Let’s put an end to the “not mentally tough” and “team has no heart” BS.
Please
- Thread starter zebnatto
- Start date
Agree with the OP this team 100% has heart you don’t see many teams come back from 24 down and give themselves a chance to win at the end. Underperformance from your stars in a must win game is another story.
Paul, Cliff and Mag have heart. Ron never shows emotion except when things are going well so hard to read. Geo pouts way to much.
I can agree Geo’s body language sucks, mostly for a 5th year senior captain… but to say he doesn’t have heart? Why, because he missed a wide open 3? Because he had an inexcusable turnover in OT? He still played hard on D and from what I saw was hustling all over the floor. Geo’s problem isn’t that he has no heart, he’s just not as talented as some of us believe he is. Very good player, very streaky but not a go to consistent star.
no because he pouts. 5th year senior captains should be the biggest cheerleaders and hype men on the team. Like Paul does.
The team was not mentally tough and had no heart in the entire first half. Then they completely did, in the 2nd half. “Heart” and “toughness” should not be turned on and off with a switch.
They’re not. This is the ******** where having heart = playing well.
The toughness is the ability to keep trying down 24 points when it looks like you have no hope of winning. Coming out and getting down 24 in the first place is just playing badly. You can’t will your way to a win, you can only will your way out of one.
How? They just lost. Why does losing always have to be an indictment of people’s mental state?
That’s your opinion. Of course having heart does not necessarily equal playing well. A team can have a lot of heart and still suck because they are not talented.
However, a team that continually stinks up the place in the 1st half of every road game is not mentally ready to play and I consider that lacking mental toughness. We have played the following 6 B1G road games:
at Illinois
at Penn State
at Maryland
at Minnesota
at Nebraska
at NW
And we have played like absolute garbage in the first half of every single one of them, played better in the 2nd half in 4 of them, and won two of them. IMO That’s too much of a pattern to say there is not a significant mental aspect to it.
It’s pretty obvious that we can compete with NW. I can accept playing badly when shots aren’t falling or we are overmatched, but the amount of unforced mental errors, lackadaisical plays, and wide open 3s that we gave up in that first half tonight was totally inexcusable. McConnell looked like he was in a daze the entire first half, there was no hustle, no fire. And no one seemed to care….and why should they, they knew they weren’t coming out of the game. Mentally tough players are generally not giggling in the game or on the bench when we are being embarrassed either.
Everything did change in the 2nd half and not coincidentally the substitution patterns changed as well
Agreed! Very strange that people see a bottom half of the conference team struggle and just say “oh they’re not trying hard”. They’re trying hard they just have very obvious limitations on both ends of the floor.
Most posters think when the ball goes in we have heart and when it doesn’t it’s a lack of effort.
We lost this game because cliff and Paul were our only offense. The rest of the team including our two best offensive players went 7 for 31.
We lost this game because cliff and Paul were our only offense. The rest of the team including our two best offensive players went 7 for 31.
i saw no hustle besides Mag, Reiber, Paul and Cliff in this game, it goes beyond shots going in. It has to do with all the intangibles and leadership. This team instead goes into the fetal position when something goes wrong. Paul was the reason RU came back. It led with him.
Yes you can see effort and you can see lack of leadership
Yes you can see effort and you can see lack of leadership
Then you missed Geo Baker's defensive effort. There's a reason Northwestern was starting their offense well behind the 3 point line.
The correlation between how well we are playing and the board consensus on how much effort the team is putting forth is 1.0000000000000000000
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there is a mental competent to it. There probably wasn’t at the beginning. But if you play badly on the road enough times in a row it will get in your head. I think that’s a separate issue from mental “toughness” but sure, point taken.
This is one of those things where @Caliknight will come in and tell you how it’s obvious you have never competed in something at a high level. Mental toughness is not some performance the player puts on to convince you he’s trying.
if you want to
am I supposed to applaud a few minutes of defense , low bar given how atrocious it was in the first 30 minutes.
am I supposed to applaud a few minutes of defense , low bar given how atrocious it was in the first 30 minutes.
The guys you listed were really the only guys who got minutes outside Harper and Geo. For as awful as they both were offensively Harper got a HUGE offensive rebound off of Pauls missed free throw with 30 seconds or so left. He missed that layup but it was a great effort when it mattered most.
It just feels like if that drops or he hits the game winner the narrative is completely different. Geo I’m really not sure I can defend. It was just his worst game as Scarlet Knight though I don’t think his issue was effort.
that might be the board consensus, but its
To me, Mental toughness is not about convincing fans. It’s about being prepared and in the appropriate mindset so that “mental”mistakes don’t dominate and take you out of a game that you should otherwise be able to compete in and avoiding mistakes of judgment that are totally within your capabilities to control. Lapsing so that your man beats you back door or not knowing where your man is are mental errors often caused by lack of focus. Also, not putting forth the effort of defense that is necessary to start a game is a sign of not being mentally ready to play.
Wouldn't be surprised to see Paul transfer... He sees how Pike let's Geo and Ron play uninspired lousy at times and yet they continue to play. It's got to be extremely frustrating for Paul who gives it 120% all the time...
You predict everyone will transfer you ******* dickhead. You are such a douche.