A Couple of Pennies Worth...

[newmexicuse]

1. It should be obvious that this is a team with foibles that wins with chemistry. The loss of Fab disrupted our chemistry. Hopefully, he can come back soon & we don't miss a beat when that happens.

2. It is pretty obvious that wo Fab there will be much too big a hole in the middle for this to be a FF team.

3. Teams have found the formula against us... slow it down, limit TOs so we do not get easy transition points, & crash the glass. It is now up to JB to find the counter-measures. One thought that I have in this regard is to keep the forwards closer to home to improve the rebounding, at least until the other team proves they are making their treys.

4, This was a big test for our two go guys to play well when the going gets tough. Both of them flopped in this particular outing. I wouldn't generalize about one game, but there is a definite red flag there.

5. There have been quite a few games this season when we have been out-scored excluding our one big run. As the seaon goes on & the schedule stiffens those runs will be harder & harder to come by. We have to prove that we can simply outplay teams over the full 40. We will not get big runs in six consecutive dance games, that is for certain.

6. I am in the corner of why no MCW yesterday. Yes, he makes frosh mistakes, but he has great floor vision, and he has a gift in terms of seeing the court to break down D's. We were struggling so much that sometimes you just need to mix things up.

7. James was the only one who played well offensively yesterday. Maybe, thsi was a bit of a break out game for him.

 

[mark79]

Good post, especially about MCW. During much of the game each our players
Was basically just trying to go one on one. I am puzzled why JB did not
try him since as you say he is basically our most unselfish player.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

1. It should be obvious that this is a team with foibles that wins with chemistry. The loss of Fab disrupted our chemistry. Hopefully, he can come back soon & we don't miss a beat when that happens.

It's interesting that no one has mentioned the loss of Mookie in regards to chemistry. I was someplace without a computer (not Iggy's house) so I didn't see the Mookie thing unfold but he seemed to be a great teammate and very well liked. I ended up being on a JetBlue flight and caught some of Saturday's game but didn't notice him on the bench. After I got my luggage and checked my phone I saw he was twittering. Thought that was odd when he should have been in uniform.

 

[ClamOtto]

It's interesting that no one has mentioned the loss of Mookie in regards to chemistry. I was someplace without a computer (not Iggy's house) so I didn't see the Mookie thing unfold but he seemed to be a great teammate and very well liked. I ended up being on a JetBlue flight and caught some of Saturday's game but didn't notice him on the bench. After I got my luggage and checked my phone I saw he was twittering. Thought that was odd when he should have been in uniform.

I agree. Obviously Mookie's a non-factor on the court, but he seems well-liked by his teammates (he does a little ritual with each player as they're introduced, for example). Losing two teammates, somewhat unexpectedly, and going into a hostile environment could certainly have thrown the team's psyche out. It sure seemed to. Now let's see how they respond Monday.

 

[Orange Barrel]

One thought that I have in this regard is to keep the forwards closer to home to improve the rebounding

There were a few occasions yesterday where we had three guys under the basket to ND's one and still failed to come up with the board. It's fine to have the bigger guys stay home, but they have to actually jump to get the ball. Or at least put their hands up. I agree with many here that we lost because of our anemic shooting percentage, but our rebounding is pathetic and inexcusable.

Agree on Mookie. Very sad that it ends like this for him.