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I watched all three games in Detroit this weekend and came away disappointed, but not to the degree of some on this board. From my perspective, the most concerning thing is that there is no one who can be counted on to hit a shot that stops another team's run (or wins the game, like Sunday). They seem to have guys capable of taking that role, but I don't know how that's developed.

This team as a group has more talent on the whole than they've had in a long time. But they are lacking leaders like they had in 2009.

AyZiggy97 wrote:I watched all three games in Detroit this weekend and came away disappointed, but not to the degree of some on this board. From my perspective, the most concerning thing is that there is no one who can be counted on to hit a shot that stops another team's run (or wins the game, like Sunday). They seem to have guys capable of taking that role, but I don't know how that's developed.

This team as a group has more talent on the whole than they've had in a long time. But they are lacking leaders like they had in 2009.

I've only seen two of our games this year (Howard & Michigan) and I honestly see the athleticism we've lacked in years and I see potential in so many players, but they are just falling short across the board in most cases. Most troubling though is our inability to score. That's been clear from the get-go, even in our exhibition game when we barely scratched 50. I told myself then it was because it was our first contest and we were playing against someone instead of ourselves in practice, but as the season got underway until now, we simply cannot score. And all of this talk about getting our and running is just that - a bunch of talk. But if we so much as had two or three guys get something going offensively instead of just one guy every game as it seems, we could have won a game against a D-I team already. I honestly thought we could have gone 2-1 this weekend, and could have. But we don't have enough offense. We NEED to start scoring points! Our defense, minus the Duquesne game, hasn't been that bad. In fact, it's been decent. But damn, we need to start hitting some shots already! If it takes us doing nothing but that in practice until we start knocking some shots down - then do it. We're 1-6 with a win against a non-D-I team. We keep hearing how our shots are going to start falling for us. Well when the hell is that? We have one month to get this fixed before MAC play begins, or we could be in store for just as long of a conference season as we were in football. So guys, damn, just put the ball in the hole! You're making this look way harder than it really is.

Are we awful right now? Absolutely.

Is this team more athletic and more talented than we've had in recent years? I think so.

How many bids will the MAC get this year to the NCAA tournament? 1 like every other year.

The point is...yes...we suck right now. But to be honest...the shots are there, we are getting good looks, we just need to knock them down. I think this team will improve as the season progresses and come MAC tourney time will be completely different. We are not going to lose every game for the rest of the year. Before we start calling for Coach Orr to be fired and declare this team a failure lets wait until the end of the season and see where they are at. We have A'uston Calhoun, Cam Black, Craig Sealy, Luke Kraus all getting major minutes for the first time. Improvement will come...lets not get too worked up about non-conference play when it doesn't matter in the MAC.

Apologies in advance for the optimism in this post.

The good thing about being bad is you're likely to improve more than good teams. The bad thing is...well, you're bad. UT has shown marked improvement in nearly every game and we still are terrible. But by conference season we'll be competitive with at least the lower echelon MAC teams I suspect and I suspect the same will be true of BG. Black looks like he may be a good one.

JimmyZ11381 wrote:Are we awful right now? Absolutely.

Is this team more athletic and more talented than we've had in recent years? I think so.

How many bids will the MAC get this year to the NCAA tournament? 1 like every other year.

The point is...yes...we suck right now. But to be honest...the shots are there, we are getting good looks, we just need to knock them down. I think this team will improve as the season progresses and come MAC tourney time will be completely different. We are not going to lose every game for the rest of the year. Before we start calling for Coach Orr to be fired and declare this team a failure lets wait until the end of the season and see where they are at. We have A'uston Calhoun, Cam Black, Craig Sealy, Luke Kraus all getting major minutes for the first time. Improvement will come...lets not get too worked up about non-conference play when it doesn't matter in the MAC.

Apologies in advance for the optimism in this post.

Our recent play has been a flat out joke, however, we cannot throw coach Orr under the bus just yet. He was MAC Coach of the Year and did give us a MAC 2009 title and is right now trying to find the right pieces to build a contending team. I like that athletes that we have on this team and i think the improvement for most certainly come over the course of the year. now lets go falcons

Went to the radio show last night with Coaches Orr and Miller. Coach Orr was probably the most open and entertaining I have ever seen him. It seemed he might be feeling some of the critizisim and really seemed to open up and be himself, without the measured response he normally gives. It was VERY nice to see and very educational to hear some of his thoughts. He really seems to treat these kids like they are his own family. I thought the highlight of the information was that that are going to "try" and redshirt Henderson. He noted he needs to get bigger and stronger as he was only 17 when he got to BG and the extra year will give him quite an advantage. Makes sense with our upperclass guards.
Coach Miller talked about their long trip to Seattle, but also mentioned they have not had time to work on parts of their game because all they have had time for is game preparation so far this season. I believe he said that after December 11, they only have two games until the MAC seson starts, so they will have time to put in more of their "plays" and some additional "suprises" for the conference season. He also talked about the the tranfer form Duke and the incoming recruiting class, and was VERY positive about them.

factman wrote:Went to the radio show last night with Coaches Orr and Miller. Coach Orr was probably the most open and entertaining I have ever seen him. It seemed he might be feeling some of the critizisim and really seemed to open up and be himself, without the measured response he normally gives. It was VERY nice to see and very educational to hear some of his thoughts. He really seems to treat these kids like they are his own family. I thought the highlight of the information was that that are going to "try" and redshirt Henderson. He noted he needs to get bigger and stronger as he was only 17 when he got to BG and the extra year will give him quite an advantage. Makes sense with our upperclass guards.

Thanks for the info, especially about Henderson.