[Cider Jim]

At least Marshall passed SC on the 3-point record for the season!

[JK37]

JCS made the right play at the end. Take it to the hoop, attack aggressively. No angle to kickout to Marshall.

Also, if its a foul in the first minute, it's a foul in the last minute. Eades blew that call. Needed to have the gesticulating fortitude to make that call, and simply didn't. Poor judgment.

But, too many turnovers on Liberty's part allowed the game to come down to a final play. Only thing keeping LU in it was A&T's woeful effort at the FT line. Liberty's roster suffers immensely from its lack of a true point guard. Both Sanders and Marshall can play it, but I'm not sure they have the correct mentality for it all the time.

Excellent scouting and defensive game plan by A&T coaches. The traps were great. "Icing" the POB's was an excellent move. Liberty countered with the refuse-rescreen action, but then A&T read it and trapped harder in low corner. Well done.

Layer also made some excellent calls throughout the night, especially coming out of timeouts. Also managed personnel well by shortening bench and also going offense-for-defense (and vice-versa) at numerous points throughout the game. Well done, DL!

Don't see anyone on the roster to replace Speaks' skill set. Don't know anything about incoming prospects. That would scare me a little. And speaking of little, JCS and Davon looked small all night. Yikes!

[jimflamesfan]

Good finish. I still can't believe LU almost stole that inbounds pass near the end. Hopefully Liberty can use this tourney experience and the new practice facility to recruit some help!

[Purple Haize]

The word you are looking for is egregious. And, I don't recall anyone else consistently dribbling to the corner. Post player get a little slack if they make a bad pass because it isn't really their job.
He had a bad game. One more typical of his regular season, unfortunately, then his Tournament

Yes that was the word I was looking for... thanks for the assist. Still don't see how you can call 21 pts. and 9 assists a "bad game". We were in a position to win the game, thanks in part to his contribution.

There is a difference between running a team and filling up a stat sheet, Stats lie. But let's look at them anyways since that's your point of reference.
21 points.
3-4 from the Ft line
4-6 from 3 pt line
7-18 total from the floor.

Take away the 3 FT's we have 18 points.

4-6 from 3. Great job, its what he does best.

That makes him 3-12 if my math is correct from inside the arc. With all of those drives you would want him to get to the FT line more. He shot 4. That means he was forcing drives that were not there. He made one circus shot and and forced many more. He did not play within himself and forced to much. This is/has been one of my issues all year with him. It's a simple fix that I'm sure he can correct in the off season. Instead of driving for a lay up, look to kick, add a pull up short range jumper and/or floater to his arsenal.
Now the 3-1 a/to ratio is pretty good. However, how many times did he dribble into double teams disrupting the offense? We had to call 2 TO's I believe because he dribbled into the corner.
Finally, how many times did A and T attack him with the guy he was guarding?

The kid looks like he works hard. He wants to play and at least makes decisions. He just needs to work on adding to his skill set and understanding what is and isn't the right decision. Hint- dribbling into the corner against a trapping team is a bad decision

[Purple Haize]

JCS made the right play at the end. Take it to the hoop, attack aggressively. No angle to kickout to Marshall.

Also, if its a foul in the first minute, it's a foul in the last minute. Eades blew that call. Needed to have the gesticulating fortitude to make that call, and simply didn't. Poor judgment.

Layer also made some excellent calls throughout the night, especially coming out of timeouts. Also managed personnel well by shortening bench and also going offense-for-defense (and vice-versa) at numerous points throughout the game. Well done, DL!

!

Seriously? Look at the replay and tell me who initiated the contact. JC jumps to the side right into the defender. That certainly isn't a foul at the beginning of the game nor is it a foul at the end of the game. I can't even believe people are talking about it. Eades didn't blow the call at all. GREAT no call. ( I had a couple of players who did the same thing. They got away with it some because of the level of official. However, when they didn't I knew why.)

Agree 100% about Coach Layer

[01LUGrad]

Big guys- hit the weight room immediately. We can't afford to have that kind of height afraid to get into the paint.

[sporter]

Just watching the tape from tonight's game as I missed it live. Agree with many of the comments regarding Sanders' repeatedly getting trapped and stuck in situations where he could do nothing with the ball. The one comment I would make though is that Layer and the offensive system has to share some of the blame. The defensive scheme A & T ran was clearly built around trapping and forcing our ball handlers away from the middle and to the corner. The only way to attack this with success is to pass the ball crisply and move with out the ball which would ultimately create open shots. Our offensive system all year has been dribble, dribble, mostly away from the basket and A & T took advantage of it. Get it to the middle around the key or free throw line and work off of that. We never attempted to put people in this position so all that was left was to do what we have done all year which is dribble.

In saying that, great run by the guys and great job by Coach Layer in getting to this point. Congrats to them.

[sporter]

Just watched the end. Too many guys back on defense to expect to get to the hole in that situation. Have to pull up or make a move to get an open look outside. JC did a solid job in portions of the second half in helping to get us close.

[Humble_Opinion]

PH - to be clear, I'm not disagreeing with you about him making mistakes. I made several comments throughout the game on his dribbling into traps. If he were a little faster, it'd be okay because he could likely get out of the trap, but he's just not that guy. What I am disagreeing with is your characterization of him having a bad game. He hit a lot of big shots and there were a few times where he made it to the hole, drew contact and had the basket count. Hopefully, he learns the lesson and goes on to have a stellar senior season. We return most of the team. Losing Speaks will be tough though...

[Purple Haize]

PH - to be clear, I'm not disagreeing with you about him making mistakes. I made several comments throughout the game on his dribbling into traps. If he were a little faster, it'd be okay because he could likely get out of the trap, but he's just not that guy. What I am disagreeing with is your characterization of him having a bad game. He hit a lot of big shots and there were a few times where he made it to the hole, drew contact and had the basket count. Hopefully, he learns the lesson and goes on to have a stellar senior season. We return most of the team. Losing Speaks will be tough though...

I'm not saying he didn't do anything right, nor am I questioning his heart. However, hitting open jump shots does not mean you had a good night.
3-12 on penetration shots is not a good night. I'm not sure what can balance that out to make it 'good'.
His handling of the team was poor, as evidenced by his unnatural attraction to the corner.
He hit 1 circus shot, one with contact and 1-10 on the rest. Not a good night. Make 5 or 6 decisions to kick out on those and then you have at least 1-6 or 1-5 on those others and your team mates are more involved.
He tried to do things he is incapable of doing. Something he had done a better job of controlling during the BSC Tournament.
I'm sorry f it seems I'm banging on the guy, because I think the kid does work hard and does have some heart. It's his skill set and decision making process that really need improving. At least there were glimpses of it 2 weeks ago.

[jlread]

Played safe the whole game..... It sucks to say it but..If they would have stooped to play as nasty as NC A&T(which BTW had probably the 2nd worst coach in NCAA History) they would have won by a land slide.

[NotAJerry]

I mean I know you can't have a guy like JCS turning the ball over or taking the ball into corners with two men following him, but there were plenty of other players who made simple turnovers that were much more aggregious. Our big fellas need to be a little more consistent with their passes.

As a sidenote, it was fun to watch this team shoot from the perimeter. Both JCS and Marshall are solid shooters. It'd be nice to get a speedier PG to drive more for kick outs to those guys.

The other guys had a play, or two, that were bad. JCS was consistently putting himself in the same bad positions.

Agreed big time on the true PG. That fundamentally changes what we do in a good way by allowing JCS, and Davon, be shooters first and creators second. It likely improves our low post production as well.

[NotAJerry]

I have more of an issue with JVP, Smith, Gielo, and Coronado all playing soft. Trav, JC, and Marshall were the only reason it was as close as it was. We need the big fellas to step up next year. Thankfully Burrus will be back.

I thought both Smith and Coronado played strong tonight. Neither is a true finisher around the basket. Gielo was Charmin soft and JVP just can't use his size effectively. I'm thinking JVP can't get any lift because of the back problems. It's too bad because he gets himself into good spots on offense and stalls out.

It says something about our PG needs when the 4 post players got a total of 7 shots tonight.

[ALAFlamesFan]

JCS made the right decision in the end. I will take him on my team any day and need I point out that he got us where his brother never did?
We will miss Speaks tremendously next year. I don't know who we have coming in besides the one Houston homeschooler but the fact we don't have a recruiting thread at the top of this forum this season suggests we have no answer for Speaks loss so this group just needs to work HARD in the offseason to get better, stronger and tougher. The university has given them all the tools. If our bigs don't get stronger it is on them. If Smith's game can mature and he can add any kind of 5-7 foot jumper he could be a stud. Also, quit mugging for the crowd after every dunk or block. You aren't THAT good yet. A little humility and hard work will do wonders next season.
Do we want a true point guard on the floor next season? Where are our points coming from to replace Speaks' and whomever you sit (JCS or Davon)? Or are you planning to have 3 6 footers on the court at the same time? We are already small at guard.
There are some legitimate issues/barriers to overcome next season but nothing that cannot be answered by some of these current players putting on some muscle and adding to their game. We do have a talent gap. We do have some size/matchup issues especially at guard on the defensive side of the ball but we can narrow it with skill, strength and basketball IQ.

Get after it in the offseason fellas! I will be cheering for you.

[ballcoach15]

I posted yesterday we needed to get good production from frontcourt. It did not happen, but next year I think frontcourt will be better, especially with Burris back. Also our bench getting outscored 21-1 did not help. We need more points off bench.

I thought final play was a foul, but refs swallowed their whistles.

[JK37]

I thought final play was a foul, but refs swallowed their whistles.

Great. There goes my whole argument.

[Purple Haize]

I thought final play was a foul, but refs swallowed their whistles.

Great. There goes my whole argument.

Haha!
Still not a foul and ESPN has run that play 1000 times. You can't penalize the defense if the offensive player jumps into them.

[Bigsouthking]

The defender jumped straight up, Sanders is known as a flopper, he created the contact jumping into the defender....

tough loss, maybe a kick out would have worked but Sanders had his head down the whole way like he's done all year... 1 point loss every play matters not just the last.. great season or actually just a nice final week & half of the season.

[Purple Haize]

The defender jumped straight up, Sanders is known as a flopper, he created the contact jumping into the defender....

tough loss, maybe a kick out would have worked but Sanders had his head down the whole way like he's done all year... 1 point loss every play matters not just the last.. great season or actually just a nice final week & half of the season.

Great. There goes MY argument

[Cider Jim]

If you want to debate the last shot some more, here is a video clip of it. I just wonder if the game would have ended any differently if Marshall would have been given the ball after the rebound.

http://www.libertyflamesnation.com/2013 ... -shot.html

[Purple Haize]

If you want to debate the last shot some more, here is a video clip of it. I just wonder if the game would have ended any differently if Marshall would have been given the ball after the rebound.

http://www.libertyflamesnation.com/2013 ... -shot.html

Not really a good angle to watch it. Look at the view facing the basket and you will see him jump into the defender. Also, look at where Eades is stationed. He has a perfect look at the play. Great piece of officiating, and he's not even one of my favorites

Again, can't really bang on him for taking it too the basket. It's what he does and did all year for good or bad. Yes, there were better options but you can't take a fish and tell him to climb a tree and them be shocked when they can't.

[Blessed1]

Tough way to lose a game, but it is what it is.

I posted in another thread that I felt we need taller guards in order to be successful. The best thing about our current backcourt is that they're great shooters. However, with taller guards, you have a better chance in driving the ball into the paint and getting fouls called against the opponent. Obviously, you want the best of both worlds and have a player that possess both qualities (height & shooting ability).

Regardless of JC's height, I do not think he would have gotten a foul called yesterday under those circumstances. I think if anything there was poor spacing on the floor. Only Devon was in a 'catch-and-shoot' position. We needed someone else on the other side of the court in the same 'catch-and-shoot' position to give JC more options.

Three things I would like for Coach Layer to recruit:
1) more athletic wing players that have the ability to drive, pull-up, and shoot like Speaks
2) guards that are athletic and taller than 6-3
3) a shot-blocking post player (this is extremely hard to get at our current level in the Big South, but having a shot-blocking big man can erase mistakes made by other players. If you cannot get these type of players, you must have space-eating bulls in the paint. Thank goodness we have that in both Burrus and Coronado).

[kdinva]

To me, JCS got fouled, ref choked, sad ending to a fine 3 weeks for you guys.

[HenryGale]

It is only a snapshot in time, but the defender is pretty vertical here...

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/photos?ga ... to_2815887

[Rooster Cogburn]

A couple of comments.

I also thought the last play was a foul. Watch the angle facing the basket and watch the defenders hand. Also a similar call was made against Davon just shortly before. I thought the tie-up call was far worse (http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/photos?ga ... to_2815907) and should have been a foul. That said, Those calls didn't cost us the game. They were VERY effective at making us 1 dimensional. Very little PIP and way fewer trips to the line at the end than usual. We did well overcoming our patented slumps, but it was just too much to over come in the end. In my opinion the right guy had the ball at the end.

I am very proud of this team and Coach Layer. These guys and this coach bonded in a way that is very rare. Coach Layer is an LU Guy and a terrific man of God. These players are all class.

So excited for next year. If we can bring in a piece or 2, get everyone including Burrus back (except Speaks) this will be a great team.