Good, pts production
Moore 25
Miles 16

Bad, wasted attempts
Dotson FGs 1-8
Tavarez FGs 2-9 (all threeball attempts)

Also, Moore, who put up the good 25pts, didn't have enough help from the other players in his set-ups. He gave the players a disbelief shrug at a stop in play in the second half.

One thing I was thinking about last night: did we underestimate how big it was losing Sean Dwyer as the top assistant, especially so late in the Summer? The more I think about, that’s a big hit, especially early in the year with a lot of new players. Granted, it’s not so huge that we should be losing to Mercyhurst and almost losing to Cleveland State, but the impact might be significant.

Cleveland State beat D3 Capital by one point last night--so they most likely are going to be a 300+ KenPom team. And in Mercyhurst's first game, they got waxed by Northwestern and scored only 47 points.

To be out-rebounded and out-hustled by Cleveland State and Mercyhurst is inexcusable. The offense looked lost. Mercyhurst was running actual sets, backdoor cuts, etc. We seemed content with one-on-one hero ball.

I know it isn't (and won't be), but Drew's seat should at least be a little warm. Crazy to say after a solid year last season capped with a nice NIT run. But his non-con performance every season has put us out of at-large contention by the time conference play starts. With the money spent and rosters built, that can't happen. And it isn't like we are losing to Duke and Kansas in non-con. He has underperformed and taken really bad losses to teams that have finished significantly below us in every rating. I don't know why he can't coach the first couple months of the season.

couple thoughts.
I also wondered what the effect of losing Sean Dwyer was...and other coaches over the last couple years...You would have to say the full transition from Porter to Drew has been completed? This includes style of play as well as coaches, players and style.
You have to wonder if Jalen Quin and Jayden Dawson would have helped? It makes you wonder the value of experience in a system vs raw talent. This constant turnover of rosters year after year is tough on fans and teams...You could make a case that Mercyhurst won because they had playing experience together. All 5 starters were on the team last year and the two top subs...We basically have Rubin and then Moore and Houinso who both played limited time last year...Glaskov also has a year of experience but has shown zip. This constant turn over leads to wasting the non-con season to figuring things out.
It seems like the Valentine system is almost about creating chaos and having superior physical talent and depth win the chaos battle. This kind of system leads to people being out of position all the time hence turnover and rebounding issues...Remember Porters system? it was all about being in position. We used to complain that we didnt fast break...and why? so we could always be in correct defensive position and not give up an easy basket. The kicker here is you cant run a successful fast break without rebounding.
Any way lets see if we can pull this together by the time the A-10 rolls around.

Sometimes it seems like Drew wants the team to run on vibes rather than an actual plan. He makes comments about playing free and trusting players, and it seems like this is the result of too much of that. How exactly is that a good idea in an era of constant roster turnover? These guys need some structure.

Granted, the teams have eventually turned it around the past couple seasons, but how does he keep making the same mistakes?

I too worry about the loss of Dwyer. I give credit for Mercyhurst having a plan and executing it (unlike us), but come on. It wasn't exactly rocket science -- they ran out the shot clock and packed it in defensively. With the talent disparity, a few adjustments should have made that not a problem, and yet our team seemed completely perplexed the entire game.

Couple of game-related observations -

The Dominick Harris experiment at starter must come to an end. They've gotten nothing in 2 games.

This team could be hurting right now without Amos as the #4 or immediate backup.

Kymany's leg continues to flare up.

Moore is trying to do too much by himself.

Concerning the lack of any low post scoring, wouldn't these past 2 games have been good opportunities for Brayden Young to grab some minutes and give him a look down low?

Glazkov has been surpassed on the depth chart by both freshmen.

This is an awful rebounding team.

Last night in TalkinBlers postgame, it was very cool of Jalen DeLoach to join in at the very end along with Des. From his perspective the poor defense we've seen thus far is mostly an effort problem rather than schematics and system. Some of the guys and newcomers haven't given any.

I was thinking about the staff last night as well. In 3 years we've lost Amorrow, Dwyer, and Will Bailey. All turned out to be solid for us.

So we barely beat Cleveland State and just lost to what was the #360th ranked team in the country. Is this what happens when you start paying 18-19-20 year olds to play?

The inexperience reasoning makes sense when talking about playing teams with a lot of returning minutes. But falls short in most cases. Cleveland State returned ZERO minutes. Most teams we play in non-con (and have played in non-con in prior seasons) return fewer minutes than us. Just about everyone has major roster turnover nowadays so I just don't buy it as an excuse. I actually think we are near the top of the A10 in returning minutes, believe it or not.

It comes down to coaching and effort. Both are severely lacking.