St Bonnie game observations

[97spiderfan]

Post mortem thoughts.

1. Khwan Fore is mighty exciting. 15 points and our leading rebounder as well with 7. Throw in a couple steals and assists as well. I have many words for him, fearless, well rounded, aggressive, all of them positive. Bright, bright future with him as one of our starting guards.

2. SDJ and Terry: Both of them had bad shooting nights. When both of our big guns have off nights, we are going to lose.

3. TJ did not give up. Really great game from TJ, I loved his effort out there.

4. Question. Why did Mooney not call 1 timeout in the second half despite the fact that St. Bonnie was pretty much on a run for the entire second half. There were several times when we were just hucking shots up and he needed to settle the troops.

5. Finally, look at the minute distribution tonight. 14 minutes for Deion and 22 minutes for Trey. Deion played well in his 14 minutes. This is type of minutes that many of us have been clamouring for from these two all year and the Moon man finally delivered. I think Mooney may have finally realized our floor and ceiling as a team with these 2 guys playing major minutes is not that all the different. I think our ceiling as a team might be a lot higher right now, had these minutes been adjusted in November-early December instead of late January.

I still can't figure out how we can look so good in the first half and really just terrible in the second.

 

[SpiderRick]

They were tired from travel problems

 

[PhillySpider]

Post mortem thoughts.

4. Question. Why did Mooney not call 1 timeout in the second half despite the fact that St. Bonnie was pretty much on a run for the entire second half. There were several times when we were just hucking shots up and he needeto settle the troops.

Answer: He needs to save those TO to take them with 7 minutes left right after we score a basket in the middle of a mini-run. we must lead the nation in TOs taken immediately following a basket not in the last 2-3 minutes. He does it all the time and it infuriates me because they are of so little value there. TO should be used for 3 reasons: 1) try to change momentum/stop a run etc. 2) to make a strategic or systemic change that can't wait because the game might get away from you and 3) at the end to conserve time and/or go over end game strategy.

 

[SpiderK]

No attempt to stop the run in the first 5 minutes of second half is just Malpractice as a coach. No excuse for it.

Taylor was hurt the last 10 minutes or so. Moran replacing him was also inexcusable. No one was in foul trouble at the time and Moran never looked at the basket.

Our freshman 6' guard being our leading rebounder speaks volumes about this team.

 

[Stork3]

Coach Mooney breaks out in hives when he calls a timeout - haven't you noticed? Had a 15-point lead that we watched evaporate because Coach waited for the Officials Time Out. Don't know if a timeout would have made a difference in the St. Bona game. At least we played with energy and focus in the first half - didn't get down by 12 at the half, as we have many times. Maybe the home stretch will produce a rested team firing on all cylinders.

 

[ur2K]

Re: #4 - Mooney pretty much never calls TOs to stop a run from the other team.

 

[SpiderK]

Re: #4 - Mooney pretty much never calls TOs to stop a run from the other team.

How is that working out for us?

 

[97spiderfan]

Re: #4 - Mooney pretty much never calls TOs to stop a run from the other team.

Yes, I know it was a rhetorical question but I would like to here his answer to us because pretty much every coach I have ever seen uses time-outs to try and stop runs.

 

[ur2K]

I think its crazy, but that's always been the way he does it. There was some reference to it a few weeks back on the radio show - (I'm paraphrasing based on memory so could be way off) basically saying that just calling a time out will have no bearing on whether the team will make the next shot(s) or not and that he'd rather them play through it.

It makes sense since we wouldn't adjust the style of play or do anything different even if we call a TO.

They got us off our game with the more physical zone in the 2nd half. Without hitting shots and our awful D, that was a recipe for disaster.

 

[64Spider]

Best reason to call timeout is to draw up a play that usually results in a score. That is assuming you have such a play.
Can't remember but the opposing coach in one of our home games called back to back time outs after we scored. They then came out and ran a disciplined offensive sequence and scored each time. May have been St. Joes.

 

[fatherspider]

Coach Mooney breaks out in hives when he calls a timeout - haven't you noticed? Had a 15-point lead that we watched evaporate because Coach waited for the Officials Time Out. Don't know if a timeout would have made a difference in the St. Bona game. At least we played with energy and focus in the first half - didn't get down by 12 at the half, as we have many times. Maybe the home stretch will produce a rested team firing on all cylinders.

A time out wouldnt likely make a difference because mooney isnt a leader, would not know what to say to settle them down and doesnt have any strategy to offer the players that will change the direction of the game.

 

[SpiderTrap]

Pretty much as expected I would say for this game.

We played pretty well in the first half - Bonnies go one a run, and we were running on empty. We didn't shoot the ball great (60% like last game) - but we can't expect that every night. If UR winning games relies on them shooting over 50% each game - we are going to lose more than we win.

The key is the next 4 games - all very winnable. All against teams lower than us in the standings. Go on a little win streak here - get to 7-5 in the league and hopefully we can salvage a middle seed in the A10 tourney. Stumble and go 2-2 the next 4 games, and we are looking at a bad finish to the season.

 

[SpiderFan]

I just think the double OT game coupled with travel to Olean and playing in one of the tougher environments was why the guys couldn't keep it up in the 2nd half.