A Sea Of Red

Need this one. JSU shooting over 70% from the floor. D needs to tighten up.

Close your eyes and just listen to the broadcast, you would swear you are listening to a 3A home football crew in middle America. Homer and his cousin Jim Bob on the mic.

jmclaughlin wrote: ↑January 27th, 2024, 6:52 pm Close your eyes and just listen to the broadcast, you would swear you are listening to a 3A home football crew in middle America. Homer and his cousin Jim Bob on the mic.

Just absolutely clueless about what’s going on in the game as well

The inability to make a free throw is killing us once again…

Let's smoke a wide open layup

thesportscritic wrote: ↑January 27th, 2024, 7:48 pm Let's smoke a wide open layup

That was an absurd miss.

The free throws shooting has been atrocious. It’s hard to Im again a D1 team being so bad at free throws.

Well… it is difficult to watch a team allow a primary ball handler make great cuts to the basket , get fouled , but he can’t hit a free throw to save his life. So, do you keep letting him drive and get fouled only to get zero points out of it or do you put him down low to play the post. Something has to change , we can’t keep doing this.

Tothehoopyall1 wrote: ↑January 27th, 2024, 7:54 pm Well… it is difficult to watch a team allow a primary ball handler make great cuts to the basket , get fouled , but he can’t hit a free throw to save his life. So, do you keep letting him drive and get fouled only to get zero points out of it or do you put him down low to play the post. Something has to change , we can’t keep doing this.

He does so many things well. It is just a shame he is so bad at FT shooting.

Can't make free throws, miss wide open layups. Is there anything going on defensively that Jax is doing tonight that we haven't seen all year. I was hoping with the last 2 wins maybe things were looking up but this game we look exposed.

Peebles needs to host a combined free throw/layup clinic for the rest of the team

We are also struggling tremendously with dribble penetration. We haven’t stopped anyone since the Myrtle beach tournament. We are worse now than when we played in that tournament. It is good to see Peebles getting more time. Metheny was shut down today. Shiloh was non existent. I don’t know what’s going on but hope we can figure it out soon.

The last 3 minutes was full display of the struggles of this team. Missed FT’s, missed layups, lack of athleticism, matchup issues on D and some clueless stretches by #25.

On to the next one.

jmclaughlin wrote: ↑January 27th, 2024, 9:04 pm The last 3 minutes was full display of the struggles of this team. Missed FT’s, missed layups, lack of athleticism, matchup issues on D and some clueless stretches by #25.

On to the next one.

That missed lay up by Rode at the end…..

I see a lot of people saying something like "Newer LU fans have been spoiled by recent success and this is just a down year" and use it as a dismissal of legitimate questions. I have been a fan since 1991. I have seen a lot of bad LU basketball and we are not close to that bad. However, it is okay to say this staff may have some hard decisions to make if we are going to continue to rise as a program. This league and those we may one day aspire to might require some adjustments. It is not a betrayal to recognize that this year's team is not as effective as some in recent years. The honest truth is we were down the last couple years but DM's shooting camouflaged it a little. I have every confidence our staff will figure it out but it is ok to say we haven't yet.
We all want the same thing...to Rise!

ALAFlamesFan wrote: ↑January 27th, 2024, 9:07 pm I see a lot of people saying something like "Newer LU fans have been spoiled by recent success and this is just a down year" and use it as a dismissal of legitimate questions. I have been a fan since 1991. I have seen a lot of bad LU basketball and we are not close to that bad. However, it is okay to say this staff may have some hard decisions to make if we are going to continue to rise as a program. This league and those we may one day aspire to might require some adjustments. It is not a betrayal to recognize that this year's team is not as effective as some in recent years. The honest truth is we were down the last couple years but DM's shooting camouflaged it a little. I have every confidence our staff will figure it out but it is ok to say we haven't yet.
We all want the same thing...to Rise!

This is well said. I agree with you. I think one thing that I’m struggling with is seeing what Grand Canyon is doing this year. It wasn’t long ago that they were struggling pretty bad. The game changer from what I can tell is the recruiting job that Bryce Drew has done. They’ve got a lot of talent and athleticism on that team. I love our coaches and a lot of things we do. I truly do. However, we are now going through a stretch where we just don’t have the talent to win high level games.

Tothehoopyall1 wrote: ↑January 27th, 2024, 9:43 pm

ALAFlamesFan wrote: ↑January 27th, 2024, 9:07 pm I see a lot of people saying something like "Newer LU fans have been spoiled by recent success and this is just a down year" and use it as a dismissal of legitimate questions. I have been a fan since 1991. I have seen a lot of bad LU basketball and we are not close to that bad. However, it is okay to say this staff may have some hard decisions to make if we are going to continue to rise as a program. This league and those we may one day aspire to might require some adjustments. It is not a betrayal to recognize that this year's team is not as effective as some in recent years. The honest truth is we were down the last couple years but DM's shooting camouflaged it a little. I have every confidence our staff will figure it out but it is ok to say we haven't yet.
We all want the same thing...to Rise!

This is well said. I agree with you. I think one thing that I’m struggling with is seeing what Grand Canyon is doing this year. It wasn’t long ago that they were struggling pretty bad. The game changer from what I can tell is the recruiting job that Bryce Drew has done. They’ve got a lot of talent and athleticism on that team. I love our coaches and a lot of things we do. I truly do. However, we are now going through a stretch where we just don’t have the talent to win high level games.

I agree with that. We have had some staff turnover the last few years and that may be part of our recruiting challenges although RM seems intimately involved with that end of things. The truth is we don't compromise on high character in our recruiting process and I love that about this staff and wouldn't want that to change but it also limits our pool of prospects and magnifies our recruiting misses. Also, I think being in a stronger conference will help us draw higher level recruits. I think our defensive system and commitment on that end might limit us a little although I wouldn't want us to compromise there. I think we just need to weather this rough patch for a year or two but there is no question size is more important in CUSA than the ASun. Our strength coach went to Alabama two years ago. There is no doubt that hurt. Development is key at this level.

I agree with you here as well. Character building is the most important thing and we know HCRM is great with this. I know he has to be frustrated as well. I do think as you mentioned, there are probably going to have to be some tough decisions made at some point.

The first fixable problem with this team is that we're 1 dimensional. All this team wants to do is pass the ball, shoot the 3, get the easy lay-up, and pass some more. So when the 3's don't fall, we don't get the easy lay-up either. There's no inside game and no mid-range game. Which is why we consistently have long scoring droughts in every half, much less a game.

The other problem is that the team is made up entirely of role players. There is no reliable scorer or go-to man. Cleveland's the closest we have, but he's not reliable. He's too erratic and his free throw shooting is too miserable for him to be that man. we need someone else to step up and be willing to take the shot (inside the arc), drive to the basket, and/or work the paint.

The coaches can fix this and find their man. But that might also require a change in their mind set as well.