Goooooood evening AUHoops.com followers, fans, and general hangers-on. Hope you all had a good night and a safe day of traveling for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Me? Oh, no, my traveling is not completed. Josh and I were both in Bender Arena tonight. Why? Because we're slaves to the blogosphere, that's why. I hope you appreciate the personal sacrifices we make for you. Meh, actually, it's okay if you don't, I'm going to go to the games and report on them anyway.
So, tonight. I predicted 84-70. Per usual, I showed that I am not good at things. The final score was Manhattan (Jaspers, what in the Great Wall of Lumpkins is a jasper? Is it like Casper the friendly ghost's mid-major basketball team cousin?) 69, AU 62. I was actually pretty pleased with our performance overall. What's that you say? You mean if I'm so pleased then why don't I shut up and just write a "Good" column instead of a "Good, Bad, and Ugly" column? Because this isn't rec soccer, there are winners and losers (even though tonight we're all losers, losers of six straight actually). You don't just get a trophy that says, "Good job." You get (maybe, if you're lucky) a designation as Good, Bad, or Ugly from a blogger with less skill in his whole body than Lumpkins has in his left knee.
So join me on this magical trip to Good, Bad, and Ugly land. It'll be an extra-long edition because I'm feeling generous! Yippee!
Per usual, let's start with THE GOOD
Riley Grafft - Riley got his first career double-double tonight (15 points, 12 rebounds) and had a great game overall. He's really starting to get the hang of playing the swingman on the perimeter and then moving back into the key after the guards get situated. His jump shooting has been smooth and reliable, and he also went 7-8 from the line. Great to see him playing so well, he's been a real bright spot in an otherwise (to date) dismal season.
Mike Bersch - I'm going to say it now, and I may be way off, and that's okay. I think Mike Bersch could finish his AU career as the top 3 point shooter in school history. The reason why isn't that he's a phenomenal three point shooter (though he is quite good), the reason why is because he's a freshman getting minutes in his freshman year, and he has the green light from Jeff Jones to shoot at will from behind the arc. Mike had 16 points tonight, 13 of them coming in the first half (he scored just about 50% of AU's points in the first half and was THE reason that we came back and had a lead at halftime). In the second half he was held quiet (only 3 points), but this could be because Manhattan went absolutely nuts whenever he touched the ball and double-teamed him. Mike seems to be a streaky three-point shooter, kind of like Garrison was, but also like Garrison, he can single-handedly change the game when he gets hot. Also positive, Mike moved inside a couple of times along the baseline. This makes him a much more dynamic player than just a long-range guy. Now, Mike does get yelled at quite a bit by Jeff Jones for not executing set plays perfectly or for goofing on defense, but, let's be honest, JJ yells at everyone. Keep shooting, Mike.
AU's rebounding as a team - AU out-rebounded Manhattan 41-30 tonight. Very nicely done.
The AU Spirit Program - Reported attendance at this game tonight was 844, but I really don't think that's accurate. I would put it at around 400. The AU Spirit Program did a pretty good job keeping up cheers tonight with no one (and I mean no one) to work with. They do a good job usually, but let's be honest, they've probably got places they'd rather be the night before Thanksgiving. Good job, folks, it doesn't go unnoticed by everyone.
THE BAD
Stephen Lumpkins - Damn it. I knew sarcastically asking him to have an off-game so I could leave him out of the good column was going to come back to bite me. Consider me bitten. Lumpkins didn't have a bad game by overall standards. By the standard that we've come to expect from Lumpkins this season, however, it was a bad game. 3-7 shooting, 2-7 from the line, and only 5 rebounds for a total of 8 points. Lumpkins just has not been finishing his shots well. He gets up there and he misses layups (yes they're contested, but he's bigger than most guys he goes up against, he needs to power through and finish these shots). The 2-7 from the line is inexcusable; this is three games in a row now where he has struggled from the line. I'm sure everyone's tired from having 5 games in 9 days; still, a bad game is a bad game.
Blake Jolivette and Daniel Munoz - I imagine that they probably would not like being lumped together as a package deal, and I understand that. The reason I'm doing it tonight is that I have an issue with the point guard position right now. We're making really crappy passes (more on this in a moment) as a team, and Blake and Danny are the most egregious about it, either by tossing it away in transition or trying to force it inside where it's, quite honestly, not going to go. They both did toss in 7 points tonight, which is solid, but they also combined for just assists against 9 turnovers. Blake was especially bad in that area tonight (6 turnovers in 35 minutes).
The passing, as a team - See what I said about Blake and Danny above, and apply it to the entire team. Just sloppy passing that's killing us by giving away steals. Part of the issue is it's too obvious where we're going with these passes, we're telegraphing them and making it way too easy for opposing teams to break up these passes and score in transition.
UGLY
AU's number of steals and turnovers - Manhattan had 16 steals tonight; AU, one. ONE. From Riley Grafft. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? AU's turnovers tonight: 23. Manhattan's: 6. UGH. We are not taking care of the ball. See: passing in the "Bad" column. Not taking care of the ball at all, and it's killing us. I don't have numbers on points off turnovers, but you can bet your collective sweet bippies that it's a substantial amount.
Manhattan Coach Barry Rohrssen's conduct for the last minute of the game - When your team is up double digits with a minute to go, there is no reason to A. go to the full-court press when you haven't done so all game, and B. call time-outs after your team gets possession of the ball. At this point your "teaching moment" is really just drawing the game out unnecessarily. Ugly. Like his suit (it was particularly bad, I had multiple people tell me it needed a mention here).
Now:
Programming Notes
There is a game this Saturday against Maryland Eastern Shore. It is an away game. I will be in South Jersey spending quality time with my family, but Josh has graciously agreed to run the Liveblog for the game. We'll keep you posted on facts from the game (we may buy the feed or just listen to the radio stream), and chat it up about the Eagles. Check in here around 1:45p on Saturday and join Josh for the Liveblog! It was great fun last time, and I suspect it will be this time, too!
We will probably have reduced content until Monday or so (the Liveblog excepted) because of travel and all that. But don't worry, next week we'll be back good as new.
I know I've been saying this a lot, but I really, really think we can get the win on Saturday. I'll cross my fingers that it happens.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
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