a lot (on Starr). Just some mindboggling plays. Hold them to 40%, shoot 46%.
Pretty good? Win by six on the glass. Foul shooting and turnovers are just not a good combination. Thought Justin
played well, Zane rallied in the second half. Thought Jordan gave us a good boost. It's Senior Day so you try to ride
a couple of your seniors because you want them to have that big moment but it didn't work out that way.

On Tunstall
I thought he's had a good year for us. He's played hurt all year. He gets it. He'll only get better. If I could do it
over again, I'd probably play Dennis and Jordan more and couple of the other guys less. You are going to sink or swim
with your older guys. Unfortunately lately, we're sinking more than we're swimming.

On last 10 games (5-5, w/l)
Tough losses. It takes some mental toughness to win close ballgames. Nomrally we've done that, this group we haven't.
If I knew how to make us mentally tougher at the foul line or taking care of the ball, not committing silly foul.
We get tied up on double foul. That can't happen, we're in transition. It can't happen. We'e made those type of plays
since conference play has started. It's like the kid that reaches into the cookie jar before dinner, he gets slapped
and it get hurts. We have not learned those lessons, especially our older guys. We continue to fight that.
We don't get the result. We continue to.

On foul shooting
It's mental. This is the best foul shooting team we've had since I've been here statistically. Now, if you look at
our foul shooting the last five mintues of games, it's like 15% less. We looked at it a couple of weeks ago. We
spend a lot of practice on it. In hindsight, maybe not enough. In reality, it's about focus and sticking to your
routine. Seeing the ball go in the basket. In a one possession game, 10 for 23 jumps off the page.

On first half start
Silly unforced turnovers. Quarterback throwing six interceptions. We talked a lot that they will trap ball screens.
We knew they would change defenses. They played zone in the first half and man in the second half. We're pretty good
against the man. We got whatever we want. We got to the line and they foul the most in the league but I guess in
hindsight that weasn't that good of a thing for us.

Brian can't throw that pass to Justin in transition. You have to own it. He's playing minutes, he has the ball in his
hands. Thought his defense was pretty good. Stats aren't great for the amount of minutes.

We've played hard and prepared. We're not as good as we usually are in rebounding but we still have the best rebounding
margin in the league. That's an effort thing. We have some talented guys and they play hard. It starts with me but
we have not done a good job of winning close ball games. Look at Notheastern and Charleston, they've done an outstanding
job winning tight games. Unless you are just a special team, you have a couple of nights where you just get outplayed.
Then what happens with those other 8-10 games. You have to go 7-3 to be really good, not 3-7. We've been the other way.
That's why we are .500. Nobody is happy being 18-11. We should be better. We have a couple of older guys. It seems
like I'm fighting certain things with them.

On Mosley
He's a good player. The way offenses are. I didn't think we guarded the 3 well in the first half but did it better
in the second half. He had a good lefty drive in the second half, scouting report error. They made their foul shots.
Shooting 43% from the line is not a good number.

On Senior Class
This group, we have three talented guys. Good guys. They want to have success. Mike is potentially a Hall of Famer.
He's a had a great career. Brian has done a solid job. We wanted an older quarterback on last year's team to come in
a run it. Ed has played every position and he's an emotional guy. Plays pretty hard. Unfortunately, we are a little
behind, not with Jarrell because he was a special player, but Damas, Burwell, Guthrie, Parker, Davis, even Jamel
Flash, those guys had better leadership skills. That's clearly been a challenge. That's why we've had so many of
these tough ones.

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Smoked by a bunch of underclassmen on senior day. Embarassing.  But starr leaving has to be a positive for next year. WTH 6 turnovers and couldn’t inbound the ball late.  

Ft awful. Crappy day all around. Dennis needs to play more.  Honestly at this point he changes the game for the better way more than gorham and alex

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10 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Smoked by a bunch of underclassmen on senior day. Embarassing.  But starr leaving has to be a positive for next year. WTH 6 turnovers and couldn’t inbound the ball late.  

Ft awful. Crappy day all around. Dennis needs to play more.  Honestly at this point he changes the game for the better way more than gorham and alex

I think one good offseason for Tunstall and Gorham and we are looking solid next year. I do think Starr is very inconsistent, I would love to see Zane work on his ball handling over the summer and be that guy next year. I just hope we can make surprises during the tournament.

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What’s disheartening is that this team hasn’t really gotten better at anything as the season has gone on.  If anything, I feel like they’ve regressed.  I think that’s an indictment of the coaching staff.

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 Reading the coaches comments – it seems to me he’s really calling out his seniors. He said perhaps he should’ve played some other guys more and some guys less -  and the one comment about him fighting some of the seniors. This team has been so so disappointing. They get swept by one of the worst teams in the conference, Madison, and barely beat the other bottom team,Delaware

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I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again-with this crop of seniors on the way out the door, it’s addition by subtraction as far as next year goes.

Starr throws away the inbounds pass (is it just me, or do we struggle mightily every game to inbounds the ball)

EK’s FT attempt at the end of the game was cringeworthy; a grade schooler would have more touch.

Morsell scores 4 points in the 1st 30 seconds, & 6 points the rest of the game.

 

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As much as everyone complains about players getting angry and frustated with  eachother and  coaches,  I don’t see a worse attitude than gorham which leads me to believe he transfers 

 

caa is loaded next year everyone on the first and second all caa team will be back minus Chealey 

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Was a pretty bad game. Noticeable things that stood out was how Starr performed. Everytime I took a look at the feed he turns it over (from going baseline and getting nearly trapped with a bad pass that went no where, to the inbound pass at the end of the game that flew over his teammate's head). Guy is pretty mediocre (hate to say it). Thought the refs missed some calls. Did anyone see that goal tend that wasn't called on JMU? The foul at the end was questionable as well. Oh well...

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