Year after year, game after game, choke after choke, players after players, 18 years; there is only on common denominator. Mooneyball! Choked last three games.
Syracuse Game Thread 11/21/2022
- Thread starter CH_Spider
- Start date
I think I need to retreat for a few weeks …
We see a zone defense and fold. Standing around dribbling for 25 seconds isn’t going to lead to much success. High school teams run a better offense against a zone than we do.
I think a little harsh anyone coming down on young Nelson. I don't think it was his idea just dribbling it outside. Really a good stat line with 14 points 5-9 shooting (4-6 3PT) 6 assists and 4 rebounds. Only 2 TOs.
And coaches lose games. Let them play and we win. This has happened 3 times this year alonr.
The irony was in the middle of the game we actually did pretty well against the zone. Then we forgot what we had done, apparently. Syracuse tried to give us a two or three possession lead repeatedly down the stretch and we refused. That cost us the game in the end.
I am inclined to agree with this. Nelson ends up looking lost when the offense doesn't work, but honestly I dont think he takes the blame - - - the design is mystifying and when it doesn't work, we have no idea what to do and thats just nelson holding the ball then. Its a shit show, but it isn't the 18 year old in his 5th game at fault when its been happening for 18 years and assorted really good point guards!
Agreed, Nelson was fine and his three-point shooting gave us life in the second half.
He’s 20, but point still stands. There’s got to be a way to put your players in a better position to succeed.
We should never have had at-large hopes. That was and is unrealistic for this group. They have flaws and only Burton and Goose have meaningful experience. Dont get me wrong - -- the showing so far hasn't been good or even what I expected quite frankly, but at-large should never have been an expectation.
Tempted to say we'll be fine - - - but not if people had those expectations!
We should/could have won all three of these games. An ACC, AAC and high-level CAA opponent with a shot to be ranked. At 5-0 with that resume, yes, we should be talking about at-large bids. And that should always be the goal anyway at a program like this.
8legs1dream
Team Manager
It was the best thing that could have happened to us and the worst thing that could have happened to us rolled up into one.
Especially with CM as coach. Like him or not he doesn't reload, he has to have multiple year rebuilds.
Tyler Burton is rebounding machine but does not play relaxed on offense. He forced way too
many situations. Why did he not put Dji in more in second half simply for ball handling. He steals
ball in second half and loses it going up for layup and never sees floor again. Also why slow. down the pressure,
when that is what got us going.
many situations. Why did he not put Dji in more in second half simply for ball handling. He steals
ball in second half and loses it going up for layup and never sees floor again. Also why slow. down the pressure,
when that is what got us going.
Agreed Dji played well in first half, didn’t see floor in second, what was that ?
Agree with this totally. I went on record thinking we would win 18/19 games. The sad thing is we could very easily be 5 and 0 right now. Get mad all you want but they're not very well coached. They're just not prepared and tough enough down the stretch which is nothing new.
Turnovers killed us. A few more substitutions would have helped. Burton likely was gassed - I think he played 45 minutes.
Burton has been mostly disappointing, but I think the reality is (and I said this back during the NBA threads) that he has some good (not great) athleticism and some decent skills which combined make him a solid college player. Not special in any way. I dont think he has a single NBA level attribute much less enough to be an NBA player. He offers a lot, but he also has some weaknesses He is a borderline all A-10 level player. But I think despite all he offers, he simply is not going to be good enough to just ride him to wins down the stretch of these games - especially against a team with multiple guys who are his equal (or better) athletically. Again, nice player - - - all conference maybe. But a nice A-10 player - - nothing really more. We will be best when we develop more compliments such that there is less actual pressure on him to do it all and when he feels less pressure to do it all. Hopefully that happens and we will see the best of TB
He missed 5 of 6 down the stretch.....game should have never gone to ot
And that is the telltale sign of poor coaching. We have seen it 18-years now
I am just a bit confused on this t
Ok this is just blasphemy. Burton was hard to watch tonight for most of the game, yes. Borderline A-10 player? He was a 2nd-team All-A10 player LAST YEAR, with Golden and Gilyard on the team. The guy had 38 2 games ago. Again, he was hard to watch tonight. He is much better than a solid college player. If he wanted to transfer this summer, he would have went to ANY school in the country that he wanted to. This loss is frustrating, and Tyler was BAD, but this take is even worse.
"Can't win a close game to save his life". Let's take a look at the run last year. Rhode Island, tie game with 4 mins to go. Dayton, down 2 with 4 mins to go. Davidson, down 6 with less than 2 mins to go. Iowa, up 1 with 2 mins to go. Common theme? We won all those games.
I just wish there was a way to have Mooney spend some time in the dog house. For the life of me I will never understand why if we have the slightest lead at the end of games we go into slowdown mode and try to milk the clock. As usual it blew up in our face. We're so damn passive as a program. Why can't we get them down and step on their neck as my old coach used to say?
Probably also would have had a better chance to win had we not come right out of the gate and fallen flat on our faces AGAIN, 14-2. How many games in a row are we planning to do that?
I agree with some of what was said here. At-large takes were optimistic to say the least. 18 wins sounds about right (hopefully). It is upsetting that we could be 5-0. I am just confused about the "not prepared" takes. During last year when we lost it was because of Mooney. When we went on the run, it was because "the seniors weren't going to lose". Now, it is Mooney's fault again. Sometimes, and hear me out here, it is on the players. Tyler missed 5 free throws, we turned the ball over, we didn't box out, we fouled on a three point shooter AGAIN. I get it, the head coach gets the grunt of it, but how could Mooney control all of that? Win, it is the players. Lose, it is Mooney. Logic doesn't seem to add up.
Because the same stuff happens at the same time regardless of who the players are. We've all seen it for 18 years now. Is it just random bad luck and we just keep having players who wilt at the end of games, or maybe is there a reason this has been a trend across an entire literal generation of UR basketball players now?
Common theme here is we were down or tied in those games. He HAD to attack. My frustration is we try to milk the clock with a lead, lose momentum, can't get it back, run out of time and lose by 2. It seems to happen all the time.
