I'll be the first to say that tonight was disappointing, but I don't think the sky is falling yet. This can still be a solid A-10 team. The turnovers were beyond frustrating again, but FAU is a really, really, really good team with tons of experience playing together.

The offense was a struggle which again is unfortunate, but I do think the transfers will fit in well and be difference makers once they get integrated. Let's not get ahead of ourselves declaring the season over with a 13 point loss to a top 10 team.

It'll be on Drew to make it happen this year. The talent on the team means there are no excuses for a repeat of last year or anything close to it. Again though, let's not overreact to one game against a great team. There's a whole lot of season left.

Need to run some plays for Dolan, Dawson, and Norris to get shots. Honestly some simple pick and roll even would be refreshing than all these ball reversals on the perimeter. It never looks like we have a plan on offense.

Defense has improved. I like Mwamba as a 3 and D guy. But overall bad performance and looks scarily like last year

Like others, I’m frustrated that the same issues are reappearing. However, last year’s team would have lost this game by 30. We were in the game in the second half. That’s really all we should ask for from a team full of new faces against a top 10 team with a ton of chemistry. I’m still confident we’ll figure things out with this group. Conference isn’t looking too formidable this year either.

Agree with the general sentiment here. Same issues with the offense. I don't think you can expect the turnover situation to improve if guys aren't able to get open. Going in, a 13 point loss on paper would've made sense to me, but you can't help but feel a little defeated with how things looked.

I have no patience for dumb, flagrant fouls. I'll bite my tongue there.

Edit: I also want to voice that I hope with don't opt into this Barstool game in the future. I'm sure that exposure played into this, but the commentary did more damage than any exposure may have helped.

Aside from the game on the floor, I was very pleased to see the Rambler fans turn out for this game. I hope it carries thru our home games going forward. On the court, we saw minutes of solid play and lapses with turnovers. I saw hesitancy to take it to the basket when a lane appeared open as well as a lot of not thinking about taking a shot when it was there. Second half was a definite shift with players going to the rim. Offense needs to have a purpose, not just a rote run this pattern….I believe this team is much better defensively than last season. Let’s revisit our potential a bit further into the season. Playing at Wintrust with a top tier opponent and a great crowd turnout was fun. We had it down to 7 then the flagrant, along with counting the basket and free throws, and keeping possession put any chances to rest. We did not quit, played hard all the way…. PS How does a 7 foot big body from Russia end up in Boca Raton? Please tell me……Oh and one more thing.. What was that half time all about? Am I missing something?

I didn't hear the commentary, but I totally agree that associating ourselves with them was a mistake.

As for the game, I'm more in the camp of the morning commenters than those from last night.

For positives, I thought the defense looked a lot better, and it sparked our offense when we were able to go on mini-runs. I thought Dolan was solid and should have played more. Dawson looked pretty good when he was in there. Phil had a nice game.

Negatives:

- Obviously turnovers. However, if you peel it back a little bit, Phil had three. That's probably too many, but he's a high-usage guy, so it's going to happen. Braden had three and three assists in 36 minutes. Not great, but not terrible. Des Watson had FIVE. Terrible, but that's uncharacteristic based on his previous seasons at Davidson, so hopefully it's a blip. Quinn had FIVE in 17 minutes. Unfortunately, that's more of the same, and at some point playing time has to reflect it.

- Offense. A few people have pointed this out, but I'm not really sure what our offensive plan was. We needed more threes, and the defense was draped all over our guards. We tried to go inside and the result was Goldin being third in Kenpom block %. (He's also #2 in Kenpom player of the year, by the way. He destroyed us.) So we couldn't get open outside, we didn't have much success driving. The ball reversals are just frustrating to watch. Good defense for use, but I just don't know what we were trying to do.

- Rotations. Drew needs to find a core group quickly. I'd say something like Norris, Dolan/Watson, Mwamba, Alston, Dame. So that's six guys. I think you'll see Tom and Miles subbing at the five. That makes eight. You also have Dawson and Quinn (and Edwards) at guard, so I'm not sure how it shakes out.

- Energy. Drew had to get on the bench trying to get some energy out of them. As Billy Bunnies said on Twitter, that's unacceptable.

An aside... I'm not sure how you both count the basket and give a flagrant away from the ball. If the foul was before the shot, why did the shot count?

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Few observations:

FAU knows what they've got. LUC does not. I'm not in favor of these revolving-door lineups and substitutions like we saw happening of playing 10-11-12 guys. We are not in sync as a result of this. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Whittle it down to a lineup of 8 or 9.

Our attention to detail sucks.

Discipline is awful.

Down 8 or 7 in the second half. Missed a layup to make it within 5. Then came that train-wreck.

Again, what's the offense ?

I truly thought this was a winnable game.

Event-wise, Wintrust made some nice improvements since our last visit here. Very pleased w concessions and beer lines. As for the host/sponsor, we shouldn't care to participate in this event again. Two quality mid-major match-ups got overshadowed by a bunch of fratboy bloggers taking much of the spotlight and attention away. I returned home feeling like this was an exhibition / sideshow.

This reminds me of my last point, which I forgot. I heard Drew on a podcast a few days ago. He was asked what he wants to see in the FAU game. The answer was along the lines of, "I want to see us compete."

Obviously, the implication is: Play hard for 40 minutes, etc.

To me, that's totally the wrong attitude. You go out there to wreck the other team. Take them out of their game. Make them uncomfortable. You don't step on the court to react to the other team. Winners put the other guy on HIS heels. Playing hard is the bare minimum.

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I was only able to catch bits and pieces of the webcast last night, but I can’t say that what I saw surprised me all that much. FAU may very well be one of the best teams in the nation this year (imagine what our 2019 could’ve been if all of our seniors in 2018 were able to come back the next year, and that’s the potential I see with FAU this year)…while we were playing our first real game with mostly new pieces. FAU looked like a group who knew how to play with each other, and we didn’t. Honestly I would’ve been just South of shocked if we did win this game, so the I found the run in the second half to cut the lead to 5 or 7, and the defense encouraging at times.

On a side note, one part I did see was when I believe Dawson went down with an injury? Was he able to come back?