Seemed like we would cruise to victory when we went up 8, and then Murphy inexplicably played Toure and King together for a stretch and our offense completely died. In fact, I can’t remember Toure sitting much, if at all, in the 2nd half. I’m at a loss. This was such a winnable game, and we did everything we could to lose.

Playing two lane-clogging centers makes Jackson nearly useless if we aren’t pushing the ball. And we don’t push the ball because only 4 of the guys can run the court. If we don’t have 3 shooters out there to punish teams for collapsing onto the big guys, then there is really no point in playing them together.

We will be a bottom-feeding team if Murphy doesn’t start playing smaller. Groce needs to have the majority of Toure’s minutes, and Toure should only back up Thompson. It will make Paul Jackson more effective at getting to the basket, and allow us to run more. We will see if Murphy realizes it. Don’t know how many more embarrassing performances he needs to see before change is made.

I forgot there was a game tonight. Missed the whole thing. Apathy must be setting in.

(12-19-2018 08:16 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(12-19-2018 07:52 PM)Mike1989 Wrote:  JT4 looks lost. Jackson continues to be over rated. Leave Parris in.

Parris doesn’t do much for me. I like the few minutes that Ellison has given us so far in the 2nd half.

Parrish isn't much to me either. But I'm not a big fan of Jackson, never have been. I'm tired of his old ideas of dribbling into three opponents, etc. I agree put Ellison for at least 10 minutes a half. This team is lost without Bond.

(12-19-2018 08:50 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(12-19-2018 08:47 PM)EAGLE KING Wrote:  2 Centers on the same team fighting over the ball.....go figure.


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I can’t think of one reason why I would have Toure in the game at all. He’s not scoring, not defending, and not rebounding. Makes literally no sense to me

We deserve this loss. Murphy’s coaching and rotations have been especially awful this season, and he’s turned a top MAC team into maybe one of its worst.

Totally agree. Back to painfully watching them grasp for life.

All I can say is that the whole is not more than the sum of the parts on this team.

I think I am going to switch to following football only...

I try not to hate anyone, but everything I know about Murphy makes it difficult...

Horrendous coach, and I doubt any D1 head coach has ever treated his job and school with as much indifference as Murphy.

I kind of want to see us crater to force necessary change, but doubt we have the gumption or money to do it. Who knows what to do? I’m just beyond tired of this story.

I’m also looking forward to the departure of JT4.

None of the seniors have played up to expectations or as a team we may be a better team without them the defense is quicker with Ellison. In there really sloppy passing and yes dribble through 5 guys and standing still on offense still can't believe we blew a 9 point lead at home

(12-20-2018 01:10 AM)holybovine Wrote:  I try not to hate anyone, but everything I know about Murphy makes it difficult...

Horrendous coach, and I doubt any D1 head coach has ever treated his job and school with as much indifference as Murphy.

I kind of want to see us crater to force necessary change, but doubt we have the gumption or money to do it. Who knows what to do? I’m just beyond tired of this story.

I’m also looking forward to the departure of JT4.

Well if Murphy has to get 20 Division 1 wins this season to get a contract extension he will have to dominate the conference games. This team is a mess right now even worse than the Lee, Toney Mangum and JT4 mess a couple of season ago, at least that team had Tim Bond.

(12-20-2018 01:10 AM)holybovine Wrote:  I try not to hate anyone, but everything I know about Murphy makes it difficult...

Horrendous coach, and I doubt any D1 head coach has ever treated his job and school with as much indifference as Murphy.

I kind of want to see us crater to force necessary change, but doubt we have the gumption or money to do it. Who knows what to do? I’m just beyond tired of this story.

I’m also looking forward to the departure of JT4.

Didn’t Ramsey have one year left on his deal when he got canned?

At this rate, Murphy won’t get near 20 wins, and will only have a contract through next season.

I’m not going to root for bottoming out, and I hope Murphy makes the blatantly obvious changes necessary to turn the season around, but I think he’s gone if we finish below .500.

(12-20-2018 08:05 AM)emu79 Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 01:10 AM)holybovine Wrote:  I try not to hate anyone, but everything I know about Murphy makes it difficult...

Horrendous coach, and I doubt any D1 head coach has ever treated his job and school with as much indifference as Murphy.

I kind of want to see us crater to force necessary change, but doubt we have the gumption or money to do it. Who knows what to do? I’m just beyond tired of this story.

I’m also looking forward to the departure of JT4.

Well if Murphy has to get 20 Division 1 wins this season to get a contract extension he will have to dominate the conference games. This team is a mess right now even worse than the Lee, Toney Mangum and JT4 mess a couple of season ago, at least that team had Tim Bond.

What’s funny is that team had the EXACT same problem as this one: playing Thompson at the 4 with another big man clogging the middle. If Toure was DeAndre Ayton (or even Justin Dobbins), it would be defensible. But against good competition, neither guy can score inside, and it takes away PJ’s strength of getting to the basket.

This is entirely on Murphy. Toure is not a bad player, and would probably even be a decent one if we surrounded him with a proper lineup. But right now, he should be a backup to Thompson and nothing more.

Our team turned it around last season when Minnie and Jackson started scoring, and we pushed the ball after long rebounds and turnovers. I didn’t see ANY of that last night, other than Minnie hitting a few shots. The half court offense is atrocious, but the fast break used to be our bred and butter. Need to find that again.

Tim Bond plays at 3 today on ESPN-U.

(12-20-2018 08:21 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 08:05 AM)emu79 Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 01:10 AM)holybovine Wrote:  I try not to hate anyone, but everything I know about Murphy makes it difficult...

Horrendous coach, and I doubt any D1 head coach has ever treated his job and school with as much indifference as Murphy.

I kind of want to see us crater to force necessary change, but doubt we have the gumption or money to do it. Who knows what to do? I’m just beyond tired of this story.

I’m also looking forward to the departure of JT4.

Well if Murphy has to get 20 Division 1 wins this season to get a contract extension he will have to dominate the conference games. This team is a mess right now even worse than the Lee, Toney Mangum and JT4 mess a couple of season ago, at least that team had Tim Bond.

What’s funny is that team had the EXACT same problem as this one: playing Thompson at the 4 with another big man clogging the middle. If Toure was DeAndre Ayton (or even Justin Dobbins), it would be defensible. But against good competition, neither guy can score inside, and it takes away PJ’s strength of getting to the basket.

This is entirely on Murphy. Toure is not a bad player, and would probably even be a decent one if we surrounded him with a proper lineup. But right now, he should be a backup to Thompson and nothing more.

Our team turned it around last season when Minnie and Jackson started scoring, and we pushed the ball after long rebounds and turnovers. I didn’t see ANY of that last night, other than Minnie hitting a few shots. The half court offense is atrocious, but the fast break used to be our bred and butter. Need to find that again.

I would like to see what a game would be like with McAdoo Groce Minnie Thompson and Ellison starting, and Jackson sitting out for at least 20 minutes. He is either on fire or atrocious. In 23 minutes last night he had one point. Torre and JT4 should never be on floor together. JT4 was either having hip pain, eye problems or not sure what last night. I hope they figure it out. Buffalo will be here very soon. Siena Heights will be too easy to win and they will go into conference thinking they are ready and get slaughtered.

Well, this cements that we'll finish 6-7 in the non-conference. So for Murphy to get the auto-extension, he's going to have to win 14 games in the MAC (or MAC+post-season, if we somehow get there)... Ain't gonna happen.

We may have canned Ramsey a year early, but I just can't see us forcing ourselves to pay two coaches next year. Murphy will have to do a total 180-degree turnaround next year, or he won't be renewed. And I think we know what the odds are of Murphy totally changing his philosophy...

I have some tape to watch, but I see Cal I shot like 34% and ultimately scored 52 points. Are we at least getting a good defense out of these weird twin tower lineups?

(12-20-2018 09:13 AM)Mike1989 Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 08:21 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 08:05 AM)emu79 Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 01:10 AM)holybovine Wrote:  I try not to hate anyone, but everything I know about Murphy makes it difficult...

Horrendous coach, and I doubt any D1 head coach has ever treated his job and school with as much indifference as Murphy.

I kind of want to see us crater to force necessary change, but doubt we have the gumption or money to do it. Who knows what to do? I’m just beyond tired of this story.

I’m also looking forward to the departure of JT4.

Well if Murphy has to get 20 Division 1 wins this season to get a contract extension he will have to dominate the conference games. This team is a mess right now even worse than the Lee, Toney Mangum and JT4 mess a couple of season ago, at least that team had Tim Bond.

What’s funny is that team had the EXACT same problem as this one: playing Thompson at the 4 with another big man clogging the middle. If Toure was DeAndre Ayton (or even Justin Dobbins), it would be defensible. But against good competition, neither guy can score inside, and it takes away PJ’s strength of getting to the basket.

This is entirely on Murphy. Toure is not a bad player, and would probably even be a decent one if we surrounded him with a proper lineup. But right now, he should be a backup to Thompson and nothing more.

Our team turned it around last season when Minnie and Jackson started scoring, and we pushed the ball after long rebounds and turnovers. I didn’t see ANY of that last night, other than Minnie hitting a few shots. The half court offense is atrocious, but the fast break used to be our bred and butter. Need to find that again.

I would like to see what a game would be like with McAdoo Groce Minnie Thompson and Ellison starting, and Jackson sitting out for at least 20 minutes. He is either on fire or atrocious. In 23 minutes last night he had one point. Torre and JT4 should never be on floor together. JT4 was either having hip pain, eye problems or not sure what last night. I hope they figure it out. Buffalo will be here very soon. Siena Heights will be too easy to win and they will go into conference thinking they are ready and get slaughtered.

Mike that's why I made the comment to Super last night that next year we may actually be better because we'll play as a TEAM. By the way Parris has some potential. Mix him in 3 guard rotation with Ellison and McAdoo with Groce Toure and find another high scoring wing forward and see what happens-I don't know how many wins we would have been I know the team would play more unselfish and play better team defense

I miss Tim Bond.

(12-20-2018 09:59 AM)Block_E Wrote:  I have some tape to watch, but I see Cal I shot like 34% and ultimately scored 52 points. Are we at least getting a good defense out of these weird twin tower lineups?

We defended well yesterday, but got destroyed on the glass. It’s usually been the opposite so far this season, where we play sketchy defense but at least get more rebounds.

I had no qualms with the defense. The effort seemed to be there too. But everyone just looks completely lost offensively, even more so than Murphy teams in the past have. If we aren’t pushing the ball, then we probably aren’t going to score more than 45-50 points a game against good teams.

(12-19-2018 09:00 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  Seemed like we would cruise to victory when we went up 8, and then Murphy inexplicably played Toure and King together for a stretch and our offense completely died. In fact, I can’t remember Toure sitting much, if at all, in the 2nd half. I’m at a loss. This was such a winnable game, and we did everything we could to lose.

Playing two lane-clogging centers makes Jackson nearly useless if we aren’t pushing the ball. And we don’t push the ball because only 4 of the guys can run the court. If we don’t have 3 shooters out there to punish teams for collapsing onto the big guys, then there is really no point in playing them together.

We will be a bottom-feeding team if Murphy doesn’t start playing smaller. Groce needs to have the majority of Toure’s minutes, and Toure should only back up Thompson. It will make Paul Jackson more effective at getting to the basket, and allow us to run more. We will see if Murphy realizes it. Don’t know how many more embarrassing performances he needs to see before change is made.

Sam there simply nothing in this post to disagree with, it is 100% solid.

This team went 11-7 in the MAC last season and lost only Bond and Nobles. Unfortunately those two fast, lanky long armed guys have been replaced by a 6'11" tower with limited mobility as the defensive and offensive strategies have remained the same. Toure is not a bad player but his insertion into the lineup has sucked the oxygen out of the returning Big 3 player's game. Minnie, Jackson and Thompson all look lost on the court.

Murphy complained that the early season schedule prohibited him from properly practicing and making adjustments. Since the Northeastern loss, however, he had 18 days to practice, interrupted only with a game against a horribly undermanned Central State to fix any issues. The team I saw last night was the same team I have seen all year and it is not good at all.

Coaches are forced to play the hand they have each season. Duke two years ago was forced to play the retro Boeheim zone when their individual defensive skills were found wanting. Our approach of generating offense from pass deflections on defense has remained the same despite our starting lineup's inability to do so.

As of right now we have a jaw dropping size average size of 6'10" on our front line. We are, unfortunately, very slow afoot, unathletic and poor shooters with little offensive skill sets. Counterintuitively despite our size we consistently offer our opponents a ton of offensive rebounding opportunities. To date this team has offered no reason for any optimism with respect to the remainder of the season.