Post by hawaii bill on Dec 15, 2013 13:11:03 GMT -5
I'm sorry 86, I get your point, but I have to vent some more because for some unknown reason this stuff matters way too much to me.
If my son were playing out there I'd hate these message boards, because no posters really know what's going on with a kid at any given time that might effect his play. I would also hate it if people criticized his execution or decision making. If we are all so superior maybe we should be out their instead of the players. Most of us never got close. With my own son, I never second guess decisions he makes or criticize him for failing to execute while playing. The only thing I'll ever call him out on is effort, if I think its lacking. And most of the time it isn't.
We struggled getting the ball in bounds at times. IMO that was because they were working very hard to deny the pass, and we weren't working as hard to get open. We gave them way too many uncontested shots - that's simply effort. Maybe they still make them. But you have to guard people. You can't just watch them shoot. They are bigger than us and are going to grab a fair share of the rebounds. We need to find a way to get offensive rebounds. That's effort.
Most typical teams take a game or two off during the season, unfortunately. That's to be expected. What I find crazy is that it was this game. I'm not saying we win if we bring a good effort. We have no control over that. They are a very good team. But we had a week to prepare to play an A-10 team in our building. A higher rated conference. Yes they are not VCU, but they are not Fairfield or Marist either. Beating them wouldn't make the front page of ESPN, but its hard to complain that we don't get good teams into our building and when we do we act like we don't give a crap if we win or not. How many chances like this do we get?
We can give a half assed effort against Marist and Fairfield and still win. I wouldn't recommend it, because that would just give a lesser talented team a chance, but we could. And they will both be better next time we face them. We cannot give a half assed effort against a good team and win, unless we get lucky and they don't give a crap about winning. St. Bonaventure clearly valued this game more than we did. And as a good team they won. This is the same reason we were up on George Mason 34-5. Because we were pissed off after Kansas and we gave a great effort. Not because we're 60 points better than George Mason over the course of a game.
Some guys on this team take plays off. Just about everybody does on most teams. It happens. But we have guys on this team, imo, who take games off. Some of these guys have the ability to play professionally. No one is going to give you a chance to play basketball professionally if you have a reputation for taking games off, unless you are LeBron James or something.
When we're getting our ass handed to us, we're yelling at each other and stomping our feet. That's great. No better way to signal to the opposition that you're mentally fragile and encourage them to pour it on. How about we just act like Men in that situation, get a guy and talk to him about how much we hate getting our ass handed to us because we're better than that and that we should play like we have some pride. Maybe we still take a beating, but we go down fighting and take it like men, TOGETHER.
I'll never criticize this team or any player for playing with heart and losing, or not executing. Even blowing a big lead - as long as you care and your trying, that's just another loss to me. But effort? That's entirely different. I wish I could be at more games, but I'm not close and I'm at a time in my life where I cannot make most of them. But I do all I can do from where I am in terms of supporting the team with money, wearing fan stuff to promote the team, talking the team and the guys up, and following and caring about the games and the team. I'm putting in effort and caring about this team. I need to see that from them.
Sometimes I get the sense there are guys on this team that are just happy with the status quo, lying in the weeds, not getting noticed is fine with them. They don't want to lose their spot or get recruited over, but they don't want to stand out either. That would be scary for them. Mostly good things will come from improving. Yes you may be expected to maintain a level of effort and performance, but if you fail while trying you are not going to lose your spot. You'll lose playing time by not giving a crap or being too scared to put it on the line. Put it on the line and fail, you have my respect and the respect of most people. Yeah some jackass will still cricize you, but that's their insecurity.
If my son were playing out there I'd hate these message boards, because no posters really know what's going on with a kid at any given time that might effect his play. I would also hate it if people criticized his execution or decision making. If we are all so superior maybe we should be out their instead of the players. Most of us never got close. With my own son, I never second guess decisions he makes or criticize him for failing to execute while playing. The only thing I'll ever call him out on is effort, if I think its lacking. And most of the time it isn't.
We struggled getting the ball in bounds at times. IMO that was because they were working very hard to deny the pass, and we weren't working as hard to get open. We gave them way too many uncontested shots - that's simply effort. Maybe they still make them. But you have to guard people. You can't just watch them shoot. They are bigger than us and are going to grab a fair share of the rebounds. We need to find a way to get offensive rebounds. That's effort.
Most typical teams take a game or two off during the season, unfortunately. That's to be expected. What I find crazy is that it was this game. I'm not saying we win if we bring a good effort. We have no control over that. They are a very good team. But we had a week to prepare to play an A-10 team in our building. A higher rated conference. Yes they are not VCU, but they are not Fairfield or Marist either. Beating them wouldn't make the front page of ESPN, but its hard to complain that we don't get good teams into our building and when we do we act like we don't give a crap if we win or not. How many chances like this do we get?
We can give a half assed effort against Marist and Fairfield and still win. I wouldn't recommend it, because that would just give a lesser talented team a chance, but we could. And they will both be better next time we face them. We cannot give a half assed effort against a good team and win, unless we get lucky and they don't give a crap about winning. St. Bonaventure clearly valued this game more than we did. And as a good team they won. This is the same reason we were up on George Mason 34-5. Because we were pissed off after Kansas and we gave a great effort. Not because we're 60 points better than George Mason over the course of a game.
Some guys on this team take plays off. Just about everybody does on most teams. It happens. But we have guys on this team, imo, who take games off. Some of these guys have the ability to play professionally. No one is going to give you a chance to play basketball professionally if you have a reputation for taking games off, unless you are LeBron James or something.
When we're getting our ass handed to us, we're yelling at each other and stomping our feet. That's great. No better way to signal to the opposition that you're mentally fragile and encourage them to pour it on. How about we just act like Men in that situation, get a guy and talk to him about how much we hate getting our ass handed to us because we're better than that and that we should play like we have some pride. Maybe we still take a beating, but we go down fighting and take it like men, TOGETHER.
I'll never criticize this team or any player for playing with heart and losing, or not executing. Even blowing a big lead - as long as you care and your trying, that's just another loss to me. But effort? That's entirely different. I wish I could be at more games, but I'm not close and I'm at a time in my life where I cannot make most of them. But I do all I can do from where I am in terms of supporting the team with money, wearing fan stuff to promote the team, talking the team and the guys up, and following and caring about the games and the team. I'm putting in effort and caring about this team. I need to see that from them.
Sometimes I get the sense there are guys on this team that are just happy with the status quo, lying in the weeds, not getting noticed is fine with them. They don't want to lose their spot or get recruited over, but they don't want to stand out either. That would be scary for them. Mostly good things will come from improving. Yes you may be expected to maintain a level of effort and performance, but if you fail while trying you are not going to lose your spot. You'll lose playing time by not giving a crap or being too scared to put it on the line. Put it on the line and fail, you have my respect and the respect of most people. Yeah some jackass will still cricize you, but that's their insecurity.