This game, unfortunately, didn't really change my long term outlook. Good game. Some good moments. Good win. I think Johnson hitting so many shots cancels out Caupain not hitting. But how will we look away from home from here on out? That's my concern.
Without Shaq, we probably have an "L" next to the S. Florida game. Not to mention, Mick's decision to take him out of the game and rest him before he had cooled off, was bizarre. When Shaq went out, the game reversed and we nearly blew the entire lead.
Shaq is a head-scratcher. He seems to be a great kid, who works hard, and wants to lead this team. As much as I appreciate all of that, when he starts that quick dribbling, you know there's a three coming, or an out-of-control drive to the basket, and you start mumbling no, no, no, no!! To his credit, he has finished more of those no, no, no moments successfully this year than in any other year. He has quietly had a decent season. There was so much potential when he got here, but again, he never got a whole lot better. I stopped trying to figure out Mick's playing time decisions. They've never made sense to me. Jenifer continues to get better and play well and seems to get less and less time on the court, while the other point guard continues to play worse with no penalty. The whole Shaq versus Evans issue would have probably resolved itsel has Evans continued to play well, but right when it looked like Mick was about to make the change, Evans went into a slump. Shaq has managed to avoid a horrible slump and is doing just enough to stay in Mick's good graces, but I think it is more Evans not forcing the issue because his play deteriorated.
I was there last night and it wasn't ugly but they were missing. He looked to be pressing some with his shot. When he missed the FT late in game you could see the frustration. KJ and Cobb picked him up.
Jenifer has steadily improved and has eliminated many of his issues that everyone had against him early in the year. Now, we're down to the good old defense excuse which you really can't see in the stats, so it is an easy one to throw out there. The problem is, Troy doesn't play defense either, so that really isn't a reason to deny Jenifer playing time. Mick has made comments about JJ shooting too much, but hasn't mentioned his defense hardly at all. But, just a week ago, he did comment that Troy needs to improve his defense;.
Last night was not one of them.Last few games the TV has shown some pretty gross misses.
There is not a thing in the world that Jenifer (or Caupain) could do to shake up Cronin's rotation. He even moved Cobb on the ball, and now that Johnson one good game...forget about it.
I'm not satisfied with the game because we got killed on the offensive boards.
We did guard though and we put up 70. if we do that and hit the glass a bit harder we will win some games. KJ won't put up 15 every night but TC won't go 0-10 either.
Not only did KJ put up 15 but he was all over the floor defensively. I can count at least twice were his on the ball defense forced travel calls. we turned a good offensive team over lots of times last night and needed to because we gave them many second chance opportunities.
He's the coach. Not playing JJ is not the reason we have 5 losses.
You sound disappointed KJ had a good game.
Last few games the TV has shown some pretty gross misses.
He's the coach. Not playing JJ is not the reason we have 5 losses.
You sound disappointed KJ had a good game.
Jake we put up 70 and held them to 59 in a game when we thought we would be lucky to win. you predicted a loss. That is with our PG going 0-10. Our scoring is up this year. If we get back to guarding we can win some games. There is really know elite team out there this year. We have played some very good teams right down to the wire. If we would have guarded a bit better in 3 of them we would have maybe two losses and ranked. Flipped back into what... We had at least 5 dunks on interior passing alone last night. We also have guarded better even as we lost the SMU game. We need to keep improving offensively and get back to guarding and boarding.Putting up 70 is a total coin flip with this team's pace. It's great and everything that the defense has been better, but this team is morphing right back into every other Cronin team.
The less minutes are coming bc of fouls though. He's much better when he can be aggressive instead of worrying about going back to the bench the next time he's gets involved in a play.
Look the season is full of ups and downs. He has talent lets hope he has turned the corner.I'm happy for him. But I have 0 faith that he can keep it up.
I'm happy for him. But I have 0 faith that he can keep it up.
Last night was not one of them.
Why else would you not put the kibosh on a 29% shooter constantly jacking up 3s.
His fouls are only slightly up from last year. I think the difference this year is I see Ellis asking to come out for a breather quite often and I don't recall seeing it that much last year.