The most successful program on Liberty Mountain deserves its own forum. We give Coach Green and the Lady Flames their props while breaking down their run to the Big Dance once again.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke, thesportscritic

By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#660474
We need to support the WBB team. My family and I have attended every game this year for the men and women and have enjoyed both. However, I don’t think there’s a team on campus with a more winning history than the WBB team, and support for them is… lackluster. The cost is super cheap.

Anyways, they’re shooting lights out. Asia Boone is nuts. Emma Hess can go off. Jordan Hodges is a great player, and when she wants to be Smuda is a force. The other thing I like about this team? They hit their free throws.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#660477
At the beginning of the year I don’t think very many people thought they’d be playing for the Conference Championship
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By ECC29
Posts
#660478
They are playing well. Good for them. They have key players doing the workload that is helping. No one wants to say it but I will say something about Smuda. I know she has a lot of blocks this season. Give her credit. But, when she blocks, she swats the ball like she is spiking a volleyball. I had a coach once told me that you only need to “umbrella” your opponent when trying to block. Just overshadow the opponent. At times Smuda swats/spikes the ball during a block, it will appear like a foul. Those coaches has not fixed that part of her game.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#660479
That’s all you got? You don’t like the way she blocks shots? She’s certainly not the most dominant post to be at LU but that’s awfully nit picky.
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By Baybird
Posts
#660480
ECC29 wrote: March 15th, 2024, 10:50 pm They are playing well. Good for them. They have key players doing the workload that is helping. No one wants to say it but I will say something about Smuda. I know she has a lot of blocks this season. Give her credit. But, when she blocks, she swats the ball like she is spiking a volleyball. I had a coach once told me that you only need to “umbrella” your opponent when trying to block. Just overshadow the opponent. At times Smuda swats/spikes the ball during a block, it will appear like a foul. Those coaches has not fixed that part of her game.
First, I will admit that this is not one of LU's most gifted teams, but they are young, they have persevered through injuries and they have come together to play in the conference championship game.

Then, you continue to analyze the team in such a way that in order for them to be successful, they have to be perfect. How in the world did the media/coaches in the conference pick two of our subpar players to be first team all-conference and two freshmen to be included on that team? It's easy to pick out the mistakes. Some posters [has]not fixed that part of their analysis.
By ECC29
Posts
#660482
Baybird wrote: March 15th, 2024, 11:15 pm
ECC29 wrote: March 15th, 2024, 10:50 pm They are playing well. Good for them. They have key players doing the workload that is helping. No one wants to say it but I will say something about Smuda. I know she has a lot of blocks this season. Give her credit. But, when she blocks, she swats the ball like she is spiking a volleyball. I had a coach once told me that you only need to “umbrella” your opponent when trying to block. Just overshadow the opponent. At times Smuda swats/spikes the ball during a block, it will appear like a foul. Those coaches has not fixed that part of her game.
First, I will admit that this is not one of LU's most gifted teams, but they are young, they have persevered through injuries and they have come together to play in the conference championship game.

Then, you continue to analyze the team in such a way that in order for them to be successful, they have to be perfect. How in the world did the media/coaches in the conference pick two of our subpar players to be first team all-conference and two freshmen to be included on that team? It's easy to pick out the mistakes. Some posters [has]not fixed that part of their analysis.
I did not say to be perfect. Every player can improve in some areas. That is one area she can be better and saves her some fouls trouble.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#660483
thesportscritic wrote: March 15th, 2024, 11:22 pm The championship is going to go like the asun championship games have gone in the past. Nobody is going to beat Middle Tennessee.
You are probably right. But no one thought LU would even be playing at this point so it’s an overall positive.
By JK37
Registration Days Posts
#660484
thesportscritic wrote: March 15th, 2024, 11:22 pm The championship is going to go like the asun championship games have gone in the past. Nobody is going to beat Middle Tennessee.
You’re not wrong.

But, what if you were?
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By ECC29
Posts
#660498
They keep avoiding passes to Smuda. I’m yelling at the screen to pass down to Smuda. You have a bunch of scared players right now. I hope it’s better the second half.
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By ECC29
Posts
#660502
I’ve been saying it since day 1. It’s time for a new coaching staff. They need coaches that can bring in better athletes. There are people here that brown nose Coach Green. They hate it when I mention stuff like this.
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By prototype
Registration Days Posts
#660503
We need to pump the brakes on this Green talk... He's the reason we are where we are. We have a pretty young team abd a another good clas coming in next year. Let's not mess this up becuase we think Geno wants to coach here.
By thesportscritic
Registration Days Posts
#660504
And will have the exact same result or worse next season. This coach won't change his offense or defense strategies. He's been doing the same thing for the last several years. There were 0 adjustments in this game. FGCU won every single matchup except 1 while in the ASUN. Don't even get me started about playing MTSU while in CUSA.
By ECC29
Posts
#660505
This coach did well and the level of players he recruited in the lower level conference. LU is moving up in competition and maybe try to compete with rank teams. This coach got exposed when LU moved up. To be fair, if he is able to bring in better athletes, then maybe. But with his past resume of slow players or not so athletic, he is not the future.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#660507
Basically you hate every coach at LU.
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By thesportscritic
Registration Days Posts
#660508
You and a lot of others will defend coach green. Bottom line this happened last year and the year before last vs FGCU and y'all say give him another chance. Bottom line is he's been exposed and some of us point it out and y'all get very defensive. So Im assuming y'all are ok with mediocrity because that is what this team has become since joining the ASUN and conference usa. There has been FGCU and now middle Tennessee. Take the blinders off your eyes. Here we are again in this situation after getting beat soundly in the conference championship game. This team is not an NCAA tournament team under this staff and hasn't been in 6 seasons.
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By ECC29
Posts
#660509
Purple Haize wrote: March 16th, 2024, 11:44 pm Basically you hate every coach at LU.
Your point is childish and assuming. I like Coach Dot and what she has done with softball program. Unfortunately, she lost 2 very good players to the portal. She needs a new hitting coach. I like Coach Chadwell and what he has done with the football program. I like the track and field program, they compete well nationally and so does the golf program and the swim program. I like the nationally rank field hockey program. It’s LU’s best sports program. They got high as #4 in the nation playing in the Big East. What is your point? Like thesportscritic said, you and many others are blinded. We have been looking at the consistency of these coaches. This is not a one time observation.
Here is a good example of poor coaching against top competition. Sometime in the first half or at least in the second quarter, there should have been a timeout with a stern command to get the ball down to Smuda but instead it did not happen until the second half of the game. A little too late. Give a lot of credit to Smuda for battling for the team. Get rid of your blinders!
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By broncosliberty
Posts
#660510
The same people defending green, continue to defend McKay and the lack of recruiting players that can compete at this level. I hope that both men's and women's basketball could be competitive at a high level one day. I am not sure we have the coaching staffs that can lead us to this goal. No reason that these coaches can't be successful with the superior resources and financial support that we have compared to the schools we continue to struggle against.
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By JK37
Registration Days Posts
#660511
LU WBB was the FGCU and MTSU of the Big South. They won OPC and advanced in tourney when they had even better athletes and players: unicorns.

To be fair, this team got better over the course of conference play. I, for one, did not see a two seed and advancement to champ game on this season’s horizon. I also observed this program edge closer and closer to FGCU over several years.

But I’ve not been a fan of the controlling style for over a decade. They absolutely need better athletes and on-ball defenders. For too long, the program relied on just being bigger and longer, and the matchup zone Green ran for years fit those players.

I admit I didn’t watch as many games this year, especially as poorly as OOC went. I did watch every minute yesterday, and almost all of the rest of the tourney. This group got better. I’ll give credit where it’s due. But LU does need to get more athletic, undoubtedly. We looked surprisingly big and slow yesterday. The strategy was clearly to slow the game down and keep it close as possible, make a half court grind-it-out type of game. That worked for one quarter.
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By ECC29
Posts
#660512
Too many people are focused on the FGCU and MTSU games and how they are getting closer to those teams. Let’s pretend LU won those championships in the last 3 years to include this year. They will go to the first round of the NCAA. I will bet you my whole month salary that they will get blown away on the first round because they are not athletic enough to compete at national stage. Forget about the likes of the FGCU or MTSU, we are hoping and thinking that LU will compete at a higher national level. All you have to do is look at the non-conference games they lost to. There was a huge difference in athleticism between LU and those teams they lost to.
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