Game 20: GMU (18-1 / 6-0) at Rhode Island (11-8 / 2-4) on Saturday, January 24, at 2:00 PM.

[TweederGMU]

Shitty loss on the road, this can't happen if we expect to be in the AT-Large discussion all season long, good teams step up and find ways to win on the road.

GW, vcu, and St. Louis will most likely be losses. Puts us at 14-4. Not bad....NIT home game if we don't win the tourney.

But, I do feel we lose another one that we should win..... like a St.Bonny or UR.

 

[jkh1978]

I’ve been seriously studying brackets for years and I had GM out before this game. I think 2 seed in NIT for now.
They need to stay top 4 and win in Pittsburgh. Until we see a shift in philosophy it’s rigged for the mediocre teams in certain conferences, so gave to think one bid unless St Louis gets upset. They have moved up to a six seed for me.

 

[GMU1983]

Huh? Good grief we are 0-1 in Quad 1 and 2-1 in Quad 2. Do any of you follow metrics…I know you do just kidding but those are the facts. Cheer the F up everyone! I have been with this team since 1979. Get the emotion out of your comments. One Quad 3 loss then we are done and then on to the NIT if we don’t win the tourney!

 

[Mason2005]

We went 11 deep this game and the player rotations seemed pretty sporadic. I'd like to see a settled rotation of 8 by now in the season.

 

[GMUgemini]

It’s the pattern of slow starts, and inconsistent effort on defense that I’m responding to.

As others have said, we still have to play GW, vcu, St. Bonaventure, and Richmond on the road and SLU and Dayton at home. And these guys just don’t seem to be as locked in as Team 59. It’s not a recipe for winning 3 in a row on a neutral court or for going 16-2 in the regular season.

 

[jruby]

Huh? Good grief we are 0-1 in Quad 1 and 2-1 in Quad 2. Do any of you follow metrics…I know you do just kidding but those are the facts. Cheer the F up everyone! I have been with this team since 1979. Get the emotion out of your comments. One Quad 3 loss then we are done and then on to the NIT if we don’t win the tourney!

It’s the pattern of slow starts, and inconsistent effort on defense that I’m responding to.

As others have said, we still have to play GW, vcu, St. Bonaventure, and Richmond on the road and SLU and Dayton at home. And these guys just don’t seem to be as locked in as Team 59. It’s not a recipe for winning 3 in a row on a neutral court or for going 16-2 in the regular season.

Dayton is awful right now so are the Bonnies but the other 3 yeah those will be very tough games. Richmond who knows but it is on the road.....

 

[GMU_DCU]

Didn’t look at the box score but how many turnovers did Allenspach have? It felt like 30. Every touch in the paint was him getting stripped, killed momentum constantly. He looked miserable as well, like he didn’t want to be there.

 

[nchocola]

I think Tony was a large part of that loss yesterday and probably knows it as well.

Tony issues -
-Taking a tech in a two possession game in the final 4 minutes is unacceptable for any coach.
-Slow starts to both halves.
-Lineups beginning of the halves and at the end of the game.
- Forcing the ball into Allenspach at the end of the game after the timeout.

Allenspach was out muscled and hustled all day. If he is not going offensively, he is an absolute liability on defense.

Mincy had a nice showing today and kept the team in the game. Kanga played well too.

This game needs to be a learning moment for Tony. I’m sure it will be. They are still 18-2 and it’s better to figure it out now rather than later.

If they get BOC back, he can definitely help on the defensive side as well as offensively. He is a stronger guard and should be able to keep a bigger guard in front of him or at the very least make it tougher to drive into the lane.

 

[Verdad]

My hope is them being unable to overcome the slow start and it biting them in the a**/knocking them out of 1st/even further off the bubble is the wake up call the coaches and players needed to finally figure this out and get over the slow start hump.

 

[GMU79]

My hope is them being unable to overcome the slow start and it biting them in the a**/knocking them out of 1st/even further off the bubble is the wake up call the coaches and players needed to finally figure this out and get over the slow start hump.

Yes, it has been driving all of us crazy all year long. And hopefully Tony will wake up and see that his starting 5 shouldn't be.

 

[Jack Strop]

Yes, it has been driving all of us crazy all year long. And hopefully Tony will wake up and see that his starting 5 shouldn't be.

I think we all expected a slow start to bite us in the tushie eventually. Hopefully, we now have that bugaboo out of our way.

I don't think it should always fall on Coach Skinn to get the team's energy up to start hard. Players need to be accountable for their performance, especially in the energy department. At some point, players need to look inside themselves. That's what one does if one wants to be a professional.

Starting five is fine. Dola was moved out to be a bench player.

Yesterday, Riley was made generally ineffective by the double- and triple-teams. Masai and Fatt didn't get theirs offensively either. We needed one of the three, but got none, unfortunately.

I saw pretty good D in the second half forcing a lot of long-clock possessions and forced shots. URI made a fair portion shooting 57% in the second half.

Team loss. Move forward.

 

[FreeGunston12]

I think we all expected a slow start to bite us in the tushie. Starting five is fine. Dola was moved out to be a bench player. Yesterday, Riley was made generally ineffective by the double- and triple-teams. Masai and Fatt didn't get theirs offensively either. We needed one of the three, but got none, unfortunately. Team loss. Move forward.

Changing the starters would just be a way to try and avoid the early holes we’ve consistently put ourselves in. I think it’s time to get Hill in there. Let Malik come off the bench. Maybe he can be a little more effective against tired legs and backups and get his mojo back.

I’d even consider moving Jahari out of the starting lineup. He has done a lot of his best work later in games. Tony needs to put the 5 out there that are going to be the most locked in from the tip.

 

[TweederGMU]

Changing the starters would just be a way to try and avoid the early holes we’ve consistently put ourselves in. I think it’s time to get Hill in there. Let Malik come off the bench. Maybe he can be a little more effective against tired legs and backups and get his mojo back.

Yea, time to sit Malik and start Hill. See what that does for the slow starts, will hopefully get the kids excited to penetrate and shoot better shots.

 

[NewPatriot]

Allenspach has lost the ball every time he's touched it.

URI figured out that Tony spaces the floor so for allensbach to take 2 or 3 power dribbles before making the jump hook. So now Archie Miller sent 2 extra defenders to dig at the ball while he made his power dribbles and got stripped every time.

Tony needs to tell Allensbach to kick it out as soon as the double and triple teams come ant hit the open man...or run a cutter to the basket for a. Easy 2.

 

[DRK331]

Highlights from the Rhode Island game on the road

 

[Jack Strop]

I've only made it to one game at EBA this year, but am I correct there were no flags for the other A10 teams? I've noticed in all of our conference road games that the other teams are still observing that tradition. Is there a story there? Or do we have banners and I somehow missed them?

Ya know... I looked around last night and I didn't see the A10 team banners either. Hmmmm??? I could have swore that I have seen them hung before. I wonder where they went?