vs. Akron (1/19)

[guest44]

This staff gets picked off? It better happen after this season because life after Justin Turner is going to be rough. This staff had exactly what it needed to have the best team in the MAC the past two seasons. They had Justin Turner and Buffalo lost Nate Oats. Instead of spending every resource to find a legitimate big guy, they never came close to replacing Wiggins let alone upgrading. This staff hasn’t had one legitimate offer and unless they make the tournament this season, another offer isn’t coming either. Bob Moosbrugger got worked and gave Huger that extension and raise based on the George Washington job his agent floated his name for. He was never a real candidate. Everyone is dealing with the difficulties of Covid. Bowling Green was a landslide pick to win the MAC. They’ve lost 2 homes games in a row that weren’t close. We’ve seen this script before in MAC play when the opposing coaches know exactly what you are going to do. Turner gives them the ability to win any game and that’s the hope not so much the staff.

Another note for Jason Knavel. Another reason KenPom has Bowling Green always ranked highly in the luck category is because it wins close games, and it loses by double digits when it loses. It loves to get blown out like Ball St as 7 point favorite, Akron as a 5 point favorite, and Miami OH by 20 last year. KenPom is not biased against Bowling Green. Bowling Green is now 124. That’s good for 4th in the MAC.

[hammb]

And you should all believe in this team. A GREAT group of kids and a GREAT coach and GREAT staff. We have seen progression every year and if this freshman team class isn’t evidence of that, well I guess some will never be satisfied adding in the difficulties of Covid I guarantee you, if this staff isn’t picked off this year, they will next.

I've seen nothing to believe Huger is a GREAT coach. He is a good coach. He loves Bowling Green. He's the first coach in the past 2 decades that actually understands you have to recruit decent guards to have a chance to compete, and he has done pretty well in recruiting.

I don't think he's a GREAT coach at all in terms of what he does on gamedays. I'm going to start waiting until the games are 5:00 old before I even turn on the damned things because I'm completely sick of watching every first possession be a dump to Swingle as he tries to back down somebody and shoot a ridiculous hook shot. The kid has no offensive skills and can't rebound worth a damned. The only reason he even plays is because he's the tallest guy on the roster, but he has no business on a D1 court.

I have faith in this group of talent. They're very very good. I also have faith somewhere in the next few games Huger & Co will adjust and we'll start winning 4-5 games in a row again. But I also know that we've had these lulls every single season Huger has been here where we start dropping games we shouldn't because we go minutes on end without being able to score. We have one of the best players in the MAC who is pure a scorer as BG has had in 2 decades; he'll leave as the #1 scorer in school history most likely. We have several role players who are more than capable of hitting open shots, and a couple who are more than capable of slashing to the basket. Over the course of the season we have the best offense in the MAC. And STILL we have these stretches every season where we completely forget how to score. This is now 3 straight games where our offense was total garbage.

Juice is awesome. But our answer every single time we get into a lull is to run MORE iso for Juice and pass the ball less. This team is #1 in offense because of having good talent (testament to Huger) and our ability to create offense from our defense. Our half court sets continue to be garbage and that has largely been the case since Huger got here. It's created stretches of losses every season he's been here, and it's done so again this year. I have faith in this team of players to rebound and finish as one of the top 2-3 teams in the conference. I don't have faith that there will actually be a MAC tournament this year, meaning these losses could be enough to keep us out of the NCAA tournament. I also don't have faith if there IS a tournament that we won't have one of these offensive crap games that gets us bounced.

[BleedOrange]

In postgame interviews, Hugor makes safe statements that aren't going to offend or single anyone out. For any coach, speaking to the press has downside risk. Interviews are something to survive, not to communicate.

[BPardonMyTake]

Okay, so WTH is Huger seeing during a game like this that we are not? We came into this game averaging 82 ppg on 44% shooting while allowing our opponents 73 ppg on 44% shooting. Tonight, we scored just 57 point (way, way below our average) on a poor 33% shooting (way under our average) and allowed 69 points (under our average) while holding Akron to 37% shooting (also below our average). And what does Huger say after the game??? He says, "Tough game. We have to do a better job defensively and we have to do a better job rebounding. All the credit to Akron. They did a really good job. We have to execute much better."

Yes, Akron grabbed 10 more rebounds than we did, and I agree we needed to be better on the boards. But why, why, why does he constantly focus and harp on defense even after games like this when we suck offensively??? We were outscored 12-2 in the final 7 minutes to close out the first half, and then were outscored 24-12 in the final 8 minutes of the second half, and had some brutal shooting stitches and multiple droughts throughout the game. And yet, he still avoids talking about the poor offense and calls out the defense. I don't get it, we scored 25 points below our season average while shooting 11% worse than our average, while holding our opponent to both points and shooting below our averages, and yet this was a defensive problem? I completely disagree with him. The main reason we lost this game mainly had to do with our offense, not our defense. And yet, year after year, game after game, he avoids talking about when we are poor offensively and always goes the defensive route. I don't get it.

Did you watch the second half? Akron’s offense was LCJ blows by his defender, our wing collapses to help, leaving the opposing wing wide open for a 3 off a dish from Jackson. Someone said defense creates offense earlier on this post and that’s absolutely true for this team. We needed to get stops leading to transition buckets and we couldn’t do it down the stretch. We are at our best when we’re running/getting layups or our shooters are spotting up of the break. I agree that our half court offense is abysmal without a legit big that any defense is concerned about. But on nights where we’re shooting poorly, we have to get stops. I’d love just as much as the next person for him to come out and say we just flat out sucked, because we did. It does get repetitive but he isn’t wrong.

[hammb]

Okay, so WTH is Huger seeing during a game like this that we are not? We came into this game averaging 82 ppg on 44% shooting while allowing our opponents 73 ppg on 44% shooting. Tonight, we scored just 57 point (way, way below our average) on a poor 33% shooting (way under our average) and allowed 69 points (under our average) while holding Akron to 37% shooting (also below our average). And what does Huger say after the game??? He says, "Tough game. We have to do a better job defensively and we have to do a better job rebounding. All the credit to Akron. They did a really good job. We have to execute much better."

Yes, Akron grabbed 10 more rebounds than we did, and I agree we needed to be better on the boards. But why, why, why does he constantly focus and harp on defense even after games like this when we suck offensively??? We were outscored 12-2 in the final 7 minutes to close out the first half, and then were outscored 24-12 in the final 8 minutes of the second half, and had some brutal shooting stitches and multiple droughts throughout the game. And yet, he still avoids talking about the poor offense and calls out the defense. I don't get it, we scored 25 points below our season average while shooting 11% worse than our average, while holding our opponent to both points and shooting below our averages, and yet this was a defensive problem? I completely disagree with him. The main reason we lost this game mainly had to do with our offense, not our defense. And yet, year after year, game after game, he avoids talking about when we are poor offensively and always goes the defensive route. I don't get it.

Did you watch the second half? Akron’s offense was LCJ blows by his defender, our wing collapses to help, leaving the opposing wing wide open for a 3 off a dish from Jackson. Someone said defense creates offense earlier on this post and that’s absolutely true for this team. We needed to get stops leading to transition buckets and we couldn’t do it down the stretch. We are at our best when we’re running/getting layups or our shooters are spotting up of the break. I agree that our half court offense is abysmal without a legit big that any defense is concerned about. But on nights where we’re shooting poorly, we have to get stops. I’d love just as much as the next person for him to come out and say we just flat out sucked, because we did. It does get repetitive but he isn’t wrong.

My only issue is in the first half we WERE getting stops and we still weren't getting the transition looks we want/need. We simply MUST get better in the half court.

In the 2nd half I was getting royally pissed at how easily we were making things for LCJ. I actually thought most of our guards did some good stuff defending him, but our wings were helping HARD when it was obvious he was looking to pass first the entire half. We also didn't make them work at ALL. They played the final 10 minutes with exactly one plan. Take 15 seconds to get into their offense, maybe run a screen to get a switch on LCJ, then clear out for a drive 'n dish. Maybe go to a zone, maybe tell the wings to stay home and FORCE LCJ to start making those layups in traffic. ANYTHING different. We allowed them to run the same damned set every possession...it was maddening. And yeah, we never got stops at all and it clearly effected us offensively.

I stand by my previous point of concern. The Buffalo game we scored because we ended up with offensive rebounds in some absurd number of our missed shots. But we have looked completely lost offensively the past 3 games. Some of that is the fact that we were relying on Diggs & Matheny's shooting which has gone cold, but we simply must come up with some answers on that end of the court if we're going to win the MAC.