We are going to be OK

[mspaeth]

I like what I saw last night....

Copeland is good
Serbian point guard will be given the keys.
Devin Williams will let the guards take risks on D
Better shooters
Sim will be able to get the big bucket during crunch time.
Elijah Fisher got better, and will have a bigger role

Many, many holes and we will be blown out by teams with a huge front court, but we do have a chance to dance....I thought it would be worse.

 

[hallmatt]

IMO, we may be worse than Butler.

The most important position (PG) is the worst I’ve ever seen. Wusu would start at pg on this team.

The wings were way overhyped. They may be able to shoot, but nothing else. They gave us nothing yesterday.

Copeland looks serviceable against Monmouth & St Peters. Idk what he can do against the big east.

I have a lot more questions after yesterday’s performance.

 

[hallmatt]

Albeit only one game.
Budd Simpkins Williams and Hines would all start easily on this team.

 

[shu67]

IMO, we may be worse than Butler.

The most important position (PG) is the worst I’ve ever seen. Wusu would start at pg on this team.

The wings were way overhyped. They may be able to shoot, but nothing else. They gave us nothing yesterday.

Copeland looks serviceable against Monmouth & St Peters. Idk what he can do against the big east.

I have a lot more questions after yesterday’s performance.

I have a lot more questions about your posts. Why so negative after an impressive win?

 

[hallmatt]

Every Big East team scored 75 + points. Most Big East teams scored 80-96. We scored 66 against a terrible team.

The main issue is still offense. We had so many long droughts. I can’t get over how poor the point guard play was last night.

What was positive last night? Copeland? 2 Rebs? Fisher looked better, Anderson was solid.

 

[stpeteshu24]

Left 9 free points at the line that shouldve easily gotten us over the 70. Saw some good things that give me hope, expected sloppy play unfortunately. Liked what i saw from petro

 

[STLPirate12]

Relax, it was a good first game. We had 12 guys play double digit minutes and zero exceed 20 minutes.

We built a comfortable lead and were never at risk of losing it, even with deep bench players on the floor for a good portion of the game. Offense will never be a Sha coached team's biggest strength, but we also allowed the fewest points of anyone in the Big East and getting a chance to see everyone play was clearly more important than attempting to run up the score.

I'm sure plenty here won't agree with that and feel we need to run up the score whenever possible to game the NET algorithm, but that's also something you'll never get from Sha. He's always going to do that makes his team better over what artificially inflates some ranking metric.

The biggest concern for me was the size of the crowd...

 

[Anon1776442946]

I like what I saw last night....

Copeland is good
Serbian point guard will be given the keys.
Devin Williams will let the guards take risks on D
Better shooters
Sim will be able to get the big bucket during crunch time.
Elijah Fisher got better, and will have a bigger role

Many, many holes and we will be blown out by teams with a huge front court, but we do have a chance to dance....I thought it would be worse.

No chance to dance at all

 

[Anon1776442946]

What player on this team would u take over last season?

 

[PirateBlue08]

I’m in the middle. Saw alot of good things but it is true the wings didn’t do anything aside from the Kareem Thomas 3, the starting PG is abysmal, and our center possibly reinjured his hand and only got a few rebounds.

But we hit a bunch of threes, there was some good ball movement, we have a lot of guards, Anderson dropped 15, Copeland is a back to the basket threat, despite being better shooters we can still play aggressive defense, and despite only playing our starters for 19 minutes we still wiped the floor with the opponent. Bench players were scoring and a lot of players made contributions.

 

[Seton75]

Every Big East team scored 75 + points. Most Big East teams scored 80-96. We scored 66 against a terrible team.

The main issue is still offense. We had so many long droughts. I can’t get over how poor the point guard play was last night.

What was positive last night? Copeland? 2 Rebs? Fisher looked better, Anderson was solid.

And last yr, we ripped New Haven for 68 points. Big sh t. One game.

And we did monmouth in with 70, and ripped Wagner apart by 7, breaking the scoreboard with 68.

 

[lloyde dobler]

And last yr, we ripped New Haven for 68 points. Big sh t. One game.

And we did monmouth in with 70, and ripped Wagner apart by 7, breaking the scoreboard with 68.

Exactly ….

Who knows how the year will turn out, but it’s silly to negatively compare this group’s first game to last year’s finished product.

 

[hallmatt]

Boston College - 63
Monmouth - 53
St Peters - 66

This isn’t just 1 game. It’s a pattern. If you have terrible pg play, you’re never going to have a great offense.

 

[Anon1776442946]

Yup. And when u can only afford marginal BE players youll get the same results. Rinse and repeat. Always going to watch every minute of every game but im realistic.

 

[Hall84]

Defense is half of the game.
We excel at it.

Yes my eyeballs hurt as much as anyone else’s watching our offense at times and offense and stats make the headlines but let’s give equal weight in our analyses on the D.

 

[hallmatt]

Absolutely.

Defense is very good. In this day and age, you need to be good at both but better on offense.

You know why Uconn and St J are great every year? Because they can score the ball very very well and play great defense

 

[hallmatt]

Great offense beats great defense in today’s game. 20 years ago probably not but today you need to be able to put the ball in the hoop

 

[Piratz]

Maybe our new corporate sponsor Motrin can hand out samples.

 

[catholicman]

Boston College - 63
Monmouth - 53
St Peters - 66

This isn’t just 1 game. It’s a pattern. If you have terrible pg play, you’re never going to have a great offense.

If we end the experiment with Jones and let Petrovic get at least 25 min per game at pg, then I think we'll see a more dynamic, fruitful offense.

 

[Piratz]

Absolutely.

Defense is very good. In this day and age, you need to be good at both but better on offense.

You know why Uconn and St J are great every year? Because they can score the ball very very well and play great defense

He’s not going to allocate such a high % of ok funds to 1-2 players who can do that. Maybe they’ll change if we get to $17-$20M like them.

His system on this budget (and maybe even without it idk) is trying to collect a bunch of average guys and play slow physical defense.

 

[Anon1776442946]

If we dont get more money do we recruit the same way again next year or roll the dice on paying better players but shorter bench? Idk the answer, but i know this doesnt work.

 

[PirateBlue08]

Maybe our new corporate sponsor Motrin can hand out samples.

Hopefully they can provide 25mg Thorazine suppositories as well if we have to watch Del Jones keep playing like this.

How long will Sha's Jones at PG experiment last? Even Parker looked more natural at the point.

If he can't improve in the next few games we might need to just have Petrovic be the PG along with Anderson as a serviceable combo guard starting at the 2, and have Parker the backup PG. Let Jones play the 2 backing up Anderson and Wilcher.

 

[lloyde dobler]

Boston College - 63
Monmouth - 53
St Peters - 66

This isn’t just 1 game. It’s a pattern. If you have terrible pg play, you’re never going to have a great offense.

Quoting scrimmage scores makes you lose all credibility

 

[NIL BAD]

Remember those years when we rarely beat St. Peters? I'm not sure how anyone can take what we saw last night & gather anything meaningful from it. St Peters plays hard but they are really bad.. The only thing that I saw is we have no one to create on offense (Petro reminds me of Sina trying to run the point) & no shot blocker if Williams isn't starting.

 

[PirateBlue08]

Quoting scrimmage scores makes you lose all credibility

Not if it fits a larger pattern, including not just our first real game but Sha's entire coaching career.

To the contrary, DENYING the pattern makes YOU lose credibility and seem like a deluded homer.

 

[Piratz]

He was also tinkering last night in a game we were blowing out a mid major on November 2. He’s not going to play 12 or 15 guys in competitive BE games in January and beyond.

 

[Piratz]

Hopefully they can provide 25mg Thorazine suppositories as well if we have to watch Del Jones keep playing like this.

How long will Sha's Jones at PG experiment last? Even Parker looked more natural at the point.

If he can't improve in the next few games we might need to just have Petrovic be the PG along with Anderson as a serviceable combo guard starting at the 2, and have Parker the backup PG. Let Jones play the 2 backing up Anderson and Wilcher.

Idk on Jones but more than 1 regular season game. He was bad in the exhibition and bad last night. But the plug won’t be pulled this quickly.

 

[knowknow]

A lot of insight so far which is helpful. So far, I can pick Coleman, Parker, Petrovic and the guy who wore long sleeves out of a lineup. Thursday, I will work on differentiating between the Juniors. It's a process.

 

[hallmatt]

Again beating St Peters by 24 is good.

I’m looking at the larger picture. I don’t see 7-25, but I think 2-18 is a possibility. The BE is really really improved man.

 

[lloyde dobler]

Not if it fits a larger pattern, including not just our first real game but Sha's entire coaching career.

To the contrary, DENYING the pattern makes YOU lose credibility and seem like a deluded homer.

Not a homer, because I have no idea other than that last night is the only result I go by. We’ll have the true start of a pattern after the first few real games. It might be good, it might be bad, but at least it will be true data.

 

[Mrpiratee]

I liked the 3-point shooting. Tiny sample size but that seems a potential real improvement form last year. I was never comfortable with Wusu or Bud bringing the ball up the court, so I'm kind of neutral on that. True, no one seems to have Bud's energy, but OTOH, he often was pinging around the court not doing much. I liked what I saw of Copeland's physicality. But, yes, we're overall a bit small up front. There were a couple of nicely executed plays on the offense and some sequences where we seemed to really have it together, but overall not much cohesion and not much speed moving the ball around, with long stretches of flat-out sloppiness by both teams. I'm hopeful we find a couple of consistent combinations and can be competitive in most of the games. My guess is something close to .500 overall and falling just short of the dance again. But, who knows.

 

[PirateBlue08]

He was also tinkering last night in a game we were blowing out a mid major on November 2. He’s not going to play 12 or 15 guys in competitive BE games in January and beyond.

So were the other coaches in the other Big East games. They were all blowouts.

 

[mspaeth]

Serbian PG looks good....he will get 25 mins per game. My analysis would be different if he didnt look good.

Del Jones is not a PG.

 

[HallGuy2323]

Almost no mention of Wilcher anywhere. He was supposed to be our key player and I’m not sure he’s gonna be that guy. He seems to be another in between player. Not good enough to be a lead guard, not a good enough shooter to be a 2 and not big or quick enough to be a 3. Wusu 2.0

 

[Halldan]

So were the other coaches in the other Big East games. They were all blowouts.

Two Big East coaches had their teams trailing at halftime to very poor teams.

No Big East coach played their starters less than Holloway. And in most cases it wasn't close.

If Holloway wanted this game played in the upper 70s he could have done what his peers did.

 

[PirateBlue08]

Two Big East coaches had their teams trailing at halftime to very poor teams.

No Big East coach played their starters less than Holloway. And in most cases it wasn't close.

If Holloway wanted this game played in the upper 70s he could have done what his peers did.

Oh so 2 out of 10? Every game I saw was a blowout in the first half.

Sure we could’ve hit the 70’s, but half the conference was in the 80s and 90s.

Maybe we don’t realize how out of touch it is to think scoring in the 70’s against St Peters is an accomplishment

 

[Halldan]

Again, did you read my post?

Check the box scores of the 10 games last night. Most against comparable opponents. No one played their starters less than us and in most all cases they played far longer than ours,

Also, the game is played on both sides of the court. No one played defense better than SHU.

 

[HallX2]

There is an expression; today was a good day and tomorrow will be better. Except here where today is no good and tomorrow will even be worse.

 

[SeanieWard]

For me the good:

1. Defense looked strong per usual, especially perimeter defense
2. Shooting will be vastly improved
3. Team looked together and genuinely happy for their teammates making plays
4. Deep bench. Williams, Petro, Parker, Payday and Kareem can all play meaningful minutes. Not to mention Brown and Kabba, who we barely seen but had as good a offseason as anyone on the team from what we’ve heard

What worries me:

1. Loved Copeland’s energy, grit and aggressive mentality but he’s on the shorter for a 5 and I think he may struggle at times in BE play because of it. 2 rebounds against Monmouth isn’t going to cut it going forward

2. Del Jones looked completely lost and did not look like a lead guard at all. Luckily, Petro and Parker looked much better running the offense. I would kind of lean Petro as the starting PG with Parker off the bench as a spark plug

I would also like to see Wilcher be more assertive and aggressive offensively with finding his shot. I think that’s what Sha brought him here for

But overall I was pleased with the team for the first game of the season against a lower D1 opponent. We did what we were supposed to do

 

[MichiganStoleTitle]

There is an expression; today was a good day and tomorrow will be better. Except here where today is no good and tomorrow will even be worse.

Reminds me of what is supposedly an old joke from communist-era Poland


Ivan: Hey Stosh! How are you doing?


Stosh Hey Ivan. I am doing better. Not as good as yesterday but better than tomorrow.