A Sea Of Red

Just preemptively posting the …
‘We aren’t athletic’
‘We need taller players’
‘RMK is on the hotseat’
“Kyle Rode is terrible” (edited)
Comments.

Let’s see how they do

You forgot the "Kyle Rode is terrible" line.

flamehunter wrote: ↑January 14th, 2024, 4:29 pm You forgot the "Kyle Rode is terrible" line.

I have corrected that oversight

Also those blue pullovers with Fighting Sparky are awesome!

Purple Haize wrote: ↑January 14th, 2024, 4:15 pm Just preemptively posting the …
‘We aren’t athletic’
‘We need taller players’
‘RMK is on the hotseat’
“Kyle Rode is terrible” (edited)
Comments.

Let’s see how they do

Now what are we supposed to talk about??

If Cleveland could only make a FT…

Well that’s what happens when you play good D, rebound, and make open shots (52% from 3).

Glad to see it. Hopefully, they can withstand the run and get a solid road win.

Sparse crowd and I have seen a few LU parents reping LU and no one else. Good game so far. Looks easy when we can actually knock down some jumpers.

Purple Haize wrote: ↑January 14th, 2024, 4:35 pm Also those blue pullovers with Fighting Sparky are awesome!

What are you talking about??? Ballcoach wants all of our coaches wearing suits and neck ties--especially on a Sunday!

I like our team, I like our coach etc. but a couple thoughts from recent play and this game.
-Cleveland is shooting 51% from the free throw line. Are you kidding me? This is horrible
-Colin Porter. I’m not understanding his role. It looks like Cleveland is now bringing the ball up 70-75% of the time. Okay. Why not try Peebles, Sutherland etc in place of Porter and let them fight it out for playing time (go with the hot hand)? Let Cleveland and Metheny handle the ball.
-We are missing Peebles scoring this year and he doesn’t seem as confident at times. Seems it would be to our advantage to find a way to get him going.
-Shiloh-at times he looks lost. Needs to be more aggressive under the basket. It wouldn’t bother me if he never shot another 3 pointer at LU.
-As a team we are #312 out of 350 D1 teams on free throw shooting. Yikes!!

Waaaay too much dribbling on the offense. Last possession in regulation should have been a set to get Cleveland the ball off a cut or post. Hes not the greatest at breaking his defender down off the dribble. When this offense passes and moves they actually score. But too many times one person is dribbling 875 times to some fade away shot or turnover. That’s something that can be corrected and has nothing to do with height or athleticism

Does everyone make the conference tourney?

SOS................... Same Old Story. And to top it off, Rode misses a 4 foot bunny by 2 feet.

Should've won that game. Louisiana tech took away the three in the second half and we just didn't have an answer when they forced us to score in the paint. We can't say height was the problem because the guy that blocked 7 shots was shorter than all 3 of our forwards.

The problem is we don't have a 1st option on the floor like we did last year. We're a team of role players and 2nd options. Cleveland's good, but he's too erraticm too sloppy, and can't shoot a free throw well enough to be a gp-to guy. Many times folks are still too scared to shoot, it's like they're still looking for Darius to bail them out. We're way past time to shuffle the line=up and rotation, and give Peebles, Southerland, Yates * Spell more of a shot.

LUOrange wrote: ↑January 14th, 2024, 8:00 pm The problem is we don't have a 1st option on the floor like we did last year. We're a team of role players and 2nd options. Cleveland's good, but he's too erraticm too sloppy, and can't shoot a free throw well enough to be a gp-to guy. Many times folks are still too scared to shoot, it's like they're still looking for Darius to bail them out. We're way past time to shuffle the line=up and rotation, and give Peebles, Southerland, Yates * Spell more of a shot.

Other than your last sentence which I completely disagree with Mrs Purple and I were discussing the exact same thing

Peebles couldn’t be more 1 Dimensional
Southerland has shown absolutely 0 when given the opportunity
Yates is a complete unknown. So *maybe*

Purple Haize wrote: ↑January 14th, 2024, 8:08 pm

LUOrange wrote: ↑January 14th, 2024, 8:00 pm The problem is we don't have a 1st option on the floor like we did last year. We're a team of role players and 2nd options. Cleveland's good, but he's too erraticm too sloppy, and can't shoot a free throw well enough to be a gp-to guy. Many times folks are still too scared to shoot, it's like they're still looking for Darius to bail them out. We're way past time to shuffle the line=up and rotation, and give Peebles, Southerland, Yates * Spell more of a shot.

Other than your last sentence which I completely disagree with Mrs Purple and I were discussing the exact same thing

Peebles couldn’t be more 1 Dimensional
Southerland has shown absolutely 0 when given the opportunity
Yates is a complete unknown. So *maybe*

Granted, those guys are at the end of the bench for a reason. But the current rotation isn't getting it done and has no answers for when these bigger & more athletic CUSA squads crowd the 3 point line. We need to find a better inside and mid-range game, so I'm in favor of shaking the bottle some more and see if the mixture will smoothen out.

As much as I'm frustrated with where we are, I trust McKay enough to know that he's playing the guys that will put us in the best position to win. The only one not getting PT that looked like he could contribute is Yates, but we're not exactly hurting for another 6'7" forward in our rotation. It does disappoint me a bit that the freshmen are redshirting. Blair is the kind of talent this team needs, but if he's not shown enough to demand PT on this team, I worry we'll have another Warfield situation. Don't forget that Warfield was also the highest rated recruit we've ever had.

I'm surprised Yates has been such a non factor for us this year. The way mckay talked about him before the season I thought he'd at least be a part of the rotation.

stokesjokes wrote: ↑January 15th, 2024, 10:59 am As much as I'm frustrated with where we are, I trust McKay enough to know that he's playing the guys that will put us in the best position to win. The only one not getting PT that looked like he could contribute is Yates, but we're not exactly hurting for another 6'7" forward in our rotation. It does disappoint me a bit that the freshmen are redshirting. Blair is the kind of talent this team needs, but if he's not shown enough to demand PT on this team, I worry we'll have another Warfield situation. Don't forget that Warfield was also the highest rated recruit we've ever had.

This. I’m 100% sure he understands the ‘short’ comings of the team and is doing his best to mitigate them.

We will be alright. McKay is a great coach and it might take a year or two to rebuild. We were spoiled with having one of the best scorers in the country for 5 years... Give Coach some time and a little runway before we start talking about running him out of town.

I agree with what many have said - our issues are obvious... We might win that game yesterday if Cleveland could hit a free throw and/or Venzant can make a layup.... Those things really hurt us. We really needed a freshman to come in and be ready...

I’m glad to see some trust in McKay on here. I’ve seen some already calling for his job on X/Twitter. That’s very embarrassing for the fan base in my opinion.

It also shows a lack of perspective on their part. When I watched the WKY game they kept talking about how under McKay Liberty is top 5 in total wins over the last 5 years. Regardless of the conference a team is in that stat is impressive. People calling for McKay's job within 3 conference games need to go change their diaper.

I don't think anyone with any common sense is calling for McKay's departure. That would be ridiculous. I'm certainly a big fan of his and I hope that he retires from here after many more years of sustained success. That said, he's not above reproach and constructive criticism isn't an attack on his or anyone's character or personally. I certainly, have questioned his scheduling, recruiting, rotation, and play calling, but again, that doesn't mean I'm not a McKay fan (same goes for our other coaches). And I agree, that he'll right the ship, I just think right now he needs to utilize a "next man up" mentality to playing time, cause what's been going on hasn't been working. Someone will step up, be it be a starter, regular, or folding chair warrior. It needs to happen soon.

I believe it's safe to say, that CUSA is better than ASUN in all sports. And for the record, we can hang with Power 5 schools in all sports except basketball.

Kricket wrote: ↑January 15th, 2024, 12:47 pm I’m glad to see some trust in McKay on here. I’ve seen some already calling for his job on X/Twitter. That’s very embarrassing for the fan base in my opinion.

People seem to forget how irrelevant we were in the pre mckay days. He's earned a long leash. In my mind it would take 3 straight sub 20 win seasons before I start to consider moving on which is unlikely.