100% sure that Niagara 3 would have went in if it didnt get blocked, as time expired. Joebird curse is still alive and kicking.
We all know curses don’t exist right? And if you bind a woman up with ropes and toss her in a pond and she floats that doesn’t mean she’s a witch, right?
Just means she's bloated allowing her to be floated.
Pretty big room. I'm looking at what I think is another elephant.
What is happening to our defense in the second half of games? A key premise of the press is the wear and tear factor over forty minutes. Instead of running the other guys out of gas, we are running ourselves out of gas. Stay with me a minute.
I looked at a sample of seven games, admittedly a biased selection. Starting with last night's Niagara 50 second half points, we gave up an average of 46 second half points over the 7 games.
My elephant is flashing a BIG F
Foul!
I'm not going to dwell on our atrocious foul shooting. I am going to talk about the pressure our fouling is putting on our atrocious foul shooting.
We are not tiring ourselves out in the second half, but our key players have limited availability in late game situations - either they are on the bench or are tentative because of foul trouble. Last night JQ (my "59 impression) had 3 fouls in the first half.
Our foul tendencies are fueling the second half comebacks, and the comebacks are turbocharged by our FT shooting. "Don't care if I foul Iona in the second half - an empty possession for Iona." And we feed that by continuing to foul like hell. And so the cycle goes!
Our FT% being what it is, we need to better manage our own fouls; and as part of that process, we need effective defensive minutes from our bench.
Pretty big room. I'm looking at what I think is another elephant.
What is happening to our defense in the second half of games? A key premise of the press is the wear and tear factor over forty minutes. Instead of running the other guys out of gas, we are running ourselves out of gas. Stay with me a minute.
I looked at a sample of seven games, admittedly a biased selection. Starting with last night's Niagara 50 second half points, we gave up an average of 46 second half points over the 7 games.
My elephant is flashing a BIG F
Foul!
I'm not going to dwell on our atrocious foul shooting. I am going to talk about the pressure our fouling is putting on our atrocious foul shooting.
We are not tiring ourselves out in the second half, but our key players have limited availability in late game situations - either they are on the bench or are tentative because of foul trouble. Last night JQ (my "59 impression) had 3 fouls in the first half.
Our foul tendencies are fueling the second half comebacks, and the comebacks are turbocharged by our FT shooting. "Don't care if I foul Iona in the second half - an empty possession for Iona." And we feed that by continuing to foul like hell. And so the cycle goes!
Our FT% being what it is, we need to better manage our own fouls; and as part of that process, we need effective defensive minutes from our bench.
That's the only thing that I disagree with Tobin and his presser last night.
Said guys need to make foul shots and they work on it. Might have a rare game when free throws are being made, but the players are shooting at the same rate that they have throughout their career. Don't see much of an improvement coming up.
What they need to work on, and hopefully can be improved, are all of the dumb fouls late in the game allowing the opponent back in the game with the clock stopped. Late in game Panzo fouled a Niagara player 94 feet from the hoop on a missed Iona free throw. That just can't happen.
Craziest stat last night...Niagara scored 27 points the last 4:17 of the game
Free throws are a physical act more than a mental one, and it's just not something we're very good at collectively.
That said, there are those "unpublished stats" re how guys shoot FTs at the end of games. Example, last night. Os is not some wildly amazing FT shooter, but you know when he demanded the ball late and got it and got fouled, he was going to make both. Comes with his age. Conversely, when you put frosh on the line late in the game, you don't know what you're going to get. See JQ last night, see Clayton vs Rider in MAAC quarters a couple years back.
The rest is completely psychological. It is without question human nature to ease up with a huge lead. Even when Niagara started inching back, we called a timeout and then we got back to back stops and back to back Gordon buckets to push us back up by 19. I thought that was the moment we had all been waiting for, to show the growth to finish someone off--until it wasn't. And now, it's in our heads, those blown leads. Losing at home to Niagara, then the very late collapse vs Quinny. Sure, we've gotten better now at not letting teams ALL the way back and then escaping, but like I said, it's in our heads, and worse, it's in our opponents' heads. Keep coming, they're gonna fold. The weaker teams in the MAAC can't make those kinds of comebacks against us, but the better ones can. We've had some amazing first halves already in 2024, and some wildly awful second halves. But that's what I meant last night at halftime here and on twitter. You know the other team will adjust and play better, but they key is to just play well enough to not let them back in it. That's how it felt for the first 15 min or so of the 2nd half--Gordon made the 2nd of those two buckets, and we were up 18. That's absolutely fine to play them essentially even after dominating the first half. But yeah, that last 5 vs Quinny, that last 5 vs Rider, and that last 5 last night--scary shit, no other way to put it.
Was said earlier in this thread too, but having Idan down the stretch would help. No, he's not the best FT shooter or ball handler, but his experience would have been better than what we saw from JQ or Aranguren down the stretch, save for Aranguren's FTs.
We've gotta figure it out, and against one of the better teams. I think once we do that, we'll be fine. It's just part of the process, one that I've been telling y'all about since like April. Assuming we solve this, I'll be loving our chances in AC.
Gonna end with more positives. Even with these crapshoot collapses, we've won 6 of 7 and have seen the emergence of one of the more exciting players we've had here in recent years. I know it's fan nature to stress and harp on negatives, but the fact is, despite this issue, we're still winning games, and the only time we didn't, it was to a 19-4 team at their place. Far cry from Nov and Dec.
The greatest poster in the history of the MAAC as determined by THREE separate polls.
Don't remember the year but think it was in the 90's and we were playing Holy Cross at Mulcahy and the game was in the 100's and either double or triple OT. We were up three, I believe, with HC having the ball but needing to go the length of the court with only a couple of seconds left. If my memory is correct HC threw a half court pass to their 6'10 center, Charlie Browne (Tolentine), who caught it and passed it for the tying shot. Can't remember what happened, but hopefully someone does.
Charlie graduated in 1980. He played against Ruland in NCAA game we won.*
Got the players confused. The game I'm thinking of was played on 2/21/89. We beat HC, 123-113. Pretty sure it was an OT game, and the HC play tied up the game in either regulation or the first OT period.
F/w/i/w, that game was the most points scored in a game at Mulcahy.
Finishing down the stretch has to be key for us. Also discouraged by Saunders lack of minutes I think he provides a nice shooting option.
begaels2021, there is something we are not aware of as to why Dylan has not been playing. I agree with you 100% that he is a good shooting option. There is a reason he’s not seeing play time and we just don’t know what it is.
Last Edit: Feb 9, 2024 14:22:02 GMT -5 by brffdone
Finishing down the stretch has to be key for us. Also discouraged by Saunders lack of minutes I think he provides a nice shooting option.
begaels2021, there is something we are not aware of as to why Dylan has not been playing. I agree with you 100% that he is a good shooting option. There is a reason he’s not seeing play time and we just don’t know what it is.
Performance in practice vs the relative performance of his his teammates is likely the answer.
Finishing down the stretch has to be key for us. Also discouraged by Saunders lack of minutes I think he provides a nice shooting option.
begaels2021, there is something we are not aware of as to why Dylan has not been playing. I agree with you 100% that he is a good shooting option. There is a reason he’s not seeing play time and we just don’t know what it is.
begaels2021, there is something we are not aware of as to why Dylan has not been playing. I agree with you 100% that he is a good shooting option. There is a reason he’s not seeing play time and we just don’t know what it is.
not good on defense
Agree. Iona has basically been in command of just about every game recently so defense over offense when you're winning.
He did get a lot of PT in the Siena game tho when they were destroying them.
He will be a bigger part of this team next year thought. Plenty of time to work on defense.
Last Edit: Feb 9, 2024 17:25:57 GMT -5 by broguy99
begaels2021, there is something we are not aware of as to why Dylan has not been playing. I agree with you 100% that he is a good shooting option. There is a reason he’s not seeing play time and we just don’t know what it is.
Performance in practice vs the relative performance of his his teammates is likely the answer.
Your comment makes sense. However, I would think that a 6'9 kid who has a very nice deep shooting touch, would not be thrown to the curb as a freshman. Also, while not part of the rotation, a 6'7 athletic wing, Isaac Brice, still has potential (IMO), and I'm hoping that he also gets some PT.
Performance in practice vs the relative performance of his his teammates is likely the answer.
Your comment makes sense. However, I would think that a 6'9 kid who has a very nice deep shooting touch, would not be thrown to the curb as a freshman. Also, while not part of the rotation, a 6'7 athletic wing, Isaac Brice, still has potential (IMO), and I'm hoping that he also gets some PT.
Can remember a few times when Saunders’s man beat him down the court after a made basket.