Let's get this kicked off!

I know everyone is in the HOLIDAY spirit, but our Owls need to get in the spirit too, starting tomorrow with Northern Arizona - a team like Belmont that moves the ball extremely well and will offer decent competition for us.

We need to use this game to re establish our team structure and get that "Georgia Tech" good feeling back about ourselves. Because after all, we will need it on Wednesday and Friday in 2 very hostile environments.

We just didn't play well against Alabama State and they eventually pulled us away from what we should have been doing as a team. We resorted to individualism and there were no extra passes on offense. One reason for that was a few of our young guys got taken out of their game early by hard fouls and disappeared afterwards. This limited who Ingle could rely on and he went to the bench with mixed results. Our most rugged player is Markeith, who is not subtle about who he fouls or when he fouls them.

We need to get tougher.

We do need to get tougher. But were really missing Heramb. We can only really play 6 guys.

With that said, when we move the ball were dangerous. When we start playing MEball, were terrible.

I just hope our team didn't get a big head after the Tech win. If we play like we did on Saturday, it's going to be a long season in the A-Sun.

(11-22-2010 10:37 PM)Mike_Hunt Wrote:  Rant time

Negatives
Starting off the game on a 5+?? minute run without scoring CANNOT happen....EVER. Somebody has to say screw the script and make something happen. Can someone please tell me how Cummings has improved his game? He's taking less threes but hasn't gotten any better inside. The sky is the limit but I don't see the progression. The offense is stagnant as hell and reminds me of the Hawks....failing to run plays until there's no time left on the clock and jack up a shot or improvise. We got killed on the boards tonight...KILLED. They had an unimaginable amount of second chance points. Once we started closing out on their shooters they just took it inside and beat us there. The bottomline is that only Spencer, Markeith can consistently create shots for themselves and thus the team will be limited. Sometimes I think we'd be better off if we just let Spencer go iso the whole game. Osemhen is RAW on offense and doesn't have much more than the fundamentals at this points. Dawson didn't look good on D at all from what I saw. Henry is a turnover machine but is solid on defense. Why doesn't R.J Hall play? He couldn't possibly be worse than Turner who is simply not ready....

Positives
Spencer is the best player on this team right now. He looks quick, and confident. Green had a pretty good game rebounding defensively. Free throws kept us in the game in the first half and we hit almost every one of them. Sabic looks like he has a new tat on his arm and knocked down a nice three from the side. Turner showed flashes of very good athleticism.

This team only has 5 guys that should be playing right now and that's simply a problem. I wish we had a guy like Nickerson that
could come off the bench....

I didn't proof read so I hope this all makes sense!

I proof read it and the part about Green doesn't make sense --- not from what I saw on the floor for the past 3 games.

I hope the Tech game is not his best game of the season ....

On another note, I expect the Iowa State game on Wednesday to be UGLY.

That is just reality.

Were just not deep. We very well could of been a top 2 team in our conference this year with Heramb playing the full year and with Woods. Were really hurting without them.

Our guys need to start learning how to play against a zone defense.

Couldn't watch the game, but looking at the box score I am going to assume that we were taking most jump shots and the other team was getting easier looks. I will go back at some point and watch the ASunTV replay and try to get a better feel. The GT game might have fooled me a bit to exactly where this team was. I kind of figured more games likes these without Heramb and Woods...but we still have the potential to play great.

Iowa State will certainly be a test of our team's fortitude...that is for sure.

(11-23-2010 08:29 AM)KennesawBasketball Wrote:  Couldn't watch the game, but looking at the box score I am going to assume that we were taking most jump shots and the other team was getting easier looks. I will go back at some point and watch the ASunTV replay and try to get a better feel. The GT game might have fooled me a bit to exactly where this team was. I kind of figured more games likes these without Heramb and Woods...but we still have the potential to play great.

Iowa State will certainly be a test of our team's fortitude...that is for sure.

Let me save you some time. Two things happened. Offensively, the ball didn't move as quickly or as often as it did against Georgia Tech (or Chattanooga for that matter). NA came to play and smelled blood from the outset.

Defensively, the rotations are not there on a consistent basis. They came out hot from the beginning from the outside and then when we defended that, they went inside.

http://www.azdailysun.com/sports/college...1aa8c.html
That tells the story.

It will be ugly in Ames and bad in Omaha.

Have a happy Thanksgiving in between!

I am speechless

So much promise

Season is young...just like the GT didn't mean we were going to go undefeated, these hiccups don't mean we are going to go winless. But the next 2 might not be pretty...

We made it to the first media timeout and then some without our first points. I have never seen that happen before. Our shots were just not falling. I'm not going to sit here and rehash what others have already said, but this was a tough game. The crazy thing about it all? We played THAT poorly and were still in the game until the final few minutes. There were three major things I'd point out. First, as documented, they out rebounded us quite handily. Secondly, They hit their shots, not only easy looks (and trust me there were a ton), but also from beyond the arc. I checked the box score and they shot 50% in the 1st half and 48% in the 2nd. When you're out rebounded and they shoot better, you can almost chalk up a loss every single time. And the last observation that I'm not sure anyone has mentioned is their transition game. I've been going to Owls games now for five years, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, for teams I've seen in person at home, they were one of the best transition teams I've ever seen.

I understand but I was hoping we would have been competitive in the ASU and NA games

We were competitive, but we just didn't win. It isn't like we got blown out the gym. The fact of that matter is that we had a decent chance to win our last 3 games and we simply didn't get the job done. It is is going to be disappointing at the end of the year to look back on those three opportunities and realize the waste we made of them. But we have been competitive in every game we have played so far this year. The trick is for our guys to get back to sharing the ball, moving it on offense and getting to back to our defensive fundamentals.

(11-23-2010 02:00 PM)KennesawBasketball Wrote:  We were competitive, but we just didn't win. It isn't like we got blown out the gym. The fact of that matter is that we had a decent chance to win our last 3 games and we simply didn't get the job done. It is is going to be disappointing at the end of the year to look back on those three opportunities and realize the waste we made of them. But we have been competitive in every game we have played so far this year. The trick is for our guys to get back to sharing the ball, moving it on offense and getting to back to our defensive fundamentals.

We can do it half the time. The real trick is being able to move the ball against a zone defense. Were fine when its man to man.

(11-24-2010 03:59 AM)Mike_Hunt Wrote:  Does anybody find it troubling that we have 77474 new players and only one is worthy of being in the rotation?

I do, but I understand. The coach is trying to keep his job. The Georgia Tech victory accomplished that judgement to the tune of about 75%. The other 25% will come from the conference tournament results.

But to address your concern more directly, they are not ready yet. If they were ready (Anderson) they would get extended minutes. Oshemen is a big body, but needs work on his left hand and more experience. Turner looks confused at times and his decisions are not always the best. Henry plays real defense but cannot be trusted that much with the ball in the half court. His skills are somewhat limited also. Hall has a lot of heart but is small and is eager on defense. Dawson shows signs of getting more floor time and when Cummings puts his name in the draft after this season, he and Sabic will get more playing time and the chance to show what they can do full time.

Do you agree Kennesaw Basketball?

Buc fans are having a similar discussion on our end. Fortunately for us, we have a senior-laden team, so our newcomers don't have to play such key roles as they do for you all. Without knowing much about your newcomers, as a general rule, the leap to D1 basketball, even for juco's, is a monumental one. The Cummings of the world are the exception, not the rule. And even with Cummings, his basketball immaturity showed throughout last season. Fortunately for him, his talent, size, and athleticism compensated for lack of experience.

(11-24-2010 07:59 AM)Go Fly Win Owls! Wrote:  

(11-24-2010 03:59 AM)Mike_Hunt Wrote:  Does anybody find it troubling that we have 77474 new players and only one is worthy of being in the rotation?

I do, but I understand. The coach is trying to keep his job. The Georgia Tech victory accomplished that judgement to the tune of about 75%. The other 25% will come from the conference tournament results.

But to address your concern more directly, they are not ready yet. If they were ready (Anderson) they would get extended minutes. Oshemen is a big body, but needs work on his left hand and more experience. Turner looks confused at times and his decisions are not always the best. Henry plays real defense but cannot be trusted that much with the ball in the half court. His skills are somewhat limited also. Hall has a lot of heart but is small and is eager on defense. Dawson shows signs of getting more floor time and when Cummings puts his name in the draft after this season, he and Sabic will get more playing time and the chance to show what they can do full time.

Do you agree Kennesaw Basketball?

I don't agree about Cummings and the NBA. He might have some of the tools, but he is nowhere near ready to play at that level. When Cummings is putting 25+ a night on nearly everyone in the ASun then get back to me. I would agree with much of the rest of the assessment. Most of these players weren't supposed to be counted on because we were supposed to have Woods and Heramb on the court right now. Instead Woods and Heramb acted like knuckleheads and screwed up in the classroom, and now the whole team is paying for their selfishness. Woods was playing 30+ minutes a night, and I think Heramb was good for 25+ as a senior captain. That is a TON of minutes that we are trying to make up with guys that simply are very green. Woods loss also means that Kelvin has to come in and play more SG, which means that we can't use him as a backup PG quite as often. This puts huge pressure on Spencer, and gets him tired at times.

Getting Heramb back will make a difference on the rotations, but we will also need to continue to work on our halfcourt offensive and defensive sets. It is early, and they need a lot of work.