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Game Thoughts

T

T Up

I.T.S. Senior
Dec 4, 2003
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Kudos to the fans for showing up in crappy weather.

Big Kudos to the students who where well represented, loud, and stayed to the end. (You will all be getting the agreed upon free books and fees for next semester!)

We shot extremely well from 3 (more than any of us could have hoped for) Thank you Ray.

BUT we shoot 33% from inside the arc and were 2 for 8 on layups that weren't blocked (6 times!) We ate people alive with drives and mid-range jumpers earlier in the year. Dre, Smith, Juice, and Curtis could all shoot and hit that shot. Against bigger teams we have to accept that getting to the hole is difficult and pull up! When that is happening their bigs come out to contest and we can have our bigs move to the basket for put backs. This is basketball 101 against a team with good bigs. Of course we have to block out, for the year we have been decent at this but not the past 3 losses.

Our team is two bigs from really being competitive. Dre is a bust. Worse now than he was as a freshman/sophomore. Love Swanny but he needs another 20+ pounds of muscle. TK has the heart and hustle but he too needs a lot more size that I don't think is coming. Time to find a Juco, now! Our bigs can't score, or rebound consistently, and will commit stupid fouls. (Although tonight most were BS phantom fouls called by the ESPN endorsed Refs....

Once again, Free Throws!!!!!! This marks about 6 years where we can't shoot free throws. This is ridiculous. When there are over 300 other college teams that shoot FTs better than Tulsa it IS a problem. We can beat poor teams but we can't make good teams pay for physical play. It happens over and over.

We are NIT bound unless a miracle occurs (beat a superior SMU at their house, or get to the finals of the conference tourney). I am still praying for that miracle but the reality of our shortcomings is becoming apparent.

Love the effort of the guys even in defeat. I truly believe that they have already won more games than I thought possible, including two very satisfying wins over Memphis.

We will have recovered and have the blue and gold glasses back on Sunday. Go TU



This post was edited on 3/4 11:44 PM by T Up
 
Wright, Swanney and Curtis were mostly no shows this game...

Woodard and Harrison forgot the 1st half counted toward the entire game 4 points between them...

Ray and Smith were the only bright spots the 1st half with a glimpse from Swanney...

This is a team game and your best players have to show up for the big games, our's didn't...

This team desperately needs 2 bigs that can score and rebound on a consistent basis, our's can't...

Wright is soft and Swanney is someone to give you quality minutes off the bench...

Ray needs to get more selfish and take more shots...

I have no idea what happened to Curtis...

Officials stunk the court, however we played ourselves out of a victory...
 
There were about 5 possessions in the 1st half where NO ONE wanted to take a mid-range OPEN shot.

It was weird.
 
Cobb went crazy off when we doubled. Deserve to lose with 4-14. I hope Haith looks at FT% when he replaces the Junior class. Birt is a good start. Wojcik and Manning neither looked at FT% when recruiting. They just looked at athletic ability.
 
I'll say exactly what I said in alley: If we don't speed these bigger, more physical teams up, we'll get smashed every time we play them. We needed to start running and jumping them around 10 minute mark when the game slowed to a crawl. Essentially our margin for error was extremely low at that point. We were struggling to finish, and we didn't create enough chances to overcome a serious deficiency on the glass. We needed to generate quicker shots defensively to help with the rebounding.

They just ran their offense, and crashed the glass hard. They had a loose whistle and they took advantage of it. Four-of-14 from the foul line is just unacceptable. Different game if we make 10 of those instead of four. That said, we got hammered on the defensive glass. They'll hammer us again on the defensive Sunday if we don't speed them up, and get them taking quicker shots.

If you're wondering how that might us, it will slow the ball going into their big kids. And it will hopefully cause there to be fewer bigs in the lane when shots go up. Improves the odds we can get a rebound. Our first shot defense last night was very good, our ability to secure rebounds was painfully bad.
 
The game went about like most of us thought (except for Cobb). Our guards quick hands gave them fits (14 turnovers) but we didn't convert many of those TOs into points. Our first shot defense was superb...no surprise but Cincy capitalized on offensive boards. Again, no surprise as that's what they do. Woodard and Harrison go a combined 7-28 or 25% (we only took 53 total shots). Hard to win when those two shoot 25% from the field and take over half your shots.

I was impressed with Cincy's bigs. They played hard and like they knew this was a NCAA tourney elimination game for them. I would love to have a couple of those guys in blue and gold. Loved the hustle and aggressiveness. Swanney only gets 19 minutes while Wright got 23. No clue as to why when I thought we needed Swanney's toughness on the inside. I also don't understand why we tried to play half court ball with these guys over the last 10 minutes. This is the way they want to play and we accommodated them.

Need a win this Saturday. Tough task with SMU playing at home for the outright conference title. They've dropped a couple of home games this season. Hoping we can make it one more.
 
TU tried tp sprint down the floor when it was available, However Harrison was intimidated on layups by Cinny's Bigs. For the life of me , I cannot comprehend how a kid as athletic as Harrison could be so terrible at free throws. You practice making 100 free throws every day at the end of practice, so its all about repetition and having the same routine when you step up to the line. Rashad Smith shoot a funky ball also with that side-ways rotation. Our inside players are scrappy and try their best but just don't have enough muscle nor height....that means we need superior guard play and they all need to show up.
 
There is a theme that runs thru our games with Cincinnati, UConn, Temple, and SMU. All these teams play rough, tough, Big East style basketball. We have only had Memphis that played that way before, and we all know what our record was against them the last 8 years. We have not developed the tough mentality yet to play that style of ball. We better develop it quickly if we want to be a power in this league and nationally.

I much prefer the style of ball we play now over Woj-ball but sometimes that's what it takes. I don't blame the guys or the coaches this year. Now we know what type player we need to succeed in this league so I expect the coaches to go find us some boys with attitude(preferably with some real height AND weight!). Love our guys but we need toughness. Think Coley, Shelton, Kurtz, Swanson, or Jarius Glenn. The only guys that have showed attitude right now are our smallest player Ray and TJ who is a backup.

As it is let's just hope we can run Sunday or it will be a long night.

This post was edited on 3/5 6:38 PM by T Up
 
We were 6/21 on layups and dunks. 7 of those attempts were blocked.
 
It bothers me a lot more when Wright is blocked than when Harrison is blocked.

Wright needs to take more midrange jumpers instead of trying that spin drive that leads to repeated blocks.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
Our shot selection was horrid during the last 5 minutes. We were getting the stops on D but continually tried to either drive the lane and throw up a prayer or get three feet inside the arc and throw up a sideways fall away jumper.
 
Originally posted by drboobay:
It bothers me a lot more when Wright is blocked than when Harrison is blocked.

Wright needs to take more midrange jumpers instead of trying that spin drive that leads to repeated blocks.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Click to expand...
Wright certainly seems to get stuffed the most.
 
We had two shot clock violations, one off of a time-out where you would think a play would get you a shot.
 
He seems to lose all leverage and balance on that spin drive.

Probably would have better luck with jumpers in the lane since he does have nice shooting touch.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
Originally posted by ctt8410:
We were 6/21 on layups and dunks. 7 of those attempts were blocked.
Click to expand...
I agree we lost because Cincy is too long, a lot of our game is going to the rim because we are not a great FG % shooting team, Cincy either made us adjust or blocked our shots. Unfortunately we have the same problem with SMU.

Woodard needed to help Rashad Ray from the outside. Hopefully that happens in Dallas.

GO TU!!!!!

This post was edited on 3/6 3:22 PM by Tu Geo
 
Originally posted by TUBballJunkie:

Originally posted by drboobay:
It bothers me a lot more when Wright is blocked than when Harrison is blocked.

Wright needs to take more midrange jumpers instead of trying that spin drive that leads to repeated blocks.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Click to expand...
Wright certainly seems to get stuffed the most.
Click to expand...
Wright got hammered on that drive. He made a great move to split the defenders and he got bumped as he was setting to jump. I actually think he was going to try and dunk the ball but never got off his feet because of the bump. Go back and watch...he got bumped down low from the outside defender pushing him back underneath.
 
Frankly, he needs to get used to it not being called in this league and be tougher. This is no longer a surprise.

Our biggest, strongest player outside of Big E has got to adjust.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
And I totally agree with the comment on his mid range jumper. That's a great shot for him that he shoots with WAY more confidence.

The guys next to me Wednesday night were yelling about Dre and Smith hanging around the high post being ignored all night.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
The refs in that game also seemed to swallow their whistles the last 3-4 minutes except for the obvious fouls. I saw some complaints on FB from AAC fans in general that thought that game was terribly officiated...I don't know if they were Memphis or UCONN fans, or like us and tuning in because it was an AAC game. Consensus seems to be that the AAC refs are just bad and you never know what you're going to get from one game to the next. Until now I never thought I would ever wish we had the old WAC and MVC refs.
 
That game last night was really only the second one I've watched that I thought there was bias. SMU here is the other one.

I generally just think they are incompetent. :/
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
I honestly like how the refs allow the physical play.

Usually non-power conference refs don't allow that and it ends up hurting the teams when they play power teams and during the NCAA's.

I do hate that so many AAC games are called so one sided though.
It really does make it appear there is an obvious agenda.
 
Originally posted by Weatherdemon:
I honestly like how the refs allow the physical play.

Usually non-power conference refs don't allow that and it ends up hurting the teams when they play power teams and during the NCAA's.

I do hate that so many AAC games are called so one sided though.
It really does make it appear there is an obvious agenda.
Click to expand...
Demon, but it seems to be dictated by one of the teams playing and then arbitrarily enforced. There's a double standard in who is allowed to be physical based on reputation. Dre gets called for dropping the shoulder and bumping the defender off the block to gain position...but Ellis does not, EVER. Ellis never gets called for just backing a player down even though some of the forceful bumps nearly knock defenders over. Swannegan tends to not flop in those situations and I wonder if he fell over when Ellis blew him up if a foul would be called. Dre ALWAYS gets that called against him.
 
Random question: did they mention Lulu on the broadcast? I could see one of the giant cards signed by fans down on the commentators' chairs pregame.
 
Bla,
I agree 100%!

I don't like that anyone gets away with the shoulder drop but it does seem certain players are allowed to and other aren't and it's frustrating. Same with blocks. I don't undestand why it's OK for some 'shot blockers' to get away hitting a players arm but others aren't. The over the back rule has seemed to go against the player blocking out more often then the player crawling over his back to get the rebound.

The ultra physical play allowed by inside defensive players is contrary to the offensive fouls called agianst those their guarding.

I prefer the refs let them play physical but regardless of how they let them play, it needs to be consistent for both teams and that has been a HUGE issue in this league this year with games invoking Tulsa, Memphis, UConn, Cincy, and Temple when they have played each other.
 
Originally posted by Weatherdemon:
Bla,
I agree 100%!

I don't like that anyone gets away with the shoulder drop but it does seem certain players are allowed to and other aren't and it's frustrating. Same with blocks. I don't undestand why it's OK for some 'shot blockers' to get away hitting a players arm but others aren't. The over the back rule has seemed to go against the player blocking out more often then the player crawling over his back to get the rebound.

The ultra physical play allowed by inside defensive players is contrary to the offensive fouls called agianst those their guarding.

I prefer the refs let them play physical but regardless of how they let them play, it needs to be consistent for both teams and that has been a HUGE issue in this league this year with games invoking Tulsa, Memphis, UConn, Cincy, and Temple when they have played each other.
Click to expand...
As I said earlier, a lot of the UC blocks were clean at the point of the block, the issue was the clutching, grabbing, and bumping down low which happened any time one of our players went into the lane and looked like they were going to shoot.
 
BLA, Physical game no doubt but called consistently. It just about took a punch for an official to blow his whistle. The problem was the way the game was called did us no favors as we are not as physical inside. That is why I felt we should have changed up the game plan and taken more pull ups and midrange jumpers. I realize we are not a great shooting team and we may have lost anyway but I realized early we had little chance to win by playing at the rim.
Did not watch Cincy that much this season but I kept wondering during the game how they lost 5 AAC games not including SMU games. I suspect the games they lost were called closely and that took away their inside advantage.
Anyway, lets just put SMU away, (won't effect their dance ticket) and put on our dancing shoes.
 
Refs allowing ultra physical games like that are what's kept declining average scoring and pace of play. Just call the game correctly you fools.

Calling a game "equally poorly for both sides" is not the job of a referee. I mean, there's no need for referees at all if that's the case.
 
I would really like some accountability from officials, but there seems to be no interest in that. It's the same bad group every year and the same issues every year. It just seems to get worse, particularly as fans who have been around awhile call out the refs.

Somebody -- ESPN, Fox Sports, the Tulsa World -- could do a great story illuminating these issues and explain to lay people how it works. Maybe there is some great explanation behind the scenes. But I really doubt it.

By the way, no response at all from the league to my letter, though Mr. Steed wouldn't make eye contact with me the other night.
 
Originally posted by Gold*:
I would really like some accountability from officials, but there seems to be no interest in that. It's the same bad group every year and the same issues every year. It just seems to get worse, particularly as fans who have been around awhile call out the refs.

Somebody -- ESPN, Fox Sports, the Tulsa World -- could do a great story illuminating these issues and explain to lay people how it works. Maybe there is some great explanation behind the scenes. But I really doubt it.

By the way, no response at all from the league to my letter, though Mr. Steed wouldn't make eye contact with me the other night.
Click to expand...
There are tons of issues with it. Too many to even list here. But I'll list a few that I see as fundamental.

1. There are no crews. Everyone works with two different dudes every night. There is absolutely no comfort level with these guys. You get two whistle happy dudes, or three loose whistle dudes. That's how you get inconsistent officiating from game to game.

2. Age. These dudes are too old. They've been in the game for too long, and now it's time to officiate differently and they simply do not have the resolve to do it. The "not what you know but who know" system of hiring officials is crippling the sport. How many transgressions did it for Karl Hess to finally be fired? It's unreal.

3. Travel. Because the jobs are occupied by the same dudes with no variation at all, these dudes travel all over the country to call games in 24 hour windows. It's ridiculous. Even if these guys were outstanding, the performance is going to decline with them scheduling like that.

4. Contracts. They're independent contractors so accountability is basically just 'stop' contracting with them. Bilas wants the conferences to hire them direct. This might be a solution, there's concern that the smaller leagues will end up with just awful officiating, and that may well be the case. But it might actually get new officials into the game which is desperately needed right now. If they are employees instead of contractors, I think you could put in better accountability tools and start discussing calls publicly like we see in football. It's risky, but it wouldn't effect the American that much. I'm not sure the officials are for this either. Right now, they work four or five nights a week in two or three different leagues. If they get hired on, money is going to be a serious player in this. It always is.
 
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