Game 15, AT vcu, Jan 9th, 7 PM, CBS Sports Network

[Patriot Lawdog]

Sorry, I'm not impressed with steals when you're up 14 and there's 30 seconds left. I'm more impressed by steals when you're up 1 and there's 30 seconds left. Weber was just padding his stats. I'd guarantee you that guy knows how many steals he averages.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

You can have him. The kid is all about calling attention to himself. He's a preening idiot, and diving for a loose ball with a double-digit lead and 40 seconds left is just the kind of thing a preening idiot would do.

But I'm not surprised you like him. Not one bit.

I bet he has a dry erase board with his numbers of steals on it.

 

[99 Patriot]

Yup, he's just the next in a line of classless players out of that school. Plus, if we're being technical shouldn't his spiking of the ball after said steal and timeout been a technical? That play bothered me far less than the cheap shot on Holloway as time expired. Not only did he take the foul, but he hit him low risking a potential injury. Mike Morrison or Will Thomas would not have allowed that play to happen without payback. Wish we had someone with that same mentality.

My silver lining from the game is this. By most accounts we are smack in the middle of a down time for our program while vcu is at the peak of theirs. Their team did not impress me at all. They play as dumb as we do, they can't shoot and as Mateen Cleaves explained at halftime, teams have started to figure out Havoc. His analysis was spot on when he said, "If you are playing a team that gambles to fill every passing lane it means there is not going to be any help at the basket when you beat your man." We took advantage of that in the first half at least...

Agree with everyone else that MM/BA/PH/JJ/EC should be our starting five on Saturday.

 

[dr. gunnie]

Since I can't read most of the thread pages today because the extreme language filter at my work has blocked them, I have no idea what people are saying about last night's game (my guess is not very good if the extreme language filter won't let me read them).

Big thumbs up to the younger guys last night, specifically Jenkins, Moore, and Holloway. Those guys were not intimidated and I thought played very well. They give me hope that Mason can get back to playing quality basketball in the future.

The other guys continue to disappoint. Our post players struggled, again. I've come to the conclusion that Copes will never be the player we thought, probably because of the injury. My guess is he'll never get back to where he was - a shame. Without any A10 caliber post players we will continue to struggle. Last night's rebounding killed us. I haven't looked at the numbers, but at key times of the game we just couldn't grab the ball, and that was the difference.

I don't blame this loss on Hewitt (although I'm guessing others do). I thought our game plan to attack the rim was solid and I think starting Moore was the right call. This one was lost because of the guys down low. J2 is just not good enough. Copes isn't the player we thought we had (my guess is due to injury). Arledge is gone. I just don’t' think you can win many games in the A10 with those guys down low. Jenkins can help some down low, but he's more of a face to the basket 3/4 than a down low 5.

We better hope the recruits and/or Royal can step in next year and help us immediately, or next year it will be more of the same.

 

[gmutom]

I thought our man defense worked really well last night and believe it had more to do with vcu's bad shooting than them just having an off night. For the most part, I was happy with the way we defended the arc and their dribble penetration. Our main issue defensively was we gave up too many offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities.

We handled their pressure much better than I expected early (Moore was fantastic), but a handful of plays jump out as being the difference in the outcome:

--Marko throwing the ball away on an inbounds pass, which led to a wide-open vcu 3.
--Allen throwing the ball to a vcu player on a fastbreak, which led to an easy bucket the other way.
--Sherrod pretending he knows how to dribble and break a press by himself, leading to an easy basket.
--Allen missing a fastbreak layup and then J2 blowing the follow-up jam.

While there were several other miscues, those four plays alone are the difference between winning and losing. We did a lot of things very well last night, but we have to learn that every possession counts — especially on an offensively-challenged team like ours.

 

[PoorManProfit]

You can have him. The kid is all about calling attention to himself. He's a preening idiot, and diving for a loose ball with a double-digit lead and 40 seconds left is just the kind of thing a preening idiot would do.

But I'm not surprised you like him. Not one bit.

Thanks. I'll take him and all of his steals and confidence. You go ahead and keep all the talent you have.

 

[tarvis614]

I bet he has a dry erase board with his numbers of steals on it.

i'm picturing willie mays hayes pinning batting gloves to the wall...

re: defensive rebounding - while the bigs do a terrible job boxing out (jenkins included), a lot of possessions we end up with our guards trying to out rebound the other team's center b/c our defense switches everything. just an all around mess.

 

[Haxormax]

I didn't read the whole thread, but am I alone in thinking the refs helped them win this game, in a big way?

 

[dr. gunnie]

I didn't read the whole thread, but am I alone in thinking the refs helped them win this game, in a big way?

The refs swallowed their whistles, and that is never a good thing against vcu.

The puzzling thing was with all of our work in the paint, how few times we go to the line - specifically in the 1st half.

 

[mkaufman1]

i'm picturing willie mays hayes pinning batting gloves to the wall...

re: defensive rebounding - while the bigs do a terrible job boxing out (jenkins included), a lot of possessions we end up with our guards trying to out rebound the other team's center b/c our defense switches everything. just an all around mess.

Yes! I saw at a crucial point of the game that Holloway was guarding and boxing out Reddic because of our switching. Absurd!

 

[gmubrian]

Honestly, I have no problem with Weber making the steal when we were rolling the ball in bounds to get it up the court and save some time on the clock. If we are doing that, it means we are still trying to win the game, so the opposing team should still be doing their best to try to prevent us from doing that. This is not pee-wee basketball where you have mercy rules where you don't want the kids to be discouraged at a young age and never come back to the sport. This is the big leagues, we should treat it as such. These are kids that were most likely one of the best players on their team in high-school. If we take a shellacking for sloppy play, even at the end, that is life in the big leagues.

The hard hit on Holloway on the last play, that is another story. The game was over. You don't just let him score, but you do defend it cleanly. No need to risk an injury or brawl at the end of a game when you have it well in hand.

 

[Walter]

Yes! I saw at a crucial point of the game that Holloway was guarding and boxing out Reddic because of our switching. Absurd!

Even my wife commented on that.

 

[gmutom]

Yes! I saw at a crucial point of the game that Holloway was guarding and boxing out Reddic because of our switching. Absurd!

It was ridiculous that he got stuck covering Reddic, but I have to give Patrick credit for fronting him so aggressively. He looked like a poodle nipping at a Doberman, but damn if he didn't hold his ground.

Speaking of Patrick, he is absolutely one of my favorite players and a bright part of our future, but I really wish he would move more on offense. Far too often he just stands on the perimeter waiting for a pass. Part of the solution is we obviously need to run more plays to free him up, but he needs to realize he's a marked man now and that no team is going leave him wide open for the rest of his career.

 

[Washingtonian]

The hard hit on Holloway on the last play, that is another story. The game was over. You don't just let him score, but you do defend it cleanly. No need to risk an injury or brawl at the end of a game when you have it well in hand.

I have been talking to some of my vcu friends because that is the play I want to see on replay. I watched the game from Greene Turtle last night, and there wasn't a replay shown.

 

[Five Two]

--Allen missing a fastbreak layup and then J2 blowing the follow-up jam.

if a picture is worth a thousand words, this was worth about a million words (to steal a Vin Scully phrase from Game 6 of the 1986 World Series....yes, I still live in that world)

 

[99 Patriot]

Against better judgment I read a little bit of the vcu boards. Turns out you are all racists. Shame on you.

While it might make me a ginger hater, please tell me someone was able to capture the vcu crowd shot where there was a stoic giant red-headed guy just staring into space while everyone was going crazy around him. It made me chuckle. I'll also say that it appears many of the elderly folks who used to wear red sweaters at UR games have traded them in for yellow and black t-shirts as I was surprised by the number of aging Americans in the crowd.

 

[GMU84fanman]

Far too often he just stands on the perimeter waiting for a pass. Part of the solution is we obviously need to run more plays to free him up, but he needs to realize he's a marked man now and that no team is going leave him wide open for the rest of his career.

Generally agree Tom about setting more plays for Patrick but he has done a nice job more recently of penetrating and lofting a soft runner in the lane. He is no longer a one-trick pony and opponents are going to have to start laying off of him if he can continue to effectively penetrate and make these soft runners or set up the post for a lay-up or dunk.

 

[GMU84fanman]

I'll also say that it appears many of the elderly folks who used to wear red sweaters at UR games have traded them in for yellow and black t-shirts as I was surprised by the number of aging Americans in the crowd.

7:00pm in Richmond. What else are they going to do.

 

[psyclone]

Goff's article on the game-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...9a93a6-79a2-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html

including comments on the younger players vs the "veterans".

 

[gmujim92]

Since I can't read most of the thread pages today because the extreme language filter at my work has blocked them, I have no idea what people are saying about last night's game (my guess is not very good if the extreme language filter won't let me read them).

Mea culpa, Gunnie. Between last night and this morning, I've posted enough F-bombs on this site to activate even the most liberal "extreme language" filter.

My bad. Should know better than to post when I'm frustrated.

I'll cut it out so you can resume your enjoyment of masonhoops.com.