Legends Classic - vs OK St

Between the way we've looked through 2 games, and the Bills, I have lost my appetite for positivity in sports. Early impressions is we're simply not as good as we hoped we'd be, and I have slashed expectations. Dumps into the post with a double team shot going up/no cuts to the basket, endless off-screen swing catch and shoot 3's, and iso ball are on the menu. I will angrily ask the TV why we are not running an offense, and the TV will not reply.

Is this to an extent a defense mechanism? Of course.
 
Enjoy the ride. It won't always be pretty.
 
Survived a 2-1 deficite on kill shots so we won but it was pretty improbable. If you combined the 3 runs in that game we were out scored 27-18. Its not even as though our one big run completely wiped away the two runs they had.

If we go cold again tonight it will get ugly. Auburn started last nights game on a 14-4 run and then started the second half on a 15-1 run. Good thing we normally come out the gates with our hair on fire
 
Last night was reminiscent of the 2017 Maryland win without Adams. Lots of factors that on paper would seem like too much to overcome against a P5 in a tournament setting, but grinding it out.

We need Pride and Venning to play smarter tonight to have any chance. Venning's 4th foul was maddening- get beat on position for a defensive rebound, with an immediate foul on the put-back. Brown is every bit the defender or rebounder in a backup role, but the offense has a higher gear with Chad out there. Obviously the same is true for Pride on the floor.

Last night showed to me Barry needs a bigger role, which will probably come at the expense of Flowers and/or Luc. The way this team is built, when Flowers is back it'll be redundant to have Flowers and Banks on the floor together, off ball. The only way it makes sense is if Banks slides to backup PG with Flowers at the 2. Through 3 games, to me it's clear that ensuring that some combination of 2 of Barry/Pride/Assa are always on the floor. The guards we have don't have the ruggedness needed to play smaller, 3 guard sets effectively. I'd love to see what all 3 of them on the floor together looks like, but that will only happen if Banks or MAW gets into foul trouble.
 
I'd love to see banks and flowers splitting minutes and Barry getting more run in the sets we saw last night. Luc I agree will be tje one to suffer as woods gets more acclimated. Its nice to actually have some depth this year to absorb injury or foul trouble.

Jive, I thought we had a 14-1 run? It was a game of runs with both teams rattling off 8-1 type runs the while game. Our guys grinded it out, credit to them
 
Barry HAS to play more and also continue to shoot when he’s open. Hopefully he gains the confidence. Will he ever shoot like Assa? Probably not. Is he the best defender on the floor and gives me the utmost confidence we can actually get a stop when one is needed? Yes. He’s an absolute menace on D and it feels like everyone steps up when he’s out there.
 
I heard that Luc's injury could be long-term so expect Woods to get a lot of run at PG and also expect Banks to run the point for up to 10 minutes a game. I also think Evans has really stepped up and is probably the first off the bench right now ahead of Flowers.

Not sure what's going on with Flowers but he looks to have lost his swagger. Maybe the lack of playing time is dragging him down. Catch-22.
 
I thought flowers got into a rhythm in the 2nd half vs Auburn. He should get more time with luc being out.
 
Yeah, it’s been awfully quiet around here. Hopefully our men take care of business tonight.
 
brownindians85 said:
I've got the Purple NUrples +8.5. No doubt a cardiac special til :00.
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Optimist: Bonnies cruise to 25 point top to bottom victory.

Realist: Bonnies go into 2nd half down 9 with Banks 0/6 from deep. In the final 2:13 Banks goes 5/5 but Bonnies still lose by 4.
 
Optimism FTW.

Should one be infuriated or exasperated.. this stretch of play shows the loss to CC was absolutely inexcusable. That is a postseason dream-ending loss that should never happen, and this HC has one of those every season. Whether this team is good enough to overcome that and make a run like 2018 remains to be seen but the margin of error is so small you simply cannot lose that game and be taken seriously.
 
brownindians85 said:
Optimism FTW.

Should one be infuriated or exasperated.. this stretch of play shows the loss to CC was absolutely inexcusable. That is a postseason dream-ending loss that should never happen, and this HC has one of those every season. Whether this team is good enough to overcome that and make a run like 2018 remains to be seen but the margin of error is so small you simply cannot lose that game and be taken seriously.
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It was early in the season, the team is playing and shooting much better lately after a few weeks in. We have plenty of chances to build a decent resume. Everybody out there has 2-4 Q3/4 losses by the end. While the CC game sucked and I agree was inexcusable, these guys arent robots. They missed a ton of open shots and missed FT's that night. The last 3 games they have settled in nicely. Had we got Auburn this week we beat them. The difference in that game was 3/22 from 3 pt land.

Can we now stop acting like the season is terrible? I see it on Twitter so much. We act like our team is god awful when they are actually pretty good. I know they are not beating good teams but they are stomping these teams, which is what good teams do. We didnt even have Pride the last 2 games and Luc has barely played. You guys really thought Niagara would give us a game last night.
 
brownindians85 said:
Optimism FTW.

Should one be infuriated or exasperated.. this stretch of play shows the loss to CC was absolutely inexcusable. That is a postseason dream-ending loss that should never happen, and this HC has one of those every season. Whether this team is good enough to overcome that and make a run like 2018 remains to be seen but the margin of error is so small you simply cannot lose that game and be taken seriously.
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The Canisius lost really isn't a postseason ending loss though.

Even though CC will probably be a Q4, mid-major teams have made the NCAA with a Q4 loss. Utah State last year had a very average resume last year and made it in the field despite their bad loss, and we made it with a Q4 in 2018.

The problem is our OOC slate is pretty bad. The only way we could make it is if we spilt the FAU/Akron game and then steamroll Siena and Bingo. In addition to that, we will need the A10 member's NETs to stay high so we can pick up a couple of Q1 wins and 3 or 4 Q2s.

This will change, but here's the Q1/2 teams on the schedule right now:

@RICH - Q2
@Mason - Q1
@Duq - Q1
@Dayton - Q1
Duq - Q2
@UMass - Q2
@GW - Q2

As always, our at large hopes hinge on how good or bad the A10 is this year. Given the above, we'd need 2/3 Q1s and probably 3/4 Q2s to be in the running. That's probably a lot to ask.

For the remaining 11 A10 games, we'd have to probably win nine of those...so 14-4 is probably the mark we need to hit to be in the running for an AL. ( plus a trip to the A10 finals)

25-8 is the record that could get us in the dance if everything works in our favor.
 
Bona03 said:
It was early in the season, the team is playing and shooting much better lately after a few weeks in. We have plenty of chances to build a decent resume. Everybody out there has 2-4 Q3/4 losses by the end. While the CC game sucked and I agree was inexcusable, these guys arent robots. They missed a ton of open shots and missed FT's that night. The last 3 games they have settled in nicely. Had we got Auburn this week we beat them. The difference in that game was 3/22 from 3 pt land.

Can we now stop acting like the season is terrible? I see it on Twitter so much. We act like our team is god awful when they are actually pretty good. I know they are not beating good teams but they are stomping these teams, which is what good teams do. We didnt even have Pride the last 2 games and Luc has barely played. You guys really thought Niagara would give us a game last night.
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Going on past results, yeah I did think NU would make it a game - Gallagher Center, penchant for laying eggs in Little 3 games, definitely. Happy to be 100% wrong. I'm not up or down on Luc - but him not playing certainly hasn't hurt us. There have been lineups on the floor over the past 4 games that are a bit better than others, and the ones heavy on former MAAC-level standouts are the "others".
 
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