My thoughts, On gist foul shot we didn’t go for rebound,if that was the plan then both guys should have been back on defense! As for EJ taking the ball out with 6 seconds left was inexcusable,we get the biall to Gist who is shooting 52% from the foul line,makes no sense!!!!!!!! Any positives? Not many except Mo showing he could have a nice season moving forward and Ross hitting 5 threes,finally showed a little why he is here. IW showing NO interest in being out there,no emotion or anything close to caring,can’t play ANYONE who exhibits this,it’s poison.
IW not performing up to par. As I'm worried about his play on the court with ball control, I'm more concerned with his attitude and antics. Players who act like that typically have an impact on other players which seems to be the case.
I'm done talking about the game though because like GUYF has said, this is a throwaway season. I didn't want to agree beforehand as I still kept hope, but after yesterday's performance I finally have to agree. Without TC on the court holding players accountable, players are just playing street ball. If IW did that with TC on the court, TC would've sat him like he did with McGill last year.
No doubt we would be WAYYYY better off with Cluess on the sideline (in game but especially missed in practice) but we can’t forget how many blown leads we have had under him. So I can’t put full blame on Arnold. However, your point of how Cluess would never let the antics of Washington and some other players fly is 100% spot on. The body language and attitude of players like that can be contagious. When that happens you certainly have a throwaway season in front of you. I think it’s going to take leadership from EJ to turn this season around. He has proven to be a clutch player in the past, now is the time he needs to pull some guys aside and tell them how things are done at Iona.
I’m not ready to give up on the season. But it’s going to take leadership to get this team going in the right direction. Certainly a couple wins will build team moral as well.
My thoughts, On gist foul shot we didn’t go for rebound,if that was the plan then both guys should have been back on defense! As for EJ taking the ball out with 6 seconds left was inexcusable,we get the biall to Gist who is shooting 52% from the foul line,makes no sense!!!!!!!! Any positives? Not many except Mo showing he could have a nice season moving forward and Ross hitting 5 threes,finally showed a little why he is here. IW showing NO interest in being out there,no emotion or anything close to caring,can’t play ANYONE who exhibits this,it’s poison.
My thoughts exactly on why Crawford, who was 11-14 from the FT line, taking the ball out to pass to Gist who has struggled from the line this year and didn't attempt a FT all game. Finkelstein made a interesting point. He said that Crawford was the best option to take the ball out because Iona was out of timeouts and he is the best passer on the team in that situation. Iona couldn't take the chance in having a smaller guard take the ball out since a taller defender would cause him problems. Interesting take on his part.
As far as having Crawford and Ross on the block just no excuse, may very well have cost them the game. It took all of the 5.5 seconds remaining for Banks to drive the length of the court. Having Crawford and Ross off the line would have forced Banks to pass the ball and force a jump shot
A lot of good analysis but I have one simple take on the ending, Gist can you hit the free throws, please?
Gist not taking enough criticism for his part in the loss, a 5 10 guard should not be driving in to 4 defenders multiple times. Gist is only useful in the one out of 3 games he is on from 3. Gist is not a point guard, this is killing the team, he has zero passing ability!
Arnold has a pretty successful JC coaching career. Striking how little it translates into D1. We are too good a program not to have an assistant not able to take the reigns. We always had good backups
Any word after the game on the status of AJ McNeil?
In their brief playing time, both McNeil and Cashaw have shown good effort and energy on the defensive end. Not sure either would be helpful putting the biscuit in the basket. Need more data.
Since I hate myself, I watched the game again this morning.
-Adam Finkelstein, who is a very good analyst and knows the Iona players very well, was very critical of IW in the 2nd half on more than one occasion. He questioned his effort and stated how long Arnold was going to let it continue. He did make a good point that IW and the coaching staff are in a difficult spot making his transfer to Iona work. Made the point that things didn't work out for IW at Minn. after being such a highly hyped recruit, and how difficult the transition is to Iona and living up to the hype all over again. IW had a great A/TO ratio for 2 years in the Big Ten, a great defensive league, yet looks very tentative at times and has made some very poor decisions. Never expected him to develop into a great shooter, but at the very least at the MM level to run the offense and continue the great A/TO ratio. I don't really care for his body language. It appears he's not having fun on the court and it's more of a job than a game he loves. The staff has to figure this out quickly.
-Agee and Crawford have been Iona's best 2 players so far, but they also have to be held accountable for these losses. They are the 2 senior leaders yet they make too many poor decisions on the court and again combined for 9 turnovers last night. That's unacceptable. Have no idea what Agee was thinking picking up his 5th foul by just slapping away the defender's hand right in front of the ref. Really?? On the same play the refs call a retroactive flagrant foul on Gist. Don't think I ever saw a retroactive flagrant foul called before.
-Arnold has been placed into a impossible situation, but he had a very rough night. If you are going to start Perez (7 total minutes) why bench him the last 26 minutes of the game after he had a terrible turnover? And no I am not going with Ross had a great game. Ross was 2-6 from three the 2nd half playing 17 minutes. IW played well the 1st half but not so much the 2nd half. He shot 1-2 with 1 rebound and 1 assist in 12 minutes. Perez should have gotten some of those minutes from both Ross and Perez. Perez actually played well the first 6 minutes of the game. No excuse to bench him after a turnover and the entire 2nd half while blowing a 17 point lead. Van Eyck came in and help spark the 1st half run with his energy getting 4 rebounds with blocks and steals in only 4 minutes. He barely played in the 2nd half as well. The announcers said Iona went about 9 minutes without a FG. If shots are not falling why not play Van Eyck more where maybe he can create a couple easy layups with his defense. I think it was EPat who mentioned this but Arnold didn't call a timeout until 1:38 was left in the game while Iona was blowing a 17 point lead. Have to call a timeout to break the momentum, but instead didn't make any adjustments. Like I said he's in a difficult position but he really had a poor night.
-Even with the terrible play the last 10 minutes the game was there to be won. Biggest play not mentioned was coming out of a SPU timeout with 8 seconds remaining, everybody knew SPU would shoot a three, yet Iona left Edert, a 50% 3pt shooter wide open in the corner for a three point shot and only taking 2 seconds off the clock. I will not even get into having Crawford and Ross on the block for the Gist missed FT.
-I will just agree to disagree on Iona having more talent, by far, than the rest of the MAAC. Scary thing is that quite a few MAAC programs have some pretty good recruiting classes this year and return a good amount of talent next year while Iona is facing a total rebuild. Iona does have one commit for next season who appears to be very good, but he is no longer playing at his JUCO, so we will see how that ends up.
Everybody knew SPU was going to shoot a 3? Really?
Since I hate myself, I watched the game again this morning.
-Adam Finkelstein, who is a very good analyst and knows the Iona players very well, was very critical of IW in the 2nd half on more than one occasion. He questioned his effort and stated how long Arnold was going to let it continue. He did make a good point that IW and the coaching staff are in a difficult spot making his transfer to Iona work. Made the point that things didn't work out for IW at Minn. after being such a highly hyped recruit, and how difficult the transition is to Iona and living up to the hype all over again. IW had a great A/TO ratio for 2 years in the Big Ten, a great defensive league, yet looks very tentative at times and has made some very poor decisions. Never expected him to develop into a great shooter, but at the very least at the MM level to run the offense and continue the great A/TO ratio. I don't really care for his body language. It appears he's not having fun on the court and it's more of a job than a game he loves. The staff has to figure this out quickly.
-Agee and Crawford have been Iona's best 2 players so far, but they also have to be held accountable for these losses. They are the 2 senior leaders yet they make too many poor decisions on the court and again combined for 9 turnovers last night. That's unacceptable. Have no idea what Agee was thinking picking up his 5th foul by just slapping away the defender's hand right in front of the ref. Really?? On the same play the refs call a retroactive flagrant foul on Gist. Don't think I ever saw a retroactive flagrant foul called before.
-Arnold has been placed into a impossible situation, but he had a very rough night. If you are going to start Perez (7 total minutes) why bench him the last 26 minutes of the game after he had a terrible turnover? And no I am not going with Ross had a great game. Ross was 2-6 from three the 2nd half playing 17 minutes. IW played well the 1st half but not so much the 2nd half. He shot 1-2 with 1 rebound and 1 assist in 12 minutes. Perez should have gotten some of those minutes from both Ross and Perez. Perez actually played well the first 6 minutes of the game. No excuse to bench him after a turnover and the entire 2nd half while blowing a 17 point lead. Van Eyck came in and help spark the 1st half run with his energy getting 4 rebounds with blocks and steals in only 4 minutes. He barely played in the 2nd half as well. The announcers said Iona went about 9 minutes without a FG. If shots are not falling why not play Van Eyck more where maybe he can create a couple easy layups with his defense. I think it was EPat who mentioned this but Arnold didn't call a timeout until 1:38 was left in the game while Iona was blowing a 17 point lead. Have to call a timeout to break the momentum, but instead didn't make any adjustments. Like I said he's in a difficult position but he really had a poor night.
-Even with the terrible play the last 10 minutes the game was there to be won. Biggest play not mentioned was coming out of a SPU timeout with 8 seconds remaining, everybody knew SPU would shoot a three, yet Iona left Edert, a 50% 3pt shooter wide open in the corner for a three point shot and only taking 2 seconds off the clock. I will not even get into having Crawford and Ross on the block for the Gist missed FT.
-I will just agree to disagree on Iona having more talent, by far, than the rest of the MAAC. Scary thing is that quite a few MAAC programs have some pretty good recruiting classes this year and return a good amount of talent next year while Iona is facing a total rebuild. Iona does have one commit for next season who appears to be very good, but he is no longer playing at his JUCO, so we will see how that ends up.
Everybody knew SPU was going to shoot a 3? Really?
Down 4 with 8 seconds remaining, do you think the strategy was to waste 3-4 seconds driving to the basket? If so we can just agree to disagree. Bottom line SPU has a kid like Edert that shoots 50% from three, and Iona left him wide open in the corner giving SPU life down 1 with still 5.5 seconds remaining. My point was that was a huge play/mistake by Iona.
Since I hate myself, I watched the game again this morning.
-Adam Finkelstein, who is a very good analyst and knows the Iona players very well, was very critical of IW in the 2nd half on more than one occasion. He questioned his effort and stated how long Arnold was going to let it continue. He did make a good point that IW and the coaching staff are in a difficult spot making his transfer to Iona work. Made the point that things didn't work out for IW at Minn. after being such a highly hyped recruit, and how difficult the transition is to Iona and living up to the hype all over again. IW had a great A/TO ratio for 2 years in the Big Ten, a great defensive league, yet looks very tentative at times and has made some very poor decisions. Never expected him to develop into a great shooter, but at the very least at the MM level to run the offense and continue the great A/TO ratio. I don't really care for his body language. It appears he's not having fun on the court and it's more of a job than a game he loves. The staff has to figure this out quickly.
-Agee and Crawford have been Iona's best 2 players so far, but they also have to be held accountable for these losses. They are the 2 senior leaders yet they make too many poor decisions on the court and again combined for 9 turnovers last night. That's unacceptable. Have no idea what Agee was thinking picking up his 5th foul by just slapping away the defender's hand right in front of the ref. Really?? On the same play the refs call a retroactive flagrant foul on Gist. Don't think I ever saw a retroactive flagrant foul called before.
-Arnold has been placed into a impossible situation, but he had a very rough night. If you are going to start Perez (7 total minutes) why bench him the last 26 minutes of the game after he had a terrible turnover? And no I am not going with Ross had a great game. Ross was 2-6 from three the 2nd half playing 17 minutes. IW played well the 1st half but not so much the 2nd half. He shot 1-2 with 1 rebound and 1 assist in 12 minutes. Perez should have gotten some of those minutes from both Ross and Perez. Perez actually played well the first 6 minutes of the game. No excuse to bench him after a turnover and the entire 2nd half while blowing a 17 point lead. Van Eyck came in and help spark the 1st half run with his energy getting 4 rebounds with blocks and steals in only 4 minutes. He barely played in the 2nd half as well. The announcers said Iona went about 9 minutes without a FG. If shots are not falling why not play Van Eyck more where maybe he can create a couple easy layups with his defense. I think it was EPat who mentioned this but Arnold didn't call a timeout until 1:38 was left in the game while Iona was blowing a 17 point lead. Have to call a timeout to break the momentum, but instead didn't make any adjustments. Like I said he's in a difficult position but he really had a poor night.
-Even with the terrible play the last 10 minutes the game was there to be won. Biggest play not mentioned was coming out of a SPU timeout with 8 seconds remaining, everybody knew SPU would shoot a three, yet Iona left Edert, a 50% 3pt shooter wide open in the corner for a three point shot and only taking 2 seconds off the clock. I will not even get into having Crawford and Ross on the block for the Gist missed FT.
-I will just agree to disagree on Iona having more talent, by far, than the rest of the MAAC. Scary thing is that quite a few MAAC programs have some pretty good recruiting classes this year and return a good amount of talent next year while Iona is facing a total rebuild. Iona does have one commit for next season who appears to be very good, but he is no longer playing at his JUCO, so we will see how that ends up.
Everybody knew SPU was going to shoot a 3? Really?
I felt they were going to go for a three. Actually, Edert got fouled on the shot and the irony is in hindsight, having him make a 4 point play could of been the best thing for us. Would of allowed Iona the last shot in a tied game with a worse case scenario of overtime.
I also thought they would shoot a 3 and thought the most important thing they needed to do was make sure Edert didn’t get a shot from 3, and I thought he was fouled as well.
I still see potential in Jelly ( I think the only one who may agree is epatrick) and I think his attitude looks worse than it actually is, he basically has had that look every time I have watched him but yes it was worse last night. Cluess would have him playing much better. They need his passing for this team to improve, but he has to look like he cares not only for the coaches and teammates but for us fans. I think the kid needs a good game to get him going, with no one else being able to be the lead guard he is going to have to get more chances.
Lastly why does Agee no longer takes 3? If he has any sort of outside game it would help his inside game. This year he passes up nearly all open looks. Maybe the farther line has him uncomfortable.
Everybody knew SPU was going to shoot a 3? Really?
I felt they were going to go for a three. Actually, Edert got fouled on the shot and the irony is in hindsight, having him make a 4 point play could of been the best thing for us. Would of allowed Iona the last shot in a tied game with a worse case scenario of overtime.
Well we left Edert wide open. Why wouldn’t SPU go for 3? That was a terrible defensive lapse.
Well Iona made sportscenter last night...unfortunately. Looking at the last seconds of the game, SPU had all 5 of their players outside the arc, so yeah safe to say they planned to take a three. No idea why Thiam would hedge off of Edert. On the game winning drive Thiam was again caught in the middle. Instead of blocking Banks' lane to the hoop he decided to hedge out to the SPU kid outside the arc (this time not Edert), probably because everyone got on his ass about backing off Edert the previous play, creating a clear path for him to the hoop. IW also could have done a better job breaking up the play. The more I watch that last play the more ridiculous it was and makes this loss even worse.
Again, not only was it bad enough Crawford and Ross were in the lane, but they didn't even box out the 6'3'' Banks who got the rebound. Will be interesting to see how the team responds tomorrow. Monmouth will be coming off a very tough loss at Siena which they let slip away. If nothing else Monmouth will play very hard. Let's hope the guys match their intensity or things can get ugly.