Date: December 20th, 2023

Time: 7:30 PM

Opponent: Missouri-Kansas City (5-7, 0-0 Summit)

Place: Freedom Hall (6,149)

Television: none

Webcast: ESPN+ (Subscription)

Radio online: 640WXSM.com

UMKC 2023-2024 Schedule

UMKC 2023-2024 Roster

UMKC Message Board

UNCG beat Kansas City 76-64 back on 11/24 in a tournament. Nothing about the roster worries me too much. Would love to see 2 strong halves of home team basketball.

UMKC fans on their message board lamenting a number of injuries and illnesses.

This is a game the Bucs should win by 10-15 points. They have yet to blow out a D1 team.

At the half, Western Carolina leads Vanderbilt in Nashville, 30-25. [Final 63-62, WCU]

Under five minutes left at Notre Dame, the Citadel leads the Fighting Irish, 60-43. [Final: 65-45]

Good showing tonight by the SoCon!

(12-19-2023 07:48 PM)Flippmb Wrote:  At the half, Western Carolina leads Vanderbilt in Nashville, 30-25. [Final 63-62, WCU]

Under five minutes left at Notre Dame, the Citadel leads the Fighting Irish, 60-43. [Final: 65-45]

I watched the second half of the Vandy\WCU game just now on a SEC Network replay. I thought WCU got 3 or 4 calls against them, a BS techical for hanging on the rim the best example, and still overcame. They look tough.

(12-20-2023 04:59 AM)frankenheimer Wrote:  

(12-19-2023 07:48 PM)Flippmb Wrote:  At the half, Western Carolina leads Vanderbilt in Nashville, 30-25. [Final 63-62, WCU]

Under five minutes left at Notre Dame, the Citadel leads the Fighting Irish, 60-43. [Final: 65-45]

I watched the second half of the Vandy\WCU game just now on a SEC Network replay. I thought WCU got 3 or 4 calls against them, a BS techical for hanging on the rim the best example, and still overcame. They look tough.

The conference is pretty good. Not at 19-20 level but very solid. Mercer had that terrible loss to start but they have improved. Citadel and Wofford are a little better than expected. Furman has played a killer schedule but look to be rounding in to form. Other than VMI, who has not yet beaten a D1 team, everyone else seems to be somewhere on the range of solid to good.

I thought our defense played well and kept their two main guys from scoring. Shooting was a little suspect but it did not matter as we lead throughout, nice win at home!

Asamoah 4/9 from deep; everyone else from deep: 2/17. We're lucky Faas went ice cold there for a loooong stretch after hitting his first deep shot.

Wherefore art thou, O Tray Boyd? O Courtney Pigram and Jalen Riley?

The good news.........we turned them over 18 times, leading to 25 pts. We only had 6. 9 more shot opportunities will win some ugly games like this one They had ZERO fast break points, at least officially (seems like I remember at least one, semi-defended).

Not a pretty game. I was afraid they were gonna beat us at the FT line, but we held up there, too. Both teams played pretty good D overall, but UMKC just shot so poorly overall. We probably took at least 12-15 poor shots. Some of that was their D, but mostly it wasn't.
And ETSU appears determined to lead the world in lowest finishing percentage. Yes, a lot of those are contested - but it doesn't seem to matter. Truly good NCAA teams don't blow more than half their shots inside of 3 ft.

Pet peeve: Parker's limited inside move(s). (He really only has 2.) Hugley and/or Brian Jones needs to work with him on going to his left. The book on him is easy, and in conference he'll be stymied somewhat unless he figures out he must go left *successfully* at least every once in a while. The 2 times tonight when he attempted to do that, it was very awkward both times. Like *very* awkward. At least one of those he even shot it with his right hand, into the body of the defender. He's a very good defender, especially in regards to rim protection, but needs to add that to his game to be a true force.

Peterson continues to give us what we need in that position. He reminds me so much of Petey McClain - with a better shot.

Anytime you can shoot that poorly and beat a D1 team, that is a positive.
The shooting definitely comes and goes (mostly goes). But the effort and the defense has been great. 9 blocks and 9 steals last night.

Gritty Not Pretty is the motto savage went with and says that won't change

(12-21-2023 12:25 PM)Buced_Up Wrote:  Gritty Not Pretty is the motto savage went with and says that won't change

Adapted/carried over from Forbes. I'm not fond of that, personally..........but with the personnel we have, that's just gotta be the way it is.

I’m a HUGE fan of winning. But even when the Bucs win, it’s just not good enough for some.

That being said, we have a large enough sample to certainly say this is not a good shooting team. They’re just not. However they are a good defensive team, and as Forbes used to say “defense travels.” The team is better - and for that I’m happy. Just gotta keep recruiting and it’s pretty clear, at least to me, that Savage coaches defense. I’m just fine with that.

(12-21-2023 05:01 PM)GoBucsGo Wrote:  I’m a HUGE fan of winning. But even when the Bucs win, it’s just not good enough for some.

That being said, we have a large enough sample to certainly say this is not a good shooting team. They’re just not. However they are a good defensive team, and as Forbes used to say “defense travels.” The team is better - and for that I’m happy. Just gotta keep recruiting and it’s pretty clear, at least to me, that Savage coaches defense. I’m just fine with that.

Same here - huge fan of winning myself. For reference - after 11 games, Forbes was 5-6 his first season. Savage is 7-4.

(12-21-2023 05:01 PM)GoBucsGo Wrote:  I’m a HUGE fan of winning. But even when the Bucs win, it’s just not good enough for some.

That being said, we have a large enough sample to certainly say this is not a good shooting team. They’re just not. However they are a good defensive team, and as Forbes used to say “defense travels.” The team is better - and for that I’m happy. Just gotta keep recruiting and it’s pretty clear, at least to me, that Savage coaches defense. I’m just fine with that.

Bucs are playing hard. Playing gritty. The shooting will come around at some point. The team is coming together. We'll take it!

Don't get me wrong; I'm a huge fan of winning, too. But winning gritty and dirty can obscure the lack of ability to win with elegance and 'smoothness'. It obscures bad shooting. It *can* obscure a lot of TOs (but not in this case). This team lacks that go-with-the-flow speed game that worked so well with Forbes and the best bartow years. And unfortunately, GoBucsGo and I agree that this team is not going to be a good-shooting team - with the exception of Asamoah, and maybe Peterson somewhat. And I think Savage realizes that. We're not gonna average 38% from deep.

What winning dirty and grimy means is that your margin of error is smaller. You have a worse-than-average shooting night; your best guys get in foul trouble; your best guys get injured; etc., etc. -- and you're in trouble. This team is not gonna beat the better teams in the SoCon by 20, even at home - with perhaps an outlier exception or two.

All that said...............we know both Forbes and Savage award, and demand, defensive effort. And I see zero lack of that. These guys get after it. And that *ups* the margin of error. The close games we've won were in large part due to that very asset.

[Forbes repeatedly said "I recruit offense and teach defense." And it worked for him. One would assume Savage thinks similarly, altho he hasn't voiced that (at least in public). But he's not been here long enough to see how well he can do that, so..............he gets a pass on that for now.]
[And I'll also temper my comments about scorers by saying Maki Johnson has shown flashes, altho his D is 'borderline'. Can Sisk be that guy? Possibly. He wore it out at Ballard, so he has true skillz. So if either one of those comes around reliably, then I'll up my predictions.]

You all know I'm an idealist, and we all know that "perfect is the enemy of good enough". I'm a little bit guilty of that - but come on - wouldn't you rather watch the "prettiness" of the current crop of Golden State Warriors, or the Jazz with Stockton, instead of, oh, the Cleveland Cavaliers or Detroit Pistons? (And I'm not a big NBA fan - just making an analogy.)

This is a "decent" ETSU team; probably better than the last two years despite their lack of "elegance". But imo their upside is limited. Not nonexistent; just limited. (Would love to be wrong!!) Without at least one more dependable gunner, and without beef inside, there will be losses that can't be coached or 'efforted' away. I see us somewhere in the 4th-6th segment of the SoCon - about what others have been speculating - dependent on how good UNC-G, Citadel, and WCU turn out to *really* be, among others, too, of course.

[Edit/p.s. -- before you all start jumping on me.........I'm wearing my analyst hat here, not my complainer hat. Some of you all have a tendency to confuse those.]

Well I’m not going to unpack all of that - but I will say that I think this team is significantly better than last year. This team would beat that team by 15-20 points and turn them over about 20 times. They would make King ineffective and although Haynes would probably get some points, it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

This team may end up in the middle of the SoCon, but they also may end up near the top. The SoCon right now looks like a mid major version of the Big 12: solid top to bottom, with VMI maybe as the only exception. So it may be a situation where you can shake it up in a hat and pick one out.

Also we are not a good shooting team - but that could change if Rice steps up (he’s been steadily improving) or Justice Smith finally starts to reach his ceiling, or Peterson starts to find his shot. We need an “X” factor - someone off the bench who reliably comes in and makes things happen.

Regardless of whether it’s pretty or not - being good defensively is a great trait to have.