Listen, let me be honest with you. That game we just played was atrocious. Army's defense ate us alive, and we played right into it with terrible passing and decisions with the ball. We got killed in the paint on both ends of the court. The way I feel tonight is that this was a team loss. Yes Vlad had 22 points, which was a lot considering we had 48 for the game, but when you get whipped the way this team just did, everyone loses. So here's your Good, Bad, and Ugly for tonight.
THE GOOD
...
THE BAD
...
THE UGLY
Everyone.
All 200 minutes of that game for our AU Eagles. Get it together, boys. You're going to have a full house on Saturday for Phil Bender, and if you lose to Holy Cross the way you just lost to Army, you're going to have an empty arena by halftime.
Check in tomorrow, we'll have some great content for you!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES (even when they play terribly, like tonight)!
the Army game was a disgraceful show of team defense. The AU kids were standing still. Lumpkin was waving at guys driving the lane in the early mooments of the 2nd half. The coaching staff must share some of the blame in not getting these kids to play. Players + Coaches= Awful. I would have done what coach K or Dean Smith has done- sat the starting 5 and put in the next five- one minute into the 2nd half. It's hard to criticize our a kid's performance unless it appears that they are not into the game. Unless we get some contribution on the defensive and offensive end from the backcourt then games like Army will happen again. Matt Gruner of Lafayette wanted to come to AU, and the coaches said they doubted he could contribute soon- if at all. Well he is a senior at Lafayette and doing fine. how nice would it have been to have him leading the backcourt this his senior season? The coaching staff must share some of the blame for having 7 seniors graduate, and leaving our team without leadership in the backcourt. No excuse for that . Coach Jones has gotten a pass so far this season because of the two Championship seasons. Yet he is not beyond criticism for having an inexperienced team on the court. Yes the prospects look good for next year with our transfers- but I for one want to see development of the 4 yr. players. As someone smarter than me has said- "you are what your record says you are". that goes for the coaches too.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I worship at your altar.
ReplyDeleteLike always, the stats tell the story:
ReplyDelete- AU shot 24% from the field in the first half. Army shot almost double that percentage.
- Army shot 50% from 3 point land in the game. When half of your threes go in, it ceases to be a "they were on fire" matter and starts being a "we play terrible perimeter defense" matter.
- Points off turnovers: Army 27 - AU 6
- The only lead we had in the game was 3-2 less than five minutes into the first half.
- Danny, Simon, and Riley each had more TOs than points.
- Army had 7 steals.
- Simply put, when Vlad scores nearly HALF of our total points, that's not just poor execution - it's poor coaching (I completely agree with everything anonymous said).
Anonymous and Tom, you should be writing this blog, not me! Enough said.
ReplyDeleteyes, this team is not very good right now. yes, all the coaches and players could be doing a better job.
ReplyDeleteyes there is very little experience out there right now. yes the cupboard was pretty darn bare after those 7 guys graduated last year. but let's also keep some perspective. coach jones is not getting a pass because of the 2 championships the past year. he and the program have earned it with his and the teams' performance over the past 8 years. and probably no one is more upset or disturbed by the state of the team this year than him, but he has had the eagles at the top of the league for a long time, not just the last 2 years. as you said, "you are what your record says you are". so let's look at jones' record in the patriot league: in 8 years they have played in 5 championship games. in 8 years they have won the regular season 3 times and tied for 1st a 4th year. in 8 years they have finished the regular season 1st, 2nd, 1st (tied), 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 1st and 1st. and his teams have been a mix of transfers and 4 year players throughout that entire time. i think only holy cross has won more patriot league games over that same span. so yes the team is rebuilding - significantly - right now. it would be great if they could be as good as the last 2 years every year, but it just doesn't work that way.
as for mike gruner. yes he's a good player. yes he would help in the backcourt right now. but is he better than mercer or carr or ingram? would he have played over those guys the past 3 years or would he have played sparingly as their backup? maybe au's coaches were right that he wouldn't have played that much. maybe au didn't have any available scholarships that year he graduated from high school - which may be why there are no scholarship seniors on this years's team? maybe he chose lafayette over american because he knew he could play there more, earlier in his career - which is exactly what he has done. and yes right now as a senior they are better than us and he is playing well. but for the last 3 years they have won 8, 15 and 9 games and never been in contention in the league. so would mike gruner help right now. yes. would you want to change places with lafayette's fans over the past 3 years? and maybe he just simply chose to go a place where he could play as a freshman and didn't want to wait his turn cared more about his playing time than being part of a winning program?
would it be great to see more 4 year players - yes - and we will again, as hendra, luptak, lumpkins, mccormack, munoz, and hopefully others will continue to develop. but right now this is the team we've got. and while they may be struggling right now, they'll probably only get better over time and hopefully the new players next year - be they transfers or freshmen - will help get us back to the top of the league. i'm pretty sure mercer's freshmen year - even with an experienced andre ingram on the team - they struggled some. let's keep the faith a little bit here people. NOBODY wins EVERY year in college basketball - not duke, florida, north carolina, georgetown, american, bucknell, holy cross, penn or princeton. sometimes good players graduate and the younger guys just aren't ready yet. but i look at jones' record over the long-term and i see a hwole lot more success than i don't
Second Anon - Your point(s) are well taken. I certainly don't expect us to have last year be every year. Still, last night was ugly any way you slice it. Is this team the most talented we've ever had? No. Should we be dropping games to teams like UMBC and Columbia? No. Should we be getting absolutely spanked by Army? No. We've done less than we could have with what we have, to date. I hope that will change as PL play progresses.
ReplyDeleteto anon # 2- no one expects to win every year or every other year. One bad game in the last 3 will assure a team of that. mike gruner wanted to come to AU. it was his first choice. The Leopards were plan B or C. He has started for bad lafayette teams for nearly 3 yrs. Frannie a plus on the bench? how about a transfer point guard instead? Coach Jones played Mercer nearly 40 minutes every game his last two yrs because he had no adequate backup to give him a breather. when he left the game the team collapsed. That is the point plain and simple. We are both pulling in the same direction here. Coach Jones is not beyond criticism, and the tone of your comment reeks of that. There are only 7 other teams in this league, and two of them are recruiting restricted by military service. So AU has some immediate recruiting advantages. let me ask you a question anon # 2..... is there anything you would criticize Coach Jones for over the past 8 yrs? Certainly there must be something ? Leaving the cupboard bare in perhaps the most critical position on the court seems like a valid criticism. Let us both hope Steve Luptak plays with confidence or Dan or Blake develop.
ReplyDeleteAnon # 1
Of course Jones is open to criticism, and of course I dont agree with everything that he has been done. And I am admittedly a Jones fan. But I can't help but see a whole lot more good than bad over the Jones era so I am willing to trust him because he has a good track record and it has only been 1 bad season so far. And this year's team is just not that good. And it is hard to watch. Especially because we have become accustomed to some pretty darn good basketball. But it happens, and I guess I'd rather focus on the promise of the future and support the team and the coach thru a tough spot right now. Because there are soom good pieces on this team and there are (hopefully) some good transfers playing next year.
ReplyDeleteBut again, I think it is unrealistic to want it all. If Mike Gruner wanted to come to AU so bad, then why didn't he? He wouldn't have played for the past 3 years (very much) over players better than he was then or is now - Mercer, Carr, Ingram, Linas, Arvydas. So he went somewhere where he could play more. No harm there for him or Jones. And again, we have no scholarship seniors this year so therefor Jones couldn't have given Gruner a scholarship anyway - because the AU graduating class that recruiting year was only a walk-on, Weinstein. Is it bad timing that the year after 7 guys (6 of them very good players) graduate there are no scholarship seniors? Absolutely. Was it a gamble on Jones' part to bring in transfers and load up that class that just graduated? Absolutely. Did it work? Obviously. Is there a price to pay now? Clearly. Would you trade the past 2 year's success to be a little better right now? I wouldn't. Could Jones have not taken the transfers - Simon, Borden, Frane - and therefor have more juniors in the program now? Yes. Would the team have been as good the past 2 years? Not as good but still good. Good enough to have won back to back titles? Highly debateable.
And point guard play is a big issue for this team. Danny and Blake are just not good enough right now. Would it have been better to have sophomore who backed-up Mercer last year? Absolutely. Did the guys Jones tried to recruit want to go somewhere where they could play as freshmen rather than wait a year? Probably. Was the hope that Danny or Blake would be good enough as freshmen? Yes. Has that gamble worked? No. But hopefully they can keep getting better. If nothing else, it should make us appreciate just how good Mercer was, not just last year, but as a freshman. I don't see and haven't seen many freshmen point guards in our league who have been very good. Sometimes it just takes time. Let's hope that they get better and that the transfers are good.
Great dialogue between the two of you here, and good points on both sides. So thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteAs a tongue-in-cheek comment, if we all had static aliases (not even real names) we could track these conversations better. Just saying.
Lesson learned from this post: too many annons. :)
ReplyDeleteThis was really enlightening guys, thanks! It all just makes me more excited for PHIL BENDER tomorrow!
ReplyDelete