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Positives of the U Mass game

UR80sfan

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Jan 28, 2018
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1. Double Double by Gilly who has taken his passing skill to a new level the second half of the season.
2. Tyler Burton, ok point production, but adds value in so many ways. 13 rebounds and 3 steals.
3. Cayo 7-9 for 14 points and seem to have improved his fade away jumper
4. Bench scoring. More minutes for the bench and great contributions from Sherod, Crabtree, GGGGGUUUUUSSSS and Grace
5. Less playing time to Wilson who has been struggling on offence, only 18 minutes.
 
That reverse lay up by Gilly was unreal, but at the same time I was 99% sure it was going in, and so was the crowd from the reaction of the fans behind the basket as he was making the move. Nice no thought, no look three from the corner. I think his shooting struggles are all mental.

The only way this team can win the A10 if we have Gilly playing aggressively and looking to get 20 a game. I know it has been mentioned by others, but it just does not seem that we are going to get consistent production from the other guard spot. Gilly has the ability to make tough shots in the lane. Love his passes, but yes the other team is playing him to pass now.

Great game from Cayo. Team played super when everything was going good, then when it was not reverted to same old mistakes and habits. Umass came out with adjustments and Mooney just kept looking on. Saw the best of the team making shots and "fluidity" and then saw the worst making mental mistakes and not even making effort to guard three point shooters.
 
We won the game. The game got way too close at the end. Once again, can we ever win comfortably against Mediocre talent. The answer is no.
 
This is a classic fools gold game in my opinion. We won, we played well in the first half (mainly shot well), but game becomes closer in the 2nd half and we beat a bad UMASS team that has not played in 3 weeks, and I believe was missing 2 starters because of COVID (that is what I think I heard on the TV broadcast). We shot really good in the first half and they shot really good in the 2nd half.
But again - our defense is the problem and we had to score 80 to beat a bad UMASS team on our home floor.

So yes - we will take the win of course, because we needed it. But this game did not solve our issues.
 
Umass is bad was playing down several key players to Covid. First half, we took it to them, second half we played down to the level of our bad depleted competition. This team positively cannot step on another teams throat when they are down, can't play a full 40 minutes.
 
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I thought their switch to zone disrupted our offense.
Yep. Like always. Mooney still hasn't figured out how to bust a zone. Lots of standing around when we face a zone. Face it, this is not a well coached team especially even you consider all the experience.
 
I think we need to temper things a bit, in the sense that we were not going to score 100 points last night. College basketball is fairly predictable in that most times you see a team go scorched earth like we did in the first half, it's not going to happen again in the second half.

That said, our defense sucked in the second half and must be better. Even scoring only 30 points in the second half, we still should have won more easily than we did.
 
as always, we look great when we shoot well and when Gilly is getting loose for layups. he's still not hitting outside shots though. and we cooled off in the 2nd half

UMass isn't a great team but they can shoot from deep. and when they get hot from freaking 28 feet, they can go on runs. they have all year.

I'll take the win.
 
I think we need to temper things a bit, in the sense that we were not going to score 100 points last night. College basketball is fairly predictable in that most times you see a team go scorched earth like we did in the first half, it's not going to happen again in the second half.

That said, our defense sucked in the second half and must be better. Even scoring only 30 points in the second half, we still should have won more easily than we did.
Scorched earth first half, not going to happen in 2nd half. Happened last night. Villanova scorched Creighton 75-41. First half was 36-22 and then scorched them again in 2nd half 39-19. And I am not sure if Creighton was down guys, but I can bet you Creighton is much better than UMASS as Creighton beat Villanove 79-59 just one month ago.

So yeah - it happens, and good teams make it happen. Do I expect it to happen all the time - of course not.
 
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Of course you can find examples of it find...we've done it before too. My point is just that we weren't likely to win the game 100-62. Also, Villanova has won two national championships in the past decade, and i don't know if we've even won two a10 tourney games in the same year in that span, so they might not be the best comparison for us.
 
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Yep. Like always. Mooney still hasn't figured out how to bust a zone. Lots of standing around when we face a zone. Face it, this is not a well coached team especially even you consider all the experience.
You are correct. Seems we help the other team when they play zone by clogging up the middle with our center standing at the foul line blocking the guards and Burton from blasting up the middle to the basket. Our quickness is shut off by our own blocker.
 
well most people will argue that's how to attack a zone. you won't get shots up as quickly, but you almost always go with a 1-3-1 type offense against a 2-3 defense.
 
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well most people will argue that's how to attack a zone. you won't get shots up as quickly, but you almost always go with a 1-3-1 type offense against a 2-3 defense.
Absolutely, but our center just ends up passing back to the 3 line for a shot anyway. He rarely turns and takes it to the basket. Cayo should be out of the game in that situation also. He has a very limited range (yard maybe) and can’t make a free throw to save his rear. Goose is the only one left that knows how to back door cut and fast enough to get there. I want Burton going strong to the basket and shooting free throws.
 
Absolutely, but our center just ends up passing back to the 3 line for a shot anyway. He rarely turns and takes it to the basket. Cayo should be out of the game in that situation also. He has a very limited range (yard maybe) and can’t make a free throw to save his rear. Goose is the only one left that knows how to back door cut and fast enough to get there. I want Burton going strong to the basket and shooting free throws.
You don't dribble through a zone, you pass through it. So "Burton going strong to the basket" isn't likely to be a successful play against a zone.

Agree that Cayo is not a good match for a zone, so would prefer Crab and Sherod in that situation, with maybe Sherod at the foul line.
 
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What's great is seeing the team hitting on all cylinders and looking relaxed as if thinking things are going to go well. (First Half) What is not great is seeing the team tighten up after one or two or three bad plays and acting as if things are going to go poorly. (Much of second half) Good thing of course is a win.
 
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Of course you can find examples of it find...we've done it before too. My point is just that we weren't likely to win the game 100-62. Also, Villanova has won two national championships in the past decade, and i don't know if we've even won two a10 tourney games in the same year in that span, so they might not be the best comparison for us.
Agreed. But I think the issue is we win the first half by 19 and lose the 2nd half by 11. Thats too much of a swing. Normally expect a little letdown in the 2nd half - maybe play even or lose by 2-4 points. But this is just par for the course with this team in my mind.
 
Agreed. But I think the issue is we win the first half by 19 and lose the 2nd half by 11. Thats too much of a swing. Normally expect a little letdown in the 2nd half - maybe play even or lose by 2-4 points. But this is just par for the course with this team in my mind.
First half was great second half forget how to play basketball.
 
First half was great second half forget how to play basketball.
Win is a win. However some wins are better than others. Not a great win last night. Mass is bad and gave us opportunities galore in first half. It’s good we capitalized on those opportunities. As others have mentioned, Mass not a good team - several levels below both St J and St L. We continue to give free 3 pointers. Even bad teams will take advantage of open shots. We can’t do that against the better teams, but Mooney doesn’t adapt. We did what we needed to do to win last night. Mass an easy matchup for the good guys.
 
I think because we are not mental toughness and hard focus when it counts.
Agree with this. You can see several guys on our team not do little things often throughout games and in particular down the stretch. Making sketchy passes or not securing a rebound or a pass with both hands. It often feels like those cases are microcosms of how the team views the season - “we’ll make it up later.”

Sometimes you don’t get second chances.
 
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