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Wow, this team's inability to score continues to amaze me. It certainly didn't help that WKU shot nearly 20 more free throws than us as well. Maybe instead of actually trying to make a shot when we take one, we should - just for the hell of it - try intentionally missing it when we take one. I mean, hell, it just might accidentally go in. Yes, that was sarcasm.

WOW do we play a very incompetent, piss-poor brand of basketball in the half-court.

It's tragic to watch such a talented team execute sooo poorly trying to run an offense. To me, this is a obvious failure of coaching.

IMO, we need to establish a steadier rotation at the guard positions. Crawford is the obvious choice at point for 30-35 mpg. I'd like to see Thomas swing to the 2g and JoeJak play more on the wing. Honestly, if Brown isn't making shots, I don't know why he'd ever be on the court.

I love the talent the Calhoun brings to the table. However, his shot selection is killing us. Some of shots are so ill-advised that they feel more like turnovers than misses.

BleedOrange wrote: I love the talent the Calhoun brings to the table. However, his shot selection is killing us. Some of shots are so ill-advised that they feel more like turnovers than misses.

That is EXACTLY the problem I have with this team. We only have 2 players that seem to have any natural ability to put the ball in the basket: Calhoun & Brown. Both of them force things like crazy, are black holes with the ball in their hands, and seem to have no ability to play within an offense...whatever the hell our offense is supposed to be.


There is talent on this team. More than there has been in previous years. But my god do they lack any semblance of playing as a team. They just look completely lost at times offensively.

hammb wrote:There is talent on this team. More than there has been in previous years. But my god do they lack any semblance of playing as a team. They just look completely lost at times offensively.

Well, that's a coaching issue, isn't it? Orr's job is to mold this group into a team.

Ok... talking about Calhoun. I am very very very disappointed in him. I thought he would bring such good talent to the team but all ive seen so far from him this year is selfishness. Does anyone else see how when he gets the ball he RARELY passes back out. As soon as he gets the ball he drives to score even if it means a piss poor shot as Bleed Orange said. I think he needs more time on the bench. We dont need someone on the court that is going to be a instant turnover everytime he gets the ball. He needs to learn more about teamwork and shot selection then he could possibly be a beast! But right now he is trying so hard to score that he isnt paying attention to the scoreboard. I think this is like the rest of the team this year though. No emotion, every person for themself. Unless we start getting emotion I honestly can see us not getting anymore wins this entire season.

James Erger hasn't made a field goal all season. He plays just about each game. My guess is he was brought in from Texas to shoot the ball.

guest44 wrote:James Erger hasn't made a field goal all season. He plays just about each game. My guess is he was brought in from Texas to shoot the ball.

I have yet to see what Erger does well on a basketball court. I've seen him take a few shots...it hasn't been pretty.

In fact the highlight of last night's game was Erger looking lost in an offensive possession in the first half. I turned and asked why the hell he was even on the court. No more than 5 seconds later Erger fell flat on his face trying to play defense. That was pretty damn comical, so at least he provided some laughter

I would love to see a hockey like +/- ratio on Erger. In the Duquesne game, he came in with BG down 5 and at the line. By the time Orr decides the game is getting out of hand and Thomas needs to be in despite 2 fouls, the difference is around 18. This guy gets 5 minutes a game and JoeJak (yes I realize he has played poorly) is getting 19 minutes a game. He played 30+ minutes a game for his first three years straight. Erger makes Dusan look like Dirk Nowitzki.

guest44 wrote:I would love to see a hockey like +/- ratio on Erger. In the Duquesne game, he came in with BG down 5 and at the line. By the time Orr decides the game is getting out of hand and Thomas needs to be in despite 2 fouls, the difference is around 18. This guy gets 5 minutes a game and JoeJak (yes I realize he has played poorly) is getting 19 minutes a game. He played 30+ minutes a game for his first three years straight. Erger makes Dusan look like Dirk Nowitzki.

The +/- might be calculable from game logs if they are in a consistent format. If anyone has these logs, let me know. I could whip out an app to calculate these.

Note that the +/- stat is flawed. If a player's court time is correlated more with certain players and less with others, the figure is not an isolated measure. Also, if a particular player only gets mop-up time, then their figure will be biased towards 0.

The stat reminds me of the psychologist/conselor giving the speech in the movie The Natural every day when the Knights were in a slump. Maybe there is someone who needs to be kicked out of the locker room - poor speeches or jinx.

Or........, maybe they need lightening bolts on their wrist bands.

FalconTurf wrote:The stat reminds me of the psychologist/conselor giving the speech in the movie The Natural every day when the Knights were in a slump. Maybe there is someone who needs to be kicked out of the locker room - poor speeches or jinx.

Or........, maybe they need lightening bolts on their wrist bands.

Or maybe they all need an eye exam...worked for another athlete....

Haha. Speaking of testing the eyes. Just watch layup lines on Sunday. My eyes tell me Erger should be the last or second to last guy who ever sees the court. Tell me he hasn't made one shot all year, and my eyes tell me he should be at the Rec finding a pick up game. Either play a senior or play an athlete. Let's hope this team figures out a better way to close out Anderson Arena, because this is pathetic.

I haven't seen the team play, so I'm in no position to defend Calhoun.

But it's important to note that on each basketball team, you need to have a guy, or guys, who are willing to shoot. That may sound elementary, but it's really not. In the days when I followed the NBA - guys like World B. Free (Cleveland) and Kelly Tripucka (Charlotte) were brought in specifically because they weren't afraid to carry the burden of shooting ... a lot.

Do we have enough guys like that? Enough guys who say, in essence, give me the d*mn ball and let's attack the basket? Again, I'm not justifying Calhoun's performance, merely pointing out that we need guys who aren't afraid to be THE man on offense.

I love Calhoun's ability and potential. While I do agree with some about his shot selection at times, I still LOVE his willingness to at least attempt to score, his ability to create his own shot, and I love his athleticism in general. I also see flashes of this in McElroy as well. I think these two could both be All-MAC players if they can put it all together. There's only so many ball fakes and grind-it-out basketball I can stand to watch from an entire team for 40 minutes. It’s actually painful to watch us strain to score 50 points a game vs D-I competition. As for Erger, I don’t mean to knock the kid, but I don’t get it either…..