Game 25: GMU (13-11 / 5-6) at Duquesne (15-8 / 5-5) on Wednesday, February 8, at 7:00 PM.

[BBride]

No chance Kim fires Nate....zero. I'd move on from Felton and get another older established former HC, dare I say someone in the mold of DP?

UMass brought back Derek Kellogg as an assistant, why not DP

 

[Dawgs99]

Felton is supposed to be defense and Xs and Os assistant. Time to go, honestly give Matt McCall a call.

Love the idea of McCall on the staff, dude is super sharp.

 

[thebiasedannouncer]

Love the idea of McCall on the staff, dude is super sharp.

Yea if he is willing to take it and we move on from Felton, McCall should be call number uno.

 

[GSII]

Why start Gaines? Ease him in. 32 min 6pts. Not smart. Then we wonder why team looks dumb.

 

[gmujim92]

Why start Gaines? Ease him in. 32 min 6pts. Not smart. Then we wonder why team looks dumb.

Because he’s one of the few guys we have who plays defense.

 

[GSII]

Because he’s one of the few guys we have who plays defense.

Yea. OK. He fouled a 3pt shooter. It's like our new thing.

 

[gmujim92]

Yea. OK. He fouled a 3pt shooter. It's like our new thing.

You are so reductive it’s painful

 

[mkaufman1]

Simp is universally regarded as a good dude, and I thought it was smart of Kim to keep him on to help the holdover players during the transition, but 8 years with very little winning tells me it’s time for a change. For a staff with two guys who played PG at a very high level in P6 leagues, we sure have struggled to recruit and develop one.

Also not sure what Felton’s role is, but given our repeated struggles at the end of games, if he’s supposed to be the wise old assistant who helps the green HC with Xs and Os/game situations, we might need somebody different in that spot.

Agreed here. Have to think Felton is the one who would most likely be up for any change.

No chance Kim fires Nate....zero. I'd move on from Felton and get another older established former HC, dare I say someone in the mold of DP?

If Nate stays, you are promoting him if you get another #3 assistant. But yes, someone like a DP/Bruiser Flint would be a good fit. Someone who was a HC for a long time and can really be co pilot. Not sure how practical or how many of those are out there though.

 

[mkaufman1]

Yea if he is willing to take it and we move on from Felton, McCall should be call number uno.

McCall is known as an offense type coach, if I recall. I think Umass was super on offense but terrible on defense.

 

[thebiasedannouncer]

McCall is known as an offense type coach, if I recall. I think Umass was super on offense but terrible on defense.

This is correct, but we need help on both sides. McCall would at least bring some sort of structure to our offense, which generally has none, while KE has talked numerous times about what he wants our defense to look like. IMO, would be a good fit, even though it is unlikely.

 

[Patriotsince81]

Westhead to coach the offense!!!!

 

[gmujim92]

Westhead to coach the offense!!!!

Dude’s up in heaven telling Jesus to hurry up with the prayers already

 

[Patriotsince81]

Dude’s up in heaven telling Jesus to hurry up with the prayers already

We could use a little divine intervention at this point.

 

[gmujim92]

We could use a little divine intervention at this point.

More than a little

 

[mkaufman1]

Where is @sleeperpick? He has been strangely quiet.

Dude’s up in heaven telling Jesus to hurry up with the prayers already

Hes been banned. Please no further comments on the banning etc, feel free to message myself or @HoopsAdmin for questions etc.

 

[gmutom]

What happened to pushing the ball? What happened to the first 7 seconds are for the players? Well, RP wastes more than 7 seconds on just about every trip down the floor.

This 100%!!! A huge indictment of our roster and strategy is we do nothing to speed up the game and make teams uncomfortable. According to the Duquesne announcers, we went the entire first half and at least five minutes into the second half last night without a single fastbreak point.

Think about that for a second: not one steal that led to an easy bucket; not one rebound and quick outlet that led to a transition basket; and not one turnover that created an opportunity for an easy score. Instead, we make the game so damn complicated by playing half-court basketball — with a roster that includes no proven PG and sporadic shooters at best!!!

 

[mkaufman1]

This 100%!!! A huge indictment of our roster and strategy is we do nothing to speed up the game and make teams uncomfortable. According to the Duquesne announcers, we went the entire first half and at least five minutes into the second half last night without a single fastbreak point.

Think about that for a second: not one steal that led to an easy bucket; not one rebound and quick outlet that led to a transition basket; and not one turnover that created an opportunity for an easy score. Instead, we make the game so damn complicated by playing half-court basketball — with a roster that includes no proven PG and sporadic shooters at best!!!

we sped the game up for like 2 or 3 minutes when we threw a zone at them, but other than that we played really slow and it was just a mess to watch.

 

[gmujim92]

This 100%!!! A huge indictment of our roster and strategy is we do nothing to speed up the game and make teams uncomfortable. According to the Duquesne announcers, we went the entire first half and at least five minutes into the second half last night without a single fastbreak point.

Think about that for a second: not one steal that led to an easy bucket; not one rebound and quick outlet that led to a transition basket; and not one turnover that created an opportunity for an easy score. Instead, we make the game so damn complicated by playing half-court basketball — with a roster that includes no proven PG and sporadic shooters at best!!!

It’s definitely a quandary. We don’t defend well enough to force live-ball turnovers, and when we do try to increase ball pressure on the perimeter we can’t protect the paint.

I’m sure the offense has slowed down to try and limit turnovers, but that seems like a lost cause. We fumble the ball away even when we walk it up the court and try to run a methodical half-court set. May as well run and shoot quickly and see what happens.

EDIT: Another solution is to get better players who are capable of playing the way Kim has repeatedly said he wants to.

 

[Bricker]

Not much to add... agree with all this and a clean slate is definitely needed. I wish there was a way to head-shrink them, but it hasn't happened yet and I doubt it's possible at this point.

The intangibles are part of what's killing this team. I was thinking that as JF got stripped from behind bringing up the ball yesterday. I might be wrong, but it looked like no teammate even as much as made a peep about it, they just watched it happen. No one communicating or helping on the court. Instead, it's like everything else with this team -- they just let the game play out as it is. Let the opponent dictate everything that goes down and try to work within those constraints.

We have zero players who consistently exert their will on the game. Sure, they'll occasionally get amped for a big play. But there is no on-court leadership or someone who is demanding to win. That's why they can't get it done on the road and consistently play down to competition.

Maybe it's time for the older guys to all move on, as important as some of them are. Kim has called out the older transfers because they don't get it... well, the older guys who've been here since the last regime don't get it, either.

If we want to see a culture change, it needs to be created from the ground up. At this point, I'd rather deal with a down year that actually looked like it was evolving into something. Get a young and hungry team of freshman and sophomores out there and find a real PG and you might have a product I want to watch.

 

[mkaufman1]

Not much to add... agree with all this and a clean slate is definitely needed. I wish there was a way to head-shrink them, but it hasn't happened yet and I doubt it's possible at this point.

The intangibles are part of what's killing this team. I was thinking that as JF got stripped from behind bringing up the ball yesterday. I might be wrong, but it looked like no teammate even as much as made a peep about it, they just watched it happen. No one communicating or helping on the court. Instead, it's like everything else with this team -- they just let the game play out as it is. Let the opponent dictate everything that goes down and try to work within those constraints.

We have zero players who consistently exert their will on the game. Sure, they'll occasionally get amped for a big play. But there is no on-court leadership or someone who is demanding to win. That's why they can't get it done on the road and consistently play down to competition.

Maybe it's time for the older guys to all move on, as important as some of them are. Kim has called out the older transfers because they don't get it... well, the older guys who've been here since the last regime don't get it, either.

If we want to see a culture change, it needs to be created from the ground up. At this point, I'd rather deal with a down year that actually looked like it was evolving into something. Get a young and hungry team of freshman and sophomores out there and find a real PG and you might have a product I want to watch.

Agree with you and I alluded to the point that there needed to be more of a rebuild than we thought when English came in.

I too would take a down year if it looked like things were actually progressing (a year like this), in the sense of the best basketball peaking in February and expectations being "there's going to be a learning curve with our youth".

The downside of that, is you then you probably throw all your eggs in a 1 year basket in the hopes that English can get extended or you have to restart the whole thing again.

I don't know what the answer is. When English was hired I expected an NCAA team within 3-4 years. So far in 1 3/4 of a year, I've gotten .500 basketball, and some really ugly losses and a lot of close losses. Maybe the switch magically goes on next year?