Game 27: Duquesne University (Homecoming), Saturday, February 23rd, 4 PM, MASN2/ESPN+

[GMUgemini]

Got outcoached by a good coach. Stop it

I disagree he was out coached. We lost in effort plays and Greene’s technical. He doesn’t pop off before the half, we make two more free throws and Kier protects the ball better on the strip at the end of the game and we win by 6.

 

[sleeperpick]

I disagree he was out coached. We lost in effort plays and Greene’s technical. He doesn’t pop off before the half, we make two more free throws and Kier protects the ball better on the strip at the end of the game and we win by 6.

Delusional old man take. That technical had nothing to do with the loss still up 8 + at that point

 

[GMUgemini]

Delusional old man take. That technical had nothing to do with the loss still up 8 + at that point

Actually we would have been up 13 at that point...

Little mistakes build on themselves, everything matters in close games, whether it is in minute 18:00 in the first half or at 23.7 seconds left in the second.

As an example, had Otis hit that three when Dunn-Martin ran under the screen, we win. Had Kier gone strong with the other hand instead of presenting the ball at the end of the game to be stripped, we win, had Greene not gotten the technical, we win, had Reuter corralled that rebound late in the second half over Hughes instead of knocking it out of bounds, we win, had Miller hit his free throws, we win, had Reuter’s last second shot bounced slightly differently, we win.

To say we got out coached because we gave up a bunch of offensive rebounds and didn’t hit a buzzer beater is a delusional young kid take.

 

[sleeperpick]

Actually we would have been up 13 at that point...

Little mistakes build on themselves, everything matters in close games, whether it is in minute 18:00 in the first half or at 23.7 seconds left in the second.

As an example, had Otis hit that three when Dunn-Martin ran under the screen, we win. Had Kier gone strong with the other hand instead of presenting the ball at the end of the game to be stripped, we win, had Greene not gotten the technical, we win, had Reuter corralled that rebound late in the second half over Hughes instead of knocking it out of bounds, we win, had Miller hit his free throws, we win, had Reuter’s last second shot bounced slightly differently, we win.

To say we got out coached because we gave up a bunch of offensive rebounds and didn’t hit a buzzer beater is a delusional young kid take.

Yawn like most of the70 year old fan base p

 

[GMUgemini]

Yawn like most of the70 year old fan base p

So explain to me over the course of 40 minutes what Dambrot did that Paulsen just had no answer for? Because I didn’t really see much of an elaborate scheme other then get Hughes and Dunn-Martin open on high ball screens and let them bomb away and if they miss crash the boards.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

So explain to me over the course of 40 minutes what Dambrot did that Paulsen just had no answer for? Because I didn’t really see much of an elaborate scheme other then get Hughes and Dunn-Martin open on high ball screens and let them bomb away and if they miss crash the boards.

How bout doubling down for half of the game against a lethal 3 point shooting team? Unless the other team has Kevin McHale, I will never understand this nor support it. You want to give up a 19 point lead, start doubling mediocre post players when the other team can flat out stick it from 3. This I have a major issue with.


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[Patriot Lawdog]

He’s also somehow managed to create an undersized team that can’t shoot. That is a recruiting problem. You mean to tell me we can’t find a 6’4 to 6’6” wing in the DMV that can consistently shoot 35% from 3? Bullsh#t. BTW, we’re not effing Stanford, either..... End of rant.


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[GMUgemini]

How bout doubling down for half of the game against a lethal 3 point shooting team? Unless the other team has Kevin McHale, I will never understand this nor support it. You want to give up a 19 point lead, start doubling mediocre post players when the other team can flat out stick it from 3. This I have a major issue with.


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I would agree except a lot of their 3s were shot straight off the ball screens and weren’t kickouts from the forwards (at least a ton of their made 3s were — none of their bigs had a single assist today). And let’s also be honest, Miller has been great but he’s skinny and Reuter is not the best post defender, you’ve got to do something to make up for their deficiencies.

And let’s be honest, they shot 32% from 3. That’s not a good percentage. They just shot a crap ton of them.

I had a bigger problem with giving up 18 offensive rebounds which led to 18 second chance points. They also had 19 points off of turnovers.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

I would agree except a lot of their 3s were shot straight off the ball screens and weren’t kickouts from the forwards (at least a ton of their made 3s were — none of their bigs had a single assist today). And let’s also be honest, Miller has been great but he’s skinny and Reuter is not the best post defender, you’ve got to do something to make up for their deficiencies.

And let’s be honest, they shot 32% from 3. That’s not a good percentage. They just shot a crap ton of them.

I had a bigger problem with giving up 18 offensive rebounds which led to 18 second chance points. They also had 19 points off of turnovers.

But that’s a tactical and recruiting issue. If your opponent jacks a ton of 3s and you won’t or can’t, you’re gonna be constantly chasing the game because 10 3s is worth 15 2s. So you better either D guys up in the perimeter or recruit guys who won’t give up a god damn thing on the glass.


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[Patriot Lawdog]

Undersized and poor shooting is a disaster unless you can absolutely lock teams down and somehow keep them off the offensive boards.


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[GMUgemini]

He’s also somehow managed to create an undersized team that can’t shoot. That is a recruiting problem. You mean to tell me we can’t find a 6’4 to 6’6” wing in the DMV that can consistently shoot 35% from 3? Bullsh#t. BTW, we’re not effing Stanford, either..... End of rant.


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We had three players going into this year shooting over 35% from 3. One got shut down 10 games into the season (Grayer), one regressed insanely before breaking his foot (Mar) and the third one shot like crap at the beginning of the season and is still well behind his junior year percentage (Otis).

Kier is shooting about 35% right now, so is Boyd (but he’s both hurt and going through a bad shooting slump).

Oh Hartwell is shooting about 41% from 3 but he hardly ever shoots it. I wish he had as big s green light as JDS because maybe we’d be winning a few more games with him taking more shots?

 

[psyclone]

How bout doubling down for half of the game against a lethal 3 point shooting team? Unless the other team has Kevin McHale, I will never understand this nor support it. You want to give up a 19 point lead, start doubling mediocre post players when the other team can flat out stick it from 3. This I have a major issue with.

For the record, Duquesne's 3 pt shooting % for the year is 31.8 (291st in Div 1) across all games and 31.9 (10th in the A10) conference only games. This game they shot marginally better at 32.3% while we shot 33% for the game. Nice to know that we "must be lethal from 3" as well.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

10 for 30 from 3 is as good as 15 for 30 from 2... It’s or fundamental issue. We can whine all we want about teams jacking it up. It’s a fact of life in modern day basketball. You either adjust or you lose.


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[GMUgemini]

10 for 30 from 3 is as good as 15 for 30 from 2... It’s or fundamental issue. We can whine all we want about teams jacking it up. It’s a fact of life in modern day basketball. You either adjust or you lose.


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Yeah, but again, if you limit their 20 misses to one-and-dones, we win this game pretty handily.

I think what I am saying is Duquesne didn’t really scheme their shots so much as just make good plays when it mattered (two made 3s on desperate heaves at the buzzer, several deep 3s off high ball screens). I mean, that stuff is going to happen to you in a game. Not boxing out because you are scared of their bigs flying in was a big problem tonight.

 

[TweederGMU]

HOW IN THE F ARE YOU GONNA LET JARED TAKE THAT LAST SHOT!????

 

[Five Two]

I've learned to wait a while to come on the boards after a loss. Emotional posting is bad posting...
Thus, I haven't read the last 6 pages of this thread. My $0.02:

-The refs did not cost us the game, but they were bad. DJ Carsten (the tall bald guy) is highly ranked, yet he was teamed with two guys that don't even having rankings. (yes, there is some ranking system for college refs; had no idea it existed or how to access it).

-I'm not a fan of doubling the post. Our guys simply can't rotate fast enough and we give up too many 3s

-I think our best offense is when the ball goes through the low post. That doesnt mean Reuter, AJ or Greg need to shoot it, but getting the ball there then opens shooting and passing lanes. I think we run into trouble when we go away from that and then can't score for 3 to 4 minute stretches. I think that happened late in the 1st half and 2nd half yesterday.

-Down 1 with 40+ seconds to go, I did not like DP's strategy to let them run the clock down. Now, it worked out as they missed and we got the rebound. But then we only had 9 seconds left. I'd prefer to extend the game. I would have fouled and sent them to the line. I want multiple attempts at taking the lead instead of 1. There isn't a right way or a wrong way. it worked out, but I don't like the strategy.

-I don't believe the last play was designed for Reuter. I think he was trying to set a pick for Otis. The Duquesne defender did a great job fighting through it. However, I don't think Reuter and Otis did a good enough job to clear the defender. I see this problem a lot when we run the high screen and roll. Our bigs never make contact and our guards are too far from the bigs; they don't run their defender off the screen. Those bad fundamentals showed up on that play.

-Given all the contact that the refs let go yesterday, I don't think Reuter was fouled. He was bumped but it wasn't bad enough to get a whistle. The defender kept his arms straight up and thats why, IMO, we didnt get a call

-I've realized that we are just ok. We aren't as bad as we've looked at SBU and Richmond and we aren't as good as we've looked at St Joes and URI. Sure, we can still get a double-bye but we could just as easily be the 6th seed. Depending on match ups, we could get to the semi finals in Brookly or we could lose our first game. We don't have the talent to overcome our inconsistent play and I don't know what DP can do to fix it.

 

[mkaufman1]

I probably need to go back and rewatch the game to find exact pain points but I’ll chime in with what I’m thinking.

- I loved how the guys came out with energy on both sides of the ball yesterday. It was obvious they were ready and all they wanted to do was win and put on a show. The downside is that there is still a maturing process with many of our guys especially those who have been asked to play even more minutes instead of being depth. It’s great to have fun but you have to keep focus and not take possessions off. The game is 40 minutes and nobody is just going to let you roll them over if you make lazy passes and don’t rotate on d.

- as many others have said, doubling the post means you have to be quick enough to cover shooters. There were at least 3 times (and most likely more) that the guys just don’t get out fast enough.

- as much as yesterday hurts, I have seen continued improvement in Paulsens tenor from a talent level in recruiting. Guys like Miller and Hartwell have more talent and ability than what he brought in the first year or two. Miller is really impressive and smart, but he’s a freshman, and he’s going to need time to just play and learn.

- the game comes down to guard play and defense, and not having calixte to help Reuter underneath hurts. Even just the fact he can let our guards go get boards is more of a help and be scrappy for a few extra points. Boyd not being around either hurts as both guys just help underneath. AJ does what he can but he isn’t a real 5 and he can get pushed around.

- I thought this year would be a top 4 year but it appears the injuries have added up to the point where the team on the court is super young still. Other than Otis and Jaire everyone is coming back. There should be continued progression and growth for the program.

- was great to see many of you in the gold room and Brions yesterday. Hope to see many of you in Brooklyn no matter which day they play.

 

[GMUgemini]

-Given all the contact that the refs let go yesterday, I don't think Reuter was fouled. He was bumped but it wasn't bad enough to get a whistle. The defender kept his arms straight up and thats why, IMO, we didnt get a call

A10 talk has the play isolated on Twitter and it's pretty clear Hughes brings his right arm down and his elbow hits Reuter right on top of the head right before the shot. That should have been a pretty clear non-shooting foul (we were in the double bonus at that point or still one-and-one). Anyway, Reuter should have been going to the line, I think, as hitting someone in the head with your elbow is a pretty clear foul advantage to the defender as he's trying to rise up to shoot the ball.

https://twitter.com/A10Talk/status/1099456876222341121

But as Paulsen said in the post-game, this play wasn't the deciding factor in us losing this game.

 

[gmujim92]

But that’s a tactical and recruiting issue. If your opponent jacks a ton of 3s and you won’t or can’t, you’re gonna be constantly chasing the game because 10 3s is worth 15 2s. So you better either D guys up in the perimeter or recruit guys who won’t give up a god damn thing on the glass.

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I think maybe Calixte, Mar and Boyd would’ve helped in that regard, but that sonofabitch Paulsen should be fired for recruiting players that get injured. Obviously our guys haven’t been coached to play through pain.

 

[GMUSig03]

I agree with most of what's been said on this page of the thread (did not read the first 9), but the one thing I kept coming back to last night and into this morning as the beers flowed was, why do Paulsen's teams never seem to play a consistent full 40 minutes? The few times they do, the results are pretty damn good.

We were all concerned about having a poor start, because that has become a trend. Last year blowing big leads was a trend, and now we've done it twice this year.

That was the biggest regular season game/best crowd we've had at home in 10 years and our guys couldn't maintain their focus through the end of the 1st half and for a good chunk of the 2nd half, after starting so well. Maybe it's just as simple as these guys need to care more about losing.