Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

Up two

Is uju out long term.

BG loses to the Kangaroos. No not Akron but UMKC Roos 71-69

Turner back soon. Hulu and Uju out long term.

Game two isn't very well played...two teams struggling to score. Down 20-17 2 min left in the half. Our Brown unis are sweet....crowd is awful

First half was just brutal. I think we went nearly 8 mins without scoring. And I'm not sure how many free throws we've missed but probably close to 10.

Thankfully green bay not playing much better.

Another poor effort. Another loss.

I got home tonight and was getting ready to turn on the game when I stopped myself and thought about it for a second. I was having a decent day, did I want to ruin it over the next two hours? The answer was no. I didn't watch, and it looks like I made a very wise decision.

Wow, that was pretty bad. I never seen so many unforced mental errors in a basketball game. Each time, I was just hoping Jans would magically appear back on the bench. Oh well......

Maybe it's gonna take some time with Huger, but the inability to score is baffling. It just amazes me how we struggle to recruit guys who score the basketball. We have no excuse with the budget/facility/etc. This program should be consistently winning 20 games and winning the occasional MAC Championship.

I'm trying as hard as i can to see how Huger gets this turned around. However, BG was outcoached badly last night. If those same errors continue to happen, he will have to recruit the best talent in the MAC to turn it around.

I'm no expert on basketball strategy or Xs & Os, so I don't know if you can lay it on the coaches, but we obviously struggle MIGHTILY getting the ball in the basket. To me the biggest issue is talent, or lack thereof.

Again, not claiming to be an expert, but I'm not a big believer in a coach scheming a good offense; to me it's about talent and guys making plays/shots. Huger even mentioned in his post game interview that he feels they're getting the shots they want, they're just not going in. You've got Denny & Alcegaire both getting 10+ attempts yesterday and both only making 4. I'm not sure Alcegaire shot a single jumper yesterday where he wasn't fading away like he was MJ shooting a turnaround, yet on most of those attempts there wasn't a defender close to him. Wiggins, I'm very disappointed in with my early season viewing. He is still garbage at the FT line, which would be acceptable if he wasn't also painfully incompetent at finishing near the rim. He almost REFUSES to dunk, and I'm completely baffled by it. He's constantly attempting layups, oftentimes barely contested, from 1 ft away and he has no touch at all on those shots. Ali can get to the basket at will but it's pointless because he cannot finish at all and doesn't even do a good job getting the ball out to shooters when the defense collapses.

What I see when I watch this team is 3 seniors playing major minutes in Alcegaire, Ali, and Denny. All 3 are VERY flawed players, but they're our vets and the only ones who seem to have the leadership ability; try to play within the system, etc. You have to have some seniors playing, but we'll never win relying on talents like these as our veterans, IMO.

Remember that the current Freshmen are the ONLY legit recruiting class talent we currently have on the roster. We've had classes from lame duck Orr, late arrival Jans, and late arrival Huger. You cannot expect a full roster with this kind of coaching turmoil.

Lillard is by FAR our best scorer, but seems to disappear for stretches. I think we need to do more to get him the ball in the areas of the court he can make things happen. So long as he continues to score, I want him taking nearly 15 shots a game, because there is nobody else on the roster that I feel can actually score.

Caldwell looks to have potential. We need that potential to start to come out. Ali is soooo limited as a PG, but he's still more consistent than Caldwell. This team will start to win when/if Caldwell takes steps towards consistency. The talent level is several notches above Ali, IMO. Hopefully that improvement can happen in season.

Frye looks quick and athletic, but he badly needs to add strength. At his current size he simply cannot finish near the basket and is going to get hammered.

It seems to me that Huger wants to be here for the long haul and is focusing on HS seniors to build the program the old fashioned way. He's added a couple Jucos the past couple years, but it's clear he prefers to bring in HS talent. I'm actually okay with that, I prefer it as well because I like watching the same players year after year, and hopefully see them grow. But doing it that way isn't going to turn around a program quickly. Lillard is, IMO, our best player already. Wiggins can do some good things if he would just DUNK the ball. The talent level of the freshmen guards is evident but they're not ready to be relied upon. I think Huger can move this thing forward, but it's not there yet, and I still think the biggest reason for that is the lack of ability from our upperclassmen.

I'm hopeful that we see Lillard start to take over some leadership as the year goes on; he needs to become "THE MAN", because he's clearly the most talented. I'm hopeful that Caldwell can learn to play within himself (and hopefully start defending) so he can take over for Ali; his ceiling is MUCH higher than Ish. The season is young, and the most talented players are young.

Right now, I'd like to see them make some damned free throws though...

hammb wrote:

Wiggins, I'm very disappointed in with my early season viewing. He is still garbage at the FT line, which would be acceptable if he wasn't also painfully incompetent at finishing near the rim.
.

I know it's only four games but Wiggins is shooting 70% from the line so far.

I'm more concerned with not calling timeouts to stop runs. On numerous different occasions, Green Bay changed into some light pressure on defense, BG just threw the ball out of bounds . Green Bay making it's final run to put the game away, and Matt Fox is on the floor, and doesn't come out until the lead grows to 12 or 14. He hadn't made a shot, and clearly was a liability on defense. How many times did Ali just take the ball to the basket, take an ill advised shot, and kill momentum? It's all the little things, that unless you flat out have more talent than everyone else, eventually catches up with you. For years with Orr it was little attention to detail. Jans comes in and the attention to detail, was as good as I've seen. This style looks loose and dependent on just having better players than other teams. My fear is, I can't remember the last time BG had the best roster in the MAC. Probably Daniels last year. I hope I'm wrong, but that Green Bay team is not good. Calling them average might be a stretch.

Everything you have said is certainly correct.

I kind of compare it to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. There isn't time for these guys to develop because we are in survival mode. Not having a full contingent of players means people have to play roles they are not suited for. Caldwell is the best newbie so far. We ask him to do a lot but he has a great safety net. He was terrible in the first game without that safety net.

We got a win!!! Almost blew a 7 pt lead with 4 min remaining. BG 78-77