[broncosliberty]

Fans deserve to criticize and hold the coaching staff accountable and Ian should do the same. I'm sorry if that offended anyone. I wonder if mckay still has the motivation to fix this or will this continue into next year.

[Purple Haize]

We don't have enough offense. Need to change recruiting philosophy. Get some shooters.

They have shooters.

[Purple Haize]

Fans deserve to criticize and hold the coaching staff accountable and Ian should do the same. I'm sorry if that offended anyone. I wonder if mckay still has the motivation to fix this or will this continue into next year.

Coaches don’t shoot FT’s.

[aredd33]

Fans deserve to criticize and hold the coaching staff accountable and Ian should do the same. I'm sorry if that offended anyone. I wonder if mckay still has the motivation to fix this or will this continue into next year.

Nobody is offended. I absolutely 100% agree we did not have the athletes to compete like we are accustomed to in the conference. I 100% agree that falls squarely on the coaches and recruiting. I do not know coach McKay and this is purely speculation on my part but I’m very very confident he knows the issues this team had. Perhaps I should have made this more clear earlier but my point is McKay has done more than enough to earn trust and be given the opportunity to fix this. And I think he will.

[Purple Haize]

The comments about the team lack of athleticism have been said by me and a couple of other people since the beginning of this season. We got criticized for it and a lot of people were brown nosing on Coach McKay. It was a failure of recruiting. I said this before, the two starting guards are as good as they can be and they have basketball skills. I give them that. BUT, they are limited and they are liabilities on defense. Peebles is a good player but also a liability on defense. Basketball is about strong defense first in order to compete at a higher level. If 2 out 5 players in the floor are weak on defense, then it will not work at higher competition.

The defense this year was not vintage McKay defense. They win tonight’s game if they hit FTs

[ECC29]

I agree McKay’s defense is very good. Given, if it is executed by better athletes. Throughout the season we have seen the two small guards getting beat because they are undersized. We kept hearing the commentators stating, these guards from the other team are taking advantages of LU’s small guards. You hear it time and time again. And they were right. You can blame the FT fiasco, and it was part of the problem but all season long, the LU guards were getting burnt.

[Ill flame]

The comments about the team lack of athleticism have been said by me and a couple of other people since the beginning of this season. We got criticized for it and a lot of people were brown nosing on Coach McKay. It was a failure of recruiting. I said this before, the two starting guards are as good as they can be and they have basketball skills. I give them that. BUT, they are limited and they are liabilities on defense. Peebles is a good player but also a liability on defense. Basketball is about strong defense first in order to compete at a higher level. If 2 out 5 players in the floor are weak on defense, then it will not work at higher competition.

The defense this year was not vintage McKay defense. They win tonight’s game if they hit FTs

We lost by 9 and missed 6 FTs so I don't think us hitting our FTs would've made much of a difference. FTs were the biggest difference in the game but that has more to do with UTEP getting more than double the attempts than us and making them.

[Purple Haize]

The comments about the team lack of athleticism have been said by me and a couple of other people since the beginning of this season. We got criticized for it and a lot of people were brown nosing on Coach McKay. It was a failure of recruiting. I said this before, the two starting guards are as good as they can be and they have basketball skills. I give them that. BUT, they are limited and they are liabilities on defense. Peebles is a good player but also a liability on defense. Basketball is about strong defense first in order to compete at a higher level. If 2 out 5 players in the floor are weak on defense, then it will not work at higher competition.

The defense this year was not vintage McKay defense. They win tonight’s game if they hit FTs

We lost by 9 and missed 6 FTs so I don't think us hitting our FTs would've made much of a difference. FTs were the biggest difference in the game but that has more to do with UTEP getting more than double the attempts than us and making them.

They missed the front end of 1 and 1s and had to foul at the end. Between that and TO’s is why they lost (Defense wasn’t great but it hasn’t been all year)

[paradox]

Pretty sure that Liberty scored 3 points in final 10:30. They were up by 12 and then crashed. Lacked poise and didn't play smart enough in final ten and a half minutes.

[ECC29]

People can knit pick tonight’s game with the FT or TO. But I am looking at the whole season. The team had a losing record in Conference USA. Let’s look at What is consistent or not consistent this season. My thoughts, lack of athleticism and undersized. This lead to LU guards getting burnt. The post players were not athletic enough to win many match up down the post. Cleveland did well this season but not enough of course. The team cannot rely on 3-point shots every game because it lacks the post game. I don’t believe this is the kind of basketball McKay wants in the future. It’s great to have the 3s. But the team needs better post players.
What are some of the thoughts here?

[stokesjokes]

In the age of the portal, rosters can change dramatically in a year. I’d expect more turnover than usual after this kind of year.

It seemed like every team we played this year had 3-4 guys that could drive and finish through contact. IMHO that’s a piece we’re missing as much as anything.

[broncosliberty]

I hope there is real change/turnover. I am not confident that this coaching staff will change direction.

[JK37]

I hope there is real change/turnover. I am not confident that this coaching staff will change direction.

You are going to be left wanting. Ritchie McKay has earned a lot more rope than you’re willing to give him.

[Drsloan]

Hitting the portal is great in theory but we have to have spots to get guys and right now we don’t. Will need some guys to decide to leave for that to happen.

[aredd33]

I hope there is real change/turnover. I am not confident that this coaching staff will change direction.

Gotta be a troll. That’s just not a logical decision to move on from McKay.

[stokesjokes]

Hitting the portal is great in theory but we have to have spots to get guys and right now we don’t. Will need some guys to decide to leave for that to happen.

These are the kinds of things that tend to work themselves out, sometimes with a little encouragement from the coaching staff.

[paradox]

I agree that they will be able to work this out as targeted players become available.

If we could take it back to the game for a moment. It would seem that a team’s most definitive weaknesses get magnified in the bigger moments. They fought hard and played with tremendous heart, and literally had UTEP on the ropes, up by 12 w/10:30 to go. All they needed to do was work the clock w/Porter/Rode, not foul, and follow their assignments on D. UTEP did not have the wherewithal to stage a comeback. Or let’s at least say that it would be highly unlikely that they could’ve pulled this off without Liberty’s assistance. UTEP is challenged offensively, but they never sailed off course, stayed with their principles, and never deviated from playing as a team. When Liberty lost focus and started making mental errors, UTEP was more than happy to oblige.

[TH Spangler]

I agree that they will be able to work this out as targeted players become available.

If we could take it back to the game for a moment. It would seem that a team’s most definitive weaknesses get magnified in the bigger moments. They fought hard and played with tremendous heart, and literally had UTEP on the ropes, up by 12 w/10:30 to go. All they needed to do was work the clock w/Porter/Rode, not foul, and follow their assignments on D. UTEP did not have the wherewithal to stage a comeback. Or let’s at least say that it would be highly unlikely that they could’ve pulled this off without Liberty’s assistance. UTEP is challenged offensively, but they never sailed off course, stayed with their principles, and never deviated from playing as a team. When Liberty lost focus and started making mental errors, UTEP was more than happy to oblige.

Just missed to many free throws, or they get the win.

[paradox]

Probably looks that way in the box score. However, momentum swing was profound. UTEP looked baked, down by 12, & couldn't buy a basket. LU's loss of focus led to their own self-sabotage

[Cider Jim]

They fought hard and played with tremendous heart, and literally had UTEP on the ropes, up by 12 w/10:30 to go. UTEP did not have the wherewithal to stage a comeback. Or let’s at least say that it would be highly unlikely...

I was streaming the game on ESPN+, but I didn't see any ropes.

According to the local paper, UTEP's coach went with a smaller, quicker lineup midway in the second half which neutralized our guards from scoring. Maybe that was the difference in our only scoring 3 points in the last 10 minutes. It sounds like UTEP made adjustments in the second half that shut us down in scoring.

[paradox]

Adjustments didn't have an impact until Liberty lost focus with poor decision-making by the players leading to compounded errors.

[olldflame]

Hitting the portal is great in theory but we have to have spots to get guys and right now we don’t. Will need some guys to decide to leave for that to happen.

I think I can say with a high degree of confidence that we will have at least one opening for a transfer.

[paradox]

They fought hard and played with tremendous heart, and literally had UTEP on the ropes, up by 12 w/10:30 to go. UTEP did not have the wherewithal to stage a comeback. Or let’s at least say that it would be highly unlikely...

I was streaming the game on ESPN+, but I didn't see any ropes.

According to the local paper, UTEP's coach went with a smaller, quicker lineup midway in the second half which neutralized our guards from scoring. Maybe that was the difference in our only scoring 3 points in the last 10 minutes. It sounds like UTEP made adjustments in the second half that shut us down in scoring.

UTEP pulled their bigs early in second half, including the 6-10 guy that scored 10 in first half, and never played in second. Liberty was actually up 12 vs. the smaller lineup.

Which ropes did you miss? The ones that UTEP was meandering on or the ones that Liberty fashioned around their own necks?

[olldflame]

The comments about the team lack of athleticism have been said by me and a couple of other people since the beginning of this season. We got criticized for it and a lot of people were brown nosing on Coach McKay. It was a failure of recruiting. I said this before, the two starting guards are as good as they can be and they have basketball skills. I give them that. BUT, they are limited and they are liabilities on defense. Peebles is a good player but also a liability on defense. Basketball is about strong defense first in order to compete at a higher level. If 2 out 5 players in the floor are weak on defense, then it will not work at higher competition.

The defense this year was not vintage McKay defense. They win tonight’s game if they hit FTs

We lost by 9 and missed 6 FTs so I don't think us hitting our FTs would've made much of a difference. FTs were the biggest difference in the game but that has more to do with UTEP getting more than double the attempts than us and making them.

It was more than just the disparity between the final margin and the number of FTs we missed. While they were on that game ending run we went to the line 4 times with the opportunity to slow their momentum, and we came away with 1 point out of a maximum potential of 8, which simply added to it.

Also, the final margin was 9 instead of 7 because they IMHO showed poor sportsmanship by taking an uncontested dunk at the buzzer instead of running the last 2 seconds off the clock. I can only hope their coach gave the player an ear-full for that one.

[JK37]

Hitting the portal is great in theory but we have to have spots to get guys and right now we don’t. Will need some guys to decide to leave for that to happen.

Spots will open