Things I Think About a Game I Didn't See

Woo. Took me long enough to get this up, eh? So I didn't see the game last night. I'm going off of what I read through various recaps and the box score. Take this analysis with a grain of salt, I guess. I'm hoping you'll bail me out and post in the comments what you saw or heard last night. Or don't. It's Friday night after all.

Anyway. Some things I think.

- Glad to see Vlad's shot selection change a little bit last night. He was successful WITHOUT the long ball (only attempted two 3's and hit one of them). Still, he was the team's leading scorer with 21. Vlad lately has been relying too much on the long ball. This hopefully is a good reminder to him that he can score, at a serious clip, within the arc.

- Lump's foul trouble really hurt us inside last night. With 6 points and 1 rebound, this is definitely his worst game of the season. It's curious to me that he only played 14 minutes and yet Fisher and Wroblicky combined for just 8 minutes. I'm guessing they moved Vlad over to the 5 and put Hinkle at the 4 (since Hinkle had 24 minutes). Strange lineup. Tony Wroblicky's minutes have really dropped off lately. We saw him a lot at the beginning of the season, but he started to fall off a bit and now we don't see him much at all. Disappointing, but I hope that he can battle through and earn some more minutes as we get to PL play.

- Another solid game out of Troy Brewer last night. There's a rumor he even dunked the ball and didn't get a technical. Jokes aside, a very respectable stat line from him last night.

- To be within 4 of this Northwestern team at halftime is something that should be applauded. I didn't think there was much chance of us pulling this game out, and, well, we didn't pull this game out. You do have to wonder why the second half woes that we had so badly last year are creeping back on us again. AU appears to have come out flat after halftime. Northwestern started the 2nd half with a 22-6 run. Oof. Brutal.

- This is a Northwestern team that is very, very talented. Shurna is going to make a solid run for 1st team Big 10, and Michael Thompson is having a great season as well. Aside from those two we did a pretty good job on defense (holding them to 8-22). But, well, those two are a pretty big part of the offense so I guess it's a wash analysis.

- Nice game from Simon last night. As I mentioned in the last recap, his minutes are going to be reduced. To get 4 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists in 13 minutes says to Jeff Jones, "I'm productive, you've got to find me some minutes." Having Lump in foul trouble last night opened up some time for Simon by way of shifting Hinkle over.

Anyway, that's all I've got. What did you all see and want to share? Are we excited for Mt. St. Mary's on Monday?

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

When I Still Can't Believe We Lost this Game There's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Wow. I'm stunned. I thought having a good night's sleep would bring me to acceptance of the fact that we dropped our first game of the season yesterday afternoon. It didn't. I'm still stunned. This was a game we had firmly in hand and then just kind of, dropped. It wasn't like there was a strong momentum shift or anything, we just let them back into the game, and then they beat us. Vlad did not play yesterday, he was in street clothes. He had a concussion, but I'm not sure where/how/when he picked that up. Hopefully he'll be back for the trip to Morgantown because the prospect of this team going down there without him when they just blew a double-digit lead to Columbia yesterday is terrifying. Anyway, the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY.

THE GOOD

Stephen Lumpkins - Lump had a rough first three or four minutes but then came on nicely and picked up another double double. He had 20 points (8-13) and 12 boards and also chipped in three blocks. He did a nice job on interior defense, and also caused a few turnovers with his quick hands. Lump has been on a roll the past few games, and this is the player we all knew had to show up for us to go far this season. Keep it up, big guy, you cannot be stumped!

Simon McCormack - Hell of a game yesterday from Simon, who played 27 minutes and was the team's third highest scorer with 13 (on 6-9 shooting). He also had six rebounds and was all over the court on defense per usual. Simon's minutes have been reduced this year, but it's good to see that he can still be a very productive player when JJ needs to call on him.

Troy Brewer - I don't know what kind of English/rotation/spin Troy puts on the ball. I do know that it makes the smoothest swishes on threes that I maybe have ever seen. The net doesn't even move when he makes these baskets. It's insane. Troy "InsertNicknameHere" Brewer fit into his recent pattern as a sniper again yesterday. He went 4-8 from 3, totaled 18 points, and also had two blocks. He also played 39 minutes and only picked up two fouls. He narrowly missed the chance to make it into the AU legendarium yesterday...with 1.7 seconds left, Hendra inbounded to Lump who kicked it to Troy in the corner. Troy's three was just a little too strong, and we dropped the game 64-62. So, so close. Good game from Troy though, his consistency is definitely improving.

Daniel Fisher - With Vlad out yesterday, Daniel Fisher got the nod over Riley Grafft to play some minutes inside. He ended up playing 13 minutes and got 4 boards and an assist. Some points would have been nice, but he did a good job setting screens on the offensive end and was pretty solid on defense as well. He ended up getting more minutes than Tony Wroblicky yesterday, which was a little surprising. Nice work from the Aussie yesterday.

THE BAD

Point Guard Play - I was at the game yesterday. I watched for the positive intangibles and non-stat sheet items that I was berated for not including in the last Good, Bad, and Ugly. I didn't see them. What I did see was a lot of sloppy ball handling from Hendra (who had an otherwise okay game, but wasn't good enough to make it into the GOOD column), Munoz, and Luptak. They combined for 9 of our 15 turnovers, and honestly there could have been a lot more. Sloppy ball handling. Passes that only just barely made it to who they were supposed to. Not good yesterday. Hence, bad.

Mike Bersch - Bersch made his first career start yesterday (Congrats!), but he didn't make much of it. He only earned 6 minutes and went 0-1 with a turnover. He still looks lost out there on defense, and on the offensive end he doesn't move well with the ball. For the moment it looks like for him to be a weapon we need to get him the ball when he's set behind the three point line. Not sure he'll get another start for a while, especially given how Simon played yesterday. Keep working, Bersch. You know you're a favorite over here. We're pulling for you, but we need to see more out of you than what you gave us yesterday.

Tony Wroblicky - Tony showed flashes of awesomeness yesterday. A nasty block, a nice hook shot fading away from the basket, but he also picked up three personal fouls in nine minutes of play. He was definitely outplayed by Daniel Fisher, who got his first significant playing time ever yesterday. We need Tony to step up to be the guy to back up Lump, ultimately he's got to be the long term option.

THE UGLY

I can't really put my finger on what caused the loss yesterday. I think it was complacency. Sitting in the stands yesterday, we had a double-digit lead, and as a fan, I never thought we'd give it up. Yeah they got close, but I just kept waiting for a Lump dunk or a Brewer three-point dagger to end their run. It didn't happen. All of a sudden it was like "Oh shit, we're down 2." And then, "Oh, SHIT. We're tied." And then, "OH SHIT!! WE'RE LOSING?" And then, finally and sadly, "Oh...shit...we lost that game. What the hell happened?" We had Columbia on the ropes and then just didn't knock them out. It seemed like we just were out there expecting to win, assuming that lead would hold. Well, we assumed wrong, and we dropped a game we definitely should have won. We looked great in stretches yesterday, even without Vlad. And then we looked completely flat. This team is still consistently inconsistent, and that's a bad thing to be with a tough road schedule coming up.

We were going to lose games this season; we knew that. But we shouldn't have lost to Columbia. I think games like this are the difference between a 14 and a 15 seed come tournament time. That assumes we win the PL Tournament, of course, but bear with me. The selection committee expects teams like AU to lose to teams like WVU, Pitt, Northwestern, and Florida. Losing to teams like that don't count too much against us. But the committee will look at the teams who are at our level and see if we beat everyone we should have. If we did that, we're more likely to get a 14, maybe even a high 14, and not a 15. Well, Columbia is a game we should've had. At home, with a double-digit lead, you win that game. I hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the ass come postseason time, assuming there is postseason time.


Thoughts from yesterday?

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

And They Would've Won, Too, If It Weren't for You Meddlesome Eagles! The GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Two games for our Eagles, and two wins! According to AUEagles.com, this is only the second time under Jeff Jones that the Eagles have started 2-0. Pretty surprising given the level of success we've enjoyed overall during the JJ era. In any event, we played an Albany team that was more or less overmatched the entire game. We jumped out to an 8-2 lead and never looked back. Were there areas we definitely could've improved upon? Yes. In some ways, the margin almost could've been higher. This is an Albany team that was missing its best player and was in foul trouble all game. When you read the rest of this, it might actually read like a GOOD, BAD, and UGLY from a loss. There weren't a lot of standout individual performances. This is a night where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Still, a win is a win. Let's get into it.

THE GOOD

The point guard position - Danny and Steve combined tonight to go 4-8 overall and 2-5 from behind the arc for 10 points. They also had 6 assists and no turnovers. For a position that was supposed to be the weakest part of AU's game, these two have done a pretty good job platooning at the point. Danny's improvement from behind the arc is noticeable and could be a big factor that allows us to spread out the defense even further as the season goes on.

Mike Bersch - Only 11 minutes, but 5 points and a rebound on 2-4 shooting, including his first of what I suspect will be many this season from behind the arc. Welcome back to the good column, Mike.

Stephen Lumpkins - It seemed like Lump has having some trouble finishing his shots during the game, but the 5-10 shooting line wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Add to that his 8 boards and 2 blocks and the fact that he shut down Albany's John Puk (no shots, one rebound, five fouls) all night and he definitely deserves to be here.

Assist to turnover ratio - Any time AU has a 2.0 assist/turnover ratio it deserves to be in the good column. All due praise to the ball handling tonight.

THE BAD

Shot selection - Like I said above, this was a game where we were in the driver's seat the entire way. So let's look at the shot selection: 21-48 overall, but 7-23 from long range. Just under half of our shots were three point attempts. That's unbelievable and inexcusable against an opponent like Albany. Why shoot like you're down 15 when you were up 15 for most of the game? There's no reason to take that many shots from long range. I think it's an indictment of our ability to get the ball inside for us to take that many shots from outside. Not only was the number of 3's we took too high, but the number we made was way too low. Vlad: 1-7, Troy: 2-6. Come on, guys. There will be games you're going to need to rely on the 3. This wasn't one of them.

Free throws - 8-15 tonight. Better improve on that quickly because it will really hurt us later in the season if we're shooting ~50% from the line. Credit to Simon McCormack who hit all 6 of his tonight.

Second half slump - Yes we didn't play with a ton of urgency because we had a big lead, but we only outscored Albany 23-21 in the second half. We also shot 14% worse. Against a team that had 12 fouls in the first half, we only forced one guy to foul out. Felt like we were going through the motions a little bit because of our lead.

Rebounding - Outrebounded 38-31.

THE UGLY

The announcing for this game - The two guys who announced this game for the radio feed should stick with the play-by-play at the duck pond. Couldn't pronounce names for their lives (Vlad Moldano, Mike Hendra, anyone?) With 3 minutes left, and Albany down 14, they were still talking about how they could come back and win it. Just a very poor broadcasting crew. Was tough to listen to. Not like our very own Dan Laing.

Maryland Eastern Shore's loss to Columbia - Columbia hung ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT points on UMES tonight and had 6 players score in double digits. As ugly as that is, I sure hope Wednesday's matchup against UMES will get even uglier for the Hawks. The sweet, sweet revenge tour of '10-'11 continues. We've avenged our losses to Randolph-Macon, St. Francis (PA), and Albany. UMES is next.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

9 straight quarterfinal wins, 9 straight wins over Navy, 9 games away from an NCAA championship...coincidence? I think not. The GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Gooooood evening AUHoops fans! Well, this team has really pulled it together toward the end of the season and avoided three potentially unfortunate distinctions. We've never finished below 4th in the PL, we've never finished below .500 in the PL, and after tonight's victory against Navy, we have always made it into the semifinals of the PL tourney. It was a great win tonight, although a little more cardiac toward the end than it needed to be (more on that later). We played 38 solid minutes and then almost gave it up in the last two minutes. We'll be playing Lehigh at 8pm (what a ridiculous time) on Sunday. The EIWA wrestling championships are being held at Lehigh and won't be done until after 5pm. Because it's so late and on a Sunday, I'll be liveblogging rather than actually attending. Sorry about that. Anyway, let's get to it.

We took care of business, and I can only say GOOD things about it

Well, like Jeff Jones said in the post-game (thanks to the AU Examiner for sending me the audio of that), the first half and the beginning of the second half were just about the best basketball that we've played all year. We passed well, took care of the ball, scored from inside and outside, played solid defense. Just did everything right. In light of this (and the fact that I'd have to be more ticky tack than the ref who threw Hoop Time out of a game recently) I'm not doing a BAD or UGLY section for tonight. I'm just going to point out the GOOD and some other notes about today. I could get clever and do the GOOD, the GREAT, and the EXCELLENT, but I think you guys pretty much get the picture. So here we go!

GOOD: Lump and Simon BAD: Anyone not GOOD who isn't Vlad or Hendra UGLY: Vlad and Hendra

Wow, I did it. I actually did it. I've been putting off all evening writing this entry because I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I flirted with the idea of making the title, "When there isn't much good to write about, it makes for a short GOOD, BAD, and UGLY." I think what I ended up with though is very to the point. Let's you know where everyone stands so you don't even have to read the entry. This frees up more time for your Sunday night so you can rejoice in Team USA's victory over our neighbors to the north. I imagine there are some of you who will read this entry anyway, and for those of you that do be sure to read: the recap, the box score, and our opponents' thoughts on the game. Join me after the jump for what I promise you will be a pretty succinct entry.

When your team plays a great first half and ends up avenging an earlier loss that's GOOD, when it almost gives the game away in the 2nd it's BAD/UGLY

Goooood evening AU Hoops fans. Hope you're all having a good night. I have to say I'm just catching my breath from that loss. I feel like I didn't breathe very well during tonight's second half. I guess you could say I was breathing about as well as our Eagles were playing. All's well that ends well, I guess, and since Cleveland Richard's desperation 3-point heave at the end of the game rimmed out, all is well. Still, I can't help but think that we should have never let it get as close as we did in the second half. Anyway, the night isn't getting any younger. Meet me after the jump for our normal post-game ritual.

When your team beats the (current) 1st place team and climbs to 2nd place it makes you happy to write about the game's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Goooooooooood afternoon AU hoops fans! Hope you all had a chance to watch our AU Eagles declaw the Laugh-ayette Kittycats! There were a few ties and lead changes in this game, but to be honest we had the game in hand for a majority of the time, and it was really a matter of "Are we going to blow this?" more than "Are they going to come back?" The answer to both questions, of course, is no! This win, our third straight, means we will finish this weekend no lower than tied for second place. What a great day to be an AU Eagles fan. I hope you're all enjoying the snow and being careful and all that. Do yourself a favor, don't go outside, stay right here and join me as I dish out the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

When you beat your arch-nemeses, in front of a packed arena, and your coach gets his 300th win, there's a lot of GOOD and not much BAD or UGLY

What a glorious, glorious day to be an Eagle. Packed crowd. Tie at halftime. Eagles win. Ah. Makes me so happy. Be sure to check out the following resources: AU's recap, the box score, Mike Unger's liveblog of the game, and Hoop Time's livetweeting and recap of the game. Woo that's a lot of resources. Alright let's get down to the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

When you play a complete game on your home court and it fills me with a warm fuzzy feeling, I'm happy to write a GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Goooood evening AU Hoops fans. What a game, what a GAME. I hope you were able to make it to Bender today to see our AU Eagles beat Colgate 73-63. Barring that, I hope you were able to watch it in some form. This was one of the more enjoyable games I've ever seen at Bender, to be honest. Lots of passion from a very fired up team as they extended the PL home winning streak to 18. The recap is here and the box score is here. I also have to say I'm very happy to see the post-game press conference video up, nice touch athletics! Let's get to dishing out the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY after the jump!

There wasn't a whole lot of GOOD last night, but there were heaping helpings of BAD and UGLY

Gooooood afternoon AU Hoops fans. Hope everyone out there is having a good day and enjoying the Ravens beating the snot out of the Patriots. Kind of like how the Lehigh Hill Pigeons beat our beloved AU Eagles last night. The first half of that game was probably one of the worst that I've ever seen out of AU basketball. There's a little bit of everything today, so let's get down to it.

No Guts. No Glory, No Victory, No Niceties in the GOOD, the BAD, or the UGLY

I just. You know. As hard as it's been on the team I'm sure to lose all these games...10? 11? 12? How many is it? It's kind of hard to keep writing all of these recaps. I think this video adequately sums up how I feel about the season thus far....

Surprisingly, There Is More GOOD than BAD or UGLY Because We Won Today

Today was a pretty good day for the AU Eagles and their fans as we beat Brown in Providence 76-68. It was a complete game all the way around, and there are a lot of positives about the way we played. Certainly some negatives as well, and you'll get to hear all about them as soon as you click "Read More." As always, here's the recap and box score. And away we go!

As much GOOD as there was in the DePaul win, there's as much BAD and UGLY in the UMBC loss

Gooood evening AU fans. I'm not feeling very well (I didn't even make it to the game today), so this will be a pretty perfunctory edition of good, bad, and ugly. Sorry about that. In any event.

EAGLES WIN! EAGLES WIN! Speculation Tuesday and GOOD, BAD, and UGLY All in One? WHY NOT!? WE WON!

Gooooooooooood evening AU Hoops fans! We won! We won! We got a win! We were victorious! Ah, savor it. Having something other than a zero in the win column. Marvelous. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEAM!

Ah, effusive joy and happiness concluded, it's time to get back to reality-ville. We won, but it was against an 0-7 team. And it was a very close game, 59-53. There is a lot to talk about in the good column tonight, but there's also some in the bad and ugly. We've also got a piece of news that will come at the end of this entry, and I'll do a very, very quick Speculation Tuesday at the end that will leave you with some questions to think about.

Alright here we goooooo with what should be a pretty long entry!

When you lose to a team you flat-out should've beaten, I can search for GOOD but can find plenty of BAD and UGLY

Ugh. Good evening AUHoops.com fans! Thanks to all of you who came out and participated in our liveblog today. For those of you haven't heard. We lost. Again. For the seventh time in a row. Unlike the past couple of losses, this is a game we should've won, and, well, we didn't. Let me give a disclaimer here, I'm going to write up this Good, Bad, and Ugly based on the box score, the recaps I read, and the comments in the liveblog. If I don't get it entirely correct, I apologize in advance, but I think I'll probably do a pretty good job. (Good enough for government work, as they say). Here's the recap and box score.

Anyway, let's get on with it, painful as it may be.

When you play 10 really good minutes and 30 minutes full of putrescence, there's some GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Well goooooooood afternoon AUHoops fans. If you were at the game today, I imagine you're probably trying to forget what you saw. But, like a deranged psychiatrist, I'm going to dredge up all those painful memories, make you confront them, and give you no closure about it! How do you like them apples?

The long story short is that we lost this game 81-69. We were down 16 at half, down 23 at one point in the second half, and we managed to claw back to within four. Ultimately though, the wheels came off and we're now sitting at 0-4 for the season.

Let me be honest, if I had had to write this entry at halftime, it would have looked like this:
GOOD - Matt Wilson, BAD - Mike Jarvis's career trajectory, UGLY - everything else about AU. Luckily, I didn't have to write it at halftime. Unluckily, I had to watch the second half.

Third Time's The Charm

It's preview time again here at AU Basketball Central, as our Eagles fly onto the hardwood of Bender Arena yet again tomorrow (Saturday) at noon. For those of you who stopped by last time to check out Bill's Mt. St. Mary's preview, I apologize for the Sylvester Stallone joke. I clearly would not condone such a reference in one of my own previews, unless it involved some sort of incredible Rocky/Rambo hybrid meant to symbolize Stephen Lumpkins' intimidating game-face. But I digress...

So here we are, three games into a five game homestand. The first two didn't go quite as planned, but there's a spring of endless optimism here at AU Basketball Central, and we drink from it every night just to stay sane. So as they say, third time's the charm! Let's see what we're up against tomorrow after the jump.

The....Florida Atlantic University Owls! Owls, you say? Owls?! Unless our mascot suddenly becomes the field mouse, I don't see these owls having any sort of real advantage tomorrow. Plus, owls are pretty far down on the "badass bird" scale, so we win there too. Could this mean we'll record our first win of the season? Why, I believe it could!

When a freshman birthday boy plays his heart out but the team still loses, there's a little bit of GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Gooooood evening AU fans. Josh wanted me to title this entry, "Again." I really thought about titling it "Again!?" But ultimately, you got what you're seeing. Fresh from Bender Arena, another evening, another loss. This is one, quite frankly, that I thought we would drop. This is what I wrote on August 10:

"Nov. 18 (Wed) - 7:30p - Mt. St. Mary's (@AU) - As mentioned above, the Mount really kicked in our teeth last year in our only home loss. The Eagles will really have to dig in deep if they want to reverse their fortunes this year, especially since Mt. St. Mary's returns its top four scorers from a year ago. Not looking forward to this game, folks. I'll bring the peroxide because there's a good chance our guys are going to get beat up."

Woo, I'm not awful at predicting things. We lost the game 73-62, and my prediction before the game on Twitter was that if we could keep it to under 10 points in a loss it'd be a moral win. I'll take 11 points, though, because I'm not good at math. In any event, plenty to talk about tonight, so let's get to the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY...

Will Jeff Jones tone down the profanity? Should the Blue Crew be the Red Crew? Is it Speculation Tuesday? Only one question can be answered YES

Why do I speculate on Tuesdays? It could be because I first had the idea to do a weekly post full of speculations on a Tuesday, or it could be because our site traffic needs a boost on Tuesday. But why hasn't there been a Speculation Tuesday entry since the first one like three weeks ago? It could be because I'm forgetful or easily distracted by shiny objects. Or it could be because the blue paint I use on myself isn't quite as non-toxic as it says it is on the label.

In any event, I'll be trying to make this a more regular feature on the site. Have things you want me to speculate about? Send them to auhoopsblog@gmail.com! I'll do my best to provide you some kind of answer, but of course it would just be pure speculation. Just like the rest of these...