Possible coaching scenarios

[gmutom]

Christian is still very early in the rebuilding process at MSM. For him to take this team to the NCAA tournament with so few of "his guys" on the roster is a testament to his ability.

As DV noted, he learned to coach from Tony Shaver, who is a highly respected X's and O's guy, and he learned to lead from Shaka.

He might want to start running some of those Xs and O's he learned from Shaver. They are trailing Albany 13-0 with 13 minutes left in the 1st half. MSM looks very tight, but hopefully they snap out of it quickly.

Update: MSM finally scored but is now trailing 19-2. They need a Whack to step up.

Update: MSM has settled down, hit a few 3s and cut the lead to 6 with under 8 minutes left in the first half. We have a ball game!

 

[gmujim92]

He might want to start running some of those Xs and O's he learned from Shaver. They are trailing Albany 13-0 with 13 minutes left in the 1st half. MSM looks very tight, but hopefully they snap out of it quickly.

Update: MSM finally scored but is now trailing 19-2. They need a Whack to step up.

Update: MSM has settled down, hit a few 3s and cut the lead to 6 with under 8 minutes left in the first half. We have a ball game!

I seem to recall an eventual 2006 Final Four team falling behind 19-2 to UNC in the round of 32. That worked out OK .....

 

[DeepValue]

Christian never sat down and put his head in his hands. He showed confidence, used TOs to perfection, and settled his team down. Couldn't be more impressed with what he just did.

Love games like his with two teams full of strivers just trying to make their mark. Hope the second half is just as good.

 

[gmutom]

Great run by MSM. Fell behind by 19 and then went on an insane tear. BTW, if there are uglier uniforms than the ones being worn by Albany, I've yet to see them. Yuck!

Note to Jim: We fell behind 16-2 to UNC, but your point is still taken. Here's hoping MSM ends up on the winning side like we did. Coincidentally, tonight's game is taking place in the same arena as our upsets over UNC and Michigan State.

 

[DeepValue]

Is Albany's coach available?

 

[mason2k1]

Is Albany's coach available?

No. They're still playing basketball.

 

[JimP]

Is Albany's coach available?

I'll tell you what - his teams always seem to be near the top of his league. Lonergan's made the America East to A-10 transition pretty well.

 

[psyclone]

I'm not sold on Christian from Mt. St. Mary. Had they not had 6 guys on the court in semi's, they wouldn't be on the radar.

Did the MSM coaching staff ever speak to how they didn't notice they had 6 guys out there? I can hear the uproar on our boards if that happened at Mason.

 

[gmutom]

Valiant effort by MSM, but they are the poster child for living and dying by the 3. They threw up 40 shots from behind the arc, which gave me bad flashbacks of Paul Westhead (although they do attempt to play defense).

The odd thing is they have a freshman who had already hit 7 threes, but they didn't run a single play for him in their last three possessions when they needed a 3 to tie. I understand Whack and Norfleet are the team's stars, but how do you not ride the hot hand?

 

[DeepValue]

Not a fan of the first four, but that game was fun to watch. I wish they would expand the field to 96 and give the top 32 teams a first round bye.

 

[DeepValue]

Albany was very good tactically and they made excellent adjustments - including staying all over Miller there at the end.

 

[Bricker]

Albany was very good tactically and they made excellent adjustments - including staying all over Miller there at the end.

Tactically making adjustments...there's something I miss.

 

[GMUSSTN]

Tactically making adjustments...there's something I miss.

You just don't appreciate the finer points of the game, like "get up by 12 and hope to God, Buddah, Vishnu and Allah they don't switch up the offense"

 

[A.-Siegfried]

Not a fan of the first four, but that game was fun to watch. I wish they would expand the field to 96 and give the top 32 teams a first round bye.

Please. No.

 

[GMUSSTN]

Please. No.

Seconded. I'm not a fan of the play-in games at all. Yeah they're good games, but scoring them as "tournament wins" and what not is just dumb. Bring the field back down to 64. If you want to keep the play ins make them between major bubble teams that need one more game to get over the hump and earn a 10-11-12-13 seed.

Under no circumstances should a team that won its conference tournament be subjected to play in such a meaningless game.

 

[DeepValue]

Well they're not going to reduce the number of games now - giving up money is very rare in sports. This is why 96 teams would work so well. The winning team is pretty much always from the top 32 - they deserve a bye. The bottom 64 are pretty much just there to try to make a splash, make money, and have fun. Accordingly, you let the bottom 64 have a more realistic shot of having more games and more fun for everyone. Plus you eliminate some of the whining about getting snubbed.

No one agrees with me on this but I never get a good reason why.

 

[GSII]

If its not broke why fix it?

The whining will remain regardless. The 97th coach would bitch.

Imo, adding more erodes the beauty of it all. Kinda like that fraternity who lets everyone in. Btw, Is that still Pike? Haaa.

 

[EXpatriot13]

A Wake Forest alum posted this on twitter, "If Wake even talked to Paul Hewitt I would mail my diploma back...". Hahaha. Nice.

 

[DeepValue]

But, the first four is broken. It's part insult, part baffling mess.

By the time you get to the 97th team they know they are not a real threat to win it all. Thus 96 teams should reduce the snub stuff somewhat.

 

[psyclone]

A Wake Forest alum posted this on twitter, "If Wake even talked to Paul Hewitt I would mail my diploma back...". Hahaha. Nice.

Is there some conversation out there that he was on Wake's list?