I am so tired of people saying we aren't in CUSA anymore. DUH!! The BEast is the biggest and best conference in history period! That does not mean you accept mediocrity!!
This staff and the team missed a golden opportunity to get a quality road win in conference. A win that would have shut the critics up and given validity to their record. The staff put a game plan in play based on fear. It was a debacle!! Hell, even the announcers were wondering when they'd get some urgency and why they weren't pressing.
Mick Cronin coached to not lose last night not to win. If you don't get the differnece then I understand why middle of the pack is good enough for you. There is no bigger UC fan then me in this city. I fully support this program and the coach but last night was unacceptable to me as a fan and supporter of the program. No personnel adjustments were made. Playing people on the basis of their class year is bull$hit. Thomas should be riding the pine!!!! Gates gets two bodies put on him regularly because Thomas is no threat. He needs to sit and come off the bench. Sean Kilpatrick needs to play 28-30 minutes a game. He and Dixon understand in this league you need to attack!! It's a power league not finesse. This league is for the big boys.
There is nothing wrong with supporting this staff and saying they had a horrible game plan last night. Not only was it horrible, Mick stuck stubbornly with it till it was too late. The same can be said for his line up. Adjustments, adjustments, adjustments. That's why some teams get better as the season progress, some stay the same and some get worse. This team has potential. It needs tweaked after being exposed by the teams they are trying to catch.
Agreed.
Seeing that the gameplan was sub par (to say the least) was as plain as day. But stating as such can get met with so many excuses. Enough already. We lost another road game. Everyone knows these are all good teams, so when people simply reply with ND's home record, or their ranking, it's patronizing to 99% of the people who take the time to come on here. It's not that we lost, but how we lost.
I really think, and I said it last year, that at times Mick tries to out-coach the opponent. Everything last night pointed to us putting pressure on them. I think it was a HUGE mistake not to, and I think it may have been out of stubbornness that we waited as long as we did. It did not make a whole lot of sense to me. And I think any chance we had was thrown out the window when we were still playing a halfcourt game, with under 10 to go.
And going forward, it's obvious something has to be done with Thomas. You cannot get, literally, zero production out of that spot, on a team that is already offensive challenged. It's not as if Thomas is good defensively either. I'm not sure what they do exactly, but a change must be made.
If it were me, I'd maybe just give those minutes to Jackson. It's not like he can be any worse offensively. 1) The kid is great in the full court defense, 2.)The kid gives effort and 3.) And this may be the most important, you're giving him experience for next year. This team is not going to win anything of any great measure this year. They'll be lucky to sneak as an 8 seed or below. We'll need Jackson a ton next year, so why not?
Let's just hope they can win Sat or we could be in some trouble. You would have to think the kids confidence must be rattled a little. If we can steal that game, and handle our business against Rutgers at home, I think we'll be back on some solid ground.
