(02-06-2014 09:29 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(02-06-2014 08:24 AM)Bob Wickersham Wrote:  I now realize under Murphy we'll never be awful (Boone years) and we'll never be great (Braun years). He'll get enough players in here to be presentable but he simply is not a very good coach. He could stick around forever because he's not bad enough to fire and not successful enough to attract larger programs. Welcome to college basketball purgatory.

I'm not sure why folks blame Murphy.

I'm one of Riley's biggest fans and wish he'd develop offensively but, as I indicated in a previous post, hasn't.

Unless Murphy can do some stem cell transplants from Hughley to Riley causing the later to have better hands I'm not sure there is much Murphy can do.

What seems easy to me, catch and pass, doesn't seem that easy to him.

Murphy was making substituions late in the game off/def. with Hughley going in on the offensive possessions.

Riley does a LOT to hinder the opponent's offense and also does a lot to hinder our offense. That's reality.

That's the deck that Murphy has been dealt. Getting a quality center is not easy. Most MAC centers lack offense or defense or both.

Isn't Murphy the coach? If he doesn't win he get fired. The players don't.

(02-05-2014 10:32 PM)greenandwhiteeagle Wrote:  I still believe in this team. Show your Eastern support.

Excuse me!

(02-06-2014 09:44 AM)EMUAARON Wrote:  

(02-06-2014 09:29 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I'm not sure why folks blame Murphy.

I'm one of Riley's biggest fans and wish he'd develop offensively but, as I indicated in a previous post, hasn't.

Unless Murphy can do some stem cell transplants from Hughley to Riley causing the later to have better hands I'm not sure there is much Murphy can do.

What seems easy to me, catch and pass, doesn't seem that easy to him.

Murphy was making substituions late in the game off/def. with Hughley going in on the offensive possessions.

Riley does a LOT to hinder the opponent's offense and also does a lot to hinder our offense. That's reality.

That's the deck that Murphy has been dealt. Getting a quality center is not easy. Most MAC centers lack offense or defense or both.

i think you're being deliberately obtuse. please tell me what offense we run. please tell me the set plays you've seen. feel free to look back through my comments from last season - i referred to an interview with Murphy where he admitted to not worrying about the offense. he doesn't draw up offensive plays, and that really limits the success of the team.

the only change he's made this year is allowing the team to run more. but, you can't run when the other team makes a basket, and you can't hold a team to zero field goals. a coach still needs to address the half-court offense, and that is not a priority for Murphy.

Bovine nailed it - he recruits well, he has a good defense, and he completely ignores the offensive end of the court. this isn't the worst problem we've seen at EMU. far from it. but don't give us some crap about Riley. plenty of MAC teams have run plays with an offensively inept center.

Okay, we agree to disagree.

Last year, I said the reason we couldn't run is that we didn't have a lead guard who could push the ball (Talley was a transfer sitout and Lee a medical sitout).

Talley and Lee play and we can really move the ball on missed shots.

Now the half court sets:

I can 'see' (proverbially speaking) the fear and trepidations in the eyes of the other players (EMU players, and probably coaches too) when they look to the key and see Riley or Ajayi.

Could you imagine a 'two man game' (toss the ball to the post and then send it back to the 'sender') between Riley/Ajayi and a guard as one sees on other teams???

But Riley is one guy. The rest of the offense is stagnant as well. We have a guy that can create his own shot and score in a multitude of ways (Ward) and we rarely run plays for him. This is on Murphy. A good offensive mind would get him shots. And would work Daylen or Glenn at the free throw line where they could either hit a jumper or pump fake and go to the hole. Instead, it seems like the only play we run late in games is a high screen and roll with our most offensively inept player setting the screen. Even if it's Glenn setting the screen, our guards rarely look at the rolling player.

I don't see why Murphy can't improve on this. It's not like running an offense is rocket science. And it certainly isn't too much for our players to handle. Even Riley.

BTW, we haven't had a terrible loss in conference. Frustrating, YES. Terrible no.

We probably have played the toughest within conference schedule to date. BUT will get easier soon. He have only played one game vs. a team with 3 or fewer MAC wins. CMU was our only easy opponent to date.

If I have done my math correctly, our MAC opponents through last night are a +11 games within conference.*

I did this by checking the standings of every MAC team we've played (including Akron and BG x 2 each).

Akron (+5 x 2 games), Ohio (+3), UB (+3), MIA (+1), BG (-1, x 2), WMU (+3) CMU (-7).

http://www.mac-sports.com/Sports/Basketb...sults.aspx

If one wishes to eliminate our games vs. these opponents, every MAC team we've played, except CMU, would have a non-losing conference record (BG would have a winning record except for their two losses to us and MIA would be .500 without their win over us.).

I want to see what we can do vs. KSU, CMU, NIU, etc. where 3 of the 4 games vs. them will be at home.

I'm now expecting us to finsih 10 - 8, down from 11 - 7.

(02-06-2014 10:37 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  But Riley is one guy. The rest of the offense is stagnant as well.

I see a lot of times when a guard gets the ball and looks to pass to the post and stops and re-calibrates.

I think Riley and Ajayi systemically hurt the offense more than most here, just like the lack on an attacking guard systemically killed our fast break offense last year.

I honestly believe it is the defencienies at certain spots which hold a team back.

This is still a decent/good team (ranked #126 [out of over 350 D-I programs] in today's Sagarins) which loses too many close games.

We aren't getting blown out like last year.

EDIT: A Tigers' note: Am I the only baseball fan out here who believe that if the Tigs had a good closer last year, we'd been the WS winners?

Fans before the season wonder why no Soriano? Why go with Benoit?

We were one player from being probable WS winners...

Well, I don't know that Murphy is such a great defensive coach either. Or, whether the players just aren't listening to him.

Sure, the games are low scoring but the fellas don't seem to be able to keep the opponents from scoring enough to win the game, especially at the end. Where is the defense the last 7, 5, 3, 2 minutes of the game, when we usually still have a lead? It's great to be up by 9 at the half but this team seems to forget everything at half-time. They forget how to score and they forget how to play defense enough that the other team ends up winning.

Pretty pathetic.

I don't care who is at fault, something is wrong that appears to be unable to be repaired. Unless the team and Murphy thinks this is as good as it gets.

I do have a theory to our success in the first half.. It's simple. You can't replicate the size and athleticism that this EMU team has on defense and then because we start to fluster the opponents on offense, we play more aggressive on offense and we get out to a decent sized lead. Then eventually the players start to get more comfortable against the zone and start moving the ball around better. With our lack of consistency on offense, the other team just needs to make one spurt to get back into the game because of our lack of offense. It's pretty simple, look at the stats in our losses:

Akron -> 24.1% first half; 41.6% 2nd half
Miami -> 29.6% first half ; 58.33% 2nd half
Ohio -> 20.0% first half ; 46.67% 2nd half
Akron(gm. 1) -> 51.85% first half ; 41.94% 2nd half (however, first half 8-12 from 3 point range skews this game)
Buffalo -> 36.3% first half; 42.86% 2nd half

The ironic part is that these games that are driving all of us insane ultimately came down to a team making one or two plays on either end and right now it has been the opponent every single time. That's frustrating, it's infuriating!

Ohio U game, tied at 55-55 1:36 in the 2nd half
Miami(Oh) game; tied 61-61; 1:00 in the 2nd half
Akron; tied 46-46; 2:42 left in the 2nd half

It's really simple.. If we make a couple of one-and-one FT's in each of these games, we probably win all 3 of those games above or we make one of these jump shots, we're in good shape. In addition, in the clutch we really don't have any one player that just wants the ball in his hands and to try to make something happen. Instead we're depending on making a 3 point shot or a jump shot at the end of the game and we haven't exactly demonstrated a lot of prowess in that. I find it quite hilarious how our guards too will drive aimlessly throughout the game and then at the very end of the game, we'll just stand there and everyone will shy away from taking the final shot. The guy that I would like to see just take over is Ward in those situations. He's our best pure scorer, so let him do it!

You could easily argue that we shouldn't be in these situations in games with our leads and I'd agree with you completely. However, the bottom line is that the only games that truly matter for this team are those played in March during the MAC Tournament. Right now, we've been competitive in every single game we've been in and I think that will be the case the rest of the year. I don't see us blowing many people out either. Our games are going to come down to us executing one or two offensive plays and/or playing solid defense on one or two plays.

Someone needs to step up and be willing to be the guy to take the shots down the stretch and will nail the key FT's. I think it's more mental than anything. If we find that, this team could still meet our goals. If it doesn't.. we're going to lose one of these frustrating games in the MAC Tournament and be left to ponder, what if?

I'll stick with my 10-8 projection, and even at 10-8 who's to say this team couldn't win 3-4 games to win a MAC Tournament title?

Just my thoughts. Hate them all you want.

(02-06-2014 09:03 PM)TheCrumbIsHere Wrote:  I do have a theory to our success in the first half.. It's simple. You can't replicate the size and athleticism that this EMU team has on defense and then because we start to fluster the opponents on offense, we play more aggressive on offense and we get out to a decent sized lead. Then eventually the players start to get more comfortable against the zone and start moving the ball around better. With our lack of consistency on offense, the other team just needs to make one spurt to get back into the game because of our lack of offense. It's pretty simple, look at the stats in our losses:

Akron -> 24.1% first half; 41.6% 2nd half
Miami -> 29.6% first half ; 58.33% 2nd half
Ohio -> 20.0% first half ; 46.67% 2nd half
Akron(gm. 1) -> 51.85% first half ; 41.94% 2nd half (however, first half 8-12 from 3 point range skews this game)
Buffalo -> 36.3% first half; 42.86% 2nd half

The ironic part is that these games that are driving all of us insane ultimately came down to a team making one or two plays on either end and right now it has been the opponent every single time. That's frustrating, it's infuriating!

Ohio U game, tied at 55-55 1:36 in the 2nd half
Miami(Oh) game; tied 61-61; 1:00 in the 2nd half
Akron; tied 46-46; 2:42 left in the 2nd half

It's really simple.. If we make a couple of one-and-one FT's in each of these games, we probably win all 3 of those games above or we make one of these jump shots, we're in good shape. In addition, in the clutch we really don't have any one player that just wants the ball in his hands and to try to make something happen. Instead we're depending on making a 3 point shot or a jump shot at the end of the game and we haven't exactly demonstrated a lot of prowess in that. I find it quite hilarious how our guards too will drive aimlessly throughout the game and then at the very end of the game, we'll just stand there and everyone will shy away from taking the final shot. The guy that I would like to see just take over is Ward in those situations. He's our best pure scorer, so let him do it!

You could easily argue that we shouldn't be in these situations in games with our leads and I'd agree with you completely. However, the bottom line is that the only games that truly matter for this team are those played in March during the MAC Tournament. Right now, we've been competitive in every single game we've been in and I think that will be the case the rest of the year. I don't see us blowing many people out either. Our games are going to come down to us executing one or two offensive plays and/or playing solid defense on one or two plays.

Someone needs to step up and be willing to be the guy to take the shots down the stretch and will nail the key FT's. I think it's more mental than anything. If we find that, this team could still meet our goals. If it doesn't.. we're going to lose one of these frustrating games in the MAC Tournament and be left to ponder, what if?

I'll stick with my 10-8 projection, and even at 10-8 who's to say this team couldn't win 3-4 games to win a MAC Tournament title?

Just my thoughts. Hate them all you want.

I'll comment on a couple of your points and AGREE with you.

It does seem that opponents do have trouble with the zone even if they have seen it in previous years. This is evidence, especially, in the first half and we take advantage of their bad shooting.

Then they start to attack the zone better, usually after the half, and start hitting their treys.

What I find frustrating and this is NOT the coach's fault is when we start tanking all of those free throws when the game is on the line.

Composure is not something coaches can teach. People (players) have it or they don't.

I still say folks, don't panic. We've played a brutal OOC schedule and a difficult (very badly frontloaded) MAC schedule.

I think we are close and could go on a run.

We just need to beat up a few teams...