Great game, good loud home crowd when it counted in the end.

Refs were terrible. Ticky tacky calls that put our big men in early foul trouble.

We've played good basketball in 7 of the last 8 halves (the 2h of Duquesne being the BIG exception). Really like what I'm seeing on the defensive end--intensity and minimizing mistakes. On offense, we've been getting (and hitting) more open looks from deep. Alston remains an absolute force; although I wish he'd look to pass a bit more when he drives (missed a few wide open guys) and needs some work on his FTs. But those are minor criticisms given how awesome he has been this year. He will continue to improve and I'm excited to see it.

We've played two of the best big men in the league the past two games in Holmes and Oduro. And have done a great job limiting their production through physical help defense (and lots of fouls).

At home again on Wednesday against St. Joe's. Let's go redeem ourselves from the absolute embarrass that was the game @ St. Joe's. Confidence is building and I think we can compete with any team in the league.

Double teaming the post does not come with a cost. Bad technique, reaching, and not staying vertical causes the fouls.

Just got home from the game and been reading Mason tweets. Guess what? They are unhappy with their coach. Oh, and SLU is fed up with theirs. And Dayton is fed up with theirs…… Hmmmm you Drew downers hear that?
This was a great W for us. We were outrebounded and the interior defense is still not up to top shelf.We had several chances under the bucket that were not put up forcefully, got stuffed four or five times. But what hard play and heart. I am so impressed with Quise, knowing he is not 100% but fearless going to the hole today. Tough….
Alston will be an NBA player by the time he’s done here. See nothing but upside with Quinn and Dawson, plus Ben’s improving D along with a nice offensive game. With Rubin inbound, the pieces are filling in. Also can’t say Ive ever seen a competitor like Braden. Pure energy and effort 24/7. Drew did a good job today managing the right TO’s and set up good situations out of those TO’s. Finally to the student section, The Pack, keep it coming. You are so impressive and it’s great to see you all enjoying the day. LUC is becoming a destination basketball school and will only get better if we all show up and keep it loud. Go Ramblers. BTW, who here wouldn’t love to absolutely demolish St. Joes this week. Dreams can come true. Do the work.

Where you at ROWDIE_09 ?

Good win. My thoughts:

UPDATED: Drew’s post game comments were interesting. He attacked the refs. , without attacking the refs. He clearly was not happy with the fouls on our bigs. Much more upbeat and complimentary regarding the team. we are 2-2 in out last 4 A10 and 2 A10 home wins in a row. He sounds like a completely different guy than he did when were 0-6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg3jCxcl98Q

1. We did some very good things today. Most notable was we only turned it over 6 times! We are getting better at breaking pressure and taking care of the ball better. We had 23 made baskets and 16 assists. We were only out rebounded by 2, but gave up 11 offensive rebounds. Of course, 4 of those came on one sequence where GM did not score. Our intensity was great all day and we did not break even when we were tied in 2nd half.

2. We are still fouling way too much. Today, the Refs were not allowing us to breathe on GM and we never made that adjustment. We keep running at people and running into them. When you are charging at a player and make contact, being vertical won’t help you. We need to close under control. The other thing we keep doing is we keep putting our hands on offensive players as they are making their moves. (Play defense with your feet, not hands) We also keep bringing our hands down instead of staying vertical. (Reach for the lights) I mean, by now…this stuff should have been cleaned up. GM shot 32 free throws, making 25. BTW, GM is the worst FT shooting team in the A10, so of course they make 78% today. In case you were thinking…”Everyone makes their FTs against us”, you would be right. Teams are shooting 77% on the season in the conference against us. This is a ridiculous percentage.

3. Now in regard to fouls….these refs were horrible. GM threw several blatant elbows no calls, they missed a goal tending on a tip, at one point the announcer stated that the GM player had his hand on Norris and its a foul, but the ref just warned the GM player and it was “good officiating”. Huh? You’re blowing every tick tack foul on LU, but warning GM? Ridiculous. We shot 17-24 from the line. It was a good job by Drew juggling his way through the foul trouble. It’s also a shame because Golden has been playing better, but he keeps getting into foul trouble limiting his minutes.

4. Someone please explain to me why Golden and Welch keep running to double high on the wrong side of the ball handler. Our bigs keep running to the sideline on the side the ball handler is on. The ball handler just spins back to the middle of the floor and our big is standing 35 feet away from the basket guarding no one and no where near the big they were guarding. The Big rolls to the hole and get an easy layup or dunk. Golden did it twice today and Welch did it once. It makes no sense. I hope we are not teaching this.

5. The team has stabilized a bit. They do seem more connected, more intense. Some good signs, but still work to do.

6. At this point, I do not think this team should be afraid of anyone in the A10. Our issues are more of our doing than what teams are doing to us. Let’s grab some wins, avoid playing the extra game in the A10 Tournament and have some fun with an upset or two!

With the way this season started, and then continued….the fact that this team is playing as hard as it is, is a credit to both the players and the coaches. It would’ve been easy to just pack it in and start making plans for next season. I’m guessing Drew is learning far more about his team, and himself as a coach, this year than he did last year.

I’ve been experiencing a feeling the last few weeks while watching games that seemed to be missing most of the season: fun.

Side note: Thanks for the beer, Swella. Although, I must say I found it a bit disturbing that you did not ask to see my ID before handing me an alcoholic beverage.

Are you seeing our Ice ball screen coverage? I noticed Drew getting on the guards in these situations. They're supposed to force the ball toward our big.

https://youtu.be/xEbZ4a5GQq8

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MBB Scholarship Chart

So they are teaching it. It hasn't only been this game where this has not been excuted. We give up several easy hoops a game off of this. The entire timing of these plays are off.

Man that team was fun to watch. What a shame they didn’t have fans all year