Another ugly loss despite a much better start. Even in their victories, they sleepwalked through half the game. But now they look worse than ever against solid but lesser competition.
Is it just a matter of physical talent (e.g. lack of size)? Or is there something mental going on?
I never expected a “Myrtle Beach Meltdown” after that 4-1 start. 4 solid wins with a close loss to a very good team, then a double-digit road win vs. a Merrimack team that beat Vermont and kept up with Rutgers.
Surely we were finding our way… but nope. If Pierce is injured/ill, I wish Mitch would just say so.
I only caught the last couple of minutes - but it seems that size matters. We lost Tosan and Kellman off the sweet 16 team- and replaced them with…nothing really. Pierce and Martini just played more minutes. Now replace Allocco with a smaller Davis and Martini with a a rotation of Huggins, Abdullahi and Byriel - no one declaring themselves yet. The freshman guards look promising though.
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Mitch’s failure to recruit and develop more bigs is definitely biting us in the ass.
It can’t just be that though. Loyola Chicago is way bigger and more athletic than Texas State, who is undersized as well. And that game was super close - we probably should have won.
Brandon Noel torched us… and he’s 6-8. Not 7-0. Not 6-10 with Ace Bailey’s athleticism. Just a “great fundamentals” 6-8 dude. A super-skilled 7-foot Danny Wolf had less success against us last season.
Might as well put this here. This is not meant to be a criticism of Lee at all - while he’s a fantastic player, I’m not seeing why he’s considered NBA material as opposed to other Princeton or Ivy League stars. Maybe he’s faster than others but he’s got to get a LOT stronger to play in the NBA, not saying he won’t or can’t - he’s not there yet.
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Last year we were similarly undersized but ALL FIVE starters could play. Peters, Lee, Allocco, Pierce, Martini. And Davis off the bench. That’s SIX guys total who can play 25+ minutes of high-level hoops.
This year? We have only FOUR starting-caliber players: Peters, Lee, Davis, Pierce, and… uh… hmm.
Abdullahi will get there as a sophomore, but he’s not ready yet. Everyone else is a HUGE question mark - they may not EVER be ready to play 25-30mpg. Hicke? Byriel? Huggins? Scott? These are nice 10mpg subs. The freshmen are loaded with talent… but they’re freshman.
You need 5 players on the court. We have 4. Two are stars (Lee and Pierce). One is a potential star (Davis). One is a nice complementary player (Peters). But our 5th guy will always gum up the works on both ends.
We just don’t have 5 guys who can play together. There’s no beautiful tic-tac-toe passing. There’s no instantaneous rotating onto 3pt shooters after a double-team inside. Our 5th player is always screwing up - missing a box out, making a bad pass, etc.
Whatever happened to Austin hurt in terms of have 5 players. But Scott played 12mpg last year - I would have guessed he would have taken a step up in responsibility - but it looks like whatever happened over the summer may have slowed his progress.
We don’t have a choice but to use the nonconference schedule to give these guys time and develop them.
Austin was cleared to play, but apparently, he did not remotely look like his old self yet. Mitch and Deven both seemed bummed but committed to bringing him along slowly… and then Deven took a personal leave of absence.
No word on why exactly, but the clues suggest he didn’t want to use a year of eligibility when he’s not going be playing big minutes.
It’s such a bummer. I just assumed he’d be back and as good (or better) than his freshman self. We really, REALLY miss Austin - a lanky 6-6 wing who defends, cuts and hits spot-up 3s.
His stepback 3s alone put in him another class compared to other Ivy stars. Those are NBA-level moves. Same goes for his handles, crossovers and finishing moves (even if he’s too skinny to finish consistently right now).
He needs to bulk up for sure, but that’s the easy part. Almost every skinny player adds 10-15 lbs. once they go pro. Once he’s no longer an Ivy League student, he’ll hire a full-time trainer and nutritionist and be in the weight room all day. Not to mention he’s only 20. He’ll fill out in the next 2 years.
MH’s postgame press conference. Watch the last 15 seconds:
Oof. A lot of frustration and anger in that last moment, but I prefer that to a defeatist “it is what it is” attitude. They finally got invited to a decent midseason tourney and embarrassed themselves.
Honestly, this team just needs to play harder. When FDU upset Purdue and Zach Edey, they were one of the smallest teams in D1. No excuses. Box out a little better and they’d be 6-1 right now.
“Every game we’ve played this season feels like a football game”. We are clearly being out-muscled.
Mason Hooks, we hardly knew ye.
CJ Happy and Peyton Seals have earned more playing time.
They give us the size and physicality we desperately need and I’m willing to live with inevitable mistakes in non-conf to be a much better team in March.
The D3 game couldn’t come at a better time. Let’s see Happy and Seals play with Pierce and Lee. Then a big test at St. Joe’s.
Also, watching Dalen Davis get abused on defense makes me wonder if he should be starting this season.
We’ll need his high-volume scoring next year when Lee is gone, but this season, a 6-0 guy who doesn’t rebound or defend is better suited as a 6th man than a starter.
I want to try: Peters-Lee-Seals-Pierce-Happy with Davis, Abdullahi and Byriel as primary subs (in that order). Davis should close games (clutch 3pt/FT shooter) but we need more size and physicality to start.
Davis had a great defensive game, holding Texas State’s best player in check.
He distributed beautifully in the first half against Portland.
Some of the frosh played well today, but this team goes as far as
Lee, Davis and most of all Pierce can take them.
Caden played with more energy today. He has something on his
lower back, but maybe he is on the way back.
He has looked totally off of late, so I’m “glad” there’s an injury-related explanation. Hopefully, he heals up over this next week - be ready for St. Joe’s.
I really, really want to win that game after the embarrassing letdowns we’ve had so far. This team needs a confidence boost against a legit quality team.
Not sure about that. Kaden Gumbs had a highlight reel game: 17p/7a/5r/4s. Davis shot well but had just 1 rebound.
I love the guy, he’s an amazing scorer, but he’s a defensive liability. Even in today’s blowout, Portland posted him up a couple times for easy buckets. We need more size and rebounding on the court.
Gumbs scored in the first half,
when Peters was guarding him.
Davis stayed in front of him in
the second half…
He got numerous deflections today.
Seals has some offensive talent and guts,
but he will not help on the boards or on
defense.
Davis will be All-Ivy this year.
Individual honors are nice, but if the team doesn’t win, they mean nothing.
It’s clear that the usual lineup MH has put out there doesn’t work due to lack of size and physicality.
When Davis is on the floor, I watch him on defense almost to the exclusion of the other players. He has improved a lot since last year, but guys can get around him. He has quick hands, and would be a much better defender if he had a shot blocker behind him.
Fair enough. I don’t mean to imply that he’s a total sieve or not trying. But without a true center, we need all the size and rebounding we can get from our guards and wings.
Davis averages only 2rpg in ~30mpg. Even for a small guard, that’s low. 1-2 more boards against Loyola-Chicago and Texas State and those losses are wins.
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