MBB blows 38-28 lead at the half, falls 74-65 at JMU

[mat1992 2,231]

Towson had a 38-28 lead at the half against James Madison, shot 52% from the field, outrebounded them 18-8 and shot 3-6 from beyond the arc. But the law of averages caught up with them. They shot just 1-of-9 from beyond the arc in the second half and allowed the Dukes to shoot 54.5 percent from field. JMU also took advantage of getting to the line, making 19-of-22 in the second half.

The Tigers had just eight scholarship players with Alex Thomas out with an injury. Brian Fobbs led the way with 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting, while freshman Solomon Uyaelumno added 11 points. Tobias Howard contributed 10 points but made just 1 of 5 in the second half and missed all three 3-point attempts, including his second airball from the corner. Jordan McNeill missed all six of his attempts in the second half.

Towson has now lost five straight and falls to 1-4 in the CAA and 5-13 overall.

 

Skerry after the game on 1300am.
"We didn't get stops and had offensive issues (in the second half). We missed a lot of easy shots. Have to find a way to win that game. Our guard play, we have to find a way to get the ball inside. We had easy shots at the rim. We drove it but didn't score a lot. Guys are playing hard even when they were down eight."

"We had an open 3 in the corner missed. Layups missed. Hurts us defensively. Have to do a better job of staying in. Bailed the kid out Banks a bunch of times. Disappointed. Final score is misleading. Frustrating. The guys are battling. We have to guard. We missed shots. Took care of the ball pretty good. Got good shots and didn't make a lot of them. Tough drives. Wild drives. Have to find the next guy on those drives. Need to get easier shots. Did a good job on Mosley. Didn't get the ball to Sanders enough. Tough one."
 

[TSU88 1,070]

5 W’s & 27 L’s, here we come.

Not trying to kill the messenger Mat, but Skerry’s postgame comments are nothing more than BS to me at this point.

It is true we’re playing with just 8 scholarship players. Frankly, all of them except Fobbs & Solomon are marginal D1 players at that.

 

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

The house of horrors continues. Cannot win there to save our lives.  Losing the super bowl is tough. 4-17 in the last 21 games. 

[Tgr4life 167]

Not much to say. Just hope the players give it their all for the balance of the season. It has to be pretty tough for them.

[mat1992 2,231]

1 hour ago, TSU88 said:

5 W’s & 27 L’s, here we come.

Not trying to kill the messenger Mat, but Skerry’s postgame comments are nothing more than BS to me at this point.

It is true we’re playing with just 8 scholarship players. Frankly, all of them except Fobbs & Solomon are marginal D1 players at that.

 

Fobbs=solid D1 player, Tunstall =D1 mid-major defender/role player. Solomon U. =potential starter, needs strength. Sanders=low D1 backup. Betrand=? Thomas=11th man on most teams. McNeill=borderline low D1/D2 possible starter. Timberlake=too early to tell but does have promise. Howard=third string point guard/combo guard on low D1. Drayton=D2. Dottin=maybe backup point guard if he gets a semblance of a shot. 

Again, it's about recruiting. We don't have one player aside from Fobbs that can create his own shot when the clock is winding down. Understandably, it ran down a lot today because we were milking it with 8 players. Since we never create turnovers, we have to play this way and it's losing proposition unless you can somehow shoot over 45% from the floor,commit less than 10 TOs, outrebound your opponent by 8-10 and hold your opponents to under 40% FG and under 30% 3pt. Good luck with that with three freshmen who are shaky on D and one (Sanders), who always seems to be out of position on D. I believe Sanders was something like -19. Nobody was even close to that number. He makes Al seem like Bill Russell/Bill Walton/Clint Capela on D.

Other than Gray and Thompson coming in for next season, need at least three more guards that can play at this level. You can't rely on Sanders to start at the 5. Tunstall and Solmon or Gray are fine. Maybe Timberlake will be one of those guards that steps up. Never give up on freshmen but have little faith in everybody else. Betrand shows some flashes but I thought he had a 40 inch vertical? Hasn't shown it. Needs a wicked crossover or a screen to create separation. They all do. Dottin just puts his head down and goes into a crowd. It was ok in December in non-conf. play but now CAA teams have him well-scouted. Solomon is scoring without a three-point shot and a decent post move. He can be pretty good if he improves. I know few freshman bigs in this program have become better than T.J. I think he has a little better ceiling and TJ has been playing overseas.

[TSU88 1,070]

At the risk of being presumptuous, I think the thoughts in your post suggest you agree that other than Fobbs & possibly Solomon & Timberlake, there are no impactful D1 players on this squad. Let’s be frank, if Fobbs were on a good D1 team he’d probably be a JAG (just another guy) averaging around 8-10ppg. But on our lousy team, he gets the opportunity to take more shots, thus boosting his average to around 16ppg. 

As for Solomon, he’s got potential, but I don’t recall him hitting a jump shot all season. He’s raw & way too one-dimensional now, but there is hope in his case. As for Timberlake, this injury (which presumably will keep him out the rest of the season) has robbed him of valuable minutes. So, if he’s here next year (and really who knows if his father might not want to yank him out of this sh*tshow), he’s basically starting over.

The rest of the bunch...D1 backups, at best. All probably are better suited to be D2 stat stuffers.

We can go round & round all night about schemes and strategy, but at the end of the day it ain’t complicated...we don’t have the talent to compete. Whose fault, I ask rhetorically, is that? I suggest it ain’t a who-dunit to answer this question 

Edited January 13, 2019 by TSU88

[mat1992 2,231]

35 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

At the risk of being presumptuous, I think the thoughts in your post suggest you agree that other than Fobbs & possibly Solomon & Timberlake, there are no impactful D1 players on this squad. Let’s be frank, if Fobbs were on a good D1 team he’d probably be a JAG (just another guy) averaging around 8-10ppg. But on our lousy team, he gets the opportunity to take more shots, thus boosting his average to around 16ppg. 

As for Solomon, he’s got potential, but I don’t recall him hitting a jump shot all season. He’s raw & way too one-dimensional now, but there is hope in his case. As for Timberlake, this injury (which presumably will keep him out the rest of the season) has robbed him of valuable minutes. So, if he’s here next year (and really who knows if his father might not want to yank him out of this sh*tshow), he’s basically starting over.

The rest of the bunch...D1 backups, at best. All probably are better suited to be D2 stat stuffers.

We can go round & round all night about schemes and strategy, but at the end of the day it ain’t complicated...we don’t have the talent to compete. Whose fault, I ask rhetorically, is that? I suggest it ain’t a who-dunit to answer this question 

Solomon hit a jumper today, about 12 feet away. He can face and shoot, they just are throwing him on the low block because he's a decent finisher and he's one of the few options we have. I think Fobbs would be a 2nd or 3rd option on an average CAA team and would put up similar numbers because he would get better shots and be more efficient. His shooting % is going to suffer because all teams are out to shut him down.

I also really wish people on this board as negative as it is, wouldn't make suggestions that people would leave our own program or wouldn't come here because it's counterproductive and PS is not going anywhere for awhile. We get it bad enough from other schools. Timberlake came her because we went hard after him and his father coached with Kevin Clark for Mike Jarvis back at GW.

For the 100th time, this was going to be a sh-t show as soon as those two guys left the program in the spring. I was hopeful that maybe a transfer or two would help elevate us because you't depend on freshmen, especially those who you recruited the last second. But only one has been productive. Our best freshman recruit is injured, our 3* power forward is playing decently and the other two are struggling to find their way in the rotation. 

Everybody wants to jump on everybody from the coaches to the players. I get it. Solomon appears to be the only young guy making progress and I did say at the beginning of the season, that this season was about trying to get better. And as a team, we aren't. But while the season is likely going nowhere, there is still a light at the end of a tunnel. Pat has never gone two straight years of losing overall seasons. You can talk about all the softies he's played in non-conf., but it's true. This is a huge expected step backwards but I really don't know how they can play much better with these 8 or 9 guys.

In fact, I was more disappointed with conference play last season when we weren't depending on freshmen and had a bunch of experienced players in the rotation.

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

1 hour ago, mat1992 said:

Fobbs=solid D1 player, Tunstall =D1 mid-major defender/role player. Solomon U. =potential starter, needs strength. Sanders=low D1 backup. Betrand=? Thomas=11th man on most teams. McNeill=borderline low D1/D2 possible starter. Timberlake=too early to tell but does have promise. Howard=third string point guard/combo guard on low D1. Drayton=D2. Dottin=maybe backup point guard if he gets a semblance of a shot. 

Again, it's about recruiting. We don't have one player aside from Fobbs that can create his own shot when the clock is winding down. Understandably, it ran down a lot today because we were milking it with 8 players. Since we never create turnovers, we have to play this way and it's losing proposition unless you can somehow shoot over 45% from the floor,commit less than 10 TOs, outrebound your opponent by 8-10 and hold your opponents to under 40% FG and under 30% 3pt. Good luck with that with three freshmen who are shaky on D and one (Sanders), who always seems to be out of position on D. I believe Sanders was something like -19. Nobody was even close to that number. He makes Al seem like Bill Russell/Bill Walton/Clint Capela on D.

Other than Gray and Thompson coming in for next season, need at least three more guards that can play at this level. You can't rely on Sanders to start at the 5. Tunstall and Solmon or Gray are fine. Maybe Timberlake will be one of those guards that steps up. Never give up on freshmen but have little faith in everybody else. Betrand shows some flashes but I thought he had a 40 inch vertical? Hasn't shown it. Needs a wicked crossover or a screen to create separation. They all do. Dottin just puts his head down and goes into a crowd. It was ok in December in non-conf. play but now CAA teams have him well-scouted. Solomon is scoring without a three-point shot and a decent post move. He can be pretty good if he improves. I know few freshman bigs in this program have become better than T.J. I think he has a little better ceiling and TJ has been playing overseas.

Don’t want to name names and get Introuvle here but a certain 2 guard from Charm city isn’t a d1 player. Maybe a d2 player, as his only good games Have come against sub d1 competition.  He also guarded banks or Lewis today I’m guessing. Both of who went off

[TSU88 1,070]

Regarding suggesting players might leave, I’ve simply become very cynical since the time last season I asked the AD point blank if ZM & Gorham we’re thinking about transferring. The AD looked me straight in the eye & said no, those guys are committed to winning the CAA. Quite naturally, both subsequently bolted. Now in no way shape or form am I suggesting the AD was being disingenuous. My point is simply that kids transferring is epidemic throughout D1, and so until I see Mr. Timberlake (or any other player on the current roster for that matter) on the floor next season, I will expect the worst & hope for the best. 

[mat1992 2,231]

Anybody can leave at anytime but I do not wish that these kids leave. I didn't want Zane to leave but he didn't want to be here. He had delusions of grandeur and Gorham had other issues. I would think that the attraction for Timberlake and the others (other than school, coeds, SECU, etc.) is that they can play right away. We can't talk all night about how shitty the offense is and it's structure. All I know is Tobias Howard was set up perfectly for a corner three-pointer to end the half and shot a 22-footer about 17 feet. He did the same thing in the second half and was wide freakin open. Jordan was wide open on several threes and missed. Well hell effing low to any HS recruits that can shoot the ball if we can find a point guard that can deliver it to him. I know I go back and forth on these guys can hit open shots if they are open but I truly give up on the upperclassmen aside from Fobbs. 

Speaking of cynicism, I unfortunately had little confidence on the chat today up 38-28 at the half. I just didn't see us shooting 52% in the second half and shockingly, we didn't. Murphy's law.