Why we lost?

[Bearcat Rob]

First off im disappointed in sanders and gary clark....but this loss lies on the shoulders of troy and octavius. Listen its great when sanders has a 15 pt game out of no where but if we come to rely on sanders for pts on a nightly basis this team isnt going to go far, he just doesnt have much to offer when his shots off (and he only shoots 29% from 3), and for clark out side of @nc state he struggles on the road. I love gary i think he is a good player, but as a freshman he will have quiet games especially on the road, but this team will go where troy and octavius take us, our best two players. Troy IMO is an outstanding offensive player but tonight, his shot was on but only took 6 shots, and ZERO FREE THROWS! he was 2-2 behind the arc but seems content on passing, he needs to realize he is our best player and has to attack all game like he did on the fastbreak to shaq, or this team will struggle. And octavius had a bad game, 4 TO's and four missed free throws thats hard to overcome...he is so inconsistant these days. Add in 17 team TO's and its easy to see why we lost. I still love this team and think we will bounce back and go on a run to end this season, but an attacking Troy, who played with that attitude and mentality he had against uconn, and a foccussed ellis and we will be hard to beat, the rest of the team follows them, when there on everyone seams to feed off of it. but it starts with them.
Prediction: we bounce back with a large victory over Tulane.
But by no means is this a bad loss. temple is good, and cummings is a very good player. Hard to beat a team like that twice, we may seem them again in the aac tourny

 

[Bearcat Rob]

Also Kevin led the team in shots taken that shouldn't happen. I want troy to lead us in shots taken every game from here on out, wouldn't mind cobb being second

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Also Kevin led the team in shots taken that shouldn't happen. I want troy to lead us in shots taken every game from here on out, wouldn't mind cobb being second

I disagree on Caupain. We don't need him forcing shots and most games we need him setting others up. He just needs to learn to pick his spots in these kind of games without "hunting" shots.

 

[BCM]

> that look on a player's face when they catch an unexpected pass with 4 on the SC

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

4th game in 10 days, all played in different states. Temple badly needed this win after losing to Tulsa and SMU at home already (without a healthy Cummings). Ran into a buzz saw tonight. I think we'll be okay and still have a shot to finish 3rd.

 

[Bearcat Rob]

I disagree on Caupain. We don't need him forcing shots and most games we need him setting others up. He just needs to learn to pick his spots in these kind of games without "hunting" shots.

Ok I can agree he shouldn't force shots but he is our best scorer and should take more than six shots... I'm more focussing on him being aggressive and looking to attack and make play every play. But I want him to average 15 or so from here on out I think he's capable but he's gotta take a few more shots

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Ok I can agree he shouldn't force shots but he is our best scorer and should take more than six shots... I'm more focussing on him being aggressive and looking to attack and make play every play. But I want him to average 15 or so from here on out I think he's capable but he's gotta take a few more shots

I agree with that. 0 FT attempts is baffling for a guy like him. He could've had 15 tonight on 1 or 2 more shots and a couple trips to the line.

 

[Bearcat Rob]

I agree with that. 0 FT attempts is baffling for a guy like him. He could've had 15 tonight on 1 or 2 more shots and a couple trips to the line.

The free throw thing was huge for me, that tells me he's not attacking. I loved that fast break he had where he hit shaq that was a great play. I predict some good games ahead of him this year tho love his game...I love when he plays with that killer attitude too

 

[Doogle]

Larry Davis said all the right things. Can't turn the ball over, it has a debilitating effect on the players' psyche. Troy needs to be more assertive offensively. They're tired and it showed on defense. He needs to do a better job of coaching, probably should've have mixed defenses better.

I'd add he could have done some things sub-wise to mitigate the fatigue of some of his players, but not sure it would have made a huge difference tonight.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I still don't get why LD didn't use a TO any of the 4 times in the first half that we fell behind by double digits. Probably wouldn't have mattered tonight, but IMO he's gotta do something to try to stop the bleeding early in the game, on the road

 

[UCalum08]

I'm still scratching my head with our offense. It seemed like we were getting better and starting to see some roles develop within our offense. The past 3 games I feel like we have regressed back to old ways. We have had very poor movement, especially off the ball. No guards even try to get to the basket. We very rarely have had any post play and it seems like we are just relying on the 3. Mix all that in with us being weak with the ball and turning it over, our offense is pretty bad right now.

What happened to Troy getting to the basket, or Sanders cutting to the basket w/o the ball? If our guards aren't going to throw it to the post they need to create something. Instead they are content with running off irrelevant ball screens above the 3 pt line but not attacking the defense.

 

[#BearcatNation]

Kevin Johnson led the team with 36 minutes. That's pretty ridiculous. Not sure what Larry Davis was thinking. Clark and Sanders both each with 21 minutes and neither were in any foul trouble.

Shooting-wise, our offense was great (52% FG, 44% threes), but the 16 turnovers did it. Simply must take care of the ball better.

While our defense didn't play very well, a good majority of Temple's offense was capitalizing on our turnovers. They shot at a worse clip than us, FG & 3PT wise, but they got off 14 more shots than us.

Bummed we lost, but this wasn't one of those "brutal" losses that people are calling it, in my book. The turnovers sucked, and the defense was sub par, but everything else really wasn't too bad. It was one of those games that we thought we were more likely to lose than win, and we lost. Look at the remaining schedule. 22-9 and 23-8 is still very possible.

 

[ucswais]

I might go back and chart this myself, but I'm curious how many of the turnovers the last 3 games are related to post entry passes. It seems like an extreme amount. I wouldn't go so far as to say we shouldn't ever feed Ellis/Clark on the blocks, but we should probably take a look at risk/reward for our team that seems to be particularly terrible at making that pass successfully.

The other thing is the live ball turnovers are really impacting our defense.

Having said all that, the main answer to "why we lost" has a lot to do with how Temple played last night.

 

[waterhead]

I saw so many problematic areas for this team last night that will likely keep us from making any kind of consistent run. I just hope we can make the dance.

Our post men need to develop a turn around J next year (both of them). Ellis can make face up shots but he doesn't take many of them. His move to the basket is out of control and the jump stop is awkward. Clark needs to continue to aggressively back down his man or kick out when he gets doubled.

We still have no clue how or when to pass the ball to the low block...or even how to establish good position down there. When it's open we miss it and we try to force it other times. We need the low block and the perimeter passer to be on the same page on which times are "go times" and when not.

We are too easy to take the ball from sometimes. We need to be stronger with the ball. I don't know how many times it was stolen directly or swatted right away from our hands. We don't have great ball handlers so when we wait to get into our half court sets and allow the D to get in position it's hurting us. We need to keep moving around and get our guys in space.

I don't think we can develop enough of these things in time to make a strong EXTENDED run of wins this year. We are still too inexperienced and inconsistent to make a big extended push. Hopefully we can address some of these things in the off season because we have some nice pieces to the puzzle right now.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

I saw so many problematic areas for this team last night that will likely keep us from making any kind of consistent run. I just hope we can make the dance.

Our post men need to develop a turn around J next year (both of them). Ellis can make face up shots but he doesn't take many of them. His move to the basket is out of control and the jump stop is awkward. Clark needs to continue to aggressively back down his man or kick out when he gets doubled.

We still have no clue how or when to pass the ball to the low block...or even how to establish good position down there. When it's open we miss it and we try to force it other times. We need the low block and the perimeter passer to be on the same page on which times are "go times" and when not.

We are too easy to take the ball from sometimes. We need to be stronger with the ball. I don't know how many times it was stolen directly or swatted right away from our hands. We don't have great ball handlers so when we wait to get into our half court sets and allow the D to get in position it's hurting us. We need to keep moving around and get our guys in space.

I don't think we can develop enough of these things in time to make a strong EXTENDED run of wins this year. We are still too inexperienced and inconsistent to make a big extended push. Hopefully we can address some of these things in the off season because we have some nice pieces to the puzzle right now.

As the season has gone on, I've realized that it makes a lot more sense for Ellis to play the 4 and Clark the 5 on offense. Ellis catching the ball at the high post (where he has shown to be a good jumper shooter, not post player) and Clack in the low post (where he has shown to be pretty good) would be the best for each players skill set. A lot of the turnovers have been caused directly Ellis' inability to play make quick moves in the low post area.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

As the season has gone on, I've realized that it makes a lot more sense for Ellis to play the 4 and Clark the 5 on offense. Ellis catching the ball at the high post (where he has shown to be a good jumper shooter, not post player) and Clack in the low post (where he has shown to be pretty good) would be the best for each players skill set. A lot of the turnovers have been caused directly Ellis' inability to play make quick moves in the low post area.

Clark struggles mightily against guys that are bigger than him. But I hear what you're saying.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Clark struggles mightily against guys that are bigger than him. But I hear what you're saying.

Just thinking of ways to get the ball out of the hands of Ellis in the post, that is a main reason for all the turnovers, especially early in games. I wonder if they'd try some pick and pops to 17-18 foot jumpers with him. Right now he seems to screen with no real purpose.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Just thinking of ways to get the ball out of the hands of Ellis in the post, that is a main reason for all the turnovers, especially early in games. I wonder if they'd try some pick and pops to 17-18 foot jumpers with him. Right now he seems to screen with no real purpose.

Yeah a little 2 man game could work with TC and Ellis. People mentioned Ellis and DeBerry playing together some too. I wasn't for that at first, but maybe worth a shot.

 

[bearcat jeff]

What bothered me, and it was evident from the start, is how much more Temple wanted the game. That's where someone needs to step up in the locker room. But on to the next I suppose.

 

[Robert]

We were tired. Definitely saw it in how we were late on rotations and close-outs. Also doesn't help that this team can't handle the ball or make passes without turning the ball over at an alarming rate. Normally can't shoot either, but that definitely wasn't the problem last night. I'm not surprised at all by last night's outcome, and I'm not putting a lot of stock in it moving forward. I'm just glad the schedule allowed us to take a respectable loss at the end of this short turnaround as opposed to another ECU-esque debacle.