Last three games, We got out-classed, out-hustled by Manhattan in the MAAC Tourney, We were a COMPLETE no show in the NIT game against R.I and now a pummeling by Valpo. What is going on?
Well two of those games were last year with a different team, so?
Joebird, it's your fifth point that I believe is the most important, the lack of a true point, a take-charge guy. Poor decision making, in my opinion, was the team's downfall today. And the five or so scoreless minutes at the start of the game made our guys force the action even more, increasing Valpo's confidence. All too often the ball was taken into the paint, but never was passed out to open players. Instead, it was block, block, block or turnover or prayers being thrown up.
I expect the team to slowly overcome these problems, as players begin to know each other more, and more importantly, trust each other. It's not the game 1 I envisioned but it is only one game as many have pointed out.
Last Edit: Nov 15, 2015 20:50:01 GMT -5 by epatrick
I actually feel good. A lot of guys played. I liked what I saw out of Rountree and Much. Usually we're great in November and December and fall apart/run out of gas in March. Let's build this team the right way this year. Face it Valpo is a really experienced team that lost one guy (a reserve) off a 26 win team. AJ, Sed, IW, and Amayo were playing with five new guys. I'm encouraged that Cluess wasn't freaking out, let a lot of guys get in there including Proctor. Let's see what we have and figure roles out now. Get the team strong and ready for MAAC play. I'm very encouraged by the approach here, if not the result. It didn't help that Valpo was firing on all cylinders either. I don't think they missed a shot while I was watching. We need better ball movement (too much one on one hero stuff) and we need to contest shots better. Let's go!!!!
You should feel good. Getting your ass beat in every facet of the game makes every fan feel good. And I am only reacting t.o this game.
I was as surprised as you by the VU dominance but keep in mind you faced a veteran bunch plus who looked like they are already reaching mid season form. I saw very few VU mental mistakes but several of them were bunched in your late first half mini run. This obviously would have been a better contest had it been scheduled for December but I believe Oregon State might have limited our choice of options. You also saw E.V. Nickerson at his best when I didn't even think he would dress. That should tell you how much of a VU insider I am.
Sorry for the treatment Vashil Fernandez handed out but you can now understand why he is the defending Horizon League defensive player of the year. That man gave us almost nothing in his first 2 seasons but now we are reaping the benefits of undertaking the project.
Best of luck going forward particularly against Oregon State and Rhode Island. I'll try to stop back in after you have put together a nice wining streak and are a little more upbeat.
I actually feel good. A lot of guys played. I liked what I saw out of Rountree and Much. Usually we're great in November and December and fall apart/run out of gas in March. Let's build this team the right way this year. Face it Valpo is a really experienced team that lost one guy (a reserve) off a 26 win team. AJ, Sed, IW, and Amayo were playing with five new guys. I'm encouraged that Cluess wasn't freaking out, let a lot of guys get in there including Proctor. Let's see what we have and figure roles out now. Get the team strong and ready for MAAC play. I'm very encouraged by the approach here, if not the result. It didn't help that Valpo was firing on all cylinders either. I don't think they missed a shot while I was watching. We need better ball movement (too much one on one hero stuff) and we need to contest shots better. Let's go!!!!
You should feel good. Getting your ass beat in every facet of the game makes every fan feel good. And I am only reacting t.o this game.
Don't feel good that we got our ass handed to us, but feel good that a lot of guys got action early on. Cluess needs to piece this puzzle together. If we play like this Jan. 2 at Quinny I'll be deeply worried.
I was as surprised as you by the VU dominance but keep in mind you faced a veteran bunch plus who looked like they are already reaching mid season form. I saw very few VU mental mistakes but several of them were bunched in your late first half mini run. This obviously would have been a better contest had it been scheduled for December but I believe Oregon State might have limited our choice of options. You also saw E.V. Nickerson at his best when I didn't even think he would dress. That should tell you how much of a VU insider I am.
Sorry for the treatment Vashil Fernandez handed out but you can now understand why he is the defending Horizon League defensive player of the year. That man gave us almost nothing in his first 2 seasons but now we are reaping the benefits of undertaking the project.
Best of luck going forward particularly against Oregon State and Rhode Island. I'll try to stop back in after you have put together a nice wining streak and are a little more upbeat.
Thanks man. You guys looked great. The big guy was a difference maker, especially early on. Looking forward to seeing you kick some butt. All the best.
I have a question (and my answer). Who should be most embarrassed by yesterday's game? Is it:
*TC for not having his team ready to play? I say no, it's too early to jump ship. *Fans like me who over hyped the team? Also, no for that's what fans do. *AJ and CC, MAAC first team picks who combined for four FG's with no three's. Is that a first time that neither scored a three? No as game plan was part of their problem. They only had 11 FG attempts. *Our three big men combining for 15 rebounds in their first game (they played 46 minutes). About what DL did by himself in his first game. Too early to say. *And the answer is======== * * * *Seth Davis
I was as surprised as you by the VU dominance but keep in mind you faced a veteran bunch plus who looked like they are already reaching mid season form. I saw very few VU mental mistakes but several of them were bunched in your late first half mini run. This obviously would have been a better contest had it been scheduled for December but I believe Oregon State might have limited our choice of options. You also saw E.V. Nickerson at his best when I didn't even think he would dress. That should tell you how much of a VU insider I am.
Sorry for the treatment Vashil Fernandez handed out but you can now understand why he is the defending Horizon League defensive player of the year. That man gave us almost nothing in his first 2 seasons but now we are reaping the benefits of undertaking the project.
Best of luck going forward particularly against Oregon State and Rhode Island. I'll try to stop back in after you have put together a nice wining streak and are a little more upbeat.
Ducky,
Congrats on a great win and a truly well designed team. As a resident of NW Indiana, I've followed Valpo and this team should be the culmination of steady improvement over the last five or so seasons. I think every man on your roster performed at least at expectation yesterday and, well, you didn't see nearly our best. I wish Iona scheduled a "warm-up" game beforehand to work out the kinks.
Valpo looks like a 10 seed or, more realistically, an 8/9 seed. Tenacious defensively, smart decision making, good physical size. I do think they may struggle offensively a little bit, but not for long stretches given the talent and the turnovers they will force.
Good luck this season and I'll be back at the ARC.
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 have a question (and my answer). Who should be most embarrassed by yesterday's game? Is it:
*TC for not having his team ready to play? I say no, it's too early to jump ship. *Fans like me who over hyped the team? Also, no for that's what fans do. *AJ and CC, MAAC first team picks who combined for four FG's with no three's. Is that a first time that neither scored a three? No as game plan was part of their problem. They only had 11 FG attempts. *Our three big men combining for 15 rebounds in their first game (they played 46 minutes). About what DL did by himself in his first game. Too early to say. *And the answer is======== * * * *Seth Davis
With so many new faces, instant chemistry is hard to expect, especially when everything Valpo touched in the first four minutes turned to gold. There was a lot of confusion among the players about where they were supposed to be and what their duties were, and that resulted in some bad matchups. So everyone is to "blame" for that. If they play like this again tomorrow, I think you can start to re-assess the expectations, but I just think it's a lack of familiarity. Casimir was bad; English was smoldered; Amayo is probably hurt and continues to play out of control; and Williams needs to find his rhythm again. Those guys have to lead and none of them did yesterday
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.
The greatest poster in the history of the MAAC as determined by THREE separate polls.
We left them open for way to many open shots. Thank God they were not hitting all of the threes. We have to stop collapsing on defense when playing the zone to help our bigs. We have size, talent and depth this year. Let the bigs handle their business... the guards sliding down low are only leaving people open on the perimeter. Valpo moved the ball well, especially in the first half. We spent too much time running around looking for traps and leaving people wide open.
On offense we need to share the ball and have better offensive movement away from the ball.
With that said , it is the first game with many new pieces. We also played an excellent team with a lot of experience. Lets see what adjustments the staff and players make going forward.
I agree 100% with Guy about Kelvin. At times, he just tries to do too much. Offense just wasn't well run, and it comes down to PG play. Also agree with Guy about CC, as he's not playing with his usual confidence. And that's affecting his shooting. And ball handling.
Post by hawaii bill on Nov 16, 2015 11:03:28 GMT -5
How do we know CC is not playing with his usual confidence, he played one game so far? I saw him drive to the hoop a couple of times early on. They had a really good rim protector who altered a lot of our shots early on and intimated all of our guys going to the hoop. We even missed a couple of bunnies when we had chances because we rushed them. What do you do when you face a guy like that? Go at him and try to draw fouls, or kick it out to an open player. All you can do. We didn't have much flow on offense, but credit that guys tried to make things happen. Sometimes you just get beaten.
What is going on?
