https://thedailydragon.com/2017/01/02/c-...wide-open/

I think MT will win the regular season by 2+ games over everyone else. :)

As always, thank you for the superb analysis.

I agree that the Rice-Charlotte game will be the most interesting and telling of today's match ups. As another poster on our home board put it, "Charlotte is sneaky good." I'll be curious to see if this season proves him right.

Rice, on the other hand, is uniformly good. Teams have to defend all five positions well, pretty much all game long, or they will burn you. That ODU managed to do so on Saturday, after such a miserable end to our ooc slate, makes me cautiously happy. (UNT could very well spoil that in a matter of a few hours from now.)

One final observation about Rice that made me chuckle a bit: Letcher-Ellis is one of the most talented flop artists that I've ever watched in person. If I were a ref, I also would be calling a foul every time, and then bracing for the jeers when the replay shows no contact whatsoever. The problem for Mr. L-E is that he does not lt all look comfortable at the line. Perhaps that was just peculiar to Saturday's game.

If WKU wins convincingly tonight, i think WKU has a shot, each game has show extreme improvement

If ODU could count .3 pts per missed FG, we could really make a run

(01-02-2017 01:45 PM)AdoptedMonarch Wrote:  As always, thank you for the superb analysis.

I agree that the Rice-Charlotte game will be the most interesting and telling of today's match ups. As another poster on our home board put it, "Charlotte is sneaky good." I'll be curious to see if this season proves him right.

Rice, on the other hand, is uniformly good. Teams have to defend all five positions well, pretty much all game long, or they will burn you. That ODU managed to do so on Saturday, after such a miserable end to our ooc slate, makes me cautiously happy. (UNT could very well spoil that in a matter of a few hours from now.)

One final observation about Rice that made me chuckle a bit: Letcher-Ellis is one of the most talented flop artists that I've ever watched in person. If I were a ref, I also would be calling a foul every time, and then bracing for the jeers when the replay shows no contact whatsoever. The problem for Mr. L-E is that he does not lt all look comfortable at the line. Perhaps that was just peculiar to Saturday's game.

MLE is an energy guy and some time that means overzealously flopping. He's very key off the bench for them.

Just wait until you watch UNT's Keith Frazier. Talk about animated. He has this shoe swipe tick that he does nearly every couple seconds on the court. It's bizarre. He's very talented but had very odd mannerisms on the court.

And thank your kind words, again.

(01-02-2017 01:45 PM)AdoptedMonarch Wrote:  As always, thank you for the superb analysis.

I agree that the Rice-Charlotte game will be the most interesting and telling of today's match ups. As another poster on our home board put it, "Charlotte is sneaky good." I'll be curious to see if this season proves him right.

Rice, on the other hand, is uniformly good. Teams have to defend all five positions well, pretty much all game long, or they will burn you. That ODU managed to do so on Saturday, after such a miserable end to our ooc slate, makes me cautiously happy. (UNT could very well spoil that in a matter of a few hours from now.)

One final observation about Rice that made me chuckle a bit: Letcher-Ellis is one of the most talented flop artists that I've ever watched in person. If I were a ref, I also would be calling a foul every time, and then bracing for the jeers when the replay shows no contact whatsoever. The problem for Mr. L-E is that he does not lt all look comfortable at the line. Perhaps that was just peculiar to Saturday's game.

We have some talent no doubt but our awful rebounding is going to result in some wtf performances.

McGee has really brought much needed energy to our team, but we have the makings of an average to maybe a little above average CUSA team this season....If we win a lot of games this season more then likely will be on the ugly side of things...Not having a consistent PG will probably be our downfall this season although our true freshmen PG Parris who comes off the bench has potential and has played better.....What has hurt us this season so far imo was STans promised a transfer from Providence he could play PG, its not really working out for him to play PG at this level...

(01-03-2017 09:27 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  McGee has really brought much needed energy to our team, but we have the makings of an average to maybe a little above average CUSA team this season....If we win a lot of games this season more then likely will be on the ugly side of things...Not having a consistent PG will probably be our downfall this season although our true freshmen PG Parris who comes off the bench has potential and has played better.....What has hurt us this season so far imo was STans promised a transfer from Providence he could play PG, its not really working out for him to play PG at this level...

Howard has played well at the point in the times I've seen him. Stansbury is most likely putting his best basketball players on the court regardless of position. To a certain degree it's what UAB is doing with Deion Lavender since Nick went down. Lavender is as much a point as Junior Lomomba is.

I enjoyed it, but I think MTSU is clearly the class of the conference and everyone else is a tier below them.

MTSU

fighting in the next tier:

LT
Rice
Marshall
ODU
UAB

Pretty large gap in the next tier:
Charlotte
WK


The rest

(01-03-2017 12:18 PM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  

(01-03-2017 09:27 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  McGee has really brought much needed energy to our team, but we have the makings of an average to maybe a little above average CUSA team this season....If we win a lot of games this season more then likely will be on the ugly side of things...Not having a consistent PG will probably be our downfall this season although our true freshmen PG Parris who comes off the bench has potential and has played better.....What has hurt us this season so far imo was STans promised a transfer from Providence he could play PG, its not really working out for him to play PG at this level...

Howard has played well at the point in the times I've seen him. Stansbury is most likely putting his best basketball players on the court regardless of position. To a certain degree it's what UAB is doing with Deion Lavender since Nick went down. Lavender is as much a point as Junior Lomomba is.

Anyone who will pass the ball to a teammate is a better point than Lomomba.

(01-03-2017 04:16 PM)freshtop Wrote:  

(01-03-2017 12:18 PM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  

(01-03-2017 09:27 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  McGee has really brought much needed energy to our team, but we have the makings of an average to maybe a little above average CUSA team this season....If we win a lot of games this season more then likely will be on the ugly side of things...Not having a consistent PG will probably be our downfall this season although our true freshmen PG Parris who comes off the bench has potential and has played better.....What has hurt us this season so far imo was STans promised a transfer from Providence he could play PG, its not really working out for him to play PG at this level...

Howard has played well at the point in the times I've seen him. Stansbury is most likely putting his best basketball players on the court regardless of position. To a certain degree it's what UAB is doing with Deion Lavender since Nick went down. Lavender is as much a point as Junior Lomomba is.

Anyone who will pass the ball to a teammate is a better point than Lomomba.

You're not allowed to pass the ball to a teammate after you've dribbled it off your foot out of bounds. It then belongs to the opponent.

Lomomba showed in the Austin Peay game that he can assist the ball on buckets. But that's because the Peay played absolutely zero dee and put zero pressure on Junior. But when pressure comes he folds like a cheap suit.

Last night at the end of the game when he was bringing it up and crossed halfcourt he thought he had it made. I gaurantee that Parris would have had his spidey sense going off about someone slipping up from behind. Junior didn't because he's never played that position before this year. Damari has played that position. He more than likely would have sensed it.

He's very lax on dee as well. He gives a halfassed effort on closing out on people. I could almost put up with his errors if he was giving some good dee on the other end. He has the body to do it. He just doesn't.

Hopefully Stubborn Stans will play Damari more in this homestand. He's by far the best we have at the position. I like what Tobias has done when he's in but things appear to flow better when Damari is at point god more than anyone else.

(01-03-2017 12:24 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  I enjoyed it, but I think MTSU is clearly the class of the conference and everyone else is a tier below them.

MTSU

fighting in the next tier:

LT
Rice
Marshall
ODU
UAB

Pretty large gap in the next tier:
Charlotte
WK


The rest

That's how I see it tiered right now, also.
Maybe MT is a "half-tier" up.
Head-n-shoulders above the rest.. but not completely out of reach, either.

I can say there isn't a school left on Marshall's schedule that I don't think they can compete and win against if they put the A Game out on the floor. I haven't really been able to say that probably since 1995, when it was Billy The Kid's last year in Huntington. Also we were still in the SoCon then.

D'Antoni in a few years when Williams (6'8), Robinette (6'9) and Bennett (6'10) are in the fold is when I think Marshall becomes really dangerous. You can already see flashes from Ky're Allison, Phil Bledsoe and Christian Thieneman.

I anticipate a hell of a fight at the bottom of the conference. Parity!

(01-03-2017 11:08 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(01-03-2017 12:24 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  I enjoyed it, but I think MTSU is clearly the class of the conference and everyone else is a tier below them.

MTSU

fighting in the next tier:

LT
Rice
Marshall
ODU
UAB

Pretty large gap in the next tier:
Charlotte
WK


The rest

That's how I see it tiered right now, also.
Maybe MT is a "half-tier" up.
Head-n-shoulders above the rest.. but not completely out of reach, either.

I agree. I respect and enjoy watching Middle's team but they aren't as dominate as UAB was last year. The home loss to Georgia State was bad. With that being said they have the best trio of players and best coach so anything is possible for them.

I think they're going to struggle with La Tech's experience and size in the post and their emerging point guard DeQuan Bracey. If ODU's defense travels they'll make them grind it out like Georgia State did which resulted in a loss.

(01-04-2017 08:46 AM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  

(01-03-2017 11:08 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(01-03-2017 12:24 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  I enjoyed it, but I think MTSU is clearly the class of the conference and everyone else is a tier below them.

MTSU

fighting in the next tier:

LT
Rice
Marshall
ODU
UAB

Pretty large gap in the next tier:
Charlotte
WK


The rest

That's how I see it tiered right now, also.
Maybe MT is a "half-tier" up.
Head-n-shoulders above the rest.. but not completely out of reach, either.

I agree. I respect and enjoy watching Middle's team but they aren't as dominate as UAB was last year. The home loss to Georgia State was bad. With that being said they have the best trio of players and best coach so anything is possible for them.

I think they're going to struggle with La Tech's experience and size in the post and their emerging point guard DeQuan Bracey. If ODU's defense travels they'll make them grind it out like Georgia State did which resulted in a loss.

ODU wishes we were never to be on their schedule again.

As for Georgia St they didn't do anything special on defense. We just missed wide open shots - all night. The team that presents the match up problem for us is Marshall. Their style can beat us if we don't make a lot of shots. We have great shooters, but we've shown to be more streaky this year. And if we have an off night shooting Marshall can run us out of the gym. We can grind out everyone else.

(01-04-2017 08:56 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  ODU wishes we were never to be on their schedule again.

As for Georgia St they didn't do anything special on defense. We just missed wide open shots - all night. The team that presents the match up problem for us is Marshall. Their style can beat us if we don't make a lot of shots. We have great shooters, but we've shown to be more streaky this year. And if we have an off night shooting Marshall can run us out of the gym. We can grind out everyone else.

That's not at all true. For us, playing Empty Sue is like buying lottery scratch cards. We've become conditioned to knowing that we'll lose, but the futile hope that we might just pull off a win keeps bringing us eagerly back. We are very much looking forward to Feb. 9.

Sugar coat the home loss to Ga. State all you wish. The point still remains: you guys are good, but not invincible.

(01-04-2017 09:18 AM)AdoptedMonarch Wrote:  

(01-04-2017 08:56 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  ODU wishes we were never to be on their schedule again.

As for Georgia St they didn't do anything special on defense. We just missed wide open shots - all night. The team that presents the match up problem for us is Marshall. Their style can beat us if we don't make a lot of shots. We have great shooters, but we've shown to be more streaky this year. And if we have an off night shooting Marshall can run us out of the gym. We can grind out everyone else.

That's not at all true. For us, playing Empty Sue is like buying lottery scratch cards. We've become conditioned to knowing that we'll lose, but the futile hope that we might just pull off a win keeps bringing us eagerly back. We are very much looking forward to Feb. 9.

Sugar coat the home loss to Ga. State all you wish. The point still remains: you guys are good, but not invincible.

Gotta play to win.

(01-04-2017 09:18 AM)AdoptedMonarch Wrote:  

(01-04-2017 08:56 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  ODU wishes we were never to be on their schedule again.

As for Georgia St they didn't do anything special on defense. We just missed wide open shots - all night. The team that presents the match up problem for us is Marshall. Their style can beat us if we don't make a lot of shots. We have great shooters, but we've shown to be more streaky this year. And if we have an off night shooting Marshall can run us out of the gym. We can grind out everyone else.

That's not at all true. For us, playing Empty Sue is like buying lottery scratch cards. We've become conditioned to knowing that we'll lose, but the futile hope that we might just pull off a win keeps bringing us eagerly back. We are very much looking forward to Feb. 9.

Sugar coat the home loss to Ga. State all you wish. The point still remains: you guys are good, but not invincible.

I don't think any of us have claimed to be. No one is invincible. Just ask Michigan State.