Game 2: Lebanon Valley College (Division 3 school), Tuesday, November 15th, 7 PM, NO TV

[psyclone]

Post game extra link:
http://www.atlantic10.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?mid=80313&db_oem_id=31600&cid=0

Towards the end when someone asks about why Abrams and Dixon didn't play, he said it was because of performance in practice.

 

[emjayar08]

The difference in the two halves was that Dave tightened the rotation. Otis, Jalen, and Marquise played almost the entire second half. Boyd, Kier, Newman, and Temara all got significant minutes in the first half but played very little after intermission. I think it's pretty clear Dave planned to run the new guys for a while tonight, then backtracked after they sucked on both sides and losing became a real possibility. I would bet money he definitely didn't want Otis, Jalen, Marquise, and Jaire to play as much as they did with a game on Friday.

The positive (take this with a grain of salt since we played a D3 school):

- I think we found a viable five-man lineup that gelled nicely. Those five are Otis, Jaire, Jalen, Marquise, and... Kam. I think I was lower on Kam than anyone coming into the season, but he looks like a different player out there. His confidence on offense is a total 180 from last season. If he can hit threes and play solid defense, he's our fifth starter.

- Our core four (Otis, Jaire, Jalen, Marquise) took over in the second half. These guys have a ton of on-court chemistry. I think the process of blooding our younger guys needs to be rotating them through the lineup with three or four of these guys on the floor.

Negatives (these are very concerning since we played a D3 school):

- LVC sat in a 2-3 zone the entire game and we looked totally overmatched by it. This is due to the fact that we can't shoot and only one guard is a real threat to drive. The second half was fun to watch, but it's not a good sign that we needed to run uptempo to score points against a D3 defense. Better defenses are going to zone us all season long and if Kam is the only one hitting 3s it's going to be ugly.

- Our freshmen do not look ready to contribute. Kier, Newman, and Boyd all blew defensive assignments. Newman was 0-5 from three I think. Kier and Boyd are heady players but a couple drive attempts ended in charges, turnovers, or missed floaters. Most of those wide-open first half threes we gave up came with these guys on the floor. If they're doing that against this level of competition it won't get better against A-10 teams.

- Otis still lets himself get screened into oblivion when he's defending pick n' rolls. Happened several times in the first half (and all last season). He needs to figure out a better way to attack these because it's too easy to take him right out of the play. It's how #1 scored most of his points tonight.

Overall I'm glad we didn't lose, but games against D3 teams should be for tuning your halfcourt offense and halfcourt defense. It's very concerning we had to leverage our athleticism advantage to win this one, because we won't have th

Side note - were those refs D3 as well? It was amateur hour out there.

Refs called a lot of softies.

 

[99 Patriot]

Just listened tonight, but this felt like our game at UNC circa 2003. LVC gave all they had in the first half and amazingly had a lead, but talent won out in the second half.

 

[Steve33]

Looked like you all were the only two up there! They sent the Masonettes on a hike.

Yea we were, we had a nice conversation with the Masonettes prior to the under 16 timeout about how they really liked the view from up there and how they wish they could actually just watch a game and enjoy it. They said if they were us they would have moved down since nobody was there. That was our plan but before the game we were told to sit tight that would be the move of the game. The other two times i won, it was a surprise. Knowing in advance was so much better.

 

[Washingtonian]

Refs called a lot of softies.

Look at #5:
http://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...gest-rule-changes-this-season-things-to-know/

 

[GreenLantern]

I wonder if the gomason app went away because all the media links I find go to the A-10 website. Could be they control the feeds now.

 

[gmujim92]

The difference in the two halves was that Dave tightened the rotation. Otis, Jalen, and Marquise played almost the entire second half. Boyd, Kier, Newman, and Temara all got significant minutes in the first half but played very little after intermission. I think it's pretty clear Dave planned to run the new guys for a while tonight, then backtracked after they sucked on both sides and losing became a real possibility. I would bet money he definitely didn't want Otis, Jalen, Marquise, and Jaire to play as much as they did with a game on Friday.

The positive (take this with a grain of salt since we played a D3 school):

- I think we found a viable five-man lineup that gelled nicely. Those five are Otis, Jaire, Jalen, Marquise, and... Kam. I think I was lower on Kam than anyone coming into the season, but he looks like a different player out there. His confidence on offense is a total 180 from last season. If he can hit threes and play solid defense, he's our fifth starter.

- Our core four (Otis, Jaire, Jalen, Marquise) took over in the second half. These guys have a ton of on-court chemistry. I think the process of blooding our younger guys needs to be rotating them through the lineup with three or four of these guys on the floor.

Negatives (these are very concerning since we played a D3 school):

- LVC sat in a 2-3 zone the entire game and we looked totally overmatched by it. This is due to the fact that we can't shoot and only one guard is a real threat to drive. The second half was fun to watch, but it's not a good sign that we needed to run uptempo to score points against a D3 defense. Better defenses are going to zone us all season long and if Kam is the only one hitting 3s it's going to be ugly.

- Our freshmen do not look ready to contribute. Kier, Newman, and Boyd all blew defensive assignments. Newman was 0-5 from three I think. Kier and Boyd are heady players but a couple drive attempts ended in charges, turnovers, or missed floaters. Most of those wide-open first half threes we gave up came with these guys on the floor. If they're doing that against this level of competition it won't get better against A-10 teams.

- Otis still lets himself get screened into oblivion when he's defending pick n' rolls. Happened several times in the first half (and all last season). He needs to figure out a better way to attack these because it's too easy to take him right out of the play. It's how #1 scored most of his points tonight.

Overall I'm glad we didn't lose, but games against D3 teams should be for tuning your halfcourt offense and halfcourt defense. It's very concerning we had to leverage our athleticism advantage to win this one, because we won't have th

Side note - were those refs D3 as well? It was amateur hour out there.

I especially agree with your observation about the freshmen and would add that we were spoiled because Otis and Jaire (and to a lesser extent, DeAndre) performed so well as first-year guys.

It is obvious that they weren't typical freshmen (at our level) and it shouldn't come as surprising that the current freshmen aren't meeting that standard.

I was hopeful that we'd be able to get Otis and Jaire down closer to 30mpg this season to save their legs, but until the kids are ready, the sophomores are gonna have to play big minutes for us to have a chance.

 

[Falco]

Look at #5:
http://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketballs-5-biggest-rule-changes-this-season-things-to-know/

I was thinking I never seen this many traveling calls. Makes sense now.

 

[sleeperpick]

The difference in the two halves was that Dave tightened the rotation. Otis, Jalen, and Marquise played almost the entire second half. Boyd, Kier, Newman, and Temara all got significant minutes in the first half but played very little after intermission. I think it's pretty clear Dave planned to run the new guys for a while tonight, then backtracked after they sucked on both sides and losing became a real possibility. I would bet money he definitely didn't want Otis, Jalen, Marquise, and Jaire to play as much as they did with a game on Friday.

The positive (take this with a grain of salt since we played a D3 school):

- I think we found a viable five-man lineup that gelled nicely. Those five are Otis, Jaire, Jalen, Marquise, and... Kam. I think I was lower on Kam than anyone coming into the season, but he looks like a different player out there. His confidence on offense is a total 180 from last season. If he can hit threes and play solid defense, he's our fifth starter.

- Our core four (Otis, Jaire, Jalen, Marquise) took over in the second half. These guys have a ton of on-court chemistry. I think the process of blooding our younger guys needs to be rotating them through the lineup with three or four of these guys on the floor.

Negatives (these are very concerning since we played a D3 school):

- LVC sat in a 2-3 zone the entire game and we looked totally overmatched by it. This is due to the fact that we can't shoot and only one guard is a real threat to drive. The second half was fun to watch, but it's not a good sign that we needed to run uptempo to score points against a D3 defense. Better defenses are going to zone us all season long and if Kam is the only one hitting 3s it's going to be ugly.

- Our freshmen do not look ready to contribute. Kier, Newman, and Boyd all blew defensive assignments. Newman was 0-5 from three I think. Kier and Boyd are heady players but a couple drive attempts ended in charges, turnovers, or missed floaters. Most of those wide-open first half threes we gave up came with these guys on the floor. If they're doing that against this level of competition it won't get better against A-10 teams.

- Otis still lets himself get screened into oblivion when he's defending pick n' rolls. Happened several times in the first half (and all last season). He needs to figure out a better way to attack these because it's too easy to take him right out of the play. It's how #1 scored most of his points tonight.

Overall I'm glad we didn't lose, but games against D3 teams should be for tuning your halfcourt offense and halfcourt defense. It's very concerning we had to leverage our athleticism advantage to win this one, because we won't have th

Side note - were those refs D3 as well? It was amateur hour out there.

It was one game.... Kam made three 3 pointers in a game last year and then went on to barely hit the rim the rest of the season.... Please let a couple good games happen before you move him from 10th on the depth chart to 5th. Kier had a better game than Kam game 1 and Kam had a better game game 2.... just wait

 

[mkaufman1]

I especially agree with your observation about the freshmen and would add that we were spoiled because Otis and Jaire (and to a lesser extent, DeAndre) performed so well as first-year guys.

It is obvious that they weren't typical freshmen (at our level) and it shouldn't come as surprising that the current freshmen aren't meeting that standard.

I was hopeful that we'd be able to get Otis and Jaire down closer to 30mpg this season to save their legs, but until the kids are ready, the sophomores are gonna have to play big minutes for us to have a chance.

They performed well but Paulsen had no choice but to play those guys because there was nobody else for the most part. I think by midseason minutes will even out because the game will slow down for guys like Boyd and Kier. Hopefully they'll be able to score a bit.

It could just all get worse before it gets better. The team is going to show its youth this year.

 

[Mason2005]

What's up with our free throw shooting also. Wasn't MM like a 80% FT shooter before.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[Patriot8]

Glad I didn't follow this thread during the game.. Would've thought the world was ending...

 

[Petey Buckets]

It was one game.... Kam made three 3 pointers in a game last year and then went on to barely hit the rim the rest of the season.... Please let a couple good games happen before you move him from 10th on the depth chart to 5th. Kier had a better game than Kam game 1 and Kam had a better game game 2.... just wait

I thought "take it with a grain of salt" was hedging enough but I guess not.

Last year I didn't think Kam was a D1 caliber basketball player. He couldn't shoot 3s and on the occasion a defender closed out too hard and he drove by, he was totally clueless about what to do next. His defense was okay but overrated by people on this board because I think they were just looking for something nice to say about him.

Last night he looked completely different. He drove hard to the basket on multiple occasions. His shot looks good - the form is more compact and his release is a little bit quicker. He was *decisive* with the ball where he looked terrified all last year.

Again, take all this with a silo full of salt because of the competition we played last night, but he wasn't the scared and overwhelmed kid that he was last year. We don't need much from the fifth starter position - a lack of reliable 3 point shooting murdered us all last year - so if Kam keeps hitting and can keep defenses honest, it wouldn't be surprising to see him win it.

 

[GSII]

Has Newman hit a 3 yet?

 

[mkaufman1]

Has Newman hit a 3 yet?

nope

 

[psyclone]

nope

Not for the lack of trying!

 

[GSII]

With other teams in A10 taking transfers and 5th year grads, and/or rexruiting top 100 guys, anyone see us being a staple in the top 4 of this league with DP's approach of no transfers and 2 star guys?

 

[Herndon]

He's got videos on Twitter of him training to the Pokemon theme song. He seems to be wired a bit wrong, although in a good way. Sometimes you need a bit of a nutcase on the team. I also thought he played rather well. Probably the only freshman who did so.

View: https://youtu.be/07KuQcnu71c?t=10

 

[gmujim92]

With other teams in A10 taking transfers and 5th year grads, and/or rexruiting top 100 guys, anyone see us being a staple in the top 4 of this league with DP's approach of no transfers and 2 star guys?

Yes, eventually.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I don't accept your premise.

The staff has recruited so far from a position of weakness -- bottom-feeder for three straight years, mediocre facilities, etc. -- but I don't think it's fair to suggest that DP is going out of his way to recruit "2-star guys."

The recruiting has already gotten better and the staff has only just landed its third class here.

 

[masonjoe]

With other teams in A10 taking transfers and 5th year grads, and/or rexruiting top 100 guys, anyone see us being a staple in the top 4 of this league with DP's approach of no transfers and 2 star guys?

What fifth year transfer wants to come program with 20 loss seasons 3 years in a row? Give it time.