Game 8, South Fla, Dec 4th, 7 PM, MASN

[GMUSSTN]

Anali has been suspended.

Man, we sure are gonna miss his 2 points and 1 rebound.

 

[gmutom]

Man, we sure are gonna miss his 2 points...

That's one more point than J2 had last night and 2 points more than Copes had. Pretty sad.

 

[GMUSSTN]

That's one more point than J2 had last night and 2 points more than Copes had. Pretty sad.

I pretty much gave up on our front court's ability to score a long time ago. Watching J2 duff layups all night is horrible. Guy can't finish at the rim. I see better post moves in my pickup games.

Same goes for Copes. Weakest 6'8" I've ever seen on the offensive end of the ball. Cannot score. At least he gets some clutch rebounds and a few blocks a game. J2 is just kind of a ghost.

 

[JBiggs]

Honestly, losing Arledge was a much bigger blow than we anticipated. He a big man, aside from Marko, who can actually put the ball in the hole. And his FT shooting in end-game scenarios is crucial. Our frontcourt is just ghastly on the offensive end without him.

 

[MASONscott]

We have done this a couple of times this season out on the key. I was always taught to show a fist if you were going to go back door, is that not common practice?

Not sure about Mason's team, but I think more teams are making cuts without a player signaling. For instance, if you watch some of the Princeton based offenses there are no signals.

I run a Read and React offense for a youth team. There is no signal. If your man is overplaying you meaning he has one foot on the 3 point line, you must backcut. I'm not smart enough to design an offense myself, so I plug and play their training.

 

[MASONscott]

Honestly, losing Arledge was a much bigger blow than we anticipated. He a big man, aside from Marko, who can actually put the ball in the hole. And his FT shooting in end-game scenarios is crucial. Our frontcourt is just ghastly on the offensive end without him.

Had that conversation at Brions last night with another poster. Would that game and one or two others been a 'W' with a healthy Arledge? My answer would be a yes.

 

[Cool Disco Dan]

Had that conversation at Brions last night with another poster. Would that game and one or two others been a 'W' with a healthy Arledge? My answer would be a yes.

No doubt about it. We'd be a 1 loss team (Iona).

 

[gmu05]

Had that conversation at Brions last night with another poster. Would that game and one or two others been a 'W' with a healthy Arledge? My answer would be a yes.

Based on what? Did you not watch the AU game?

 

[MASONscott]

@gmu05 based on they way Arledge closed out the season last year and played the last two summers in the Keener league. Word was he was hurt in the AU game which is why I said "healthy".

 

[EXpatriot13]

Based on what? Did you not watch the AU game?

He said with a healthy Arledge. From what we've heard, he was far from it.

 

[gmu05]

He was "hurt" but started and played 25 minutes? OKAY

 

[Raider_SPE]

Dunno if anyone recalls but we had this same discussion last year about Copes at the beginning of the season, though it was mostly about how he could't catch a cold. I even had a personal nickname for him back then . . . "hoofs".

He finished the last two months of the season averaging 8 pts, 7 rebs in 27 minutes per game. If he can get back to that level of productivity would you be satisfied? This is only his 2nd game back, and he only played 5 minutes in the 1st.

Now the question is can he stay out of foul trouble long enough to put up those kind of numbers.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/pi/shareit/nq0Lv

 

[JBiggs]

@gmu05 I'd like to see you play 25 minutes of D-1 basketball with a bad back and be productive.

 

[EXpatriot13]

He was "hurt" but started and played 25 minutes? OKAY

Only Arledge knows how badly he's hurt. But, maybe he decided to push it for the American game and afterwards realized he messed up by playing. He hasn't seen the court since that game...so yea, I would imagine he was playing hurt.

 

[gmu05]

@gmu05 I'd like to see you play 25 minutes of D-1 basketball with a bad back and be productive.

Couldn't have been that bad if Hewitt kept him in that long in what was a close game.

 

[Five Two]

Still, if he hadn't given the little extra shot at the end with his foot, I don't think there would be a suspension. Just a T and that's that.

If he doesn't give the extra shot with his foot, I don't even think he gets a T. Its just a hard foul.

 

[EXpatriot13]

Couldn't have been that bad if Hewitt kept him in that long in what was a close game.

A healthy Arledge, you would have to more than assume, would have played like he did in the second half of last season...especially against a team like American. But sure, go right ahead and assume he was healthy. At this point, who cares anymore.

 

[MasonFanatic]

Arledge looked fine to me against AU until he took that hard fall on the dunk/charge play. Then he was a ghost afterward. Wouldn't be surprised if that was the last straw for his back.

 

[sigmanorm]

It was a frustration foul because he (AO) got hammered and no call on the offensive end. That said, his game has not done much for us. He is a hustle guy, but doesn't have the game we need. We have several players that don't seem to get it sometimes. It was frustrating to watch us just hand the game back to USF by going down court and chucking up shots. Even when we did work the "offense" we looked lost.

 

[MasonFanatic]

If he doesn't give the extra shot with his foot, I don't even think he gets a T. Its just a hard foul.

I agree.

Ultimately Anali is responsible for his actions, but the refs also failed both teams by not intervening sooner. There were at least 2-3 previous plays where Anali took a hard shot and the refs did nothing, so it escalated. Bad game management. Even just talking to the players involved would have helped.