The back-to-back calls on Des that triggered the first tech were egregiously bad. The first, he was in good position boxing out and the SUU defender basically jumped on his back...Des called for a foul. The second, the SUU bigger guy was barreling into the lane with his shoulder down and drilled Des..who went down hard.....Des called for a blocking foul. I think Drew saw Des about to get a tech and took attention off him and put it on himself.

I think Moore can be a decent piece, but he missed some wide open layups today. NEED to clean that up. He also had a really bad sequence where he drove to the hoop, missed an easy layup, then didn't hustle back to get on defense so was very out of position when his guy was driving to the hoop causing an open look (that was missed), then was out-hustled on the rebound and basically watched Nwakorie battle three guys--causing a SUU offensive board that led to FTs.

My Thoughts on the Game: Good, Bad, and Ugly

UGLY: We just can't seem to finish in the post. This has been a problem all season so far. Quinn, Moore, Deloach, Watson are the main culprits. It's a primary reason why we have been eking out wins instead of having an easier night. We are also being beaten off the bounce way too much. Once we get beat out high, Our post defenders have to react and help and our weakside defenders are not collapsing to fill in and help on the glass. As a result we are chasing and giving up a few too many offensive rebounds. Two things that need to be cleaned up on this. First, our bigs are not showing on the high ball screens. They are too passive and hanging in the lane. The opponents ball handlers thus have too much space to operate and turn the corner off the screen and get into the lane. Our guards are thus caught in a Catch 22, try to fight through the screen and get called for fouls, or try to go underneath the screen and risk giving up space for open 3's, which a lot of guards will take, especially in the A-10. The big must show and redirect the ball handler away from the basket and back towards half court. We have fallen prey to this in the past and hopefully this message will sink in. I know the staff is aware of this. Second, I am not sure of what we are teaching in terms of footwork. Our defenders always seem to have their feet parallel to the baseline. It's very difficult to keep a ballhandler in front of you if this is how you are moving. Ideally, you want to divide the the court in half down the center and your feet should mimic the 3 point arc. As you slide to the right or left of the halfway mark mark, your should be on an angle as if you are following the 3 point arc. This allows you to seal and influence the ball handler to where you want him to go and where presumably your defense is set to handle it, and makes it hard for them to reverse to the other side.

BAD: Way too much one on one last night. We did have a lot of assists, but many times we were playing one on one. We have not really brought out any of our motion offense where we we move the ball and bodies. Seems like at times we start our offense a tad bit high on floor and the ball handler has to travel a long amount of space to get to the screens. It also affects any attempt at setting staggered screens as well. This affects any screen roll possibilities as the screener has a long way to go to the basket, allowing the defense to react and recover. It might explain why we had a lot of bad looking lobs at the basket to our bigs as the lob also becomes a longer pass. We are still fouling way too much. We just can't seem to keep our hands of ball handlers. Princeton they refs allowed it, yesterday they did not. Part of the problem is the aforementioned footwork. This has to be cleaned up. We had too many fouls. SUU shot 22-27 from the line for 81.5%. This kept them in the game. SUU made the same amount of FT's that we shot as a total.

GOOD: The depth last night showed up. Nwaokorie was huge off the bench. We got into foul trouble and he in particular was very good. Several huge offensive rebounds, seven total, hit a 3 and 3-4 from the line, and 9 pts. TO's were low at 7, 19 assists on 26 baskets. We shot the 3 better hitting 8 of 18 for 44.4%. FTs could have been better but we made 16-22 for 72.7 %. We held SUU to 41% from the floor and 28.6% from the arc. Des hit a couple of threes, 2-3, and his 3 point shot looked better.

CLOSING THOUGHTS: We are athletic and talented, but, as has been our tendency with all the new faces we seem to have every year, we are not 100% on the same page yet. Big test against Tulsa on Saturday. They have handled us the last two times we have played them and they will be a tough test. We will need to be sharper for sure. 5 pm start should hopefully lead to a big crowd. Pack the Joe and GO 'Blers!

Is it just me or is the student section thinner than in recent years? Any thoughts on what is leading to this? Also, concession lines have been reasonable so far this year as well.

Yeah I've noticed that too. The class that was freshmen during the sweet 16 year would have just graduated, so maybe that cohort was driving a lot of the student enthusiasm? Would have been the last class from Porter's tenure, and we know he was big on student engagement. Maybe the current staff needs to re-up those efforts (another tourney run certainly wouldn't hurt!)

Also entirely plausible that the juggernaut opponent stretch of Chicago State, Eureka College and Southern Utah isnt exactly riling up the students (or other fans) to prioritize attendance. Will be concerned about it if its sparse during conference play.

This one was my first game of the year. Student sections seemed very thin but we should expect them to fill it for Saturday.

The best and most effective lineup for us last night was during the second half after the first media timeout. On the floor: Watson; DeLoach; Moore; Edwards; Houinsou. All 5 together contributed and complimented in various ways although none of it was done with elegance and beauty.

On my ride home, listened to Dave / TalkinBlers Podcast. Short show, but Dave highlighted Houinsou's elite defense. ZERO fouls the entire game. This was the most overlooked stat and contribution of the game. Glad we got this guy!

Only disappointment is the now $10 beers (not much to select from) and only two vendors/stations now? No more cooler in the Damen entrance? It was filled with good stuff last year. Hopefully this improves for the weekend games and when conference play begins.......

Alarming news about the beer, hopefully they just realized the demand wasn't there for this game. They'll need all systems go for the Dayton game, IIRC they ran out of beer last time

1. For what it is worth you can eat in the student cafeteria in the student center....I think they told me it was like 7 bucks....wish there were more options closer....Bring back Sir Whoopies.
2. Has anyone been to Irelands b4 or after the games?
3.I wonder if the double headers with the Womens game right b4 splits the crowd..or if it was just uninspiring opponent and a fairly late weeknight game? Or just a bunch of new players that they have not connected with as of yet?
4. I think we have 3 8pm weeknight games which are going to be tough for us that put in 65 miles one way

I don't think it's fair to include DeLoach in this. He's shooting 72%. It was the guards who barely cracked 25% on two point FGs in this game.

But yeah in general it feels like we're not consistently getting easy baskets.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

On point number 3. I hadn't noticed if the women's game preceded the men's in previous years. If this is the first year, I would have to think that alone might be enough to see the attendance go down for the men's game. Aren't we then talking 4-5 hours of basketball?