Game 4: GMU (2-1) at Paradise Jam vs Boston College (2-1) on Friday, November 18, at 8:00 PM.

[BBride]

I went to a high school hoops scrimmage and was going look to try to watch a replay. Guess I have some free time now. They’d better win today.

If they come back from this 0-3

 

[sleeperpick]

The good news is Belmont is not very good this year and they don’t have a good PG so Ronnie will look decent and someone will make a 3000 word post on here declaring him a diamond in the rough and half the board will like the post. I look forward to that actually after watching that dud last night. We better win by 20 today.

 

[GMUgemini]

The good news is Belmont is not very good this year and they don’t have a good PG so Ronnie will look decent and someone will make a 3000 word post on here declaring him a diamond in the rough and half the board will like the post. I look forward to that actually after watching that dud last night. We better win by 20 today.

I was going to warn everyone anointing Polite as the answer to remember XJ after the first few games last year. If he can’t keep in front of his man and if the can’t communicate on switches or on help this team is just straight up doomed this year. There really is very little cohesion on defense. They simply don’t play like a team.

 

[gmujim92]

I was going to warn everyone anointing Polite as the answer to remember XJ after the first few games last year. If he can’t keep in front of his man and if the can’t communicate on switches or on help this team is just straight up doomed this year. There really is very little cohesion on defense. They simply don’t play like a team.

Watching physical defensive teams like vcu and this year’s UMass, it seems like they are playing on a much smaller court. There is very little space for the opponent to operate without getting bumped or grabbed.

Our defense seems content to let the opponent get to whatever spot it wants, and when we do put up resistance we foul. It’s like we’re trying to defend a court twice the size of everyone else.

 

[GSII]

Cmon, these guys are too old to look this bad. My fears on Saquans shooting are true. And he can barely bring ball up. At this point, I've just been watching Fernandez. Like even while he is bench. Maybe the hype around him will be true.

 

[GSII]

vcu damn it!!

 

[dr. gunnie]

This was a whole team loss no doubt. Every player on the court played one of their worst games.

Having said that, regarding the PG spot - we are going to have games where Polite looks good, Singleton looks good, or Dinkins looks good. The problem is there will be no consistency… and then we’ll have games (probably many) like last night where all three are bad (or not good enough). I was hoping that one of the three would take the bull by the horns and take the job. I don’t think at this point that will happen unless Dinkins does it as he has the most room to grow.

I drank the KE kool-aid - I was wrong.

 

[Junkees9]

While still fluid, my enthusiasm level for this season has dropped from 90 at the start of the season to a current level of 30. It is mind boggling how poorly they played last night. Plenty of blame to pass around, but my goodness, Josh's line was horrendous.

 

[GMUgemini]

Another alarming stat, Ticket, who is by far our best FT shooter has taken a total of 4 FT so far this year, which means two things. The first is he’s just not being aggressive enough when he gets the ball in the half court (of his 22 shot attempts so far, 16 are from 3), and two we aren’t getting him the ball in positions where he might get fouled and go to the line (if the opponent is on 7+ fouls we should be getting him the ball a lot more often and telling him to attack).

 

[gmuballer14]

Silver lining Oduro can come back for his COVID year since the NBA probably lost his number?

 

[gmujim92]

While still fluid, my enthusiasm level for this season has dropped from 90 at the start of the season to a current level of 30. It is mind boggling how poorly they played last night. Plenty of blame to pass around, but my goodness, Josh's line was horrendous.

It literally looked like he had never played basketball before. Mind boggling.

 

[sleeperpick]

It literally looked like he had never played basketball before. Mind boggling.

I thought Danny Dixon and him switched bodies last night. Josh was the worst player on the court for both teams. Seriously he was our worst player last night and was completely net negative.

 

[GMU79]

This was a whole team loss no doubt. Every player on the court played one of their worst games.

Having said that, regarding the PG spot - we are going to have games where Polite looks good, Singleton looks good, or Dinkins looks good. The problem is there will be no consistency… and then we’ll have games (probably many) like last night where all three are bad (or not good enough). I was hoping that one of the three would take the bull by the horns and take the job. I don’t think at this point that will happen unless Dinkins does it as he has the most room to grow.

I drank the KE kool-aid - I was wrong.

Really wondering if KE is all talk (ie, can recruit but can't coach). All saddle and no horse.

 

[Masonfan3]

Really wondering if KE is all talk (ie, can recruit but can't coach). All saddle and no horse.

This is my fear with him. He is a great recruiter and it’s obvious that guys like him. Ticket, Deshawn, Bailey all transferred to play for him. But that’s when he was an assistant and not the man leading the ship. At some point you are going to have to show something in the win lose column or kids are going to stop coming. Next year for me is the year that we better be in the NCAA tournament or else. CKE definitely talks a big game and now is time for him to start leading. I better not see another picture of them on a boat, snorkeling, etc. the next couple games are all about business and I hope the coaching staff agrees.

 

[Old Ram]

Hey folks, step away from the ledge- it was only one game. It‘s a long season and there will be good days and bad days.

Let’s get through the rest of the tournament before showing CKE the door. It’s just the beginning of his second year. Building this program into a NCAA tournament participant is going to take time.

 

[GMU79]

Hey folks, step away from the ledge- it was only one game. It‘s a long season and there will be good days and bad days.

Let’s get through the rest of the tournament before showing CKE the door. It’s just the beginning of his second year. Building this program into a NCAA tournament participant is going to take time.

No, it's four games. Killed in two of them (while looking disinterested with no gameplan), and playing mediocrely (I know) against two inferior teams.

 

[gmujim92]

Hey folks, step away from the ledge- it was only one game. It‘s a long season and there will be good days and bad days.

Let’s get through the rest of the tournament before showing CKE the door. It’s just the beginning of his second year. Building this program into a NCAA tournament participant is going to take time.

Speaking solely for myself, it’s not a matter of just one game. You want to see progress overall and frankly Kim had last year’s 5 1/2-man team playing much harder and more cohesively (until they ran out of gas) than this group has shown for most of the first four games. It has been a fairly complete regression.

Whatever buttons he needs to push to get the guys to dig in and fight instead of getting rattled and letting the game get completely out of control, I hope he figures it out sooner than later.

 

[jessej]

When they made that social media post about the whole team going out on a catamaran and snorkeling and spending a day at the beach it had me wondering...that stuff tires you out. Being in the sun all day zaps you, especially when you're as far south as they are. Seems to me a nice quiet day around the hotel might have been better for the quality of play than taking advantage of the finer points of island living.

The bad news is that even if that is the excuse, they aren't any less tired than they were after doing all that. Probably pretty shitty for me to even accuse that of being the problem but man I'm grasping at straws here to figure out how we laid so big of an egg.

This team isn't doing the things that you don't have to be talented to do. Rebounding, playing defense, moving off the ball, FREE THROWS. All the.se are things you can get good at even if you suck and they help you when the shots aren't falling. Our FT% is unacceptable and we are getting trounced on rebounding. Something needs to change and quick.

I've said my piece.

i have wondered the same
What is the value in going to the Caribbean for 3 or 4 days?
The stands are nowhere near filled.

I'd bet that some of fans are there because they got free tix.
If the goal is to have a vacation type experience stay an extra day or two AFTER the games, not before or the day of.

 

[TweederGMU]

This is my fear with him. He is a great recruiter and it’s obvious that guys like him. Ticket, Deshawn, Bailey all transferred to play for him. But that’s when he was an assistant and not the man leading the ship. At some point you are going to have to show something in the win lose column or kids are going to stop coming. Next year for me is the year that we better be in the NCAA tournament or else. CKE definitely talks a big game and now is time for him to start leading. I better not see another picture of them on a boat, snorkeling, etc. the next couple games are all about business and I hope the coaching staff agrees.

Next year? No, this was the year we had the best chance to make the dance and losing to BC has made it very tough.

 

[GMUgemini]

Next year? No, this was the year we had the best chance to make the dance and losing to BC has made it very tough.

Next year we are going to be youuuuuunnngg. Unless he gets more transfers that is. But adding more transfers isn’t necessarily going to make the team more cohesive, just more experienced.

Year 4 is make or break for English. This season’s OOC was never going to get us at-large worthy. It was always about finishing high enough and giving themselves a chance in the tournament. There’s still a chance for that, but some things have to drastically get better in the next few weeks for that to be possible.