Goooood afternoon AU hoops fans! Sorry it is taking me so long to get this entry up. I have to admit, I tried to go back and watch the game on the Patriot League All-Access site, and it is telling me that the media is unavailable. So that's splendid. I only saw about 8 minutes of the game yesterday, and given that we went into double overtime, it seems like seeing 8 minutes of the game, reading a recap, and looking at the box score isn't really good enough to write a column reviewing the game.
From what I do understand though, we had a ton of chances to win this game and we blew every. single. one. of. them. Up by 5 with 9 seconds left in the first overtime we gave up the Roemer 3-pointer and then had in the in-bound stolen. The game only went to the first overtime because we had no defense in the paint and gave up the layup that tied it at 56.
From what I understand Vlad and Lumpkins had good games (but Lump only had 11 points in 42 minutes? That's it?) Simon also looks like he had pretty solid production.
I don't really understand why Riley only got 11 minutes of play in this game, any ideas?
And we saw the return of Blake Jolivette because Luptak and Munoz fouled out. See, he can get off the pine! I find it interesting that coach put him in instead of Joe Hill.
So basically the long story short is I'm hoping this will be a commenter-generated post. If you were writing the GOOD, BAD, and UGLY, what would you include under each heading and WHY?
I’m a graduate student at Syracuse, so I took the trip out to Colgate yesterday to catch the game. I don’t know that I have enough to add to the good, bad, and ugly categories, but I do have a few thoughts about the game I’d like to share.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed like in the second half, particularly in the last 10 minutes, we were much more interested in not losing the game than in winning it. We would make a nice shot, grab a 4-6 point lead, and then give it back. Also in the last 10 minutes, it seemed like we were rushing many of our shots, consistently leaving 15-20 seconds on the shot clock.
I was surprised that we didn’t drive to the basket all that much yesterday either. Lumpkins made a few attempts, and Vlad started doing it with a few minutes left in regulation, but again, we didn’t get that many opportunities to go to the foul line until both overtimes, which is where Vlad made most of his points.
I’ll also say that Nick Hendra played very well, and I’d put him in the Good category. If he hadn’t gotten into some foul trouble, he might have gotten a few more points.
The most disappointing thing about the game was that it didn’t seem like we had the competitive instinct. Even when we were ahead, there was a sense of malaise, that somehow we were just gonna give it back. It also didn’t help at all that Colgate got hot at exactly the right time to close the game.
I’ll say one last thing for those who weren’t able to watch the game at all, and are wondering how we gave up 5 points in the last few seconds. Colgate made a 3 point FG with about 4 seconds left, and we missed an inbounds pass that was intercepted and thrown off of Munoz. With 0.4 seconds left on the clock, Colgate got their inbounds pass and hit a quick two to put it to overtime. If we had thrown the ball towards half court, we would have won the game.
although it was only one play in a 50 minute game i would like to know how with 3 seconds to go in the first overtime, the inbounds pass was stolen. Why wasn't the ball thrown into the far court or to midcourt? it seems it was inbounded under the Colgate basket since the tying shot as a baseline jumper.
ReplyDeletedid anyone see the game?
In terms of the inbound play, throwing it to mid-court with three seconds left or full court is no solution. In three seconds an intercepted pass can be so easily be turned into a 3-pointer. If you throw it too far and it sails out of bounds, then the other team gets to in bound the ball under your basket. Not too cool.
ReplyDeleteRich C made some very astute observations.
Rushed shots with 15 to 20 seconds left on the shot clock, not going back to Lumpkins. With our size, we should be able to put up interior shots and rebound off misses. But that takes a kind of coordination that we are lacking.
Watched most of the game on PL All-Access (they lost their feed, I guess, for about the last eight minutes or so of the first half). Here's a brief recap, Good, Bad and Ugly style:
ReplyDeleteGOOD
Vlad. Of course. Monster game (30 and 10), even by his Vladian standards. To Lord Baltimore's point, JJ came up with some wrinkles to get Vlad the ball in spots other than the low post, and Vlad worked a little harder to get the ball, too. Benefitted from a couple of ticky-tack fouls that got him some freebees at the line, where he went 14 of 16. Had the potential game-winner blocked in the final seconds of OT2, and the desperation follow rimmed out, too.
But a great performance nonetheless.
Nick Hendra: A second strong post-suspension game, but got into foul trouble early and it limited him to 29 minutes.
Lumpkins: Offensive good: A double-double as well, with a couple of blocked shots. Defensive bad: our post defense was atrocious most of the day, as we allowed Ben Jonson and Nick Pascale to run wild in the paint. That's how Colgate got back in the game in the second half after we were up 11. Just gave up five or six point-blank looks and we couldn't pull away.
BAD
Post defense: See above. As should be obvious to anyone who's been paying attention, we have trouble with physical bigs like Carrington and Jonson. Vlad can't bang with them for fear of getting into foul trouble, and Lump just doesn't do well against them.
Colgate's late-game strategy. Down three with 26 seconds left in the first OT, they let us run 11 seconds off the clock, dribbling the ball around, before fouling. When we made the two free throws, even the Colgate play by play guy said the game was over.
Three-point shooting: Ugh. Six of 16. We had a couple of really good looks; I remember Hendra and Luptak both getting wide-open shots in the second half that could have really helped. They just missed. We just don't have a guy that can really stroke it, at least not yet.
Officiating. As ever. It wasn't that they flat-out blew calls; it was that there was absolutely no flow to the action, on both sides. A lot of ticky-tack fouls away from the ball, especially in the second half.
UGLY
Nothing really comes to mind, other than our chances to host a PL tournament game. We don't have much of a killer instinct, to be sure, so if you want to call that ugly, I guess, go ahead. Another road game we should have won.
Man, if all of these "should have won" games were ACTUALLY wins, this would be a decent season!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to thank you all, per usual, for commenting and filling in the blanks on this for me. You guys are a very valuable resource for this site, and I want to restate how much we appreciate you.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what the reason is for letting in to many opportunities down low. I mean, Lumpkins is able to go up against some very tough competition judging from last season and early this season. He was certainly AU's best player before Vlad came on board. Very solid down low.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a moment or two in every PL game where I say to myself: "If we can just get a defensive stop right here..." Those stops never seem to come when American HAS to have one.
ReplyDeleteColgate, Lehigh, Bucknell all hit huge, momentum-killing shots in the second half and this team doesn't seem to be good enough to find an answer on offense. I still maintain no one will be thrilled to play us in the PL tournament, but it won't matter until the Eagles learn how to punch back.
I am probably the only one here that enjoys this years team and thinks we are not completely out of this. I made the drive to Colgate and while it was frustrating to lose this game. I love going this year just as much as I did last year with the NCAA qualifying team. This is a team of players that had very few minutes last year other than Hendra and Lumpkins. Graft hardly played last year except mop up time. I like getting an opportunity to see these guys trying to find their way. Other than Vlad who is the REAL DEAL on this team, everyone including Hendra and Lumpkins have had up and down years. I think other than on here, expectations for this team are not that high. We do not have a shooter other than VLAD and occasionally Hendra. Not one of the following players has a good shot, Luptak, Munoz, Simon, Hill, Matt Wilson. While Lumpkins takes good percentage inside shots, he is not able to finish. Danny is playing much better at the point but his shot seems to be something you see from the contestants at the time outs than from a Division 1 player. I don't mind taking our lumps right now because there are much better times just around the bend. There are only two teams I don't think we can beat. One is Lehigh, the other is Army. Having been to every game in the league and most of the others Army was by far the worst beating we took this year. I look for them to duplicate that next week as well. This is a very mediocre league this year and with a little help as long as we don't draw Lehigh in the first game, it could be very intersting. Lehigh can be beat by the other teams which then turns it into a free for all. I am looking forward to the next four regular season games and going to Holy Cross and Navy as well. It is great seeing the other arenas and their campuses. Let's relax, let these kids develop and root for the Eagles.
ReplyDeleteI watched the 2nd half/OTs on channelsurfing.net yesterday, and the problem for me was that they simply didn't seem that aggressive. Colgate was the aggressor and took it to us. They just seemed really sluggish or something. The sets seemed to be going at 3/4 speed, there was a lot of standing around, and very little spontaneity in general. I think that also explains the poor interior defense and Danny and Steve Luptak fouling out.
ReplyDeleteAs for not getting the ball inside more, we tried to get the ball inside to Lump and Vlad a lot. But it seemed that all Colgate had to do to stop and entry pass was to front our big man. I don't know if that's on Lump & Vlad to get better position or on the perimeter passer to have the confidence to make a difficult pass, but something was up. When we did get the ball inside, we did well - Vlad didn't shoot well from the outside but scored most of his points from the inside & the FT line.
The only thing that worries me at this point in the season is that a culture/mindset of losing starts to sink in. We've lost a bunch of close games and the worst thing for the team would be to find themselves in a close game and think "I hope I/we don't blow this." I don't think Jeff Jones lets that happen, but it's still a concern. Other than that I agree with the anon poster above me and that the team needs time to develop.
Quote: "There are only two teams I don't think we can beat. One is Lehigh, the other is Army. Having been to every game in the league and most of the others Army was by far the worst beating we took this year. I look for them to duplicate that next week as well."
ReplyDeleteArmy is in last place and is playing terribly. Why would you expect a beating from them?
Because I went to the Army game and watched them totally kick our ass in every aspect of the game. Just my assessment. I know they are in last place but they dominated us and made us look worse than we have in any other league game to date. I hope I am wrong but I don't believe so. Army almost dashed our hopes last year in the tournament if not for some clutch shots by Brian Gilmore, we wouldn't have been going to the NCAA's. Some teams just give us fits and Army is one of them. The other schools that really take it to us are the ones whose big guys are physical inside like Bucknell and Lehigh. Just my observation... we'll see Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteI am going to be going up to Holy Cross this weekend to see the game. I will be there for a birthday weekend at a Casino. If you will be up there be sure to say Hi. Alumni programs is throwing a sweet pre-game party and ticket package.
ReplyDelete