As pleased as we might be with the CoC result, there is no time for basking in the win and the Tribe will provide another tough test on Sunday. Travel won't be a factor like the last game as William and Mary played in Delaware last night (and destroyed them).
William and Mary is the biggest surprise team for me so far this year. I didn't expect a lot from them this year losing Dixon and Prewitt along with the transfers of Malinowski and Whitman. However after getting blasted by High Point in their opener they have only lost to bigger conference teams (UCF, Ohio State, TCU). They don't necessarily have real big wins in the OOC but beat two of the better teams in CUSA in ODU and Marshall and beat old foe George Mason as well.
The Tribe comes in with some of the most impressive offensive stats I can remember for a CAA team. They average 87 ppg on offense (82.6 in D1 games) also leading the league in all the shooting percentages FG 0.522 3pt 0.463 and FT 0.811. All those numbers are higher in the three conference games so far. On top of that, in conference play thus far, they are first in FG% defense and second in 3pt FG% defense.
The line that I see is William and Mary -2, so it should be a good one. If we play good, I certainly think we can beat them, but I also think we have the capacity to get blown out by 30 if their heads aren't in it.
W&M has the best RPI in the CAA right now at 56 and they're strong. As WB mentioned, they don't have the disadvantages that COC had from a travel stance. Today will be a real test for the Dragons. But Drexel has played well at home this year and will keep the game close.
W&M 80
Drexel 75
I'm not really sure how to describe today's game without cursing, so I'll just say that it was a really ****** performance by the Dragons today. That was regression at it's worst. After looking like a competitive team on Friday, they clearly regressed into the last place team that we've gotten used to over the past few years. I know that W&M is a good team, but Drexel had no clue how to defend them, and just weren't making their shots on offense. And this time, they couldn't blame it on lack of depth.
Spiker didn't pull a Bruiser and didn't say that the "guys didn't come ready to play". He did praise W&M for being an excellent basketball team that was in the rhythm offensively. He's disappointed and frustrated and called it a team experience, but didn't necessarily rip the players.
He probably ripped them in private
i'll take care of ripping players then. we sat behind the bench and there was enough drama to make up for missing bachelor last week. i'll miss it tomorrow too for the georgia-bama game.
spiker should have sent harper to the locker room for being a jack ass. shortly before halftime he missed a layup then didn't get back on defense and gave up a wide open three. he gave up a wide open three on the next possession too. when he came to the bench...he was carrying on like a baby and wouldn't go into the huddle. he sat down at the end of the bench at one point. spiker sent him back out onto the floor when he should've sent him back to his dorm to decide if he's grown up enough to play college basketball.
he wasn't much better in the second half. the play that stood out was when he was the last guy between a tribe player dribbling the length of the floor and the basket. he couldn't get out of the way fast enough because apparently he doesn't want to play any defense. i have some good photos of him giving attitude to our assistant coach who was hopefully calling him out for it.
sorry...this is probably the hardest i've ripped a drexel player...ever. some of you will get your panties in a bunch. that's fine. we'll keep watching awful basketball like this because we don't hold anybody accountable. spiker's going to fail if he lets the inmates run the asylum. austin williams went straight to the locker room with what looked like a fairly minor leg injury. even our trainer couldn't believe it.
this team has to develop some kind of toughness. somebody is hurt almost every game. it doesn't help when your senior "leader" blows everybody off on his way to the locker room. he was probably tired of getting owned by the w & m forwards.
just so i'm saying something good about somebody...
i really like demir. he has to hit the weights just like lee...but both of those guys play like they genuinely care and want to do well. that's the kind of attitude we need in the program.
I feel like Isabell should be starting over harper
I'm not sold on Spiker, but I'm the patient one who's willing to give him and the program the benefit of the doubt. I'll have to evaluate things at the end of the season. If they can stay healthy, they have no excuse but to get better. But for every impressive win (Houston, LaSalle, Rider, Charleston), they crap the bed in others.
(01-07-2018 09:00 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote: [ -> ]austin williams went straight to the locker room with what looked like a fairly minor leg injury. even our trainer couldn't believe it.
this team has to develop some kind of toughness. somebody is hurt almost every game. it doesn't help when your senior "leader" blows everybody off on his way to the locker room. he was probably tired of getting owned by the w & m forwards.
I watched this happen from under the basket. Austin didn't go to the locker room, he actually went under the stands to test his knee out. My problem is the trainer made little to no attempt to actually follow him.
I havent been impressed with their trainer for years. I've seen him be so distracted on the bench when a player's been down on the floor that they've had to call him two or three times to get his attention. Also, when it comes to health of the players, I think its an avenue that we have not explored. The injuries have continued and the coaching staff has changed. He is one of the things that has not.
I did not make a prediction here, but this is not a team we ever want to see under Spiker. We are too poor defensively to ever stop a team with that much ball movement. If there is a team in this conference I wish we never had to play in any location it is W&M. We are too deficient to make stops and I imagine W&M will consistently make us look foolish. Move on to the next game and figure out how we can become consistent.
(01-08-2018 07:57 AM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ]I did not make a prediction here, but this is not a team we ever want to see under Spiker. We are too poor defensively to ever stop a team with that much ball movement. If there is a team in this conference I wish we never had to play in any location it is W&M. We are too deficient to make stops and I imagine W&M will consistently make us look foolish. Move on to the next game and figure out how we can become consistent.
Ironically, WM is one of the few teams that a Spiker team has actually beaten in the CAA thus far.
(01-08-2018 08:11 AM)J.B. Wrote: [ -> ] (01-08-2018 07:57 AM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ]I did not make a prediction here, but this is not a team we ever want to see under Spiker. We are too poor defensively to ever stop a team with that much ball movement. If there is a team in this conference I wish we never had to play in any location it is W&M. We are too deficient to make stops and I imagine W&M will consistently make us look foolish. Move on to the next game and figure out how we can become consistent.
Ironically, WM is one of the few teams that a Spiker team has actually beaten in the CAA thus far.
I am aware, but look at the circumstances needed to win that one. Clear outlier. We are too slow and spacious on defense to have success against a team like that.
medic...thanks for the update on what happened with Williams. I couldn't see what happened along the bleachers. Trainer just said "where are you going?" and seemed confused about why he blew everyone off on the bench.
I'm not giving up on spiker...but I haven't been impressed with the players he has brought in so far. He deserves time to figure out what kind of kid he wants in his program and where he's going to find him. I will bite my lip on kararinas because he's probably a nice kid and deserves time to improve. Coming from Army...there will also be an adjustment in learning to deal with non-service academy kids (although some service academy kids are douche bags too).
I do start to wonder if this run and gun style is ever going to work here. temple stinks right now...but we almost beat them by slowing the game down. getting off to a good start might have been the worst thing that could've happened to us yesterday. we got the sense we could outscore w/m. boy...were we wrong...and we never slowed the game down or locked in on defense when it was clear the first 10 minutes or so was a fluke.
I figured when you said you were behind the bench you didn't get a look at what i did. Even Josh Verlin tweeted that he went to the locker room and moved on.
I agree on Kararinas. I will say this though he still has skinny arms. It shows because he doesn't grab rebounds he swats them but his legs look bulkier to me.
Him and Knight was such a mismatch. He also had some terrible plays on defense. He completely missed a hedge on a screen.
I'm sure he is a nice kid though and comes from an AAU team that masquerades as a high school. I'm hopeful but not optimistic.
(01-08-2018 05:05 PM)MedicSBK Wrote: [ -> ]If you ask me Drexel's trainer looks generslly confused. I figured when you said you were behind the bench you didn't get a look at what i did. Even Josh Verlin tweeted that he went to the locker room and moved on.
I agree on Kararinas. I will say this though he still has skinny arms. It shows because he doesn't grab rebounds he swats them but his legs look bulkier to me.
Him and Knight was such a mismatch. He also had some terrible plays on defense. He completely missed a hedge on a screen.
I'm sure he is a nice kid though and comes from an AAU team that masquerades as a high school. I'm hopeful but not optimistic.
i'll be careful with the trainer. i have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. the injury problem hasn't gone away with a new coaching staff though.
i forgot to mention how much i love tony shaver. just like denise dillon...he knows what kind of player he wants and teaches them how to play basketball the right way. they were prepared to attack us in so many different ways. dumping the ball inside, cuts, passing around the perimeter...you name it. they played defense too.
Yeah you're right.. I "redacted" my comment from my post.. I know its still in your quote but still..
Shaver is a solid coach but I'm a Matheny fan.. I like how he conducts himself and I enjoy his brand of basketball.
So I guess be a bit of a glutton for punishment, I rewatched the first half of the W&M game taking notes on how the offense went.
The dividing point of the half was really at 9:54 when Isabell hit a three to put us up by 10 at 28-18. William & Mary outscored us 27 - 6 after that. By my count there were 18 possession in both the good and bad parts of the half.
I judged each offensive possession as good or bad. I considered open, in rhythm threes and layups as good (made or missed) turnovers, forced shots away from the basket, and mid-range shots (even if they were somewhat open) as bad.
In the first 10 minutes there were three possessions I counted as bad, a somewhat open midrange shot by Demir, a contested three by Overton, and a turnover by Harper. 7 times there were at least 5 passes before the shot.
In the second 10 minutes there were 11 bad posessions. There was 1 time when 5 passes were used and the shot was still forced with ample time on the shot clock. It wasn't really just one player either making bad plays: Overton had 3 (two forced three, one forced up two), Lee (two turnovers), Mojica(2 forced threes), Harper(turnover and forced shot), Isabell(2 threes with no prior pass), and Williams(a turnover). Perhaps Isabell's were so bad since he made one of the threes and was somewhat open on both of them.
It was a series of four consecutive turnovers that really changed the tide and then they seem to be pressing rather than working for a good shot like they had earlier. They shot about 70% on what I thought were good shots and about 10% on forced shots. I don't think any of the possession were really pressing up against the shot clock were we needed to force up shots. There are certainly other things to clean up (like giving up offensive rebounds and turnovers) but better shot selection at least in this game would have made a difference.
I think we have all noticed when we play more iso ball we struggle then if we move the ball and find a good look.
(01-11-2018 07:56 AM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ]I think we have all noticed when we play more iso ball we struggle then if we move the ball and find a good look.
What was perplexing in this game was how it seemed like a switch was flipped at the 10 minute mark.
We had that stretch of 4 bad turnovers, and then everyone seemed to turn to hero-mode. We do not need to always pass a certain number of time ala "Hoosiers" as there are times where playing quick gets us good shots, but we just need to be smarter and shot-clock aware. What might be an okay shot with 5 seconds on the shot clock isn't necessarily a good shot when there are 15 or 10 seconds left.