Game 8: GMU (4-3) vs South Dakota St. (5-2) on Wednesday, November 24, at 9:30PM.

[Petey Buckets]

His passing is better than every point guard we currently have on the roster. He needs work getting it into Oduro but our pgs can’t begin to be able to do that. He also was the victim of some strange foul calls yesterday. I am a huge Blake fan. This kid would be a redshirt candidate any other year than this due to us needing him and him being so much better than any other freshman we have

Think we ran hi-low with Blake and Josh to get Josh a post touch once. Looked great and worked, and we never went back to it. Maybe we did. I was doing a lot of rage chatting during the second half.

Pretty clear Blake is gonna be very good in time. KE was calling him a developmental player from day 1, so I can't imagine he's happy about all the Blake minutes either. He's a big liability defensively but the skill level with the ball is apparent. The tough thing about trying to fit him on the court with Oduro is neither is a great rebounder, so that's a really soft defense and rebounding front line. No easy answers at the moment.

 

[GMUgemini]

His passing is better than every point guard we currently have on the roster. He needs work getting it into Oduro but our pgs can’t begin to be able to do that. He also was the victim of some strange foul calls yesterday. I am a huge Blake fan. This kid would be a redshirt candidate any other year than this due to us needing him and him being so much better than any other freshman we have

Might have been the plan had the other stretch 4 stayed committed.

 

[sleeperpick]

Might have been the plan had the other stretch 4 stayed committed.

I think he is regretting that.... especially once ACC play starts. I have watched two games and he is very underwhelming

 

[FreeGunston12]

I think he is regretting that.... especially once ACC play starts. I have watched two games and he is very underwhelming

I believe he is talking about Mbaye. Who are you talking about? Miller?

 

[sleeperpick]

I believe he is talking about Mbaye. Who are you talking about? Miller?

I blanked the sadness of him not being allowed to come out my mind. Damn

 

[GMUgemini]

I believe he is talking about Mbaye. Who are you talking about? Miller?

Yes, Mbaye. Although, keeping Miller around would have also been nice.

 

[Dawgs99]

I think Mbaye would have been a special player for us. Maybe we can get him after a year or two of JUCO?

 

[GSII]

Jordan Miller is having a blast at the U.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

I think Mbaye would have been a special player for us. Maybe we can get him after a year or two of JUCO?

I'd like to see us run some iso plays for Ticket designed to let him attack his defender. He's got a quick first step and is our best free throw shooter. Put the ball on the floor, blow by, hard stop, 1-2 pump fakes, score or draw foul. Voila!

He took 1 shot last night.

If he can develop as an inside/outside game he soon becomes a major offensive threat. Already is one of our top three 3 pt shooters, from what I see.

 

[GMUgemini]

I think Mbaye would have been a special player for us. Maybe we can get him after a year or two of JUCO?

He's averaging 11.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 2.0 apg, .75bpg, and .75 spg at New Mexico Junior College in his first 8 games.

 

[tblack33]

If Miller stays, I don’t think we bring in Schwartz, and maybe not ticket, so I think we upgraded across the board in that deal. He made a mistake going down with that strange old man.

 

[GSII]

Why is everyone upset about the SD game. According to espn, we dominated.

 

[GMU79]

Why is everyone upset about the SD game. According to espn, we dominated.

Defense let us down again!

 

[GMU_Polevaulter]

This team is going to be fine. This has been a rough early season road stretch, to many games in to short of a timespan and no time to rest or fix issues. Left Maryland (big win) to spend 2 nights at JMU, bus back to Fairfax for a night and then fly cross country to SD for 3 consecutive games.

What I saw in the second half was the team claw back, tighten the defense and go up 5. The wheels came off when starters had to go rest on the bench and bench rotated in.

Cooper and Schwartz both played a lot of minutes at Colorado and Moorhead State but they sat out 8 to 9 minutes a game. Ticket barley played. The minutes logged are an adjustment for the starters.

This team may have to play like the Bonnies and roll with a 6 man rotation. Hopefully I'm wrong and some of the other players step up their game in practice and games and work themselves into the rotation.

For now, I think our issue is the bench.

 

[GSII]

It's the scheme. We can't leave shooters wide open. That happens with startes in.

 

[mkaufman1]

This team is going to be fine. This has been a rough early season road stretch, to many games in to short of a timespan and no time to rest or fix issues. Left Maryland (big win) to spend 2 nights at JMU, bus back to Fairfax for a night and then fly cross country to SD for 3 consecutive games.

What I saw in the second half was the team claw back, tighten the defense and go up 5. The wheels came off when starters had to go rest on the bench and bench rotated in.

Cooper and Schwartz both played a lot of minutes at Colorado and Moorhead State but they sat out 8 to 9 minutes a game. Ticket barley played. The minutes logged are an adjustment for the starters.

This team may have to play like the Bonnies and roll with a 6 man rotation. Hopefully I'm wrong and some of the other players step up their game in practice and games and work themselves into the rotation.

For now, I think our issue is the bench.

This is a fair assessment. I'd hate to point to the travel schedule or guys playing more minutes than usual (They sound like excuses), but the fact is, its fact. This is part of growing pains for a new coach. Remember the short rotation and figuring stuff out under Paulsen in year 1? Now granted, that team wasn't as talented as this one (in my opinion, and I'm not looking to debate that team) , but the rotation was definitely something that was hard to figure out.

That said, hopefully after the 10 day layoff and some rest, guys can get their legs back and get back to how they played the first 4 games. It also wouldn't hurt if some bench guys could start stepping up a little more to earn more minutes.

 

[Masonfan3]

This is a fair assessment. I'd hate to point to the travel schedule or guys playing more minutes than usual (They sound like excuses), but the fact is, its fact. This is part of growing pains for a new coach. Remember the short rotation and figuring stuff out under Paulsen in year 1? Now granted, that team wasn't as talented as this one (in my opinion, and I'm not looking to debate that team) , but the rotation was definitely something that was hard to figure out.

That said, hopefully after the 10 day layoff and some rest, guys can get their legs back and get back to how they played the first 4 games. It also wouldn't hurt if some bench guys could start stepping up a little more to earn more minutes.

It is excuses. Most of these guys grew up playing AAU where they may play 3-4 games a day in some tournaments. They are 18-23 year old kids who shouldn’t have an issue playing 3 days in a row. If we are really going to start complaining about travel schedules and kids playing too many minutes than Handy needs to find a new job because he hasn’t prepared them enough for college basketball. The problem is we aren’t playing well right now, we are very predictable on offense, our PG play has been subpar, and we have been leaving guys wide open on defense. I have faith KE will fix it but let’s stop blaming it on guys playing too many minutes or because we traveled too much.

 

[GMUSSTN]

It is excuses. Most of these guys grew up playing AAU where they may play 3-4 games a day in some tournaments. They are 18-23 year old kids who shouldn’t have an issue playing 3 days in a row. If we are really going to start complaining about travel schedules and kids playing too many minutes than Handy needs to find a new job because he hasn’t prepared them enough for college basketball. The problem is we aren’t playing well right now, we are very predictable on offense, our PG play has been subpar, and we have been leaving guys wide open on defense. I have faith KE will fix it but let’s stop blaming it on guys playing too many minutes or because we traveled too much.

I don't think it's a non-issue...the team has had little/no time to prepare for any opponent since Maryland. While there's a lot of stuff that should have gone way better I feel like if we didn't play JMU and took time off before we flew to SD at least one of those losses turns into a win.

 

[MasonSAE4]

I don't think it's a non-issue...the team has had little/no time to prepare for any opponent since Maryland. While there's a lot of stuff that should have gone way better I feel like if we didn't play JMU and took time off before we flew to SD at least one of those losses turns into a win.

Yeah we beat Washington and possibly SD. We were never banking on an at-large so I can’t really get mad at the scheduling but damn, if you take that JMU game out of there we may be 6-1 right now.

 

[GMUgemini]

Yeah we beat Washington and possibly SD. We were never banking on an at-large so I can’t really get mad at the scheduling but damn, if you take that JMU game out of there we may be 6-1 right now.

We will see...all the rest of our OOC games are very winnable (including a mediocre 2-4 Georgia team).

Going 4-1 over that stretch and then 3-1 to start conference play (something you should expect a good team to be able to do given who they play and where) would go a long way toward restoring faith in this year's team.