UMass Lowell

Root4GT

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Anyone who expected an NCAA Team has paid zero attention the GT BB the past decade. We have been to one NCAA as an 8/9 seed. The past 2 years we have major losing Conference records. We brought in a few decent players but this team has a long way to go to be a .500 team. They might get there this year yet. They are not going to the NCAAs.
 

lv20gt

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5,586
Root4GT said:
Anyone who expected an NCAA Team has paid zero attention the GT BB the past decade. We have been to one NCAA as an 8/9 seed. The past 2 years we have major losing Conference records. We brought in a few decent players but this team has a long way to go to be a .500 team. They might get there this year yet. They are not going to the NCAAs.
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Last year we finished the year winning 6 of the last 9 against ACC opponents. Yes, there was some weaker teams in there but we had some momentum and we were set to return everyone except Franklin. Now I'm sure some would have transferred out anyways, but likely not nearly as much as did, and IMO the expectations for Pastner would have been to make the NCAAT. There were enough pieces there to do so, and what the team did 5+ years ago doesn't affect the performance this year.

I don't see why that expectation should be lowered because we chose to fire Pastner and bring in a new coach? Yes, we've had transfers but you're naïve if you don't think multiple of them were told to find a new home and of the players we had last year 4 of the top 5 returned so it wasn't like we had our best players poached. The roster overhaul is a choice the new staff made and if that overhaul causes us to take a step back then was it a good decision?
 
RamblinCharger

RamblinCharger

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BeeRBee said:
One game sample, but the first 2 lines here are certainly striking.
View attachment 15129
As for Stoudamire’s strategy I don’t know. My guess was that he sees more upside with the group he’s starting and wants to develop them, but early returns don’t look good.
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Makes sense. Sacko is a difference maker especially on defense, he needs to play a lot. Gapare and Abram are playing really poorly. Lineups 1 and 4 look like our best bet to win games right now.

I'm still hoping J found our version of Nate Oats, Alabama won 18 games in 2018 before Oats arrived, in his first year Bama won 16 games, year two jumped to 26 wins. It's rare to turn it around in one year. Next year we need to be a tournament team.
 
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57jacket

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In my very humble opinion, he needs to assign, or hire, a defensive minded assistant. 80 points per game should suffice, even when Kelly is off mark. At least Pastner's defense was decent.
 

57jacket

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From AJC ( I'm not plagerizing) LOL
The Yellow Jackets (2-1) gave up 44 points in the paint, missed 10 free throws and allowed 29 defensive rebounds. They dug themselves a double-digit hole in the second half that proved too much to overcome.
 
SecretAgentBuzz

SecretAgentBuzz

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Well, with the way we have played so far this season, this result is not exactly unexpected, but certainly disappointing. We have seen some trends in these first three games...and they are not good. When both Kelly and Reeves went cold, things went downhill fast. Here is what I saw with my amateur eyes:

What I liked:
-Deebo coming in with instant offense. He was 5 of 9 from three point range!
-Sacko's defense and rebounding. He plays with effort and energy.
-Sturdivant didn't have his best game, but he still got 12 and 5 and we were +25 when he was on the floor. +25!
-I liked the defense we played in stretches of the first half. There was a period of about 6 minutes in which they didn't score at all.
-I liked our urgency at the end to catch back up and have the chance to win at the end. There was some good play in that stretch.

What I didn't like:
-Starting the game with the same lineup as the last two. I know CDS is hoping that the light will come on for some guys, but the slow starts are killing us.
-Gapare and Abrams, in particular, are really playing poorly. Abrams had one stretch where he hit a three and made two FTs, but other than that...it was not good. Its too early to say that these guys are busts or anything like that, but they clearly are not playing well. Maybe they look really good in practice? Gapare was -17 on the floor and Abrams was -28!
-Outside of Deebo, the team was 1/21 from three point. Yes, you read that right. Against UMass-Lowell AT HOME, our team (beside Deebo) went 1 for 21. That's really, really bad. If that is any indication of the shooting caliber of the team, we are in big trouble.
-Fouls, fouls, fouls. The refs called a REALLY tight game with lots of ticky-tack fouls. So then, the team that shoots its FT well is probably going to win...
-...and we didn't...again. We went 13 of 23 from the charity stripe AT HOME...against UMASS-LOWELL! :sick:
-For the most part, our defensive effort wasn't there again. We will not win many games if we do not defend well. Slow to help, not staying in front of our man, not being active with hands, all of it.
-Finally, I didn't really like the sets we were running on offense. It seemed like a lot of ISO with half-effort screens. We do have set plays, right? The last offensive possession was more of the same.

This game should give any GT basketball fan concern. We have too much talent to be behind by double digits to UMass-Lowell in the last 8 minutes of the game. Of course, we should also give credit to their team for taking advantage of our crappy play. There is still a long season to go, and some hope that Terry and Ndongo will help, but this one hurt. Please, CDS, make the right moves to fix the issues. You've got a week to fix things before we play at Cincy.
 
Jacket4Life

Jacket4Life

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Based on what I have seen so far, we better hope CDS can recruit. I feel like I am watching pick up basketball. On defense do we play anything but man to man? We are getting killed inside. On offense it literally looks like street ball. I hope I'm wrong but not overly impressed so far.
 
LargeFO

LargeFO

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Jacket4Life said:
Based on what I have seen so far, we better hope CDS can recruit. I feel like I am watching pick up basketball. On defense do we play anything but man to man? We are getting killed inside. On offense it literally looks like street ball. I hope I'm wrong but not overly impressed so far.
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Yeah the offense looks like an AAU game. He isn't gonna last long if that's what we are going with by design.
 

Steverc

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336
57jacket said:
In my very humble opinion, he needs to assign, or hire, a defensive minded assistant. 80 points per game should suffice, even when Kelly is off mark. At least Pastner's defense was decent.
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High scoring teams always give up a lot of points because of the speed of play and increased shot attempts by both teams. I'm just glad we no longer play zone defense. That was nonsense. Bobby Knight was once asked when it was appropriate to play zone defense. He said, "As little as possible."
 

CEB

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Steverc said:
High scoring teams always give up a lot of points because of the speed of play and increased shot attempts by both teams. I'm just glad we no longer play zone defense. That was nonsense. Bobby Knight was once asked when it was appropriate to play zone defense. He said, "As little as possible."
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And yet “As little as possible” doesn’t (shouldn’t) mean none. Maybe Knight feels differently, and perhaps CDS does too, but there is benefit to switching up defenses. Im by no means advocating for full Boeheim, but some zone can be disruptive and negate some physical advantages.
At any rate, good m2m is the foundation… and we had better start playing it. If we are having trouble on defensive boards, zone may not be the answer anyway.
 
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