Norfolk State

[Bulldog01]

Good tune up for VCU. Cats need to get some quality wins.

Consistency would go along way towards that end. I'm aware like everyone else that KJ is struggling but we need his jumper and on the ball defense. I hope he can get it turned around. We also got the good Gary last night offensively Having him show up on a more regular basis would be a big help.

What on ball defense? X was blowing right by our guards

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I believe one was a drive 2 the lane and looked good but ended with a blocked by the rim result.

Either way. Troy is in a shooting slump but I do love that assist to Turnover rate and his lone turnover last night but a bit debatable (they called a double dribble I believe but he lost the ball).

But I love that Troy isn't letting his shooting slump affect him from being one of the best passing PG in the country who doesn't turn the ball over. That is not a small feat.

I thought Troy never had control of the ball from the beginning for it to be a double dribble. I was surprised they called that.

 

[Bulldog01]

Caupain is now tied for 22nd in the country in assist to turnover ratio.


Having Jenifer around has made caupain a better pass first PG. I mean, sometimes last year, we'd have 6 assists the entire game and now Troy is getting that by himself. He Could very well end up averaging 6 assists per game on the season.

Very true. This caught my eyes also. Troy even tried no look bounce pass in game when both were on court

 

[UCBearcats]

Shaq is only shooting 1.5 3s per game. No defense will ever take us seriously if our 3 doesn't shoot. You want the guards to drive right? Well the defense sagging on a wing player when we already have 2 other big guys on the floor won't help that. Also won't help big guy TO if their wing can double on Shaq's side with no consequence.

Defenses already don't take us seriously and they already sag on Shaq, hence the reason why he's always wide open when he shoots 3's. Shaq could be moving on offense A LOT more than he does if our coach created an offense for our players to run. Contrary to what we see on a game by game basis your wing player doesn't have to stand outside the 3 point line and wait to catch a pass. He could be setting screens, coming off curls or slashing to the basket.

 

[Bulldog01]

Ellis be on here post watching. Everything I talked about on him he comes out next game trying prove me wrong.


P.s.
Where is Chad?

 

[Bulldog01]

I watched the replay of this game and Shaq was a bright spot for me. He played with a lot of hustle and made some great plays that won't show up in the stat sheet. Of all the seniors, Shaq looks like he cares the most. If Shaq continues to play with hustle, he deserves to take shots when he is open.

Shaq always plays the hardest

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Norfolk State is 5-7 and lost to NKU by 21 points. I didn't see them as a step up at all, in fact, I saw them as maybe the 2nd worst team we've played this season behind Morgan State. I'm still trying to figure out why some on the board thought the 87 point performance again Morgan was so terrible yet last night's game was so refreshing.

Disagree with your previous post too, let's just keep talking defense after every game and never address our offensive problems, that's been a solid strategy for us for the last 10 years. It should get us right where we want to be at the end of the year, a nice little 7-9 seed in the tourney and an NCAA exit on the first weekend.

I don't care about their record. They were way better than Robert Morris, Morgan State, SE Louisiana, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

It depends who you're talking to when you preach defense. Cobb is a confident SR who isn't afraid to shoot. That message isn't right for everyone, but for a SR shooting guard who is a top scorer on the team and in a recent slump? I have no problem in that specific situation. And it worked didn't it?

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Problem is I think Shaq could take that shot all day and they'll still sag off him and let him shoot it. Until he shows in a larger sample size he has the ability to hit that shot, nobody will care if he takes them. They won't try to defend it.

Even more reason why he should shoot them then.

 

[Bulldog01]

I said it before season started I'll say it again. We basically unbeatable if kj and Clark come to play. KJ needs work on his ball handling for 15min after every practice. 15min doesn't seem like a lot of time but trust me it's HUGE

 

[Bulldog01]

Even more reason why he should shoot them then.

Teams aren't leaving Shaq open by design. He making them at damn near 40%. A pair of lips a say anything

 

[UCBearcats]

I don't care about their record. They were way better than Robert Morris, Morgan State, SE Louisiana, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

It depends who you're talking to when you preach defense. Cobb is a confident SR who isn't afraid to shoot. That message isn't right for everyone, but for a SR shooting guard who is a top scorer on the team and in a recent slump? I have no problem in that specific situation. And it worked didn't it?

I don't agree at all, I was at all those games and nothing stood out for me about last night's team. They didn't have any shooters and immediately fell apart every time we stepped up the pressure and intensity. Had we not insisted on using such odd substitution patterns last night we'd have beaten that team by 40. Perhaps my issues with last night's game had more to do with the sub patterns than the actual play of our first team but those patterns seemed to steal any momentum away from us as soon as we gained it. Overall I thought it was a poor performance and we looked much tighter than we did earlier in the season.

 

[cincrulz11]

Even more reason why he should shoot them then.

Only if you can actually make the shot frequently enough for it to make a difference. He's averaged 3 3's a game the past 3 games. He needs to make more than 3 of them for him to keep shooting them.

 

[Bulldog01]

I rather Shaq take WIDE open 3's than long contested 2pointers any day. Shaq has probably been our best overall player so far

 

[L-T]

I'm done with KJ. He was exactly like this last year too outside of a 5 game stretch. I'd give him 8-12 minutes per game and give the rest to Jenifer to keep Caupain fresher by playing off the ball some.

*Also, 16 pt victory? Who cares how much other teams best them by. We let our bench guys play a lot to have then 15 point lead early cut to 4...then we stretched it back to 23 before they hit garbage 3s. Making sure we play 40 minutes is the only takeaway imo.

I think if you go back and review the tape of the game, you'll see that the starter played another 3 minutes or so after the 15-0 start and NS had cut that lead in half at least before he inserted the subs. Now, this is purely my "eye-test" speaking here, with no data to back it up, but I fortunately kept the recording of the game, so I will follow-up with "empirical data" tonight.

The only player who played more than normal was Jenifer. He got 13 mins. Quadri only got 6. KJ was cut to 10. Deberry only got 14. Tobler got zero. So, the sub minutes weren't radically different than usual. Who cares about a 16 point difference? I think most of us do. This is a team that we would have beat by 50 earlier in the year, and should have beat by 50 last night. Mick didn't even sub much at all in the 2nd half until about 7 mins left in the game, so he was trying hard to blow the game open. Again, I go back to the eye test. If you saw anything close to the early season team that we watched, you were watching a different game than I was. But hey, everyone's eye test is different. The new cats 1st appeared in the Southeastern Louisiana game. I didn't see much different last night....except for the fist 4 minutes.

 

[cincrulz11]

I agree with LT, and last night would have been a huge struggle had we not gone 10-21 from 3. I don't even want to think about it.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I don't agree at all, I was at all those games and nothing stood out for me about last night's team. They didn't have any shooters and immediately fell apart every time we stepped up the pressure and intensity. Had we not insisted on using such odd substitution patterns last night we'd have beaten that team by 40. Perhaps my issues with last night's game had more to do with the sub patterns than the actual play of our first team but those patterns seemed to steal any momentum away from us as soon as we gained it. Overall I thought it was a poor performance and we looked much tighter than we did earlier in the season.

That team was SO well coached compared to those other garbage teams. And they actually had a couple athletes. I'd put them in Western Carolina's class as far as competence goes. Really surprised you don't see it like that.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Only if you can actually make the shot frequently enough for it to make a difference. He's averaged 3 3's a game the past 3 games. He needs to make more than 3 of them for him to keep shooting them.

33% for Shaq is fine. He just doesn't need to take 3 in every game.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I think if you go back and review the tape of the game, you'll see that the starter played another 3 minutes or so after the 15-0 start and NS had cut that lead in half at least before he inserted the subs. Now, this is purely my "eye-test" speaking here, with no data to back it up, but I fortunately kept the recording of the game, so I will follow-up with "empirical data" tonight.

The only player who played more than normal was Jenifer. He got 13 mins. Quadri only got 6. KJ was cut to 10. Deberry only got 14. Tobler got zero. So, the sub minutes weren't radically different than usual. Who cares about a 16 point difference? I think most of us do. This is a team that we would have beat by 50 earlier in the year, and should have beat by 50 last night. Mick didn't even sub much at all in the 2nd half until about 7 mins left in the game, so he was trying hard to blow the game open. Again, I go back to the eye test. If you saw anything close to the early season team that we watched, you were watching a different game than I was. But hey, everyone's eye test is different. The new cats 1st appeared in the Southeastern Louisiana game. I didn't see much different last night....except for the fist 4 minutes.

I don't get how you guys don't see that Norfolk State is on a way higher level than these other cupcakes.

 

[UCBearcats]

That team was SO well coached compared to those other garbage teams. And they actually had a couple athletes. I'd put them in Western Carolina's class as far as competence goes. Really surprised you don't see it like that.

Agree to disagree, debating the merits of the cupcakes on our schedule will be a fruitless effort.

I'm VERY frustrated with the regression I've seen in this team on the offensive end. I'm concerned that we're going to revert back to the same style of play we've seen from this team over the last 10 seasons. As I said earlier I hope I'm wrong. I still believe this team can do really good things this season if the players and our coach continue to embrace a new brand of basketball.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I agree with LT, and last night would have been a huge struggle had we not gone 10-21 from 3. I don't even want to think about it.

But we did go 10-21 on 3s. And we had them at 38 points with like 7 or 8 minutes left.