Post by hawaii bill on Dec 30, 2014 22:06:09 GMT -5
Davis is a 25% 3 PT shooter. Went 5-6 tonight. Some from pretty deep. IW was 1-8. He seems to struggle shooting 3's on the road. It was kind of an odd game. About 15 times I thought we had a stop only to lose the Ball.
Gaels have won close games and have won them in the Cluess era. We are just choosing not to remember.
Remind me, I can only think of hanging on to games in the Maac tourney and pulling out a game last year at home against SPC. I know there have probably been a couple more but very few and far between.
No quality wins mean win the Maac and we are matched up with a top 9-12 team, which is probably too much. Need to win games like this. Our RPI went from 84 to 94, would have gone up to about 64, so that's a 30'point RPI drop by not pulling that out, kills chance at 13 seed. Seeds are made in November and December, can't underestimate the importance of these games if the goal is to win an ncaa game. As far as getting in the tourney it means nothing.
Good post. Been saying this forever about importance of early season OOC games.
But think you're being too harsh. Way too early to give up on the 13 seed. Heck last year we didn't have as good of an OOC body of work and we were practically a lock for 13 by end of season. Not even factoring in all the variables with upsets in other conf tourneys, etc.
The difference is the MAAC Is horrible, it will be very tough to maintain our RPI. Last year the Maac games did not kill our RPI, this year they will.
Iona and the Maac (and all mid majors) really miss bracket busters, this was a great way to improve rpi's of your top teams. Doubt we ever get the at large bid without the Nevada win and future years may miss this opportunity. The Maac should try to set up a challenge with a similar league like the colonial. Have our best team play their best in mid February but I realize the Problem with this is games are meaningless for the bottom of the league.
I will take this team over any other team in the maac....I believe iona is the best team in the conference....time will tell
I too believe they are the best team in the MAAC. The thing is I think they have also been the best team in the MAAC for the last three seasons. That earned us I believe one MAAC championship. Not three. Not two. One. Yes, there was an at large bid in there, but that is a figment of our imaginations this season. So that leaves winning the MAAC tournament as the sole path. And history says they have about a 33% chance of that. The team does not have a history of tough, come-from-behind wins against strong opponents in close games. I don't think we are choosing to not remember them. I don't enough of them exist. Our history unfortunately points in the opposite direction - games dropped that looked to be in-hand. I'd like to choose to not remember a few of those. However, I agree: let's not look to the past. They will perform well in conference. And yes, I would take them vs. any team in the MAAC. But if we're being honest with ourselves, come tournament time, half the teams in the MAAC could knock them off. The day I look forward to is when our "best" team plays like the best team for entire games and beats lesser opponents consistently. The coach can be angry at them. Fine. He did a good job assembling the talent. But the character or profile or approach of this team has to change for the better. That's on him to get done.
1. Don't understand all the criticism of coaching tonight. Don't think this falls on them. Missed shots and silly turnovers are what did us in tonight. 2. Tough night for Isaiah. If his shots were falling like they normally do we would have pulled this one out. 3. Class game by AJ, who drew double teams all night long, and did a real nice job of letting the game come to him and not forcing it. 4. Major swings in the game were the botched inbound, IW missed FT, questionable foot on the line call, and of course the Ibn turnover at the end. 5. Right now we are a below average FT shooting team and prone to sloppy mistakes on offense, both of which are uncharacteristic for Cluess teams. Expect this to be adjusted with conference play around the corner. 6. Be nice to see more games like this on our OOC schedule each year. Challenging but winnable road games against solid RPI teams. Believe this is what the staff was trying to accomplish with the GMU and Drexel games, but then injuries altered that a bit. If we schedule tonight's game 5 times on next year's schedule we probably win 2 of them and benefit tremendously from it come end of season RPI. 7. Solid game by Hines tonight who managed to contribute once again despite the step up in competition. Bodes well for conference play. 8. For those who are saying the ball needs to be in AJ's hands at the end of the game, believe we were trying to play him off the ball to get an open shot or to take over the offense at the top of the key for the final shot. Ibn was the safe bet to dish it off and the reason he was on the floor was because of his solid fundamentals, which obviously backfired big time tonight. 9. As much as we all love Isaiah we need to keep in mind that he is the third player on opponents' scouting reports right now. If we want to have a chance to win against better team it's crucial that he steps up offensively. When he doesn't it will be extremely difficult for us to win. 10. Despite a few mental lapses and missed assignments, the defensive effort and intensity was there tonight. A good sign indeed.
I will take this team over any other team in the maac....I believe iona is the best team in the conference....time will tell
I too believe they are the best team in the MAAC. The thing is I think they have also been the best team in the MAAC for the last three seasons. That earned us I believe one MAAC championship. Not three. Not two. One. Yes, there was an at large bid in there, but that is a figment of our imaginations this season. So that leaves winning the MAAC tournament as the sole path. And history says they have about a 33% chance of that. The team does not have a history of tough, come-from-behind wins against strong opponents in close games. I don't think we are choosing to not remember them. I don't enough of them exist. Our history unfortunately points in the opposite direction - games dropped that looked to be in-hand. I'd like to choose to not remember a few of those. However, I agree: let's not look to the past. They will perform well in conference. And yes, I would take them vs. any team in the MAAC. But if we're being honest with ourselves, come tournament time, half the teams in the MAAC could knock them off. The day I look forward to is when our "best" team plays like the best team for entire games and beats lesser opponents consistently. The coach can be angry at them. Fine. He did a good job assembling the talent. But the character or profile or approach of this team has to change for the better. That's on him to get done.
Excellent post. And we get a 13 seed if we win the rest of our games and win them all by double digits. Ain't happening. Let's hope for a MAAC championship. We lost to Arkansas, Wofford and UMASS by the point spread or worse.
I think we were all impressed at the approx 7 minute stretch in the second half where Amayo and IW's energy helped the team regain momentum and forge ahead.
The pressure clearly rattled the UMASS guards and we seemed ready for the road win.
Unfortunately, the final few minutes we played out of sync, failed to locate our top players and we came up short.
Now it's MAAC time and hopefully the team can regain confidence and resume it's winning ways.
I will take this team over any other team in the maac....I believe iona is the best team in the conference....time will tell
I too believe they are the best team in the MAAC. The thing is I think they have also been the best team in the MAAC for the last three seasons. That earned us I believe one MAAC championship. Not three. Not two. One. Yes, there was an at large bid in there, but that is a figment of our imaginations this season. So that leaves winning the MAAC tournament as the sole path. And history says they have about a 33% chance of that. The team does not have a history of tough, come-from-behind wins against strong opponents in close games. I don't think we are choosing to not remember them. I don't enough of them exist. Our history unfortunately points in the opposite direction - games dropped that looked to be in-hand. I'd like to choose to not remember a few of those. However, I agree: let's not look to the past. They will perform well in conference. And yes, I would take them vs. any team in the MAAC. But if we're being honest with ourselves, come tournament time, half the teams in the MAAC could knock them off. The day I look forward to is when our "best" team plays like the best team for entire games and beats lesser opponents consistently. The coach can be angry at them. Fine. He did a good job assembling the talent. But the character or profile or approach of this team has to change for the better. That's on him to get done.
Blowing leads was a problem a few years back, but believe this has been fixed. Can't remember us blowing any leads the past two seasons that resulted in losses except for Cleveland State last year.
1. Don't understand all the criticism of coaching tonight. Don't think this falls on them. Missed shots and silly turnovers are what did us in tonight. 2. Tough night for Isaiah. If his shots were falling like they normally do we would have pulled this one out. 3. Class game by AJ, who drew double teams all night long, and did a real nice job of letting the game come to him and not forcing it. 4. Major swings in the game were the botched inbound, IW missed FT, questionable foot on the line call, and of course the Ibn turnover at the end. 5. Right now we are a below average FT shooting team and prone to sloppy mistakes on offense, both of which are uncharacteristic for Cluess teams. Expect this to be adjusted with conference play around the corner. 6. Be nice to see more games like this on our OOC schedule each year. Challenging but winnable road games against solid RPI teams. Believe this is what the staff was trying to accomplish with the GMU and Drexel games, but then injuries altered that a bit. If we schedule tonight's game 5 times on next year's schedule we probably win 2 of them and benefit tremendously from it come end of season RPI. 7. Solid game by Hines tonight who managed to contribute once again despite the step up in competition. Bodes well for conference play. 8. For those who are saying the ball needs to be in AJ's hands at the end of the game, believe we were trying to play him off the ball to get an open shot or to take over the offense at the top of the key for the final shot. Ibn was the safe bet to dish it off and the reason he was on the floor was because of his solid fundamentals, which obviously backfired big time tonight. 9. As much as we all love Isaiah we need to keep in mind that he is the third player on opponents' scouting reports right now. If we want to have a chance to win against better team it's crucial that he steps up offensively. When he doesn't it will be extremely difficult for us to win. 10. Despite a few mental lapses and missed assignments, the defensive effort and intensity was there tonight. A good sign indeed.
Go Gaels!!!
05,
I agree with 80% of your post. Disagree with items 1 and 8.
Basically, we suck coming out of timeouts and as Resume mentioned in the chat room, that is usually the "kiss of death" for Iona. Nothing planned or schemed. Just uncertainty and guys out of position. I guess a number of us place the blame on the coach for not formulating a plan.
As far as not getting the ball in AJ's hands, I would much rather AJ bring the ball down and have either Amayo or IW set a screen for him to either win or lose in crunch time. I feel most confident with our chances having AJ determine our fate. If it came down to a game winning free throw scenario, I would only want AJ or Ced at the line.
I just got back from the game. Went out with a friend who is a UMass grad. We saw a great game at a really nice facility. I think our short bench had something to do with the loss. We expended alot of energy by pressing. It caused UMass fits and got us back in the game. I think we were out of gas late and tired players make mistakes. Our defense was pretty poor. We gave them tons of open uncontested looks and they knocked down their shots. The UMass fans were shocked that they scored 88 points. If we have to score 90 to beat a good team it puts alot of pressure on our offense. On to Siena i hope we beat them or I'm going to hear it.
Gaels have won close games and have won them in the Cluess era. We are just choosing not to remember.
Remind me, I can only think of hanging on to games in the Maac tourney and pulling out a game last year at home against SPC. I know there have probably been a couple more but very few and far between.
Would have to look them up, but one that comes to mind right away is St. Joe's a couple of years ago,
Gotta love all the coaching "advice" that surfaces after an L.
I'm sure there's nobody more upset about it than our coaches and players.
There are games where there's just a few degrees of separation between a W and an L. Sometimes you fall on the right side and sometimes you don't. This was a game that we didn't.
Let's relax, be grateful for the solid coaches and players we have and focus on being the best team in the MAAC.
I have not posted for a long time, and I considered not posting for an even longer time, but some of what I've read, has brought me back. My thoughts on the preseason: *I was very disappointed with how last night's game ended, but in trying to be objective, it was not a bad loss. UMASS is a good to very good team and they were playing at home. Close losses are hard to take, but as they say in Las Vegas, it was not unexpected. The over/under was about 176 with a four point spread, so those Vegas guys know what they are doing. *I have been impressed with the job that TC and his staff has done this season. NATURALLY we don't agree with every sub, every play call, every TO or no TO, but on balance I think they've (coaches) have done a VG job. As fans it's OUR JOB to nitpick but consider that when the season started our biggest concern was the bench. We've always had our Big Four, but that was about it. Now, going into League Play, Hines is playing like a starter or a valuable bench player. Kelvin makes some bonehead plays but he seems close to becoming a guy who might win a POW award. He's our version of John Havlicek, if you'll excuse the old time sixth man reference. And while we'll all remember Ibn's TO, but we should also remember his clutch 'three'. *I was surprised that no one seemed to complain about the refereeing, last night. UMASS was given a TO (time ou)t with the clock at 25 seconds, when it should have been (according to Gary and Kevin) a TO (turnover), for a ten second violation. Did anyone notice? I did learn something about one of the refs, but want to confirm before posting about it. *The radio guys never mentioned AJ's 12 assists. Was it a career high?