Close Game Last Night: Tell me how it was JJ Starlings Fault

[Niastri]

My thread title is tongue in cheek. I am a pretty big Starling supporter. But after smoking 3 teams with strong defense, only one major change came in the lineup last night...

My son had a school concert last night. I only know box scores, haven't had a chance to watch.

I did see that Justin Ray, he of the 8.7 scoring average and a season high points of 16, went off for 25 and made four 3s and shot 9 foul shots.

Is that all on JJ?

 

[OrangeTarheel]

There weren’t many assists by Monmouth, a lot of individual effort shots went in. Was our defense more directed at clogging passing lanes than close man to man? Because there were a lot of open shots beyond the three line

 

[Dick_in_MI]

I thought the JJ pretty much played within himself.

Our defense came back to earth last night and it was largely across the board.

Kiyan and Donnie went a combined 5 for 19 from the field.

Once again we struggled on the boards, this time outrebounding cupcake number #4 by only one. ACC frontcourts plus the Vegas team frontcourts have to be licking their chops.

 

[RedtheGOB]

My thread title is tongue in cheek. I am a pretty big Starling supporter. But after smoking 3 teams with strong defense, only one major change came in the lineup last night...

My son had a school concert last night. I only know box scores, haven't had a chance to watch.

I did see that Justin Ray, he of the 8.7 scoring average and a season high points of 16, went off for 25 and made four 3s and shot 9 foul shots.

Is that all on JJ?

I thought JJ was much better on Defense and even had a sick block late in the game. Sadly his freethrow issues creep into every part of his game.

 

[JustPherU]

My thread title is tongue in cheek. I am a pretty big Starling supporter. But after smoking 3 teams with strong defense, only one major change came in the lineup last night...

My son had a school concert last night. I only know box scores, haven't had a chance to watch.

I did see that Justin Ray, he of the 8.7 scoring average and a season high points of 16, went off for 25 and made four 3s and shot 9 foul shots.

Is that all on JJ?

You have to watch the replay of his free throws, they will go down in the history books.

 

[upperdeck]

They shot 39/38%. The D was fine.

The refs calling a million PFs and causing almost 60 fts made this a game.

They played the same game vs Seton Hall. But Seton Hall made their FTs and so did LaSalle. We are the only team that has actually shot well vs their D.

 

[Niastri]

Watching the highlights and condensed game, on Monmouth's first three of the game, Starling went the wrong side of not one, but two picks to leave an open three.

I might skip the whole game rewatch... Though it is nice to be able to skip free throws and stoppages on the rewatch.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Watching the highlights and condensed game, on Monmouth's first three of the game, Starling went the wrong side of not one, but two picks to leave an open three.

I might skip the whole game rewatch... Though it is nice to be able to skip free throws and stoppages on the rewatch.

He graded out as the worst defender of all the starters. Outside of the FT’s offensively he was fine.

 

[atlanticuse]

i'm going to offer up "game flow" - we should have _started Kiyan and brought in JJ at the first officials/TV timeout.
Because it was neck-and-neck from the start... we started to pull away in the second half... then fell apart.

 

[Marsh01]

Monmouth, despite their record was the best ream by far we have played. Lots of talent on that team, they play hard and King Rice is a pretty good coach. They will have success in their league this season.

Yes I wish we had played better but a win is a win. Free throws bothered me and that definitely needs to be cleaned up

And if Freeman shoots anymore threes this season I will lose my mind

 

[pearl31]

Monmouth, despite their record was the best ream by far we have played. Lots of talent on that team, they play hard and King Rice is a pretty good coach. They will have success in their league this season.

Yes I wish we had played better but a win is a win. Free throws bothered me and that definitely needs to be cleaned up

And if Freeman shoots anymore threes this season I will lose my mind

Freeman can and should shoot open 3s. It's his soft game inside, or trying turnaround fade aways or not posting up that has to change

 

[Niastri]

Freeman can and should shoot open 3s. It's his soft game inside, or trying turnaround fade aways or not posting up that has to change

My problem with Freeman is that he passes up wide open threes frequently, but then winds up taking less efficient threes other times. He needs to work on shot selection.

I'm not especially worried about him, his vast improvement defensively indicated how hard he is working and how his mental game has come a long way.

 

[Scooch]

JJ was fine. Almost everyone had an off game. Anyone blaming JJ is just looking to further their preexisting POV.

 

[CStalks14]

Honestly I didn’t think JJ was too bad. The biggest problem was they fell back into old habits on both offense and defense. Offensively they were settling for contested shots, their tempo was scattered, and they didn’t play to their strengths. Defensively there were way too many open 3s. Didn’t help that the refs had a quick, and, in my opinion, bad whistle. Messed up any semblance of tempo. Hopefully just a bump in the road

 

[MSOrange]

He graded out as the worst defender of all the starters. Outside of the FT’s offensively he was fine.I

I wasn't thrilled with some of his shots in the first half. Seemed like he was trying to get going a little too urgently. But I felt the second half was exactly how he can help us best, except the free throws.

 

[Bayside44]

Just re-watched the end...JJ had a running layup going right that he normally seems to get, rims out. On the intentional foul he ended up 1/2.

Honestly I saw William Kyle get his hand on a steal and muff it, commit a stupid reach foul (understand how the game is being called) after Kingz let if fly with 20 on the clock, let the guard from The Bronx swim move by him for a layup, and not secure the late rebound where BZ ended up getting a foul call. Freeman also getting his pocket picked, just be aware.

One other thing - we didn't foul up 3. Since we actually have an analytics and data crew now, I wonder if that is what drove the decision.

 

[JustPherU]

Just re-watched the end...JJ had a running layup going right that he normally seems to get, rims out. On the intentional foul he ended up 1/2.

Honestly I saw William Kyle get his hand on a steal and muff it, commit a stupid reach foul (understand how the game is being called) after Kingz let if fly with 20 on the clock, let the guard from The Bronx swim move by him for a layup, and not secure the late rebound where BZ ended up getting a foul call. Freeman also getting his pocket picked, just be aware.

One other thing - we didn't foul up 3. Since we actually have an analytics and data crew now, I wonder if that is what drove the decision.

Really wasn’t a great time to foul without risking a possible in the act infraction.Guy caught it with about 6 seconds left at the 3 point line and the way he had the ball you might have got a foul on a three point shot.If you fouled on the way up the court you would of left 7 or 8 seconds which is way too much time left. I thought they played it correctly the way it unfolded.

 

[upperdeck]

the way we shoot why would we foul and extend the game at all?

 

[OttoinGrotto]

i'm going to offer up "game flow" - we should have _started Kiyan and brought in JJ at the first officials/TV timeout.
Because it was neck-and-neck from the start... we started to pull away in the second half... then fell apart.

Yeah, I do think JJ starting warped some chemistry that had developed to this point, and did affect Kiyan.

That said, JJ is part of the team and will have a role, and you don't want his first time back to be these big games in Vegas. If him being more helpful for those games meant Monmouth felt a little dicey, that's the right trade.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Freeman can and should shoot open 3s. It's his soft game inside, or trying turnaround fade aways or not posting up that has to change

It's like when a football coach trusts their punter. They'll go for the coffin corner because they believe in the punter, when they probably should have just gone for it on 4th and 1 from the opponent's 40.

Like, I get that Freeman can make a fadeaway, but it's not great that he's really comfortable with that shot. It's not a great shot, not likely to get fouled, and shows a softer mentality than a move that gets closer to the basket.

 

[atlanticuse]

It's like when a football coach trusts their punter. They'll go for the coffin corner because they believe in the punter, when they probably should have just gone for it on 4th and 1 from the opponent's 40.

Like, I get that Freeman can make a fadeaway, but it's not great that he's really comfortable with that shot. It's not a great shot, not likely to get fouled, and shows a softer mentality than a move that gets closer to the basket.

and who's gonna rebound a missed Freeman 3?

 

[Niastri]

It's like when a football coach trusts their punter. They'll go for the coffin corner because they believe in the punter, when they probably should have just gone for it on 4th and 1 from the opponent's 40.

Like, I get that Freeman can make a fadeaway, but it's not great that he's really comfortable with that shot. It's not a great shot, not likely to get fouled, and shows a softer mentality than a move that gets closer to the basket.

I think you're right about Freeman's inside game to some extent.

He definitely needs to go inside a little bit more consistently. Regarding the turnaround fadeaway in the post, I actually like it. I think it's a very difficult to defend shot and he'll make it most of the time. It also will give him opportunities to fake it and do an up and under when we really need a basket and it will draw a lot of fouls as well. Because one guy won't be able to stop the turnaround, opponents will have to double team Freeman in some matchups.

Our ideal half court offense would be Freeman frequently, posting up and drawing double teams, getting lots of three-point shots off of it.

When we're not doing pick and roll, of course.

 

[NineOneSeven]

and who's gonna rebound a missed Freeman 3?

Chris Bell

 

[Cheriehoop]

the way we shoot why would we foul and extend the game at all?

We actually shot very well. If you look at the stats, we shot 54.3% from 2 and 41.2% from 3. Our free throw % was very poor 19/33 or 57.6%. Our rebounding is still an issue despite out rebounding them by 1. That Torres kid played only 22 minutes and had 8 rebounds being tied with a teammate for top rebounders over Freeman and Kyle, our top rebounders with 7. Of course missing 14 free throws gave Monmouth probably 14 more chances for a rebound.

We outshot them, beat them in blocks, had more assists than Monmouth but they had 4 more steals than us and had more points off our 12 turnovers (3 more points) than we did off their 12 turnovers. (18 vs 15) If you look at the stats you’d think we won by more than we did - the extra possessions and lost points that they got from our missed free throws helped close the gap. They took advantage of our miscues.

Syracuse University Athletics

Syracuse University Athletics

cuse.com

 

[upperdeck]

We actually shot very well. If you look at the stats, we shot 54.3% from 2 and 41.2% from 3. Our free throw % was very poor 19/33 or 57.6%. Our rebounding is still an issue despite out rebounding them by 1. That Torres kid played only 22 minutes and had 8 rebounds being tied with a teammate for top rebounders over Freeman and Kyle, our top rebounders with 7. Of course missing 14 free throws gave Monmouth probably 14 more chances for a rebound.

We outshot them, beat them in blocks, had more assists than Monmouth but they had 4 more steals than us and had more points off our 12 turnovers (3 more points) than we did off their 12 turnovers. (18 vs 15) If you look at the stats you’d think we won by more than we did - the extra possessions and lost points that they got from our missed free throws helped close the gap. They took advantage of our miscues.

Syracuse University Athletics

Syracuse University Athletics

cuse.com

I Agree. The FTs did much to change the game. But if the ref doesnt go crazy with the 1st call and we make the T the other way thats a 3-6 pt swing and maybe the game instead of being 10-14 is 18-20 and never in doubt.