Good weekend Seattle.

Every WAC program has stubbed their toe this season. NMSU's loss to St. Mary's is not looking so good right now. SMC has lost its last three games. Utah State is good. But they aren't 17 points better than SMC. And, Harvard is a good program but this is not a game SMC should have lost.

As for Seattle U, their loss at home to Southern Utah was a bad loss for the WAC.

GCU is under performing given the pre-season hype. Their two losses at the Wooden Classic were a missed opportunity to be seen on either ESPN2 or ESPNU; relegated to playing on ESPN3 the whole time.

All three of Utah Valley's losses were double-digit losses. BYU by 10, St. Mary's by 29, Utah State by 19. They were not even competitive.

Cal State Bakersfield has faired better than WAC fans had first expected. They've had two decent performances against P5 programs (TCU and USC) but their glaring weakness of having no inside games reared its ugly head toward the end of both games. Their 12 point loss to Central Michigan is the one true disappointment.

According to KenPom both Bakersfield and Seattle are are closer to La Salle than I realized.

Bake 3-3 203 SOS +4.41
Seattle 6-2 208 SOS -9.24
La Salle 0-7 223 SOS +6.64

GCU (4-3) and NMSU( 4-1) I think are still working out how their rotations to a degree and I feel this it more true with GCU though.

My main gripe about Bakersfield is that their defensive fouling keeps trams in games to hang around, and CSUB can't put them away and they loose late. Yah, I know their D is "good" or so, a Barnes hallmark historically. But, I feel that its (too often fouling) going to cost us more wins in the end. I believe USC is a good case in point. They may have been able to put more distance between themselves and the Trojans, but USC's free throws kept it close, and eventually they overtook the 'Runners late. I think if you look at games over the past few years, the pattern is evident.

Sitting on a toilet somewhere and interacting with you.

(11-27-2018 01:11 AM)RunnerBall Wrote:  My main gripe about Bakersfield is that their defensive fouling keeps trams in games to hang around, and CSUB can't put them away and they loose late. Yah, I know their D is "good" or so, a Barnes hallmark historically. But, I feel that its (too often fouling) going to cost us more wins in the end. I believe USC is a good case in point. They may have been able to put more distance between themselves and the Trojans, but USC's free throws kept it close, and eventually they overtook the 'Runners late. I think if you look at games over the past few years, the pattern is evident.

Sitting on a toilet somewhere and interacting with you.

Bakersfield's defense has always been about clutching/grabbing/holding/etc., and is only "good" to the extent that refs are willing to swallow their whistles. From the outside looking in, it appears Barnes' defensive strategy is along the lines of "The refs can't or won't call a foul on every play, so hack away."

Throw in his sideline theatrics and Barnes can really get an officiating crew twisted up. I've seen him do it multiple times in GCU Arena. That's not to saw Majerle doesn't have his own fits, but Barnes is on a whole other level with it.

(11-27-2018 06:52 AM)gleadley Wrote:  

(11-27-2018 01:11 AM)RunnerBall Wrote:  My main gripe about Bakersfield is that their defensive fouling keeps trams in games to hang around, and CSUB can't put them away and they loose late. Yah, I know their D is "good" or so, a Barnes hallmark historically. But, I feel that its (too often fouling) going to cost us more wins in the end. I believe USC is a good case in point. They may have been able to put more distance between themselves and the Trojans, but USC's free throws kept it close, and eventually they overtook the 'Runners late. I think if you look at games over the past few years, the pattern is evident.

Sitting on a toilet somewhere and interacting with you.

Bakersfield's defense has always been about clutching/grabbing/holding/etc., and is only "good" to the extent that refs are willing to swallow their whistles. From the outside looking in, it appears Barnes' defensive strategy is along the lines of "The refs can't or won't call a foul on every play, so hack away."

Throw in his sideline theatrics and Barnes can really get an officiating crew twisted up. I've seen him do it multiple times in GCU Arena. That's not to saw Majerle doesn't have his own fits, but Barnes is on a whole other level with it.

The problem is Barnes hacking style of defense gives P5 refereeing crews a lot of ammo to blow their whistle to get the P5 team back into the game; if down late. P5 coaches know how to work the referees to get the type of calls that can turn a game in their favor.

CSUB's aggressive defensive style might be good enough to make the game interesting but ultimately it can be turned on its head when in gets down to crunch time; when players must play much smarter and more fundamentally sound defensively.