Hoyas @ PC 1/4/17 Discussion

[DanMcQ]

I will be at the Dunk. That is all.

[FrazierFanatic]

We better figure out a way to get at least 2 out of the next 3, or we may be seeing a repeat of last season.

[royski]

I hope the coaching search is well under way. 15-19 in 2016? Let's hope for some major changes and a much more hopeful 2017.

[wisconsinhoya]

Dec 31, 2016 13:35:05 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

We better figure out a way to get at least 2 out of the next 3, or we may be seeing a repeat of last season.

Unless something significant changes very quickly in that

1.) We show some type of ability to play man to man defense, guard ball screens or defend as a team for 30 seconds without fouling

2.) Show any interest in putting a body on a man to box out and put forth some effort to get a rebound (I'm not counting balls that fall into our arms that require no effort)

3. Stop carelessly turning the ball (which today we only had 10, which is nothing to brag about, but by Georgetown standards might be considered a clean game)

4. Exhibit some sort of competitive urgency for 40 minutes of competition.

5. Understand the value of a good shot, not just chucking up the first open look from 15 feet or beyond

this team will be lucky to match last year's 7-11 mark in the Big East. The Big East is deeper this year and DePaul and St. John's won't be the easy layups they have been in the past, (not even counting the embarrassing effort and loss to DePaul a few years ago in the Big East tournament). With the exception of Providence every team is better this year, and some like Creighton might be considerably better.

I'm not saying cancel the rest of the season on 12/31, but from what I've witnessed for the past six weeks of horrible losses to Maryland and Arkansas State, embarrassing efforts against Wisconsin, Oklahoma State and Marquette, anyone who expects this team to finish better than .500 in the Big East or have a chance at an NCAA bid or even a NIT bid has severe blinders on based on the documented performances of the team to date.

Can things change in the next 8 weeks, I certainly hope, will they this season, only God knows....

[MassHoya]

I will be at the Dunk, too. Go Hoyas! Beat the Friars.

[drquigley]

Usually I say it's not the refs but losing Pryor for over 5 minutes was a killer. With only 3 legitimate scorers (LJ, Pryor, Derrickson) and no D1 quality point guard Pryors loss was gigantic.

[lda05816]

Moving forward I'd like to see Mulmore, Rodney, LJ, Marcus and Jessie starting the game. Have Akoy, Bradley, Kaleb and Jagan get majority of the bench minutes. I think Tre and Reggie should be used when the offense is struggling or playing against a zone. See if either can catch fire, if not I'd give them zero run rest of the way. In an ideal world, I'd love for Mourning to get 5-10 mins a game at least, but that seems unlikely.

[KHoyaNYC]

Pivotal game. Time to play a complete big east game and avoid the self-inflicted wounds that cost us Xavier.

[FrazierFanatic]

Dec 31, 2016 17:55:37 GMT -5 KHoyaNYC said:

Pivotal game. Time to play a complete big east game and avoid the self-inflicted wounds that cost us Xavier.

This game could define our season. Another loss targets us in the bottom 2 or 3 of the conference. A win keeps our future hopes alive.

[Elvado]

Dec 31, 2016 21:21:55 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

Dec 31, 2016 17:55:37 GMT -5 KHoyaNYC said:

Pivotal game. Time to play a complete big east game and avoid the self-inflicted wounds that cost us Xavier.

This game could define our season. Another loss targets us in the bottom 2 or 3 of the conference. A win keeps our future hopes alive.

Game must be won if Only for the sake of Dan and Provvy...

[calhoya]

Yesterday I thought that there was no way that the Hoyas should lose to Xavier, even though it seemed inevitable they would. Today I feel there is no way they should lose to the Friars, even though I am not optimistic. Remember when the coach and all the pundits were touting this as the deepest team in recent years? Two gone. We have two shooting guards who play hard and carry the team. Three PGs shooting around 37% primarily on drives to the basket and with no range. MD and Govan (though limited attempts), our starting bigs shoot better from 3 than inside the arc. Agau rapidly disappearing, Hayes a high effort but very limited player, Kaleb an improving defensive player with limited range and a major liability at the FT line. Reggie and Trey banished to the end of the bench. A big team that does not rebound. A team that cannot play defense for a full game without losing focus. Cearly no one anticipated this situation.

[OldHoyafan]

Dec 31, 2016 17:01:55 GMT -5 lda05816 said:

Moving forward I'd like to see Mulmore, Rodney, LJ, Marcus and Jessie starting the game. Have Akoy, Bradley, Kaleb and Jagan get majority of the bench minutes. I think Tre and Reggie should be used when the offense is struggling or playing against a zone. See if either can catch fire, if not I'd give them zero run rest of the way. In an ideal world, I'd love for Mourning to get 5-10 mins a game at least, but that seems unlikely.

Agree with all of the starting lineup except for center. Govan should sit until he gives full effort at both ends for all the time he is in the game. Bradley should not start either. Start Agau in a smaller pressing lineup. Play zone against PC. Make sure they beat you from outside. Limit the cheap layup or second chance baskets by PC. It's amazing how the son of a coach whose team's strength was its defense, does not have the instincts in recruiting players who can play defense.

[RockawayHoya]

Effort and concentration continue to be the major culprits, and sadly I don't really see any motivation by the staff or the leaders of this team to turn it around. I thought III blew a huge opportunity during the post-game presser after Xavier when he was asked by someone in the media about the Jajuan Johnson quote. He should've thrown down the gauntlet right then and there, with Peak and Pryor (his two leaders) within earshot so they could get the message: Johnson was right, we aren't playing hard enough and it's unacceptable. We need to give a better effort, and it starts with these two guys being the example and motivating the rest of the guys.

Instead, he responds with nearly ten seconds of silence/searching for an answer followed by "he (Johnson) said that, God bless him. I don't think our defense was lazy."

So that's the message that's being sent to the team right now: we are giving an acceptable level of effort. Akoy staring at a missed shot that hits the floor in front of him without boxing out or trying to go after the ball is acceptable. Continuing to fail to call out screens is acceptable. Slow defensive rotations off of switching because guys are too lazy or don't have enough pride to fight and keep their own man in front of them are acceptable. Hrm OK.

Look, do I think the level of effort overall was better on Saturday than it was at Marquette? Sure. But it's still not anywhere where it needs to be if we want to be competitive with anyone in the conference this season. III continues to call our mistakes "correctable" and I do think he's right, but that rings pretty hollow if you don't put an emphasis on correcting them.

Couple adjustments I'd like to see by Wed...

1) Start Mulmore or Tre over Mosely. I understand all need to see time because we are so god awful at the position, but Jiggy has been killing us early in recent games with bad turnovers, poor shot selection and missed defensive assignments. We can't afford another slow start on the road.

2) Identify one or two guys on the floor who we DON'T need to close out on. This has been an issue for years now, but we seem to wildly rotate and chase anybody and everybody wearing the opposing uniform. Can we please try to dare an average/below average perimeter shooter to beat us for a change? Think of all the teams who just used to ignore Nate when he was more than 15 feet from the rim. Close out on or faceguard the guys you need to, but if we are going to inevitably give up open looks, let their role players try and beat us from somewhere outside the paint.

3) Anyone who gives up an offensive rebound off a missed FT or blows a defensive assignment on an inbound play under our own basket immediately sits. We can't continue to give up plays that should never be allowed to happen, especially when our margin for error is already so razor-thin to begin with.

[blueandgray]

Considering the schedule ahead, we are fast approaching "must win" territory. I don't see this Hoya team being the kind of team that will string together 6 or 7 conference wins in a row ...so if we are going to make the tourney, it has to start now.

[FrazierFanatic]

Jan 2, 2017 11:07:04 GMT -5 RockawayHoya said:

Effort and concentration continue to be the major culprits, and sadly I don't really see any motivation by the staff or the leaders of this team to turn it around. I thought III blew a huge opportunity during the post-game presser after Xavier when he was asked by someone in the media about the Jajuan Johnson quote. He should've thrown down the gauntlet right then and there, with Peak and Pryor (his two leaders) within earshot so they could get the message: Johnson was right, we aren't playing hard enough and it's unacceptable. We need to give a better effort, and it starts with these two guys being the example and motivating the rest of the guys.

Instead, he responds with nearly ten seconds of silence/searching for an answer followed by "he (Johnson) said that, God bless him. I don't think our defense was lazy."

So that's the message that's being sent to the team right now: we are giving an acceptable level of effort. Akoy staring at a missed shot that hits the floor in front of him without boxing out or trying to go after the ball is acceptable. Continuing to fail to call out screens is acceptable. Slow defensive rotations off of switching because guys are too lazy or don't have enough pride to fight and keep their own man in front of them are acceptable. Hrm OK.

Look, do I think the level of effort overall was better on Saturday than it was at Marquette? Sure. But it's still not anywhere where it needs to be if we want to be competitive with anyone in the conference this season. III continues to call our mistakes "correctable" and I do think he's right, but that rings pretty hollow if you don't put an emphasis on correcting them.

Couple adjustments I'd like to see by Wed...

1) Start Mulmore or Tre over Mosely. I understand all need to see time because we are so god awful at the position, but Jiggy has been killing us early in recent games with bad turnovers, poor shot selection and missed defensive assignments. We can't afford another slow start on the road.

2) Identify one or two guys on the floor who we DON'T need to close out on. This has been an issue for years now, but we seem to wildly rotate and chase anybody and everybody wearing the opposing uniform. Can we please try to dare an average/below average perimeter shooter to beat us for a change? Think of all the teams who just used to ignore Nate when he was more than 15 feet from the rim. Close out on or faceguard the guys you need to, but if we are going to inevitably give up open looks, let their role players try and beat us from somewhere outside the paint.

3) Anyone who gives up an offensive rebound off a missed FT or blows a defensive assignment on an inbound play under our own basket immediately sits. We can't continue to give up plays that should never be allowed to happen, especially when our margin for error is already so razor-thin to begin with.

You have no idea what JTIII said to his team privately about their effort, or about what Johnson said. To criticize him for not calling out his team, and specifically his 2 best players, in public just after a tough loss? Ridiculous.

[FrazierFanatic]

Jan 2, 2017 12:03:16 GMT -5 blueandgray said:

Considering the schedule ahead, we are fast approaching "must win" territory. I don't see this Hoya team being the kind of team that will string together 6 or 7 conference wins in a row ...so if we are going to make the tourney, it has to start now.

Absolutely. We have to eliminate the silly turnovers, and fight harder on defense; their were stretches of better D on Saturday, but we did not sustain it.

Make Prov. hit from the outside; please stop getting blown by for layup after layup.

[RockawayHoya]

Jan 2, 2017 12:06:28 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

Jan 2, 2017 11:07:04 GMT -5 RockawayHoya said:

Effort and concentration continue to be the major culprits, and sadly I don't really see any motivation by the staff or the leaders of this team to turn it around. I thought III blew a huge opportunity during the post-game presser after Xavier when he was asked by someone in the media about the Jajuan Johnson quote. He should've thrown down the gauntlet right then and there, with Peak and Pryor (his two leaders) within earshot so they could get the message: Johnson was right, we aren't playing hard enough and it's unacceptable. We need to give a better effort, and it starts with these two guys being the example and motivating the rest of the guys.

Instead, he responds with nearly ten seconds of silence/searching for an answer followed by "he (Johnson) said that, God bless him. I don't think our defense was lazy."

So that's the message that's being sent to the team right now: we are giving an acceptable level of effort. Akoy staring at a missed shot that hits the floor in front of him without boxing out or trying to go after the ball is acceptable. Continuing to fail to call out screens is acceptable. Slow defensive rotations off of switching because guys are too lazy or don't have enough pride to fight and keep their own man in front of them are acceptable. Hrm OK.

Look, do I think the level of effort overall was better on Saturday than it was at Marquette? Sure. But it's still not anywhere where it needs to be if we want to be competitive with anyone in the conference this season. III continues to call our mistakes "correctable" and I do think he's right, but that rings pretty hollow if you don't put an emphasis on correcting them.

Couple adjustments I'd like to see by Wed...

1) Start Mulmore or Tre over Mosely. I understand all need to see time because we are so god awful at the position, but Jiggy has been killing us early in recent games with bad turnovers, poor shot selection and missed defensive assignments. We can't afford another slow start on the road.

2) Identify one or two guys on the floor who we DON'T need to close out on. This has been an issue for years now, but we seem to wildly rotate and chase anybody and everybody wearing the opposing uniform. Can we please try to dare an average/below average perimeter shooter to beat us for a change? Think of all the teams who just used to ignore Nate when he was more than 15 feet from the rim. Close out on or faceguard the guys you need to, but if we are going to inevitably give up open looks, let their role players try and beat us from somewhere outside the paint.

3) Anyone who gives up an offensive rebound off a missed FT or blows a defensive assignment on an inbound play under our own basket immediately sits. We can't continue to give up plays that should never be allowed to happen, especially when our margin for error is already so razor-thin to begin with.

You have no idea what JTIII said to his team privately about their effort, or about what Johnson said. To criticize him for not calling out his team, and specifically his 2 best players, in public just after a tough loss? Ridiculous.

You're right about not knowing what was said behind closed doors, but what we see out on the court is a product of what goes on away from the cameras, and right now that's not good enough. III was absolutely right in saying that his players shouldn't need the words of an opposing player to motivate them and raise their level of effort, but right now what will? Repeatedly saying "we're going to have to go back and take a look" just doesn't cut it anymore.

Other highly successful coaches have publicly challenged their best players during tough times. It's not out of the norm. I'm not saying that he should've specifically named individual players in his criticism, but he does have to acknowledge that the current level of sustained effort won't be adequate. He didn't do that.

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

I would study UVA's D and try to mirror what they are doing. Our on ball D stinks. Other then Mulmore's unexplainable throwing of the ball out of bounds, TO's weren't bad. We missed too many FT's late and we couldn't guard Sumner. Macura outhustled us and we are 0-2. Gotta win the next four to get back to relevance.

[KHoyaNYC]

Jan 2, 2017 14:09:05 GMT -5 ColumbiaHeightsHoya said:

I would study UVA's D and try to mirror what they are doing. Our on ball D stinks. Other then Mulmore's unexplainable throwing of the ball out of bounds, TO's weren't bad. We missed too many FT's late and we couldn't guard Sumner. Macura outhustled us and we are 0-2. Gotta win the next four to get back to relevance.

Next 4? Very tall order. If we can beat Providence, St John's and UCONN, I'll take it.

[blueandgray]

Jan 2, 2017 14:23:19 GMT -5 KHoyaNYC said:

Jan 2, 2017 14:09:05 GMT -5 ColumbiaHeightsHoya said:

I would study UVA's D and try to mirror what they are doing. Our on ball D stinks. Other then Mulmore's unexplainable throwing of the ball out of bounds, TO's weren't bad. We missed too many FT's late and we couldn't guard Sumner. Macura outhustled us and we are 0-2. Gotta win the next four to get back to relevance.

Next 4? Very tall order. If we can beat Providence, St John's and UCONN, I'll take it.

I would absolutely take that.