Duquesne

[hammb]

Otis was awesome. Didn't have a single foul in the first half. We got 31 minutes out of him and saw what his production can be if he stays out of foul trouble. He was only credit with 7 boards but there were a lot that he kept alive for his teammates. He also opened a lot of lanes for his teammates offensively. Great game.

Knight was great on the boards but his points seemed pretty quiet. He didn't really look to score.

Miller struggled, especially from the charity stripe. He was way outmanned when he got inside, but he was able to draw some fouls and contribute.

Moten gave us some transition points in the second half.


Our guard play was absolutely horrendous against the press. It was a rash of turnovers early that put us in the big hole that we could never quite dig out of.

That Duquesne team was quick and they were good. They shot real well from outside in the 2nd half, and when it came time they were money at the free throw line to ice the game. This was definitely the best team I've seen us play this year, but I wasn't at the Cincy tourney.

Despite a 17 point loss I left the arena pretty pleased with our effort. The game was closer than the score would indicate, and there were a lot of individual positives to take home from the arena.

One thing that was noticeable is that we have no depth. Only 8 guys that play meaningful minutes and Sims/Clements/Larson did nothing worthwhile. It was painfully obvious that they were so inferior athletically they were like boat anchors on the court.

All in all we put forth a good effort. If we can play like that more often we'll win some games this year.

[mathalete]

I was at the game and there were many many turnovers. They played full court D and it was an easy trap, nothing to crazy and we could not figure it out. Even though we turned it over many times, it wasnt the only thing that we did poorly. Some other things that I noticed was that we missed to many free throws when we needed to hit them, and we did not get back on defense. They got to many uncontested shots because they had numbers. The last thing that I will mention was that we did not move very much on offense. It was pass and stand, and do your own thing.

Now after all of these negative things, there was one big positive. Otis played great tonight. He got rebounds, played pretty well defense, made some nice moves down low, and hit some shots. Out of all the games that I have seen Otis play in, this would be his best in my opinion. Unfortunatly, we could not get enough things to fall our way to get a lead in the game. As bad as I think we played as a team, they never gave up and continued to play hard. They got the score close a couple of times, but just couldnt get over the hump. But that is something that you can expect with a young team.

[BGDrew]

I was at the game (sitting in front of Grant for the 2nd half if I'm not mistaken) and in my highly uneducated opinion it seemed the guys still aren't playing together. There were numerous times where you'd hear players yelling at each other to get them placed right, setting up plays, etc. I also felt that we tried to drive into the hole too much with the wrong players. I was hoping to see Polk posting up more but then again, I could be completely clueless when it comes to basketball. I'm a hockey guy afterall. There is one thing that's obvious, we are YOUNG.

[BGorDeath]

Free throws are our enemy.

[falconfan1]

We played hard at times- most of the time- but we often did not play smart. Turnovers early were just an absolute killer.

Fine effort by Otis. As noted.

Knight had 14 boards including the rebound at the end of the half collected at the highest point from the AA floor in my memory- which goes back (clearly!) to 1972. I mean he flat out elevatored with the big reach. Just need to harness those skills.

Miller played hard but couldn't hit the jumpers. Or the fouls shots.

Duquesne is a far better team at this point with ten basketball players. We have eight players now that Marschall and Hamblet are gone. And some of our eight are limited (as we all are in certain aspects of our chosen endeavors) in particular areas of their games.

In the MAC East, only Buffalo "looks" a little like us. Everybody else may have more depth and/or skill. Doesn't mean we can't win some games. It will just take a lot of effort. And some fan support of all types as we rebuild would be nice too.

We need more basketball players to help our group and I think some are coming.

Go Falcons!

[renorvis]

All of the guards looked scared!!! Can someone please tell me why Chris Knight can't get the ball on the block?! He had mismatches on numerous of occasions and had open looks on the short corner. Can somebody please explain? It's almost like the guards aren't feeding him the ball on purpose. I don't want to think that but what twelve or so games I'm starting to draw this conclusion.

[Matty B]

Here's my take on the game as well as questions posed by the preceeding posts:

- The game began EXACTLY like the EIU game where Bowling Green came out completely lifeless. Then, by a few scrums for loose balls and a transition basket or two as a result of a good bounce / hustle play, the team sprung to life after spotting the Dukes 10 to start the game (15-5 i think it was). We began to see signs of what this team is capable of. However:

- Much of our offense is dependent on the dribble penetration. Duquesne was MUCH MUCH MUCH quicker and stronger than us, especially at the guard position, so we were not able to get much going in this particular contest.

- Teams have us scouted by now and know that during each individual posession there's never a need to actually guard all five players. Think about it...

- Knight is not good at all when it comes to getting himself open. When he gets the ball, good things happen. He is clearly the best post-entry passer that we have. Unfortunately, he generally has to be playing in the post for the majority of the offense. Also, teams can use extra defenders to help deny CK the ball (see above bullet), so the other three players on the floor will need to step up their game offensively and become a factor (obviously Miller is the exception).

- Larson and Clements provided nothing tonight. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly Daryl does well enough to merit any playing time.

- Jakubowski was clearly unable to match the strength and quickness of Duquense's guards. We saw many times where his passes just didn't arrive on time and resulted in an easy deuce for the other squad. That will come in time, he's being thrust into a starter's role way too soon but we'll hopefully see him evolve over the next 3 years. I like what I see in the kid but it's just not all there physically yet.

- Otis showed his true potential tonight. My one beef is that soo many times he got the ball under the basket and went up for the reverse layum rather than dunking through one of these guys. Especially at home, those plays result in HUGE momentum swings. Otis is clearly a fan favorite as can be told by the reaction every time he scores, and plays like that will only continue to help.

- All in all though the biggest thing with this team is Attitude. The team has been through a lot, losing two of their top 4 at the beginning of the year (Hamblet and Marschall). They tend to get down on themselves and that is where they get themselves into trouble. If this team can play with the intensity that they did for the last 35 minutes of this game all year, good things will come and I think slide into the middle of the pack in the conference. I also agree with the posts saying the crowd support is definately helpful... you could see a difference in play once everybody was into the game and not thinking "Please god don't let this game be like last Saturday's".

[hammb]

- Much of our offense is dependent on the dribble penetration. Duquesne was MUCH MUCH MUCH quicker and stronger than us, especially at the guard position, so we were not able to get much going in this particular contest.

- Larson and Clements provided nothing tonight. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly Daryl does well enough to merit any playing time.

No doubt on the fact that they were much quicker. That was a very quick team we played last night. As I was saying to Grant last night, it baffles me how poor of a job Dakich did recruiting ball handlers. None of the Dakich holdovers can dribble the basketball and penetrate. Really quite baffling. I'm not talking about the ability to shoot, defend, or pass...I would think that at the very least we should be able to get kids who can at least handle the ball a little. Our guards are way below average in this respect.

As to Clements if you ever figure out what it is that he does well let me know, because I've been saying the exact same thing you just did for 2 years. I guess he might be our best defensive guard, but that's not saying much.

[Falconfreak90]

Hopefully we'll see some better results in the MAC but the way Miami, OU, Kent and Akron are playing, we are in for some long nights this season.

I will be at the Kent and Akron road games in the next two weeks...gotta support the team and see what everyone is talking about.

GO HOOPS

[CapitalFalcon]

I think you all are missing something...Falconboy's translation was correct...

[transfer2BGSU]

I think you all are missing something...Falconboy's translation was correct...

Actually, it was far from being correct.

We fouled at the end of the game and that ran the score up the 18 point deficit.

Also, Falconboy's prediction was his usual gloom and doom. Had he been at the game, he would have seen some very positive things being done by this team. Unfortunately, Falconboy (and others) cannot see the forest through the trees. He only sees wins and losses. I see progress and room for improvement. He sees the glass as being empty. I see the glass as being half-full.

[hammb]

I think you all are missing something...Falconboy's translation was correct...

Actually, it was far from being correct.

We fouled at the end of the game and that ran the score up the 18 point deficit.

Also, Falconboy's prediction was his usual gloom and doom. Had he been at the game, he would have seen some very positive things being done by this team. Unfortunately, Falconboy (and others) cannot see the forest through the trees. He only sees wins and losses. I see progress and room for improvement. He sees the glass as being empty. I see the glass as being half-full.

Despite the margin of victory the game was not a blowout. We were down between 2-12 pretty much the entire game. We'd consistently get it back to 5, then they'd pull away. Certainly not a blowout. As Transfer said, we went into foul mode with about 3:00 to go, and they were absolute money at the line down the stretch. Our continuing to foul even when the game was pretty much over allowed the score to get out of hand. Our guys were trying to jack up quick threes to try and get back into it, which we couldn't make. Duquesne was better than us, but it was definitely not a blowout.

FWIW, Falconboy was definitely at the game. Saw him there well before the start of the game

[BleedOrange]

I think you all are missing something...Falconboy's translation was correct...

Falconboy's translation wasn't correct at all. Not in concept. Not in fact. Now take your seat.

[ZiggyZoomba]

He sees the glass as being empty. I see the glass as being half-full.

[4th Row]

I hope there's an apostrophe hidden by your middle finger, Grant.