Is it the seniors, or the staff?

[Gabjon]

I agree with much of this. First time getting to the board after that debacle yesterday. A thread after DePaul was debating the talent on this team. If it wasn't clear then it sure is clear now. There just isn't much, imo. They are a bunch of role players mostly and I thought this months ago. I don't care what the recruiting rankings were. Talent means you shoot well. Talent translates into good offensive execution. We cannot do anything against a good defense, period. I couldn't believe MCW turned it over AGAIN with that jump in air- 180- pass backwards stunt. Now, some blame probably has to be on the coaching staff although it is hard to say. The sets we run vs zone especially are . Georgetown had some really great sets. Maybe there are good strategies being implemented in practice and they can't grasp anything? I don't know. It is hard to watch. Never seen anything like it. I absolutely think we could be on the 7 or 8/9 line if we go one and done in NYC. Our quality wins really aren't impressive. Frankly, I would like an 8 for a chance to play a #1. Then again, this team is probably broken mentally.

Yeah most people don't understand that ranking services rank players based on athletic ability over or higher than players with more basketball skill. The idea is that basketball skill can be taught while athletic ability can't, but some players just don't develop and some players take longer to develop than others. The result of this is many times the more skilled basketball players are ranked lower than the more athletic guys who can't play.

 

[realorange]

How many? 30 times this year at most?

Edit: Yeah, he's credited with exactly 30 turnovers this season.

I'm not conveniently forgetting anything. A handful of people on this board get a kick out of inventing myths about our players. "Rakeem's got no offensive game" becomes fact, regardless of what happens on the court.

We've seen what he can do. He scores in a variety of ways. When we pass him the ball, we're getting points more than half the time. That's not the case with any of his teammates.

You are defeating your own arguement. You don't get 50% everytime you throw the ball to Rak because he turned it over 30 times. If I'm a guard, I get a little leary of throwing the ball into someone who may TO.

 

[GardenOrange]

Triche and Southerland get exposed for what they are against good teams, which is very average players

Triche has been playing against top competition for the last 4 years. He has never been this horrible. There is more too it than that.

 

[Tobias Funke]

Triche has been playing against top competition for the last 4 years. He has never been this horrible. There is more too it than that.

I think tat is an easy one to answer. Triche could always be the third option both talent wise and mentally that fit. He is now expected to be the guy, and that is tough on a kid like that. Some people just aren't cut out to be the go to guy.

 

[RF2044]

I think tat is an easy one to answer. Triche could always be the third option both talent wise and mentally that fit. He is now expected to be the guy, and that is tough on a kid like that. Some people just aren't cut out to be the go to guy.

Just being devil's advocate here: obviously, his three point shooting percentage hasn't been where it needed to be all year--but for the first two-thirds of the season he was scoring consistently and making jump shots, including some solid outings against good teams. So why was he able to do it then when the bright lights were on [especially the Louisville game, where he carried us for most of the game], but suddenly is congenitally incapable of hitting the broad side of the barn?

 

[albanycuse]

I think tat is an easy one to answer. Triche could always be the third option both talent wise and mentally that fit. He is now expected to be the guy, and that is tough on a kid like that. Some people just aren't cut out to be the go to guy.

B i n g o oh oh

 

[Tobias Funke]

Just being devil's advocate here: obviously, his three point shooting percentage hasn't been where it needed to be all year--but for the first two-thirds of the season he was scoring consistently and making jump shots, including some solid outings against good teams. So why was he able to do it then when the bright lights were on [especially the Louisville game, where he carried us for most of the game], but suddenly is congenitally incapable of hitting the broad side of the barn?

To answer your question he has really only showed up once this year when the bright lights were on and thy was the first louisville game. He has been non existent against other ranked teams. Call it luck, call it confidence that remained in him, but a trend it did not make.

He has only averaged Around 10 points per game against ranked opponents. He has some pretty poor performances from a turnover standpoint in there as well. And in regard to early in the season it was just competition level, just like MCW.

 

[OttoMets]

You are defeating your own arguement. You don't get 50% everytime you throw the ball to Rak because he turned it over 30 times. If I'm a guard, I get a little leary of throwing the ball into someone who may TO.

It's not unusual for guards to feed the post. Leery? Everyone may turn it over. Christmas does so rarely.

I don't know how many touches he's had, but we see 136 shot attempts, 38 free throw attempts, seven assists, and 30 turnovers. He's gotten 176 points out of that. 1.29 points per shot (same as Fair, best on the team).

He's capable.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

If you gave Rak 20 minutes last year in BE games then whose minutes were you taking away? We went 9-10 deep last year so that would have been a tough decision to whack somebody else's minutes. This year he has played plenty and hasn't been productive. I agree that SU could do a better job of integrating their big men but I think some here have grand expectations of what Christmas could deliver if he were more involved. Sorry to be Debbie Downer but I don't see what others see in Rak. As the old song goes- what you see is what you get.

I'd suggest BMK didn't need as many minutes as he got last year. Considering how awful his hands were last year, going to Rak could NOT have been a worse option.

 

[bpo57]

I'd suggest BMK didn't need as many minutes as he got last year. Considering how awful his hands were last year, going to Rak could NOT have been a worse option.

BMK and RC played almost the same amount of minutes last year. Even if you cut BMK's minutes in half and gave them all to RC you'd still be a long way from 20 minutes a game. To me it was a joke that RC started every game.

 

[realorange]

It's not unusual for guards to feed the post. Leery? Everyone may turn it over. Christmas does so rarely.

I don't know how many touches he's had, but we see 136 shot attempts, 38 free throw attempts, seven assists, and 30 turnovers. He's gotten 176 points out of that. 1.29 points per shot (same as Fair, best on the team).

He's capable.

I don't think many people are saying he's not capable. I agree he is. But, he's also terribly inconsistent. One minute he's hustling his butt off and the next he looks like he wants a timeout. He is not the second coming of AO as you are making him out to be.

 

[Garbs]

Triche has been playing against top competition for the last 4 years. He has never been this horrible. There is more too it than that.

has he? I remeber a lot of Rautins/Scoop/Dion at the end of games with Triche on the bench

 

[SWC75]

Answer: It's the players. The same staff has put very good team on the court.

Next question.

If we were hitting our shots we'd still be thinking what it would take to get a 1 seed and nobody would be complaining about the coaches. And that's all this is really about: hitting shots. We are getting them, getting the ball and playing good defense.

 

[orangefan13]

You can't judge a staff on one season. James and southerland are the same they have been the last 2 years, dajuan and cooney are freshmen not ready to score and play defense. Boo Hoo Fair had a bad day at gtown hes alowed one.

Mike plays with alot of heart. Yes hes very athletic but it Sounds like hes jumping on only potential because as a scorer hes nothing more then a transition half court scorer with a pretty nice floater in the lane and very little jumpshot.

Rak has leared to play with a second gear a few games at the end of the season. Its up to him not the staff to make him play in second gear. All the staff can do is bench him to make him and yell at him. But you can't do that for dajuan and Baye for 30 mpg.

SOutherland and Triche are the same inconsistant roll the dice scorers they have always been. I don't blame the staff for that. The staff can build their skills and they have. But, they can't make them consistant.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

BMK and RC played almost the same amount of minutes last year. Even if you cut BMK's minutes in half and gave them all to RC you'd still be a long way from 20 minutes a game. To me it was a joke that RC started every game.

Concur. And I don't think Rak should have gotten 20. But more would have helped him. There is no helping Baye.

 

[dollarbill44]

Simple answer: It's everyone.

It's not just the seniors-it's all the players. It's not just the players. The staff is getting beaten by the opposing staffs as well.

 

[dollarbill44]

You can't judge a staff on one season.

Correct, but you can judge how a staff performs during a given season. They are human as well, not automatons. They have good and bad games. They are better some seasons than others.

I know I'm not the same at my job from day to day/month to month/ year to year. The key to success in anything is improving the ratio of good:bad performances.

 

[Fly Rodder]

How many of Rak's TOs were because MCW fired the ball at him last minute on a jump pass? He's a work in progress, but this team has all of about 5 offensive plays. Either the players are ignoring the coaching staff or the coaching staff isn't doing squat for offensive strategy.

It's just ugly basketball and it doesn't look like they have any idea as to what to do when they bring the ball up. It's almost like the're continuously surprised when another team plays more than a basic HS defense against them.

 

[swish7]

B i n g o oh oh

If this is a bingo, and we cannot critique JBs coaching performance, and we are not in all the practices, yadda, yadda, and JB is, and he's the one stating this is Brandon's team, then I'm at a loss as to who to blame for this misjudgment.


We would have been better off this year, if we invested more in MCW at the point last year.

 

[albanycuse]

If this is a bingo, and we cannot critique JBs coaching performance, and we are not in all the practices, yadda, yadda, and JB is, and he's the one stating this is Brandon's team, then I'm at a loss as to who to blame for this misjudgment.


We would have been better off this year, if we invested more in MCW at the point last year.

Everyone can be put under a microscope and dissected imo as long as you don't get personal. Critiquing a players game, mentality of a players game, as well as the coaches game plan and in game decisions is fair game to me. Afterall, this is major college basketball.

 

[OttoMets]

I don't think many people are saying he's not capable. I agree he is. But, he's also terribly inconsistent. One minute he's hustling his butt off and the next he looks like he wants a timeout. He is not the second coming of AO as you are making him out to be.

The inconsistency in movement/effort/activity (maybe not fair to say "effort," but we're talking about the same thing) is very real and it's a huge problem. I'm with you there.

Twelve months ago, I did think that Christmas would be the second coming of John Wallace (in terms of skill set if not aggregate four-year production). Wrong.

A better comparison would probably be Mookie Watkins. Christmas is good bit shorter and less technically savvy (especially on the defensive end), but he's also got better hands and better offensive moves. Each moves at too slow a speed for him to completely take advantage of his athleticism.

Regardless of all that, he's the most efficient scorer we've got. I'd also wager that his interest and (especially) comfort level would improve if he were to get more touches - doubling his touches would not lead to a corresponding doubling of his turnover numbers.

 

[Flora'cuse]

by staff, I was hinting at Gerry

Really? You think the sucky play is G-Mac's fault?

 

[IthacaMatt]

I think it's possible that we miss Fine and Murphy more than we expected.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

We really miss Weaver. That dude could not only recruit, but he could coach forwards. He taught them the jab step, really did an outstanding job.

And yes, our big men production has fallen off since Bernie was shown the door. Neither Hop or Autry are doing as well as the guys before them in those roles. Come to think of it, I'm not so crazy about the job that GMac has done with the guards.

 

[IthacaMatt]

You can't judge a staff on one season. James and southerland are the same they have been the last 2 years, dajuan and cooney are freshmen not ready to score and play defense. Boo Hoo Fair had a bad day at gtown hes alowed one.

Mike plays with alot of heart. Yes hes very athletic but it Sounds like hes jumping on only potential because as a scorer hes nothing more then a transition half court scorer with a pretty nice floater in the lane and very little jumpshot.

Rak has leared to play with a second gear a few games at the end of the season. Its up to him not the staff to make him play in second gear. All the staff can do is bench him to make him and yell at him. But you can't do that for dajuan and Baye for 30 mpg.

SOutherland and Triche are the same inconsistant roll the dice scorers they have always been. I don't blame the staff for that. The staff can build their skills and they have. But, they can't make them consistant.

People can say Triche has been inconsistent for his whole career, but never like this. The guy became a total head case once JB said it was his team.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

We really miss Weaver. That dude could not only recruit, but he could coach forwards. He taught them the jab step, really did an outstanding job.

And yes, our big men production has fallen off since Bernie was shown the door. Neither Hop or Autry are doing as well as the guys before them in those roles. Come to think of it, I'm not so crazy about the job that GMac has done with the guards.

IMatt, are you suggesting that GMac might be, dare I say, overrated?