[Tothehoopyall1]

We look like the better team, but right now the scoreboard is not reflecting it. Hopefully, we can come out stronger in the second half.

[Purple Haize]

Zack Cleveland passing up 2 easy shots in the final 22 seconds is everything wrong with basketball. He had an easy lay up to go up one and instead passed it out for a contested 3….and a miss. Then he got a nice dish to take the ball up for a flush….instead makes a pass in traffic that fortunately resulted in a goaltend.
Win or lose this is concerning Does he not want to take the big shot? He is a very good player but his weaknesses are beginning to be exposed and he is showing an unwillingness to take big shots.

[Tothehoopyall1]

Zack Cleveland passing up 2 easy shots in the final 22 seconds is everything wrong with basketball. He had an easy lay up to go up one and instead passed it out for a contested 3….and a miss. Then he got a nice dish to take the ball up for a flush….instead makes a pass in traffic that fortunately resulted in a goaltend.
Win or lose this is concerning Does he not want to take the big shot? He is a very good player but his weaknesses are beginning to be exposed and he is showing an unwillingness to take big shots.

I was hoping to see Xander Yates step up more but he looks like he would rather be eating his leftover Christmas ham. He looks lost with no willingness to get physical down low.

[Tothehoopyall1]

I’ll call this a garbage win. We played like total garbage but are about to pull out a win.

[flamehunter]

You take a conference road win however you can get it.

[LU Armchair coach]

Oh cool, can ToTheHoopYall go ahead and officially define a “garage win” for us? Because apparently wins now come with square footage, door clearance, and whether you had to squeeze past a lawn mower to get it.

By that logic, if football—and HCJC in general—could’ve scraped together a couple of those same garage-quality wins, we might’ve been unpacking for a bowl game instead of explaining moral victories and “close losses.” Funny how wins are only “garage wins” when they don’t fit the narrative… but they’d count just fine in the standings.

[Tothehoopyall1]

Oh cool, can ToTheHoopYall go ahead and officially define a “garage win” for us? Because apparently wins now come with square footage, door clearance, and whether you had to squeeze past a lawn mower to get it.

By that logic, if football—and HCJC in general—could’ve scraped together a couple of those same garage-quality wins, we might’ve been unpacking for a bowl game instead of explaining moral victories and “close losses.” Funny how wins are only “garage wins” when they don’t fit the narrative… but they’d count just fine in the standings.

Oh cool, can ToTheHoopYall go ahead and officially define a “garage win” for us? Because apparently wins now come with square footage, door clearance, and whether you had to squeeze past a lawn mower to get it.

By that logic, if football—and HCJC in general—could’ve scraped together a couple of those same garage-quality wins, we might’ve been unpacking for a bowl game instead of explaining moral victories and “close losses.” Funny how wins are only “garage wins” when they don’t fit the narrative… but they’d count just fine in the standings.

Here's the website for Harman Eye Center. They can help you out. https://www.harmaneye.com/location/harm ... of-forest/

[flamehunter]

Armchair with the "garage" post

[LU Armchair coach]

Oh, but what do I know—I’m just another LU armchair coach. Except apparently I pay a little more attention than some of you keyboard GMs think.

Take Cleveland, for example. Love the guy. Truly. But he clearly didn’t want to be there. I mean, it’s impressive how you go from grabbing 16 rebounds to suddenly getting beat off the block on a free throw block-out. That takes commitment… just not the good kind.

Then there’s HCRM, who was obviously in peak form last night. Because why would you play Yates more down the stretch in the second half when he was as cold as the front that’s pushing through. Smith considering he only had 16 points and 9 rebounds and was arguably our best player yesterday and then HCRM subs for Smith late with Yates mind blowing. Can’t be rewarding productivity with minutes—this kid definitely needs more runs both Smith and Yates.

And let’s talk about Carter. He doesn’t miss the block-out—Cleveland does—but Carter gets yanked and sent so far down the bench we need binoculars to see him again. Accountability is a beautiful thing… as long as it’s applied selectively.

Decker? Love the kid’s offensive game. Truly fun to watch. But defensively, he couldn’t guard half the armchair coaches on this forum—and that’s saying something. Still, I get it. I’m guessing the staff is terrified of losing him in the offseason, so we just kind of look the other way and hope nobody notices.

And we can’t leave out the sub 6’ guards who get punished because HCRM don’t wanna play Jones for whatever reason UofF offered him the year they won the natty. We miss Aquino but yes it was hard to play him with Cleveland. Now we just try to out score teams.

Can the 6 players play 30+ minutes for 17 more games?

But again, what do I know? Just an armchair coach who might know a thing or two.

[Purple Haize]

Oh, but what do I know—I’m just another LU armchair coach. Except apparently I pay a little more attention than some of you keyboard GMs think.

Take Cleveland, for example. Love the guy. Truly. But he clearly didn’t want to be there. I mean, it’s impressive how you go from grabbing 16 rebounds to suddenly getting beat off the block on a free throw block-out. That takes commitment… just not the good kind.

Then there’s HCRM, who was obviously in peak form last night. Because why would you play Yates more down the stretch in the second half when he was as cold as the front that’s pushing through. Smith considering he only had 16 points and 9 rebounds and was arguably our best player yesterday and then HCRM subs for Smith late with Yates mind blowing. Can’t be rewarding productivity with minutes—this kid definitely needs more runs both Smith and Yates.

And let’s talk about Carter. He doesn’t miss the block-out—Cleveland does—but Carter gets yanked and sent so far down the bench we need binoculars to see him again. Accountability is a beautiful thing… as long as it’s applied selectively.

Decker? Love the kid’s offensive game. Truly fun to watch. But defensively, he couldn’t guard half the armchair coaches on this forum—and that’s saying something. Still, I get it. I’m guessing the staff is terrified of losing him in the offseason, so we just kind of look the other way and hope nobody notices.

And we can’t leave out the sub 6’ guards who get punished because HCRM don’t wanna play Jones for whatever reason UofF offered him the year they won the natty. We miss Aquino but yes it was hard to play him with Cleveland. Now we just try to out score teams.

Can the 6 players play 30+ minutes for 17 more games?

But again, what do I know? Just an armchair coach who might know a thing or two.

@PAmedic do you agree with this assessment?
Personally I’m more concerned about the defense. They taught us in the Future Upwards Coaching classes that defense is important

[Purple Haize]

Armchair with the "garage" post

Imagine how much fun he and ECC are at parties

[LU Armchair coach]

Oh absolutely. Why worry about things like stopping the other team when we can just lean on that elite Future Upwards Coaching PowerPoint wisdom. Defense is “important,” sure—but not nearly as important as reminding everyone you took the class.

Also, I’m an absolute hits at parties. Nothing livens up the room like unsolicited defensive schematics and “well actually” energy. Oh for sure—and let’s not forget the best part of those parties: LU Armchair Coach showing up empty-handed, then expertly critiquing the defense while polishing off everyone else’s bourbon.

Nothing says “defensive mastermind” like explaining gap integrity with a borrowed Glencairn and zero contribution to the bottle count. Cheers to elite analysis on somebody else’s dime.

[ECC29]

FIU out pointed LU 56-40 in the paint which means the FIU bigs spanked LUs bigs. FIU had 20 offensive rebounds. Which means the FIU bigs spanked LUs bigs. Cleveland bailed out of scoring opportunity a couple times at the end of regulation because he knew he could not do it. Yet, there are delusional people here that thinks Cleveland is an “elite basketball player”. An elite player would have taken charge at that moment and flush that ball in the rim. Also, Cleveland played a whole game plus OT and he only had 3 rebounds. This is the result of undersized players. It was the threes that made the difference. We said this at the start of the season, the team depends on threes. What happens when the threes do not go in? A win is a win and should be celebrated. However, without the threes going in, FIU wins this game.
I did notice that McKay played his other bigs more in this game. Maybe because he was forced to do so with Harper being in foul trouble.

[ECC29]

Oh, but what do I know—I’m just another LU armchair coach. Except apparently I pay a little more attention than some of you keyboard GMs think.

Take Cleveland, for example. Love the guy. Truly. But he clearly didn’t want to be there. I mean, it’s impressive how you go from grabbing 16 rebounds to suddenly getting beat off the block on a free throw block-out. That takes commitment… just not the good kind.

Then there’s HCRM, who was obviously in peak form last night. Because why would you play Yates more down the stretch in the second half when he was as cold as the front that’s pushing through. Smith considering he only had 16 points and 9 rebounds and was arguably our best player yesterday and then HCRM subs for Smith late with Yates mind blowing. Can’t be rewarding productivity with minutes—this kid definitely needs more runs both Smith and Yates.

And let’s talk about Carter. He doesn’t miss the block-out—Cleveland does—but Carter gets yanked and sent so far down the bench we need binoculars to see him again. Accountability is a beautiful thing… as long as it’s applied selectively.

Decker? Love the kid’s offensive game. Truly fun to watch. But defensively, he couldn’t guard half the armchair coaches on this forum—and that’s saying something. Still, I get it. I’m guessing the staff is terrified of losing him in the offseason, so we just kind of look the other way and hope nobody notices.

And we can’t leave out the sub 6’ guards who get punished because HCRM don’t wanna play Jones for whatever reason UofF offered him the year they won the natty. We miss Aquino but yes it was hard to play him with Cleveland. Now we just try to out score teams.

Can the 6 players play 30+ minutes for 17 more games?

But again, what do I know? Just an armchair coach who might know a thing or two.

Oh, but what do I know—I’m just another LU armchair coach. Except apparently I pay a little more attention than some of you keyboard GMs think.
What you have is that A lot of people here are FANS. They will sacrifice rationality and truth and die on that hill for their favorite players. They are not interested with the truth.

[LU Armchair coach]

Oh absolutely, ECC29 is clearly operating on a front-office level the rest of us peasants can only dream about. I mean, when you say “FIU outpointed Liberty 56–40 in the paint” and forget to mention that FIU needed 56 two-point attempts to do it while Liberty went 20-for-29 (68%), that’s just elite GM efficiency at work. Why bother with context when vibes will do?

Yes, FIU’s bigs “spanked” Liberty’s bigs… by sheer volume. Thirty makes on 56 tries (53%) versus Liberty calmly converting 20 on 29. That’s not dominance—that’s taking the scenic route to the same destination and congratulating yourself for burning more gas.

And the offensive rebounds? Absolutely, FIU grabbed 20. Turns out when you miss 26 two-point shots, there are plenty of rebounding opportunities. Funny how that part never makes the scouting report.

As for Cleveland not “flushing it” at the end—right, because elite basketball IQ is forcing a bad shot into traffic when you already know your team’s efficiency edge is elsewhere. Nothing screams “elite” like ignoring what actually worked all game.

The “team depends on threes” take is a classic, though. Liberty shoots efficiently inside, wins the game, and somehow the conclusion is: if Liberty hadn’t done the things they did well, they would’ve lost. Hard to argue with that kind of logic.

But hey, you’re right about one thing—fans do sacrifice rationality. Some of them even cherry-pick stats, ignore shot efficiency, and call it “truth.”

Still, respect where it’s due: ECC29 is clearly a good GM… just only telling half the story. The other half apparently missed its shot and went up for another offensive rebound.

[ECC29]

Call it what you want. If the threes were not falling for LU, LU lost that game. Yes there was efficiency in their part when they get the ball but the FIU bigs still spanked LU. There are other teams with bigger sizes. What if the threes are not falling? What do we expect is going to happen?

[LU Armchair coach]

Oh absolutely—let’s just pretend basketball is now judged exclusively by Paint Points & Hypothetical Outcomes™. FIU “spanked” LU in the paint, therefore moral victory secured, banners hanging as we speak. Meanwhile, the pesky little detail that LU won the actual game can be politely ignored.

Yes, FIU had more paint points and offensive rebounds. You know who had more points when the clock hit zero? LU. Turns out threes count the same on the scoreboard as post buckets—shocking development, I know. Acting like LU should apologize for making shots they’re good at is certainly a take.

And the Cleveland argument is gold. He “bailed out” of shots late, but somehow LU still walked out with a win. Almost like… making the right basketball play instead of forcing hero ball is a thing? Wild concept. Also, if we’re calling someone “not elite” because they didn’t try to dunk through traffic in crunch time, we’re officially grading players on imaginary highlights now.

As for “what happens when the threes don’t fall?”—the same thing that happens to FIU when their bigs don’t dominate: they lose. Every team has a formula. LU’s involves spacing, shooting, and efficiency. FIU’s apparently involves out-rebounding and still losing.

Call it what you want—but last I checked, style points don’t flip wins into losses. A win is a win… unless, of course, we’re awarding championships for paint points and alternate realities.