If roundball is your blood, this is the place to discuss the Flames as they move into the Ritchie McKay era for the 2nd time.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

By FlameFan11
Posts
#523909
We are 1-13 from 3. Can't shoot 3s on the road this year. Dawson another half with 0 points. Homesley basically our only offense.
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By jbock13
Registration Days Posts
#523911
What is it about LU athletics and totally not caring about non-conference games?
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#523914
Nice effort in the second half Tough to win with Kemrite out and Dawson producing 1 point and fouling out

Chen, Baxter-Bell and Gardner were the bright spot along with another double double from Caleb

Ritchie in the postgame was upset with the turnovers and said "we've got to find a way to help John Dawson"
By FlameFan11
Posts
#523917
Hard to overcome that poor of a start on the road to anybody. 2nd half was a lot better with a regular rotation. Once Myo and Brock were in, we were able to slow down the bigs and our offensive flow was better. Good minutes from Chen as well.

To me this was another example of sitting top guys with two fouls in the first half hurting us. Myo and Brock combine for 20 points but only 37 minutes combined. Both played sparingly in 1st half with two fouls.

Totally agree with Coach, we have to find a way to help Dawson get on track. We were right there down the stretch after scoring only 5 points in the 1st 15 minutes, no Kemrite and 1 point from Dawson.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#523919
FlameFan11 wrote:Hard to overcome that poor of a start on the road to anybody. 2nd half was a lot better with a regular rotation. Once Myo and Brock were in, we were able to slow down the bigs and our offensive flow was better. Good minutes from Chen as well.

To me this was another example of sitting top guys with two fouls in the first half hurting us. Myo and Brock combine for 20 points but only 37 minutes combined. Both played sparingly in 1st half with two fouls.

Totally agree with Coach, we have to find a way to help Dawson get on track. We were right there down the stretch after scoring only 5 points in the 1st 15 minutes, no Kemrite and 1 point from Dawson.
Actually, Ritchie made an exception to his 2 foul rule and put Myo back in for a while late in the first half He only ended up with 3 fouls, so considering how well he was playing, 20 minutes does seem a bit on the low side 18 for Gardner is actually the most he has played His numbers will continue to go up
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By Cider Jim
Registration Days Posts
#523920
The local paper says LU shot 58% in the second half (compared to 17% in the first half).
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#523921
Cider Jim wrote:The local paper says LU shot 58% in the second half (compared to 17% in the first half).
Our second half performance was commendable No quit in this team

Turnovers really did kill us along with the horrible first half shooting The total of 17 TO was bad enough (and not at all typical for this year's team) but what made it worse is at least 3 or 4 of them were the basketball equivilant of a "pick 6", leading to easy baskets at the other end
By Chippy
Registration Days Posts
#523927
Greensboro had a very effective zone press that if it didn't create TOs it took of 10-12 seconds off the shot clock which hurried up our offense and took us out of our offensive rhythm.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#523928
If Dawson doesn't pull out of his funk soon, as totally bizarre as this would have sounded pre-season, I think some of his minutes need to go to the guy who has been our most efficient player this year, Ray Chen
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By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#523934
My guess is the latter. Pardon my bringing him up, but that's what happened with Seth Curry. As teams got film on us, they were able to adjust and while he got his, the thought was, "we will make someone else beat us".

Teams are getting film and they are game planning with the idea of "forcing someone other than John Dawson to beat us". We need someone else to step up and be that go to scorer behind Dawson.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#523935
Jonathan Carone wrote:Is it a funk or has he been the focus of the defense?
I think I am safe in saying that John has not faced any of the "trick" defenses Curry says played a part in his leaving LU If our opponents have done their job scouting, they know Homesley is our best player

It's a funk The last couple of games he can't get out of his own way Looked like maybe he had pulled out of it with a nice outing against W&M, but, nope
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#523936
BJWilliams wrote:My guess is the latter. Pardon my bringing him up, but that's what happened with Seth Curry. As teams got film on us, they were able to adjust and while he got his, the thought was, "we will make someone else beat us".

Teams are getting film and they are game planning with the idea of "forcing someone other than John Dawson to beat us". We need someone else to step up and be that go to scorer behind Dawson.
Well, someone has not been paying attention :roll:

John Dawson is our 3rd leading scorer
He has been awful in all but a couple of games this year, and as best I can tell there has been no special effort by opponents to stop him No reason to I expect we WILL start to see teams focus now on our best player, who is Caleb Homesley
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By Jonathan Carone
Posts
#523937
It's not Seth level junk defenses, but I thought I saw a quote from McKay referencing teams are playing him differently. Damien also said UNCG was running a second defender at him whenever he dribbled.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#523938
McKay in his post game last night "John is very important to what we are trying to do We need to find a way to help him"

I suspect he is pressing too hard and just needs to play in the flow and let his talent take over when the opportunity presents itself he is clearly a much better player than what we have seen the last couple of games, and this team needs him contributing again to achieve it's potential
By ballah09
Registration Days Posts
#523945
If Liberty starts penetrating more like they did in the VCU game then there would be more open shots. Doesnt help when majority of the time they're passing around the perimeter and standing around. Dawson can't be hesitant like he has been on open shots and stop forcing bad shots. granted most of them are due to the shoot clock running down.

Lastly Ray Chen needs to play more.
By FlameFan11
Posts
#523949
Dawson hasn't seen any special defenses but there is a definite focus on not letting him drive. I have noticed shorter closeouts and some help shading his way. Biggest impact has been the foul trouble and inconsistent minutes. Fouled out of 4 of the 8 games. That is tough for any player. He will get it figured out.
By FlameFan11
Posts
#523950
I realize that Chen has been effective but if he's getting more minutes, someone has to sit. That's the challenge. Maybe it's just me but I don't feel there is any pressure to win now. I want to win and would love to be in position to compete for the BSC title by the end of the year but shouldn't the focus be on the future? Are the minutes more valuable as an investment in freshman and sophomores as opposed to a senior new to the program?

Does the AD situation factor in for RMK to feel he has to win right away? I don't think so but the short leash on our freshman and lack of game minutes for those guys ,who have a much higher upside, has been puzzling.
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