Very strange game. Amazing 3 point shooting but couldn't pull away from a combination of bad free throw shooting, a lot of poor defensive sets, some dumb turnovers and as usual refs called an Iona home game as if they were on the road. Several times I thought Iona was going to blow the big lead but they managed to hang on, unlike many prior Cluess teams.
Have to agree with old timer that English can't come off the court, he has almost instantly become best point guard(overall game) in the Maac. Marist played much better than I expected, we don't match up well with them.
Despite the shaky performance Iona's starting 5 is a top 50 team and Poole makes a good 6th man. With Iona's shooting ability this team could do something special this year.
As I posted earlier, I believe in this thread, there was NO WAY TC could get the team up for an 0-7 opponent. No other way to say it we played terribly. Other observations: 1. Refs were bad, very bad. 2. Marist played much harder than Iona. They don't have as much talent, but they should win some MAAC games, if they continue to play hard. 3. Our defense was very poor. A combination of scheme and lack of effort. 4. English was credited with 13 assists. Smelled like home cooking to me. 5. Our end of game keep away ball handling also bad. 6. Coaches didn't seem up for the game either. Not much animation, even when protesting numerous poor calls by refs. 7. I've heard the same old coach speak when talking about poor FT shooting. It's either we shoot 1,000,000 a day in practice or DL makes them in practice. We have about a dozen assistant coaches so couldn't we make it a Baker's dozen and bring in someone who can teach free throw shooting. Late in the game the light went on and DL was pulled. 8. We miss Ryden Hines as Daniel Robinson isn't near ready to play. And other that someone saw RH with his arm in a sling, I have no idea what's wrong. 9. Sledge looked lost and Gomez was limited to unveiling the MAAC and NCAA banner. He did do a good job pulling the cover off, 10. Armand, Bowman, Williams and English are great 3pt. shooters, with their shots a thing of beauty. But as they say you live by the three, you die by the three.
I'll close by saying it was a very uninspired performance by the Gaels. Hopefully they'll do better on Sunday. And the crowd was disappointing, including the student side.
Have to agree with everything you said , ic59. I think a better team could have stole one from us tonight. We had a 15 point lead at the 18 minute mark of the 2nd. At the 16 minute mark, the lead shrunk to 6. Gaels turned into toreadors on defense in second half. We should have buried this team by 20. AJ is the point guard, period. I understand giving Sledge some minutes, but he is not the one to lead us at the point. AJ seemed a little out of control tonight, but he gives us so many different dimensions at the point. Nothing we don't know, but Sean has an amazing stroke. Hope he stays hot. DL is amazing down low, but plays little or no D. Maybe Cluess is willing to accept this to keep him out of foul trouble. I think we have to button it down a bit to be successful with the stronger teams in the MAAC.
As I posted earlier, I believe in this thread, there was NO WAY TC could get the team up for an 0-7 opponent. No other way to say it we played terribly. Other observations: 1. Refs were bad, very bad. 2. Marist played much harder than Iona. They don't have as much talent, but they should win some MAAC games, if they continue to play hard. 3. Our defense was very poor. A combination of scheme and lack of effort. 4. English was credited with 13 assists. Smelled like home cooking to me. 5. Our end of game keep away ball handling also bad. 6. Coaches didn't seem up for the game either. Not much animation, even when protesting numerous poor calls by refs. 7. I've heard the same old coach speak when talking about poor FT shooting. It's either we shoot 1,000,000 a day in practice or DL makes them in practice. We have about a dozen assistant coaches so couldn't we make it a Baker's dozen and bring in someone who can teach free throw shooting. Late in the game the light went on and DL was pulled. 8. We miss Ryden Hines as Daniel Robinson isn't near ready to play. And other that someone saw RH with his arm in a sling, I have no idea what's wrong. 9. Sledge looked lost and Gomez was limited to unveiling the MAAC and NCAA banner. He did do a good job pulling the cover off, 10. Armand, Bowman, Williams and English are great 3pt. shooters, with their shots a thing of beauty. But as they say you live by the three, you die by the three.
I'll close by saying it was a very uninspired performance by the Gaels. Hopefully they'll do better on Sunday. And the crowd was disappointing, including the student side.
Having seen all 3 home games this year, this was probably the sloppiest of the three. I was worried when I saw Hines with his arm in a sling; hope he can recover quickly, he is needed. Agree with IC59 that Robinson is not ready for major minutes. As for Sledge, he just looked lost out there tonight, sloppy passes too -- it will probably take him a while to catch up to the other team members. We only dressed 10 players and Britton Williams didn't get into the game. Marist scored on a lot of penetrating drives to the basket; however I feel the team didn't contest some of those plays due to the short bench and not wanting to get into foul trouble. Also our bench scored zero points, although only Poole had as much as 9 minutes playing time Positives: The 3 point shooting was terrific tonight and we had all 5 starters score in double figures. The 17 3-pointers set a new Hynes record.
39-31, game is uncomfortably close despite shooting 7-15 from 3.
St. Louis must be in heaven with 14 assists in the first half. He will FINALLY get his 20 plus. Yeah!!!! Gotta give it up for English though, 7 dimes, 1 T/O and 8 points. Nice!
Actually, TC is in heaven with the 26 assists. His goal is 20 per game. Said so in post game interview. Me! I am in St Louis, and it ain't heaven.
As expected ugly win, but a win nonetheless and could've easily been a game that was a loss last season. My observations from the game:
1. Armand becoming more prolific game after game. Between him and Tre I love how these guys can rake up points by taking smart efficient shots and without scoring at the expense of the rest of the team.
2. Great to see Ellis get some important minutes and to see the fire in his belly on defense when he got on the court. Was getting a bit worried about his demeanor in the past few games but tonight it was refreshing to see how he approached the game.
3. New regime in athletic department already doing great things. Giving the atmosphere a more professional touch and holding a private ceremony to give out championship rings after the game. Classy.
4. Horribly officiated game by the refs both ways, but we definitely got a raw deal on more calls than Marist.
5. Hines will be back soon. Shoulder tweak in the FGCU game but doesn't seem too serious from what those in the know say.
6. Between AJ, Armand and DL3 I saw the 7 footer Kemp get totally manhandled on several plays. The athleticism on this team is scary.
7. Isaiah Williams has blinding speed and is a matchup nightmare for any opponent, just wish we would run more plays for him to create driving opportunities. Seems like he just hangs out in the corner too much.
8. DL3 foul shootings woes will come back to haunt us at some point in a crucial spot this year unless they are addressed ASAP.
9. Crowd gets a D minus tonight, and only reason it's not an F is because they should get some slack for it being a mid week night game in holiday season. But geez that was really a poor showing especially on the reserved side. Our guys deserve better support than they got tonight. And then we question why top recruits escape us and why coaches leave for greener pastures. Maybe if the crowd support was better it would make these decisions a bit tougher.
10. Sledge is not healthy yet, gotta cut him some slack and reserve judgment until next month after he's been fully integrated onto the team.
Now let's go beat the Stags in what will be a tricky road conference game. We win this game and it shows the DNA and make up of this team is completely different from last year's.
we didn't play great but we were up 20 with 7 minutes left when we went into the stall, there was no time that it looked like we would lose. we will go 17-3 in the maac, we don't need our A game to win in the very weak maac
Astute observations Iona05. I would add that with all our perimeter shooters, DLIII needs to hang around in the paint more. He tries to set picks practically every play, and when our guys miss a three attempt, often we have no one near the basket to try to get an offensive rebound or a put back.
As expected ugly win, but a win nonetheless and could've easily been a game that was a loss last season. My observations from the game:
1. Armand becoming more prolific game after game. Between him and Tre I love how these guys can rake up points by taking smart efficient shots and without scoring at the expense of the rest of the team.
2. Great to see Ellis get some important minutes and to see the fire in his belly on defense when he got on the court. Was getting a bit worried about his demeanor in the past few games but tonight it was refreshing to see how he approached the game.
3. New regime in athletic department already doing great things. Giving the atmosphere a more professional touch and holding a private ceremony to give out championship rings after the game. Classy.
4. Horribly officiated game by the refs both ways, but we definitely got a raw deal on more calls than Marist.
5. Hines will be back soon. Shoulder tweak in the FGCU game but doesn't seem too serious from what those in the know say.
6. Between AJ, Armand and DL3 I saw the 7 footer Kemp get totally manhandled on several plays. The athleticism on this team is scary.
7. Isaiah Williams has blinding speed and is a matchup nightmare for any opponent, just wish we would run more plays for him to create driving opportunities. Seems like he just hangs out in the corner too much.
8. DL3 foul shootings woes will come back to haunt us at some point in a crucial spot this year unless they are addressed ASAP.
9. Crowd gets a D minus tonight, and only reason it's not an F is because they should get some slack for it being a mid week night game in holiday season. But geez that was really a poor showing especially on the reserved side. Our guys deserve better support than they got tonight. And then we question why top recruits escape us and why coaches leave for greener pastures. Maybe if the crowd support was better it would make these decisions a bit tougher.
10. Sledge is not healthy yet, gotta cut him some slack and reserve judgment until next month after he's been fully integrated onto the team.
Now let's go beat the Stags in what will be a tricky road conference game. We win this game and it shows the DNA and make up of this team is completely different from last year's.
Thanks 05--out of the country for several weeks and appreciate the insights shared by you and others.
2 things: --Appreciate your comments about the new admin. Rick has a vision for the entire program which is not hampered by being an insider. He lost 2 key people right away and is doing his best to make things happen. Patience is important here, -- IW will be more explosive as the year progresses. A major part of TC offense is the kick to the corner. IW will be more involved in the dribble penetration as his role expands. Can't wait to see him driving to the hoop with Sean or Tre in the corner.
I thought the team looked flat as a pancake last night.
Nevertheless, a good sign that they still managed to win playing far from their best.
Though they seemed somewhat uninspired they gave true meaning to the phrase "raining 3's".
They'll need to kick it up a few notches against Fairfield on Sunday - conference games on the road are never easy.
Scott Machado was at the game last night, someone who had spoken to him said that he had just had surgery. Not sure what the surgery was for.
Took a picture of the Championship ring and sent it to Guy (who was stuck at work) telling him all Goal Club members "in attendance" received one of these last night - he took the bait; hook, line and sinker. I didn't have the heart to keep him thinking about it too long and told him I was joking. The whole thing was Nicks idea, he put me up to it.
Hopefully with the success with shooting the 3 we will force opponents to spread the floor to defend the perimeter. This should translate to open drives to the basket. I expect with Isaiah Williams confidence growing we will see that phase of his game. Nothing prettier than when a team is rotating the ball until there is an open perimeter player who shot fakes, puts the ball on the floor forces a secondary defender to help then drops the dime to the baseline for layup/dunk. Amazing to see the development of AJ English. He is fast becoming someone truly special. I might have to change my position that Tre is our X Factor. Can't wait for Fairfield to see how we respond to another opponent who we "should" beat handily. Let's get healthy and get on a roll.
I thought the team looked flat as a pancake last night.
Nevertheless, a good sign that they still managed to win playing far from their best.
Though they seemed somewhat uninspired they gave true meaning to the phrase "raining 3's".
They'll need to kick it up a few notches against Fairfield on Sunday - conference games on the road are never easy.
Scott Machado was at the game last night, someone who had spoken to him said that he had just had surgery. Not sure what the surgery was for.
Took a picture of the Championship ring and sent it to Guy (who was stuck at work) telling him all Goal Club members "in attendance" received one of these last night - he took the bait; hook, line and sinker. I didn't have the heart to keep him thinking about it too long and told him I was joking. The whole thing was Nicks idea, he put me up to it.
You're all bastards.
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Post by St. Louis Gael on Dec 5, 2013 12:02:14 GMT -5
Interesting game last night. From my seat at home, it looked to me looked to me that Iona’s mind-set was “We’ll respond to what Marist throws at us.” When Marist made their runs, we launched some bombs, opened a lead and settled back into “what else?”
A few games back, I posted that I did not like AJ at the point. I saw AJ as a responder not an initiator. Wrong again, slg. AJ is still refining his PG game, but” Wow” does he make stuff happen! It’s hard to say he is learning his position with a 4.3:1 A:TO ratio last night.
Anyone else wonder if David is still adjusting to the newfound riches of talent around him? I do feel that he and Isaiah are still refining their inside game.
Daniel is coming along. He made some moves in his few minutes last night. They did not work out, but his now making them. Keep going, young man! I don’t care if he turns it over –just keep going when you get the minutes.
FT’s is a problem, and it’s not just David. Need a fix, here. Maybe, we shoot our FT’s from the 3 point line??
1...51 points from 3 point land...6 from foul line...13 2 point baskets...26 points. Strange box score......
2...We as home team only scored 6 points from the foul line, they scored more they twice as many...The only explanation being that our inside game was invisible...When a team makes 17 3 point baskets and only 13 2 point baskets, it is cause for concern as it will surely catch up with you....We, when on target are a great outside shooting team, but unless a balance is maintained, a unexpected loss or two is sure to follow.......
3...Why does Laury play like gangbusters during the beginning of the game and gradually slow down?...Is he carrying a few extra pounds...
4...Will our depleting manpower eventually catch up with us...IMO Cluess has shown concern and is trying to use and experience the bench players...
Aside...The crowd was anemic...I don't believe we will ever have high volume attendance, the main reason being the apathy of possible fans and lack of local press to stir interest...Until this changes an increase of no more then 1,000 to 1,500 capacity with a Field house designed to give a larger appearance will do the trick...Along these lines the following MAAC schools will have to deal with this situation in the near future....Iona...Canisius...Niagara...ST. Pete's...Rider...Manhattan.....