Shoutout to my fellow Iona fans behind the bench. I was in a little bit of a mood so I stayed to myself. But if any of you are here, let me know. (Plus after the first two minutes the festive feeling was gone).
I was there-1st row as was Iona05 and Gregcrow. We were joined by about 25 fans/family/friends.
I'm hoping that some of the guys on the board are staying away from sharp objects,
Did not want to post after the game because of the disappointment of the outcome of the game, but more on how poorly the team played. I wasn't expecting to win this game, but looking back, I guess you could see the possibility of the outcome of yesterday's game. Valpo returned their entire team, and added a few players. They played some games together in Canada over the summer, and played a "real" game 2 nights before. Valpo is a top 25 team. Obviously asking too much too early from Iona, especially breaking in so many new players into very important roles. Doubt anyone on this board a few days ago thought Much would even be playing, never mind having the most shot attempts, or even Amayo playing. The play that sticks out in my mind, that shows Iona just the players were not in sync was when Amayo was at the top of the key after giving up his dribble, and the entire team just stood in place for about 7 seconds. It looked like somebody pushed the pause button on my computer.
Trying to look in to something positive from the box score, Washington had 8pts/5rebs in only 15 minutes, though not sure why he only played 15 minutes. Rountree played as expected, and will have an impact in MAAC games. Bessick 6 rebounds in limited minutes. They are not Laury, but they will be very good for Iona this year. IW drove to the basket. Much looks very athletic, and will play an important role this season, once he settles in. This team belongs to Casimir, AJ and IW. If the kids buy into that we can still have a great season, I am confident they will. Time to move on to Oregon St. Would love to win the game. More importantly I will be happy if Iona competes and goes back to playing Iona basketball.
Last Edit: Nov 16, 2015 11:44:15 GMT -5 by sharkey
[I thought I was watching a pick up game at the local YMCA...Never have I seen a Cluess team so unprepared...With half the team strangers to the other half there was absolutely no cohesion...It was a embarrassment and a definite set back to the reputation gained by Iona Basketball...It was not unexpected, but not to the amount displayed....We have talent but until they morph unto a team that recognize each other and playing abilities we will be rag-tag and a disappointment...This will take time, and rough road lays ahead especially for those that expect and demand only victory.......
The MAAC has also been a total embarrassment...I believe they are now about 2-11 with wide margin defeats...This has been expected, but as warned, its road ahead will be sharply downhill unless a new direction is taken and a riddance of old stagnant ways and new younger leadership and ambitions is found...
So continue to have faith in Cluess and Grasso, they control talent but have to find a way to bring it together as a team and not run around as a chicken with no head for a while will do...
When the offense is nonexistent as we have seen these past 3 games, we need to create transition opportunities on the defensive end. We must press and trap more and make the game faster. In these 3 games we were barely getting out in transition, and we are just not suited to a halfcourt game with no true PG out there. When we're rolling, even when the other team is scoring we're beating them back down the floor for a deuce the other way, but we have not seen that lately. We have length, size and athleticism--and now some depth. We need to be running and pressing and wearing teams down, that's how we play. Getting lulled into halfcourt play just is a disaster for us.
Good post...I think the staff did try to do this yesterday. The game was already out of reach at that point, but you could see us pressing and getting up on the ball with double teams quickly to try to force turnovers or create something on the defensive side. Obviously not as effective as it needed to be, but think their solution is identical to yours.
I feel the key to success in the future for this team will be to aggressively attack the rim and draw contact or kick to the open men on the perimeter. During my viewing time limited to the second half I noted that most drives to the rim and shots within the lane involved partially falling away or throwing up shots versus going up strong into the defenders. The refs will make the calls if the shooter does not throw up out-of-control shots. Valpo showed this fact with the free throw discrepancy. The free throw rate will be key against these better OOC teams when the 3's are not falling. AJ in the second half successfully attacked off the dribble to draw fouls, Schadrac will have to do the same. It appears with the double team strategy that AJ will need to utilize double screens to get more open looks vs becoming a decoy or non-factor. Better ball movement through the air versus the dribble will be key moving forward. I expect to see more pressure defense by Iona in an attempt to slow transition and create turnovers moving forward. Almost every team has a couple of "stinkers" where everything is out of sorts and Iona had theirs right out of the chute. With good teams those games serve to focus the players and staff on competing within the team system. Coach Cluess has shown his system can win and that he can get his players to buy into the system. This group now needs leadership from within to come together as a collective and execute that system. The season is young and hope springs eternal.
Last Edit: Nov 16, 2015 12:37:35 GMT -5 by husker76
I'd like to address the Amayo thing. What a lot of you are labeling as out of control or poor decision making, I will label as trying to make something happen and what the hell else is he supposed to do.
Yes, English was doubled up most of the game, but we can expect a lot of that this season if the other players don't step up. If 2 men are on AJ, someone's open, or at the very least, no one else has two men on them. Casimir's invisibility is unacceptable. IW tried to make things happen at times. The bigs can't run the offense as they are not Laury. Which leaves Amayo and Much, who basically had no choice but to create. The offense was just stagnant because of the way Valpo played. And we've seen this before--go watch last year's MAAC final again or the NIT game against URI and you'll see the same thing--AJ taken out of the game, and everyone else standing around with a thumb up their butt. So no, I don't mind one damn bit that Amayo said screw it, I'm gonna try to make something happen. Much did the same thing, and in a month he'll be better at it, but not his first game with us. Valpo was absolutely fine with allowing Much that many shots, but the opponents in December will see Much score 30 on them rather than a dozen or whatever he had. And whoever said that this would be a different game in December or later is right on.
So, through Manhattan and then URI and now Valpo, teams have seen the blueprint to beating Iona, and the better teams can implement the blueprint. Yeah, we're still going to rip apart the MAAC, which is just looking awful so far this season, but the better MAAC teams have the ability to implement the blueprint. The blueprint? Smother AJ, put pressure on the other guys in the perimeter, and don't let Iona get in transition. If you do even a decent job at those 3 facets of the game, you stand a good chance of beating us.
The biggest concern, though, is that Cluess and Grasso have yet to figure out what to do when this happens. If they're gonna double team AJ and basically remove him from the game, there has to be another way to attack. Those of you who thought it was too much Amayo over those 3 games and too much Much yesterday, what's the plan? Casimir doesn't appear ready to make that jump. Ibn isn't enough of a scoring threat. IW isn't good enough of a ballhandler. Laury is in the D League. So where do we turn?
The answer is defense
When the offense is nonexistent as we have seen these past 3 games, we need to create transition opportunities on the defensive end. We must press and trap more and make the game faster. In these 3 games we were barely getting out in transition, and we are just not suited to a halfcourt game with no true PG out there. When we're rolling, even when the other team is scoring we're beating them back down the floor for a deuce the other way, but we have not seen that lately. We have length, size and athleticism--and now some depth. We need to be running and pressing and wearing teams down, that's how we play. Getting lulled into halfcourt play just is a disaster for us.
With this in mind I want to see us running and running and running vs Oregon St. Even if we lose, let's play them in a 90-85 type game. This business where we can't get out of the 50s just won't do because we're simply not good enough at halfcourt defense. I am very curious to see how we fare vs the Beavers. Another one-sided loss will change how we view this team for sure.
Good points Guy, especially the need for speed.
I understand TC had a very short leash with players yesterday. My only thought is Ced needs to be out there through good times and tough stretches. I feel he should be on par with IW as far as minutes played, behind AJ. Ced is a streaky player and I would have given him a ton of minutes yesterday.
Post by St. Louis Gael on Nov 16, 2015 14:37:52 GMT -5
I re-watched the firs half last night. Yeah, I know!
While we have more size and depth, we did not play big yesterday. I was ranting in the chat room that we need to go inside. My retake confirmed that even though I was not giving Valpo's bigs enough credit for their interior defense. In the early going when we went inside, we got some calls with one of their guards in foul trouble in the first few minutes. AJ was getting some calls and Ced had a couple of conversions. Bessick and Washington showed they can handle themselves once they settle in. On D, our guards were protecting them as they were David a year ago. Why not take a page out of Valpo book - extend the D and let Taylor and Jordan clean up?
I may watch the second half tonight. On my first take, I liked what I saw from Proctor. He looked for his shot, and despite his line did not force any. Ricky looks like a PG - looked for an alley oop to Taylor which he did not handle, and hit him with another pass which was another TO.
Valpo was too much for us yesterday and may even be too much for us in March. My question going forward is how much can Taylor and Jordan elevate our low post game on both ends of the floor?
Many people have brought up we had new players and Valpo returned all 5 guys, its not bad to bring back 3 starters in college. My main question is if Valpo brought everyone back with the same coach why were not prepared to play them on wither end of the floor, did they change their whole game plan against us?
Last Edit: Nov 16, 2015 16:49:05 GMT -5 by iona1970
Many people have brought up we had new players and Valpo returned all 5 guys, its not bad to bring back 3 starters in college. My main question is if Valpo brought everyone back with the same coach why were not prepared to play them on wither end of the floor, did they change their whole game plan against us?
