Is this Sun for real ?? Guys--Ignore him--I am, after this post--maybe then he will fade away. He knows little of our team, but of course, he is a legend in his own mind. We dance with what brung us--AND what brung us is our startinf five plus one. The rest are learning. Milton is the glue. He at the moment IS the best player in the Valley--bar none and has been since the League season has begun--

Now maybe SUN can climb back under the rock with the rest of the scorpions !

GO RAMBLERS !! RUN !!

Sundevil, it's obvious that you don't know Doyle personally. If you did and if you had any understanding of the dynamics of this team you wouldn't speculate this way about how the players interact and who has the coach's ear. That last one is really rich: I can certainly tell you don't know Porter Moser. I don't mind you coming in here and ignoring statistics and criticizing the team. I've done both myself, even at the risk of being called out by Swellafelon. But when you claim to have these supernatural powers to divine the personality traits of the players and their relationships with each other and the coach, you're going way beyond "purely going on what I see on the court." Whether true or false, your speculation is not good reporting. In this case, you are also wrong.

What you should be seeing on the court is a team that is dealing with adversity and grinding it out possession by possession. The team has no interior and that dictates most of what they do on both ends of the court. It's not all orthodox. But it's worked pretty well for three years. If you came around only with the SDS game you don't know the story behind the short bench. The team lost its JUCO-transfer big man after a few weeks on campus last summer. They lost their most talented freshman (6'6") for the season in the third game. So beyond the five major contributors, the rotation now consists of two big guy projects and two freshman guards. They are all learning and struggling.

We have some differences in basketball philosophy that might be interesting to discuss later on. (I'm warning you, don't get into that with Brot4Britu) But for now I'll grant you two things I think you are trying to say. Probably some on bench should have gotten more minutes pre-conference in order to be of more help now. And like you, I don't like the short leash for fundamental mistakes but everyone is on it.

If I recall correctly, when SunDevil12 signed on here, he said he was a fan of Satterwhite and watched him at the HS level. I think that's his interest (some of the young talent we've got, and how we've been recruiting out west....like Andres?) and I certainly welcome him coming here and giving his opinion. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think he might be eager for Satterwhite or Kirby or others to show more than they have.

Most of us here are just interested in winning. I think the team mostly does a good job on sharing, as evidenced by the fact that we have four players averaging in the low teens in scoring. We are one of the best teams I've seen at playing help defense and using double teams to cover for lack of a big man down low. I think we're getting as good at switching off and helping that it rivals the old Butler teams of the mid and late 00s.

Could we use more off the bench? Sure. Does the rest of the team rely on Doyle too much? Probably-- that's why we keep seeing comments like "We need Doyle back in now" and "We look lost without Doyle on the floor." Is that going to be a problem next year? I hope not, but I have trouble imagining who's going to take charge as a leader on the floor. Do I wish that the coach would give a little more time to other players? It depends-- I have a good deal of trust in Satterwhite and Granic when they're out there with good team leaders (Custer, Richardson, Doyle). I think by this stage of the season Chastain would have been giving us 12-18 good minutes per game, and his athleticism and basketball IQ would have been big defensively. Kirby has moments, but he's already a junior, and he better make a breakthrough soon if he wants more time.

I think the reason people are upset with Sun is that hes calling a fantastic team, that shares the ball offensively and has beautiful passing and set plays (watch the Bradley game or the multiple back door cuts by Aundre tonight) a one dimensional one man show.

None of the points argued by Sun figure into why we lost this game. We didn't lose the game because Milton didn't do his job. He rebounded, distributed the ball, and drew important fouls on Wichita State by driving and making them have to defend the paint so we could get open threes. We also didn't lose because we only play five guys consistently. You want your best guys on the court, and maybe you could make a case for that if we look like we were tired in the second half, except for the fact that we played much better in the second half that we did in the first. These guys weren't tired from all their minutes. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the numbers and stats don't support any of Suns opinions as to why we lost to a 14-3 team last night. A loss is s loss but we are in good position right now to improve as a team. A game against the number one team in the league is not the time to experiment with guys off the bench mid season. Guys six through ten will get their experience in the appropriate situations against other teams to help build them up to be ready later in the season when we need them for reserve minutes. Hopefully that time will come in the next few games when there is room for error. Last night was not one of those times.

Here's my take of last night in regards to the depth issue. Both Bruno and Cam received significantly less minutes than normal. I'm okay with that.

Going into the game Bruno was averaging about 17 minutes a game. He's had 4 games with at least 20 minutes, and averaged a little over 18 minutes a game during non-conference. He was on the floor for 7 minutes last night. He also looked really intimidated and was pretty nonexistent when he was on the floor. The only 2 times that I remember him on the floor was when he attempted to draw a charge when his guy went baseline, and when the Wichita guard blew right past him for the dunk. It was clear, Bruno was having a real rough night.

Satterwhite averages 15 minutes a game. Yesterday, he had 9. He played decently defensively, but struggled offensively, especially when he stepped out of bounds. In the end, Porter was using him for defense and subbing him out for offense.

Porter was coaching to win yesterday, and was putting out the best lineup to get back in it, and try to take the lead. I think that if Bruno and Cam played a little more, and made some freshman mistakes, it would've been more costly, and who knows how bad the game might've ended up. Turk, Richardson, and even Doyle had relatively short leashes as Freshman, and they all turned out fine. I don't think I'll criticize Porter for coaching to win a game

Great posts by Tank, 440, and Toledo. I agree with what you guys are saying. Also find it funny that for three years, we've been begging for Milton to be more assertive on the court! Now he's healthy, he's doing it, and the team is playing well. Keep playing hard and we'll win our share of games.

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Also worth noting that late in the game when we were really closing things out Doyle was passing. Out of the time out it was a likely designed play to hit Ingram in the corner. It all went the way it was supposed to just didn't roll in.


Our bench depth and minute spread is certainly a concern to me going back to December. I think Cam is on his way to becoming an elite defender and with some more seasoning can be an offensive threat. In spurts he can really impress on the offensive end (also coming off an ACL). I also think Bruno has a lot of potential, but he's been in a season long shooting slump. In one of the previous home broadcasts the announcers noted he was out shooting for 2 hours before the game; I think he'll be a good one (he also missed most off season practices recovering from injury). Then for your returning bench player Tyson Smith played solid minutes last season but is coming off an ACL injury and while Maurice again gave solid minutes, he's not going to be an offensive threat.

Unfortunately most of our bench doesn't score well at this point (outside of Vlatko, who is not the best interior defender). Our talent influx next year will address depth in a big way as we subtract 1-2 players and add 4-5 to the active roster.

Overall I'm with Tank, I think Moser played to win. I'd love to see our freshmen get more minutes; but as the game was winding down in the final ten when we went on our run, it's hard to go back to them when you see what's working.

Definitely curious to hear what you have to say Sun, but it's hard to get a read when we've only really heard you chime in about selfishness after loses. The team passes very well. In the game against Bradley Clayton shot 0-5 from the field but also had 8 assists. If depth is the main problem you have, I can agree! But there's definitely some circumstances that led to the issues.

As they say, opinions are like A------s. Everyone has one and is entitled to say it. I welcome the points that Sun made and his right to express them but I do not agree. I don't think there is a hidden agenda nor is the team selfish.
I really like this team. I like the fact that they never give up. It would have been easy to mail it in down 19. But I look at it this way, if the subs had played more and we lost there would be complaints. If someone else had the ball and turned it over, there would be complaints.
That is the nature of the blog.
But I always remember this, if the coach listened to all the opinions and heeded them, he would be sitting in the stands and telling the new coach what he thinks.
PM is coach for a reason. I respect his judgement and his success. Also there is a lot that he puts up with at Loyola that other schools don't inflict on their coaches. Hopefully Dr. Rooney addresses those shortcomings in funding to help out.
Like any coach and like any human, PM will not be perfect and will not always be right. But I do respect the job that he has done.
To measure progress, look at his record against the former Horizon League teams we have played. In the past we lost consistently to UWM and Wright State and to some degree UIC. My opinionated conclusion is that he has upped the talent level, is adjusting to the MVC which is a much better conference and under his direction we will be a consistent top3-4 team in the Valley. We will be fine this year and next as the kid from Farlaigh Dickerson is a really talent to go along with Negron, Krautwig and Chastain.
But then like everyone else that is my opinion.

Agree with the posts above. I just love this team. The way they have battled in games this year makes me proud to be a fan. We all know Bruno can shoot so I'm not too worried about this slump. Glad to hear he is putting in extra work. Also, with Matt getting hurt it really accelerated Cam's role in the depth chart. Just need to be patient with him as he's a freshman and he's coming off an ACL injury. Very excited to watch this team play the rest of year.