Well, another debacle ! Just as in past teams at LUC--the second half reverted to the mechanical, plodding, make no mistake way LUC has been doing it for years. The difference is that this team HAS talent all down the line and appears to refuse to use it---Over-coaching ?? Or is it under-coaching ?? Hard to say..


Other teams change strategy when they are down --It works because we become cautious rather than putting down the hammer. BUT i n any case, every Rambler that played in the second half FAILED and the coaches appeared to be unwilling or unable to react to NIU's change up.

Am sorry . guys but this has happened too many times now for it to be a coincidence. In my uninformed opinion, we have talent but they are not playing to it or being allowed to--rather they are mechanically running the same thing over and over again--but even worse, we are not even taking the shots when they are there , because it is not in the system or something. Our Bigs--those that played were pretty badly mauled.

All in all as others have said, this season is crumbling--I say it should not have done---Too much talent--too little result.

Bottom line, when your mind says play not to lose, you surely will go down---SAD ! Most of us had high hopes--Mine are being smashed. I witnessed this and still cannot believe it.

Here are our possessions for the first 10 minutes of the second half:

19:37 - Missed three shots (two blocked)
19:24 - Missed layup (foul) - Made 1 of 2
18:40 - Turnover
17:41 - Missed three pointer
17:23 - Turnover
16:42 - Missed layup
16:28 - Turnover
16:09 - FIRST FIELD GOAL
15:28 - Turnover
14:47 - Made two free throws
13:55 - Turnover
13:35 - Turnover
12:58 - Turnover (offensive foul)
12:21 - SECOND FIELD GOAL
11:25 - Free throws - Made 1 of 2
10:37 - Missed layup
10:01 - Missed three pointer
9:59 - Offensive rebound, put back

Three and field goals and 7 turnovers in 10 minutes. It didn't get much better from there.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

OMG this was tough to watch on Gametracker as the score got closer and closer and then......AHUNTE what did you see at the game? Did NIU change anything? Really concerned about comments about hanging heads,,, was the height advantage eventually too much? In priority what do you think happened?

As noted by someone else, the offense was totally stagnant.

I'm not sure if NIU did anything differently other than knock down shots in the second half. Our defense was collapsing on the big men and leaving guys open for three. Double-teaming the post was probably necessary, but it didn't help our rebounding.

In my opinion, that's the priority order. There was no leadership on offense, and when they got frustrated on that end of the floor, it carried over to the defense. We aren't a mature enough team to get our energy from defense. For whatever reason, the game had no flow whatsoever and the team looked out of it, even in the first half.

I hate to call out college players by name, so I'll just say that the big men aren't getting playing time because they are making glaring mistakes when they get into the game.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

NIU didn't change anything. They played their methodical half court defense and we played right into it. We weren't attacking the lane. Instead, we chose to pass the ball around the perimeter and then turn it over. It was entirely pathetic.

Meanwhile, the coach (and everyone in the gym) could see what was happening. Did Porter change up his game plan? If he did, it certainly didn't look like it. He seemed to be OK playing into their game.

Further, what the hell was with the end of the game? How did he not tell them to foul immediately?! We wasted 20 seconds as they dribbled around and then Keke got hit with the intentional foul.

That leads me to another point, Keke looked completely frustrated. NIU seemed to get under his skin. Again, this is where coaching comes in. You need to coach up your players to not take the bait. Porter hasn't done that and we took the bait. And the players that didn't take the bait? Their body language was terrible. Slumped shoulders, hung heads.

Just terrible

_________________
Cigarboy sucks!

First, I agree with all of your points. As for this, I have no idea what was going on. Three was a 10 second differential and we were down by three. To me, that's a foul situation. But if you want to play for the steal or miss, I guess I'm okay with that. I'm not okay with wasting 20 seconds and then fouling. I thought the intentional was cheap, but we ended up getting the ball back anyway.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

I'm not a basketball Xs and Os guy, but I was at the game and to me the most striking thing was the body language of the Ramblers throughout most of the second half, which GoRamblers and others have alluded to.

Hanging heads, slumped shoulders, and an expression on their faces that said "Here we go again, it's only a matter of time until we lose our lead."

Fear, helplessness, resignation...it was all there. The only guy on the bench who showed any spirit was Billy Clark, and the only person in the stands who showed spunk was LU Wolf.

I put the blame squarely on Moser. He's sucked the air out of the Joe with his anal retentive style of coaching. No life, no spirit on the court or in the stands. I'm usually loud and obnoxious in the stands, but I barely registered a protest as the ship slowly sank the second half.

Two examples of Moser's overcoaching. I learned from a reliable source that Moser's installed 45 offensive plays this season. That's way too many. Maybe one reason the Ramblers seem to be standing around is that they're all trying to remember where to go on the play Moser's called.

I'm sure Gene Sullivan didn't have half as many plays, and he ran what plays he did have from the same set. I'm also sure that Sully gave his players a lot more leeway to improvise. And Sully's practices flowed, unlike Moser's which jerk to a halt every couple minutes so that Moser can take advantage of a perceived "teaching moment" and give a lecture.

The second example was at the game, when Moser yanked Cody Johnson after about one minute on the court when he missed a jumper, then proceeded to lecture him on the bench. I'm sure that does wonders for the player's confidence and willingness to take a shot.

I think what may precipitate my final break with Moser was his comments following the game as reported by the Trib:



What a weasel. He takes no personal responsibility, but lays the blame squarely on the players. Just like Barry Hinson did, only less colorfully. And Hinson apologized for his remarks.

And yet, there was Moser, on the court, telling Turk to shoot the ball (seconds after he was called for his 2nd traveling violation).

Apparently some players are to be seen and not heard...

_________________
Cigarboy sucks!

In fairness, I think it's pretty logical that you want Turk shooting when he has a look, especially against a zone, and you don't want Cody Johnson coming into the game and firing up 18-footers.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

When we recruited Cody Johnson, his rep was that he was a big man who could shoot threes.

Moser apparently wants to remold him into a different kind of player.

If Moser was looking for a big guy to rebound and set picks, he should have recruited a player with those skills.

A good coach adapts his system to the players' skill sets.