When I'm Particularly Annoyed About a Loss, It Is GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

No time for niceties tonight. Here's the long and the short of it: we blew the game in the second half again. For those of you who weren't there or haven't heard, we lost to the Albany Great Danes tonight 51-50. Just like at St. Francis, the wheels came off the whole operation in the second half, and we blew a halftime lead. At this point I've got to think that conditioning is playing a part in this; we're just gassed by about the 10 minute mark in the second half. Some of that is that we've got a young team with players whose bodies don't have the benefit of 2-3 years with collegiate trainers and training regimens.

Before I get into this, nice to see play out of Mike Bersch tonight. The good news is, he got his first collegiate bucket. The bad news is, he went 0-3 from behind the arc.

Ugh what a bitter loss. Still incredulous that we lost this game. Still, there were some highlights, which brings me to...



THE GOOD

- The play of Blake Jolivette. Blake hit two deep three pointers on consecutive possessions in the first half. Then, on a 2 on 1 in transition, he flipped the ball behind his back to Steve Luptak who put it in for 2. Blake's game looked really tight in the first half, prompting the SigEps in the next section over to call for him to play in the second half over Danny Munoz. Blake fell back to earth in the second half, losing his dribble twice and passing the ball out of bounds (perhaps to avoid a turnover), but his first half was marvelous, and he really provided a spark off the bench for us.

- I think you all know that I've been a big fan of Simon McCormack this season. He played another great game tonight. A season-high (for him) 30 minutes, 10 points (second most on the team), 6 rebounds, and 2 assists. I'm continually impressed by his hustle; Simon never gives up on plays, and he forces the steal or the turnover by the other team because of it. Glad to see Jeff Jones is rewarding him with more play time.

- The fact that this game was so close. Albany is a solid team that returned seven players from last year. They were bigger and more physical than us, and we just ran out of steam, a la Villanova last year. The fact that we kept it this close was impressive and foretells good things to come.

- Another solid night for Stephen Lumpkins, 12 points and 7 rebounds in 31 minutes. Lumpkins was well-defended by the Great Danes. Not only by their forwards, but by their guards who were constantly screening him despite Lumpkins' best attempts to get open. Still, having him trying so hard to get the ball kept the Great Danes honest about defending the interior. The problem was that we had nothing going from the perimeter, which leads me to...

THE BAD

Good Lord what a laundry list of things I could put here. Let's get some things out of the way.

- The shooting for the Eagles continues to be a tale of two halves. Today in the first half, we shot almost 44% from the floor, not awful, but respectable. In the second half? 7-23, 30.4%. MISERABLE. Actually, let's look big picture:

- THE SECOND HALF. 17 total points scored. 17. There was a 10 minute stretch, from about the 15 minute mark to the 5 minute mark where we scored exactly 3 points. Despite the refs calling a pretty loose game, we were able to get the Great Danes into the bonus. Did we take advantage of it? No. Despite going 5/5 from the foul line, which seems to be one of the more consistent strengths this team has, we didn't force the ball inside to try to get to the line. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? Overall we just looked listless. Like Jeff Jones said to Luptak as he was going in midway through the second half, "We look like a team that just doesn't give a [redacted] out there. Get your [redacted] together." Yes. Correct.

- Nick Hendra. I'm sorry to call you out, Nick, but 1-9 from the field, including 1-3 from behind the arc, it's not getting it done. The 4 assists chipped in were positive, but compared to the 3 turnovers, it's more or less negated. Jeff Jones said to Mike Unger tonight after the game, as reported in the liveblog, "He's putting a lot of pressure on himself. He wants desperately to lead this team. I think early on he was trying to do too much. Now I think he's pressing. The bottom line is he's gotta allow the game to come to him...He's got to work harder to get better chances...We can't ask him to try and harder." I get that, and I respect that he wants to lead the team, but he's forcing it, like Jeff Jones said. Trying to get too fancy, passing it when he should just take the shot, and taking the shot when he really should pass it. This play has got to improve because the younger guards need a role model to follow.

- Riley Grafft. I don't really want to put Riley here, because his play tonight wasn't that bad, but it wasn't particularly good, and it wasn't egregiously ugly. I just have a couple of things. Riley looked good in the first half, complementing Lumpkins well down low, getting rebounds. He was playing the swing man on the perimeter again like in the Catholic game, which I really still do not think is an effective role for him, but Jeff Jones seems to think otherwise. In the second half, however, Riley's play really was not great. When he was in without Lumpkins, he looked downright lost trying to defend in the paint. Some of this was no doubt being exhausted; he looked completely gassed, but his minutes in the second half just were not as effective as others he's had. Still, 6 points and 5 rebounds is a pretty good line. So, Riley, if you read this, if there was a "meh, it was okay" that's where I would put this, but unfortunately this is the good, the bad, and the ugly.

THE UGLY

- The three point game continues to be miserable. 3-14 from long range tonight, a grisly 21.4% for the night. No need to elaborate there, you folks know why it's ugly.

- Alright, let's talk about the end of this game, which really was ugly. 10.4 seconds left on the clock, Albany at the line to shoot a 1 and 1. Albany misses the front end of the 1 and 1. AU gets the rebound. Now, what happens next is almost Bill Belichick-esque in its folly. Hendra pushes the ball across midcourt and looks to the sideline expecting Jeff Jones to call a timeout. (PAUSE) let's reflect. Before the front end of that 1 and 1, Jeff Jones took a timeout to ice the shooter. You don't think that maybe, just maybe, he gives his team a contingency plan for what happens if he doesn't make the front end? If he did, then it's on Hendra for not knowing what the plan was, if he didn't, what a major gaffe by Jones. Anyway, the team looks confused, disoriented. The ball is over the midcourt line with 8.5-9 seconds left. AU still has a timeout. Does Jones call it? Why no, no he does not. Doesn't even make a move to call it. Just folds his arms and gestures for Hendra to take it up the floor. Hendra passes it to Munoz who bobbles the ball with 2.5-3 seconds left. Munoz drives up the lane and takes an off-balanced jumper from just inside the free throw line. It bounces off the back iron, and that's the game folks.

Now, you and I both realize that had that shot gone in, I'd be in a completely different mood writing this. The fact remains that he didn't make the shot. It's not really his fault, per se, it wasn't a bad shot, and it's one that he's made a few times already this season. Still, I question Jones's call on this. If you've got the timeout and a decent amount of time (which I consider 8-9 seconds to be) why do you not call the timeout and design a set play? Still plenty of time to pull one off with that amount of time left. Pound it inside to Lumpkins, maybe try and draw the foul (oh wait, we didn't bother to try that method all game), and we walk away 1-1 instead of 0-2.

Anyway. That's my recap. We've got Mt. St. Mary's on Wednesday, and that should be a challenging match-up as well. Let's hope that AU continues to improve in these games. My parting shot for tonight is that we ARE improving. It's starting to tighten up, and we show flashes of real team cohesion and brilliance, which is why the past two games, giving up halftime leads, have been particularly frustrating. Keep going guys, I'm not giving up on you, period, I just call it like I see it.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!